Posted By
MMS
on 2017-07-10
18:37:15
 |  Re: Rare Commodore SFD1001 disk drive
Hi Siz,
just a question: if my IEE488 adapter may arrive, are you willng to sell the revived unit for a price, or you also use it or willing to use it? or you are a collector, and this is the diamond on the crown? 
OK Guys, some update :-)
Test reports will come, probably some videos in January. (unfortunately my DELL monitor is too picky on the composite input quality, so I have to move the whole stuff to the living room to able to do some video...
It will NOT be fast (az IEC bandwidht limits the speed), and there is no Jiffy in the Plus/4, C64 and even more not available at all for SFD1001 (as it is not IEC but IEEE488 drive), BUT 1MB capacity per disc... :-D
UPDATE
OK, I made some tests with 1-1 PREFORMATTED DD and HD discs, but they both failed to be formatted to 1MB size.
(maybe I made two mistakes: 1) I hooked it up via an 1571 2) tried to give a discname had numbers in it (I am not sure itf it is allowed or not) )
Because I have no "fresh" unformatted 5.25" discs, and not willing to destroy my working +4 and C64 discs (surprisingly they almost all perfectly work after 25 years of storage and one full WET damage, especially the 4pcs of 3Ms are pretty stable with fastloaders too, files written on them in 1989...).
As it is frequently mentioned, that DD discs are usually OK for fresh format (but preformatted and used could have some troubles), but Quad Destiny discs are the real ones. So I made a quick look.
Surprisingly NEW QD discs are still available :-O, although it has a certain price... Unfortunately shipping from UK costs almost the same as the discs themselves...
This UK post is really "royal" :-)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-sealed-box-of-10-x-5-25-floppy-disks-GoldStar-M-2DD-DS-QD-96TPI-/141863925572?hash=item2107bfb744:g:BrcAAOSweW5VF9Bd
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Update 2017 :-D
So it is a kind of shocking, that several years passed since my last comment, and my stuff still does not work.
What a lazy bastard I am! Duh...
As I got angry with myself, I put together the config. This is the beast floppy config (only 1551 could be even bigger or LP8250)
Drive8 is the 1571 and the IEEE2IEC automatically confgured as Drive 9.
SFD-1001 reacts directly connected to C64, and in daisy chain too.
As you may know from my old post, the IEEE2IEC converter (that very small converter cable based on two ICs) made for C64.
So it takes the 5V from the Joystick port via a "pass-through" adater, makes the Joystick port still available.
As I learned since then from Levente, that the 5V from the joy goes directly to the TED, and big current may kill it, I decided I keep trying with my C64c to close out possible failure modes and to not kill my TED.
Future solution for Plus/4:
-I will add a second 5V input too, by adding a User Port connector. That will work with both C64 and Plus/4, even with VIC-20
-To make it C16/C64/Plus/4/VIC-20/C116 compatible would better to use the datasette port, (including the C2N to DIN adapter) but then the tape will be lost as a device...
What was done?
-Last weekend I opened up the SFD-1001. (It means Single Floppy Drive, as the LP8250 was the Dual Floppy Drive. so it is not Supper Floppy drive)
1) Bought some pure (ehm, only 67% allowed here) alcohol in the apotheke, and cleaned both disc heads.
It is not as straightforward as in 1541, so cannot easily open up a plastic and reach the head. Hopefully no harm done
2) To reach the heads, I had to remove the main PCB, I checked the capacitors and the PCB for leak cap, but no sign.
3) Removed dirt from inner metal surfaces with air and some very slighly wet buds
4) Removed dirt/grease from the IC legs with very slighly alcohol+buds to prevent some data loss (juts a hypothesis)
When I switch on the drive, it behaves as it should stop spinning, reacts when C64 switched on and goes to wait state.
It DOES react well to the commands. The "Device9 is present", so the IEE2IEC communicates properly with the drive, without error signals on the LED.
It starts Formatting and try to read Directory (in the way C64 does, eh)
So the communication works well with the IEEE Floppy drive.
I tested:
DS DD 48TPI, DS DD 96TPI RH and a PC 1.2MB DS HD floppy discs. (the last one just to try again)
All were preformatted, as I have no fresh, unformatted disc. I have no Quad Destiny disc yet, the shipment price was horrible
All got a Format (header) command, and only PC 1.2MB floppy gave error message.
-The DD 96TPI took longer,
-The DD 48TPI finished very fast (maybe 20 seconds). Not a good sign...
-None of them is OK readible yet with LOAD"$",9. :-(
Now coming the testing and forum reading.
I have some ideas will be tested in next weeks:
1) Open up the drive and will check if really properly moves inside
2) Initiate the head. Maybe it just lost the track where is it
2) Stucked head: I will open up again and move the head manually a little back and forth.
I am considering to use a fine WD-40 lithium on the metal rail, but I am not sure, if it does not make the plastic too britte?
Maybe I will stuck to the traditional fine synthetic silicon oil.
3) Misaligned heads: the early Commodore drives were prone to misalign their head at Track 0 due to repeated knowcking to the hard stopper.
(it was later changed to a softer one, I will do so, too. 1571 has a optosensor)
As for that one the 1541 had a special software, I suppose I will be out of luck in case this is the failure
4) If the aboves do not help, will clean the connectors, and check again IC legs and with a 30x magnifier glass for loose contact/bad soldering
5) Certainly try to get some 48TPI, Soft Sectored unformatted NEW discs. This is what the manual states, nothing about QD / Quad Density!
I thought it will be a big challenge... High Capacity disc is NOK.
If only Quad Density floppies may fulfill this requirment, that I should buy a box of them, but will be hard to find...
But NO. It took 10 minutes to find one new box of SS, QD 5.25" from UK:-) It was a quick decision to buy it.
Just 18Ł with postage, hopfully will work after head adjustment.
6) Please let me know, if you have any other ideas.
I am confident that my C64's IEC works perfectly (loaded games with 1571) and the IEEE2IEC interface also seems properly works, but the SFD-1001 drive need some mechanical finetuning to work properly.
It is a rather rare device, mine has a serial number of #37xx, but I have never read about an SFD-1001 device had a serial number higher than #5000.
So most probably that 5000 pieces was the total production quantity from this Floppy drive (worldwide).
(MADE IN JAPAN! everything inside is Japanese, even the connectors are made by Honda :- ) )
UPDATE 2017 JULY
IT'S ALIVE!!!!
So after cleaning the SFD1001 inside out (reading heads, IC legs, and exchanged an broken inner (simple) cable and bough a box of new DD, Quad Density 96TPI discs, it WORKS!
4132 BLOCKS FREE !!!
Today photos:
the setup (sorry for the mess, living room with 2 kids :-) )
Cables. 1571 goes into C64, SDF1001 connected to 1571 daisy chain with the IEC2IEE interface. It gets the current from C64 via Joy port
SFD-1001 is just formatting
The fresh discs
Succesfully deleted a damaged file:
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