Re: Broken Unidisk 3.5" drive?

["Rodney Hester" <rod3@mindspring.com>]

"william strutts" <wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com> wrote in message
news:8Omc7.20378$K6.7609345@news2...
> "Rodney Hester" <rod3@mindspring.com> wrote in message
> news:9kss8k$s69$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net...
> > I have received a used Unidisk 3.5" drive and am having a bit of trouble
> > with it.  Hooking it up to my GS, the drive is detected (as GS/OS
> complained
> > much about the lack of an installed Unidisk driver ;), "clicks"
regularly
> > (once at the desktop), and seems to be outwardly working normally.
> >
> > However, inserting a disk is a little too...easy.  There's no click, no
> > obvious indication that the disk has been inserted (including not being
> > recognized at all by GS/OS), and the eject button seems to have no
> function.
> > The best way to remove the floppy seems to be with tweezers.  :P
> >
> > Given this condition, can anyone a) tell me if this is supposed to be an
> > auto-inject or manual-inject drive, and b) give me some _simple_
possible
> > repair tips?  (As this was auctioned as a working drive, I've little
> > incentive to do "deep" and potentially damaging repair work, except that
> the
> > drive is a little rare and was difficult for me to find at a reasonable
> > price.)
> >
> > P.S.: If it is designed as manual-inject and the floppy mechanism is
both
> > easily removed and easily replaced by a standard Apple 3.5" drive
> mechanism,
> > I'd be happy to do that if reasonably detailed instructions exist.
>
> You need to install the Unidisk 3.5" driver for the disk drive
> since it works differently than a stock 3.5" apple drive.  It is
> polled constantly under GS/OS because the drive is a smart
> drive and has its own processor and memory.  It is not
> directly controlled by IIgs as the Apple 3.5" drives are.
> It has different drive characteristics such as a 4:1 interleave
> versus a 2:1 interleave for the stock drive.  Does it
> work under ProDOS?  It doesn't require a special driver
> to work under ProDOS. The drive should eject the disk
> when the disk eject button is pushed.  Is the cable properly
> seated?  Is it first on the drive chain before any 5.25" drives
> but after any Apple 3.5" drives?  This is important since
> the drive order matters.  Any Apple 3.5" drives should
> come first then any Unidisk 3.5" drives and then any
> 5.25" drives.  Hope that helps.

The Unidisk GS/OS driver is installed and working (as you can see by the
drive light and a faint sound that it is actively polling the drive once the
Finder is up, and stops whenever the Finder is "busy").  Unfortunately, it
never actually "sees" the disk in the drive, as it continues to poll even
with a disk inserted (but the disk "slide door" does not appear to be
unlatching).

It does not work under GS/OS or ProDOS, as there does seem to be some sort
of mechanical malfunction.

The disk does not eject with the button pushed - the button appears to have
some effect, as there is a notable change in signal on the Apple bus when
the button is pushed (appears to act as a momentary push-switch).

The cable is properly seated (and tried on two machines) and is the only
drive connected to the IIgs at this time, to eliminate any possibility of
connection failure.

Thanks!

Rodney
>
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> William R. Strutts - wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com - Whatever!
>
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