turboR drive (belt?) problems

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By snout

Ascended (15187)

snout's picture

23-01-2003, 11:07

Ok, after years and years of excessive use, the drive of my MSX turboR is finally broken. [SNiF]. Because I know that the drive-belt of the turboR is a weak point, I had a look at the diskdrive but it still seems OK. However, the drive rotates very slowly, and it takes a lot more force than usual to get it rotating. Any ideas if this problem is fixable?

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By Latok

msx guru (3925)

Latok's picture

23-01-2003, 11:22

Cleanex!? Wink Seriously, this sucks. I don't need to tell you that you should contact Bas Kornalijnslijper about it. He knows pretty much on these issues.

Next week, there's another MCWF meeting in Zwaag, The Netherlands. Maybe you should go there and bring your turboR or something?

By Latok

msx guru (3925)

Latok's picture

23-01-2003, 14:45

Snout, BiFi told me even if the belt isn't broken it could have lost some of its 'power' so it might be necesarry to replace the belt.....

If this would be the case, you certainly should come to Zwaag next week. Bas has lots of these belts with him. The drive could be fixed immediately there....

So erhm........Get your ass over here Tongue Tongue

By DarQ

Paragon (1038)

DarQ's picture

23-01-2003, 18:20

I believe kuniji ikeda has a lot of spare sillicon belts. He claims they're tougher than traditional rubber belts. I believe those would be cheaper then bas' stuff, he scared me with his prices once!

By Algorythms

Champion (288)

Algorythms's picture

23-01-2003, 21:40

I replaced the drive on my A1GT with a PC FDD. The problem with that is that standard PC floppies doesn`t have diskchange signals, so you have to just lay that signal low, and then you`ll have a problem if you change disks. (You`ll have to read the phantom diskletter or something to update the cache.) And besides, you`ll have to do allot of soldering. I found out a couple of months later I could have ordered a new drive belt from Ikeda, which was both cheap and better. (But by then I had thrown my old drive... bummer)

Anyway, the drive belt gets slack so that it spins with time, and therefor you should buy a couple of new belts.

-Dan

By Latok

msx guru (3925)

Latok's picture

23-01-2003, 22:09

I believe Bas says the belts to be used in the turboR are the same belts as the ones from a Philips NMS8245? Or some other Philips MSX2 machine......So they're not that rare at all, according to Bas....

By mth

Champion (507)

mth's picture

23-01-2003, 22:57

My turbo R used to have drive problems as well. Finding a replacement belt was easy, but after replacing it it worked better, but still had too many disk errors. So either the new belt was not fully compatible, or the root of the problem was somewhere else.

Anyway, I replaced the entire drive by a PC drive. Now it runs fine and it is less noisy as well. Indeed it is hard to find the right drive, because you need both a disk change signal and a ready signal. I was lucky to find such a drive in an old 286 PC: a Teac drive with *lots* of jumpers. I also had to solder a new floppy connector on the turbo R main board, by the way.

You can fake either signal, but performance will suffer. Still better than a broken drive though. The disk change signal can be faked by returning "changed" at all times. This is correct, but it disables the caching (flushed every I/O action). The ready signal can be faked by connecting it to a "disk inserted" sensor. If your drive does not have such a sensor, use the HD hole sensor, since MSX disks are DD and don't have a hole there, thus pressing down the sensor. The drawback of this faking is that seeking from one track to the next becomes slower and more noisy.

By msxhans

Expert (77)

msxhans's picture

23-01-2003, 22:59

The belts for turboR are different than for NMS8245.

The specs are 48mmX3mm Not a problem to get from Handyshops

If you cant get the belts, then ask Bas.

Defective turboR drives are hard to replace, but it can be done if you are lucky to get a suitable (preferrably a 720K) drive.

See http://www.msxhans.msx2.com hardware section floppy part for instructions (thanks mth for confirming my ideas !)

By snout

Ascended (15187)

snout's picture

27-01-2003, 10:21

I managed to get my hands on a real, original turboR drive belt and will try and replace it this week!

By msxhans

Expert (77)

msxhans's picture

27-01-2003, 20:45

I managed to get my hands on a real, original turboR drive belt and will try and replace it this week!

Part N° DFWV75C0009

Part Name: Round Belt, Rubbor, 3mm

Item N° S01-4-Y2000 (FW-U1P501J)

MatsushitaElectric

(info tnx to msxgamesbox , tnx Philip Smile

but any belt 48mmx3mm will do!

By snout

Ascended (15187)

snout's picture

27-01-2003, 20:50

I got jus that one in my hands right now

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