Odd floppy drives (was: Orbis

[Tony Duell]

> 
> >> The Dysan 3.25" was kinda neat.  Dysan bet the company that the
> >> "shirt pocket"  disk (3", 3.25", 3.5", 3.9") that would succeed
> >
> > I've always felt that the 3" (Hitachi) disk, as used by Amstrad, was
> > mechanically superior to the 3.5" disk...

I was refering to the disk design, bot the drive here. The 3.5" disk 
shutter is a very poor design IMHO and one that's caused me a fair amount 
of dismantling over the years to remove shutters stuck in drives.

> 
> ... except when the rubber band wore out.  You could often get away with

I don't know who made the Amstrad 3" drives, but the Hitachi ones I have 
(and have the service manual for) have a direct-drive spindle motor. No 
rubber driver beld.

> adjusting the tension, but when the belt was gone, it was new drive time. 
> Or was it?  Digging through a pile of scrap bought from another shop that

I thought at least one of the Amstrad service manuals gave a part number 
for the belt. 

> Nothing else ever went wrong with them.  Ever.  After WWIII when we have
> all perished in nuclear flames, the only living things on Earth will be
> the cockroaches, and they will be typing up their stories on Amstrad
> PCW8512s.

ALthough the later daisywheel printer version suffers from a cracked 
print hammer armature quite often. The printer seems to work, but nothing 
appears on the paper.

I still have the service manuals for the 3 main types of PCWs. But I 
suspect most, if not all, spares are now unobtainium

-tony