Dragon Floppy Drives

[chrispoacher]

Hi there,

I've quite recently purchased a dual official Dragon external drive for my setup although in very nice condition does not read disks. I've cleaned it several times with a floppy disk cleaner and asopropyl but no joy. Does anyone know a relatively easy solution to get these working as in if I physically open the drive and clean them manually or do they need re-alignment [not having done this before]. When reading writing, the controller 'has a go' so to speak but eventually gives an RF Error or NF Error.

I dont mind really if they are unsalvageable as I can just replace them with other drives I have into the casing, just I would ideally love an original authentic set of drives, although it's not much good being authentic if they dont read/write any disks at all.

Any help would be appreciated :O)

Chris Poacher
chrispoacher@yahoo.co.uk

p.s. I was using a Superdos E6 cart instead of DragonDos but I would assume they would both work exactly the same.

[robcfg]

Hi, Chris!

I don't know if it could be that the belt is either broken or worn. It would help if you open the case and check if your drives carry belts and if they are in good condition.

[admin]

If they are the original drives with the "up and over" opening flap then they are belt driven....its likely the belt has lost its elasticity and is slipping - I have a couple of these on my "to do" list, but have not yet found a suitable replacement belt.

As you say, you can pop in a replacement drive which is what I have done for now - be aware that PC drives will need one of the jumpers changing (I can't remember details but on a PC it signals when a disk is inserted).

[prime]

If they are the original drives with the "up and over" opening flap then they are belt driven....its likely the belt has lost its elasticity and is slipping - I have a couple of these on my "to do" list, but have not yet found a suitable replacement belt.

As you say, you can pop in a replacement drive which is what I have done for now - be aware that PC drives will need one of the jumpers changing (I can't remember details but on a PC it signals when a disk is inserted).

May be worth asking around the 8 bit commodore scene, as I'm pretty sure that the up and over drives are the same mechinisim as used on some versions of the 1540/1541 drives used on the Vic/C64.

Simon when you put PC drives in the dragon case, did you have to modify them in any way, I believe the two cases that I have have the mounting rails close together than for a standard drive (or did you just get lucky....).

Cheers.

Phill.

[sixxie]

There's a groove in the Dragon drives that the support beams can sit into, I recall only being able to cram any other sort of drive into the top slot (splaying the supports around the side).

[admin]

Lets just say that as I have more than one dragon drive case....then one of them has had some metal work done to accomodate replacement drives!..

You can as Sixxie says get a normal drive into the top slot, but you do need to "re-shape" the mounts to get one into the bottom slot.... hence only done on one of my drive cases...

[chrispoacher]

Thanks for all your help guys. I'm hoping to fit a bezeled 3½" drive in the bottom part with luck and a normal 5¼" in the top.

I think messing around with drivebelts etc after trying to source them is something for a future rainy day. :O)

Chris Poacher.

[robcfg]

Hey, if you get that 3.5" drive working, please upload some pictures.

I think it's quite an interesting mod.

[prime]

Hey, if you get that 3.5" drive working, please upload some pictures.

I think it's quite an interesting mod.

3.5" drive should just work, nothing special needed for connecting to a Dragon, unlike some machines that need a ready signal on pin 34 (Spectrum +3, Amstrad etc). I primerraly use 3.5"s on my Dragons, standard PC 1.44s at that, mind I do have a special cable that reverses pins 10 and 12 between drives 1 and 2. Note though this cable has a twist it's not the same as a PC twisted cable.....

Cheers.

Phill.

[prime]

Hi Chris,

Would this happen to be the dual drive I just bought from you on ebay ?

If so you'll be happy to know I have got them working, seemed one of the drives did have a stuck read-write head positioning motor, freeing that up seems to have restored them to working condition.

Cheers.

Phill.