1050 drive refuses to keep disks inside

[lbaeza]

Hi

 

I have this 1050 disk drive that refuses to keep the disk inside of it, I made this video of the issue:

 

 

As you can see, I had to make a trick and push with one finger the disk inside the drive, while at the same moment closing the lid with another finger...there's no other way to do this on this unit.

 

Any ideas on how to fix this issue?

 

This is a Tandon made drive I think...

 

Kind regards,

 

Luis.

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by lbaeza
Clarification

[_The Doctor__]

easy peasy,

your disk eject catch has bent

you need to tweak it to catch again

we've explained this in other threads but it's easy to do and figure out

Edited January 29, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[lbaeza]

Hi Doc

 

Thanks for your reply, due to english not being my native language, I had a hard time trying to figure out what term to use for my search, searching for "eject catch" did the trick.

Can you please confirm this thread is the one I should use as a guide?

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Luis.

[_The Doctor__]

The 1050 mechanism is different and works on counter leverage utilizing an actual spiral wound spring for pressure... when you open the disk lever it lifts the metal slide out of its locking tab channel allowing it to slide back out ejecting the disk.

It is an easy fix normally, just cleaning and a slight tweak on the bar for this one as well, it's just in a harder to deal with location.

 

[_The Doctor__]

the left hand side of the drive as you move the disk in and out a spring stretches

that spring is attached to a moving tab that is the sliding disk eject and catch bar

that tab can be tweaked on the spring end and on the disk end to make it work again.

 

be advised this is a game of fractions of a degree or within a degree two. Don't got crazy...

without a disk in...

 

the part that touches the disk needs to get ever so slightly bent towards the front of the drive where the disk would touch the tab on the disk end.

 

if that doesn't do it...

 

the side where the spring is connected to the slide bar in the area where the release lift is located can also be tweaked,

as you tweak make sure you do not bend the ascending portion of the flat bar in such a way as to block the lifter, the twisting motion can crack the lifter and if you have done this you have gone way too far in that direction!

the slider itself should be flat and held flat in the locked position as you gently and slightly bend the ascending metal  forward and the spring tab ever so slightly up, this keeps the ascending metal nearly straight and the spring tab slightly higher increasing it's leverage. If you bend the ascending metal forward or back it will change the leverage on the bar and how hard it pushes down on the catch in the slide.

when both are adjusted properly this causes disks to fully push the bar to the lock position and lets the spring counter lever it down into the catch tabs of the plastic slot below.

 

So when you open the door with a disk inserted and locked it lifts the bar out of the channel and it slides the disk out.

If you went too far, the disk might not eject, but that's hard to do. If you went too far just bend the ascend-er back the other way making sure the spring tab is still slightly up.

if you don't keep the bar flat in the locked position during adjustment, the disk won't lock in and may be worse.

 

this should take only a couple minutes to figure out, once you've done this, if it ever happens on any drive. It will take you mere seconds to correct on them.

I really is a simplistic counter lever catch and release bar.

 

This is a game of fractions of a degree or two. Don't got crazy...

 

sounds complicated but it is cake (easy) to do, and can be done in no time at all

Edited January 29, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[BillC]

The eject bar has a rectangular notch and rides slightly above the mechanism frame, when pushed by the floppy jacket against the lower vertical extension at the rear it should drop against the frame when the notch is over the catch. If the vertical extension is bent to the rear the floppy disk doesn't push the bar back far enough engage the catch. When the latch is locked a cam lifts/releases the eject bar, the same cam also blocks the bar from ejecting the floppy until the latch is opened. The catch can be tested by manually pushing the eject bar back, it should drop down and engage the catch just after the notch disappears.

 

The front end of the eject bar with the notch

 

Eject bar pushed back, catch engaged, latch still open.

 

Latch closed, catch released, eject bar against cam.

 

Back end of eject bar, floppy jacket against lower vertical.

 

The bottom extension behind the floppy jacket is on the left side of the eject bar when viewed from the back, this is the part that @_The Doctor__

 is saying needs to be bent forward a little bit.

 

[lbaeza]

Thanks Doc and BillC for your feedback.

With your information in mind I opened the faulty 1050 and by using parts on another dead disk drive I have, I was finally able to solve the issue.

For that matter first I made a video of the issue, with the faulty drive open, and simulated the insertion of a diskette by using a screwdriver:

 

 

Then I removed the part from the faulty drive and compared it with the one from the dead drive:

 

 

On the left we have the faulty part, and if you look closer, you can tell it is crooked, compared wih the same part from my dead drive.

 

 

Given that I was short in time as usual, I simply swapped both parts and now the faulty drive is fixed.

My guess is that by taking the faulty part and make it straight by using some pliers certainly could fix the issue, but I think it could take some time of trial and error until it gets completely solved.

 

After that I ran the 1050 diagnostics and it reports "FAILS-TO LOW" on the Motor Speed test:

 

Given that the faulty drive is still open, I will tweak VR2 in order to solve this Motor Speed issue.

Just for reference, here's a picture of the blue variable resistor VR2 that needs to be tweaked on the 1050 drive.

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Luis

 

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by lbaeza
Typo

[_The Doctor__]

looks like the eject cam bent the ascender tab, you can fix that pretty easily. Reshape it like the good one and put it in the broken drive for spares and maybe one day you will fix the broken drive or need to replace a really destroyed eject in the future...

 

congrats on the repair