Aminet 40/Aminet 40 (2000)(Schatztruhe)[!][Dec 2000].iso/Aminet/hard/misc/TrackDiskSync.lha/TrackDiskSync/TrackDiskSync.Instructions

Text File | 2000-09-26 | 13.5 KB | 314 lines

Short:    Recalibration tool for floppy drives
Uploader: [e-mail] (Thomas Richter)
Author:   [e-mail] (Thomas Richter)
Type:     hard/misc
Version:  1.0
Requires: Kickstart 2.04 or better. One working floppy drive. A joystick.
      Phillips screwdriver set. Nail polish.

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Introduction:

This little tool can be used to re-calibrate floppy drives manually. This does
not mean that I recommend doing so. In case you're "mechanically declined", you
should leave this to an expert, or should consider buying a new drive. In case
the drive is broken, it is broken, and this tool won't help much.

De-calibrated drives show the following symptoms: They read disks written by
themselves fine, but fail to read other disks reliable, and disks written to by
the decalibrated drive do no longer work reliable in other disk drives. In case
the drive just doesn't work at all anymore, something more is broken. In either
case, you run into the risk of damaging your hardware even more. Note that I
cannot give any guarantee whatsoever that this program and the hints given here
are correct, free of errors, etc... The entire risk is up to you. If you break
your drive or your computer, tough luck! I refuse to take any responsibilities.

Please read the licence conditions at the end of this readme.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 1:        Open a shell and unpack the archive.

Read the licence at the end of this readme. Read this readme twice BEFORE
performing the operation. Make sure that you feel able to perform all steps
mentioned in this readme. If you feel unsure about it, leave this to a
technician.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 2:     Building a calibration disk.
Required:    A well working drive as calibration basis. A DD disk. An
        audio amplifier connected to the Amiga, as for example
        the amplifier included in the monitor. (-:

Insert the disk into the working drive. The BROKEN drive is of no use here.
Turn on the audio. NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING STEPS WILL OVERWRITE THE CONTENTS
OF THE DISK.

In the following, I assume that the working drive is df1: and the broken
drive is df0:.

Enter the following command and listen carefully:

TrackDiskSync df1: init

This will write the calibration pattern to the disk. Different tracks are
encoded by beeps of different pitches. The outhermost track, track #0, comes
with the highest pitch.

After this step, the disk will show up as BAD: on the workbench. This is fine.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 3:        Opening the bad drive.
Required:    Phillips screwdrivers.

Turn off your computer, disconnect it from the power supply. Open its case,
and locate the disk drive. Note that you loose any guarantee by opening
the computer!

It depends on your system how this procedure looks precisely, please consult
your hardware manual. Locate the bad drive and unmount it. Write down how the
cables are oriented, i.e. which cable plugs in where and which side of the
cable is up. WRITE THIS DOWN.

Unplug all cables and remove the disk drive from the case. This might sound
easier than it is, especially on the A2K.

Now open the disk drive. Again, this heavely depends on the model. Some models
come with a single screw at the back of the drive and a snap-in mechanism that
holds the upper part of the tin case. Again, it's up to you to locate the
screws. Take notes and write down the steps required to close the drive again,
remember which screw goes where.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 4:        Locating the fine and coarse adjustments.

The drive heads should be now easely visible in the middle of the drive. They
run typically on one or two rails, driven by a step motor, possibly over a
spindle. The motor sits in the rear part of the case. Near this mechanism,
you should find a screw that is fixed by a colorful (mostly green or red)
varnish. This is the fine adjustment.

By moving the heads carefully, you will also see that they interrupt a
light-barrier as soon as they reach the outhermost track. This light barrier
is typically hold by a similar screw. This is the coarse adjustment.

Typically, it is enough to re-calibrate the fine adjustment (unless you
have played already with the drive and all screws are loose anyhow...).

As above, I cannot give more precise hints as the exact location of fine
and coarse adjustment depend on the drive type.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 5:        Loose the fine adjustment screw.
Required:    Phillips screwdriver.

This will require some force since the screw is fixed by the varnish. Force the
screwdriver heavely into the screw head, and turn it. The varnish should then
break with a snap and the screw should go loose. Try different screw drivers
and avoid breaking the head by trying this step too often. This is not for the
mechanically declined people. (-:

Loose the screw as much as necessary to be able to move the fine adjustment. It
is not necessary to remove the screw completely.

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Step 6:        Mounting the drive temporarely.
Required:    Rubber, card or some other kind of insulator.

Now mount the open (!) drive back into the computer. Connect all the cables.
Cut the rubber or the card board into pieces and place them under the edges
of the drive such that it can rotate freely. Make sure no part of the
electronic of the board is short-cut by the metal case of the computer and
make sure that you can remove and insert disks surely avoiding this.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 7:        Recalibrating the drive.
Required:    Joystick, mouse and keyboard. Audio. Calibration disk.

THE FOLLOWING REQUIRES OPERATION ON THE COMPUTER WHILE OPEN. THIS MEANS FOR
SOME AMIGA MODELS THAT THE POWER SUPPLY WILL REMAIN UNPROTECTED. IN CASE YOU
FEEL UNSURE ABOUT THIS, LEAVE THE FOLLOWING STEPS TO AN EXPERT. I REFUSE TO
TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT FOLLOWS.

Check if all cables are connected properly, drive(s), monitor, audio and that
you can reach the fine adjustment (and possibly the coarse adjustment) easely
without touching the power supply. Place the joystick such that you can
press the fire button of the joystick by the toe or the knee, leaving both
hands to work on the disk drive.

Connect the power coard to the computer and boot it. Open a shell. Insert
the calibration disk into the open drive carefully. The drive should now spin
up and the drive head should move to track zero. It will now step several
times as the workbench will try to read the calibration disk, which will
fail.

Enter the following command in the shell:

TrackDiskSync df0: read        (provided df0: is the bad drive, of course)

Wait until the drive spins up, turn on the audio system. You should now either
hear a calibration tone, or noise. As soon as you push the joystick button,
the drive should step forwards and backwards again.

Keep the button pushed, keep care of the tone and rotate the motor or the
fine adjustment control forwards and backwards. The tone should now change
its pitch, or should even vanish completely, and finally should re-appear
at a different pitch.

The different pitches indicate the different tracks you place the drive
head on. If the drive head sits on top of a track of the disk, you will hear
the tone. If it sits between two tracks, you will hear noise.

Move the fine adjustment control until you identify the tone of the highest
pitch belonging to track zero. Try to remember the pitch of track zero at
the time the calibration disk was written.

In case coarse adjustment is required, try to find track zero as best as
possible by moving the coarse adjustment first. Only an approximate position
has to be found. Tighten the coarse adjustment screw first, then continue with
the fine adjustment.

Move the fine adjustment to the two extreme places where the tone turns
into noise, and place it half between these two points, keeping the joystick
button pressed from time to time to keep the motor stepping.

Tighten the screw and make sure that the tone stays clear from noise such that
the head remains comfortably within the track data.

You abort the calibration procedure by pressing the left mouse button.

The calibration disk will still show up as BAD: on the workbench. This is fine.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 8:        Checking the drive.
Required:    Calibration disk.

Remove the calibration disk from the open drive. Insert it into the good
drive, reformat it and write some data onto the disk. Remove the disk and
check whether the re-calibrated drive reads this data fine. Write some
additional files on the disk using the bad drive. Remove the disk and
check whether the good drive can read the data fine.

If everything works to perfection, go to step 9.

Otherwise, write the calibration pattern back to the disk, using the good
drive as described in step 2.

Make sure that the drive head of the broken drive can move freely. The rails
might be blocked by dust. Clean the drive, but avoid touching the drive heads.
In some cases, one drop of oil onto the rails may help to allow the heads to
move freely. DO NOT oil the heads directly.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 9:        Fixing the screws.
Required:    Nail polish.

Use one drop of nail polish on the fine (and possibly coarse) adjustment screw
to fix the screw such that it cannot loose itself under operation. Wait until
the polish is dry.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Step 10:    Mounting the drive, and putting things back together.
Required:    Phillips screw driver set.

Turn off the computer. Remove the power coard and all other cables. Unplug the
now re-calibrated drive and put it back toghether. Mount the drive back into
your computer, and close the computer case again.

Now boot the computer and check whether the drive works again by trying to
copy some files from and onto disks inserted in the drive.

Congratulations!

_______________________________________________________________________________

                         The THOR-Software Licence (v2, 24th June 1998)


This License applies to the computer program and documentation known as
"TrackDiskSync" and "TrackDiskSync.Intructions". The "Program", below, refers
to this program including the mentioned intructions. The "Archive" refers to
the package of distribution, as prepared by the author of the Program,
Thomas Richter. Each licensee is addressed as "you".


The Program and the data in the archive are freely distributable
under the restrictions stated below, but are also Copyright (c)
Thomas Richter.

Distribution of the Program, the Archive and the data in the Archive by a
commercial organization without written permission from the author to any
third party is prohibited if any payment is made in connection with such
distribution, whether directly (as in payment for a copy of the Program) or
indirectly (as in payment for some service related to the Program, or
payment for some product or service that includes a copy of the Program
"without charge"; these are only examples, and not an exhaustive enumeration
of prohibited activities).


However, the following methods of distribution
involving payment shall not in and of themselves be a violation of this
restriction:


(i) Posting the Program on a public access information storage and
retrieval service for which a fee is received for retrieving information
(such as an on-line service), provided that the fee is not
content-dependent (i.e., the fee would be the same for retrieving the same
volume of information consisting of random data).


(ii) Distributing the Program on a CD-ROM, provided that

a) the Archive is reproduced entirely and verbatim on such CD-ROM, including
especially this licence agreement;

b) the CD-ROM is made available to the public for a nominal fee only,

c) a copy of the CD is made available to the author for free except for
shipment costs, and

d) provided further that all information on such CD-ROM is redistributable
for non-commercial purposes without charge.


Redistribution of a modified version of the Archive, the Program or the
contents of the Archive is prohibited in any way, by any organization,
regardless whether commercial or non-commercial. Everything must be kept
together, in original and unmodified form.




Limitations.


THE PROGRAM AND THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS", WITHOUT
WARRANTY. THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM AND THE INSTRUCTIONS, EITHER
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT
OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF
THE PROGRAM AND THE INSTRUCTIONS IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE
DEFECTIVE OR SHOULD YOU DAMAGE YOUR EQUIPMENT OR SHOULD YOU GET INJURED BY
FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR, TREATMENT OR CORRECTION.


IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THIS LICENCE, YOU MUST DELETE THE PROGRAM, THE ARCHIVE
AND ALL DATA OF THIS ARCHIVE FROM YOUR STORAGE SYSTEM. YOU ACCEPT THIS
LICENCE BY USING OR REDISTRIBUTING THE PROGRAM.


                                                        Thomas Richter

_______________________________________________________________________________

So long,
    Thomas    (September 2000)