Epson smd-340

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Bikerbob
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Epson smd-340

Post by Bikerbob »

This is part # C301371-101

It is spinning, the heads are reading and moving, I can attest to that after having it open and cleaned.

BUT - I cannot get it to format HD DD only SD.. so I am going to think dirty heads? or maybe bad.

BUt it does read a DD disk. I dont have anything in atari HD format to try and read, so no idea if it will read HD.

The jumpers on the back.. there are 3 groups.. the first to set the ID.. thats easy ID0

The next mode switching? and another that effects switching I returned them to factory - I think this means use the holes in the disk.. but this did not change it.

The drive will read most of 1 side I think.. then done.

James
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exxos
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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by exxos »

Have a read here and see if it gives any clues...

https://blog.troed.se/2017/01/20/the-ta ... i-mystery/
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Bikerbob
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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by Bikerbob »

Well bummer, ordered another SMD-340 from ebay, it arrived DOA. Cannot read at all from a PC or the Atari.

Now I have to deal with trying to get my money back on that one.

I did get a bunch of the Sony 920 drives in a lot purchase though. Only bummer about that is that the face plates are all black. But they would work.

James
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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by exxos »

:( I will have to try if I can locate some of those drives somewhere and have a fiddle with them.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by Bikerbob »

So update on this.

SMD-300s series, as long as they are the HD drives, should work.

I had some bad luck in that I bought some that people said good working drive.. in fact all they did was power it up and see that the activity light comes on.. thats good and working.

If they cannot confirm (goes for any drive your paying more than a couple of bucks for) that it formats, I would pass.

Now, I ordered 2 off of ebay.. one I had to return.. and will loose about 20% on the deal after all the shipping and returns.

The other - I figured out that the one I was asking about here in this thread, had bad heads, or a bad head, because it was reading on one side only. I had no idea if it was the head, the cable etc.. but..

The nice thing about the SMD EPSON series of drives is the assemblies come apart very nice and easy.. 2 screws to remove the drive unit, and 2 screws for the controller board.. the carriage and the head/stepper drive are generic between all the SMD 300 series, - even with board revisions.. so it can be swapped, and thats what I did with the last one I ordered that was suppose to work .. and might have worked on a pc but I did not try it. SO.. I took the controller board and motor unit from the one I originally had and put it in the carriage and head assembly of the one I ordered which looked really good..

I have a good working SMD-340 (original drive for Mega STE HD) So.. at least one of my Mega STEs has a good working HD drive.

The other components that were left I put back together and tried them.. same issue.. so I know the physical head is damaged somehow.

James
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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by exxos »

ahh sux for bad drives :( I am trying to add more drives to my store, but as you can imagine, they take a fair bit of time up, but at least they are all tested and working :) Would be nice to get a stock of 340's etc, but mostly I would end up with junk no doubt, and they are hard to find :(

Thanks for keeping us updated!
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by Bikerbob »

So in my on going testing, replacement, repair and repeat, of the floppy drives of my Mega STEs.. I thought I would post this.

SO, to sum up - I bought 2 mega STEs - one had a SMD-380 (DD drive) works great. one had an SMD-340( bad head I think physical damage)

So I bought a couple off of ebay - both were called SMD-300 but both are marked SMD-340 on the drive by the jumpers. One showed up damaged - like it had been dropped, it powered up but did not work. I returned it.

The 2nd looked fantastic, almost like it had not be used, the controller did not look the same(different revision?) But the mechanics looked great. The Epson drives separate from chassis very nice, so I swapped my SMD-340 controller into the SMD-300 chassis and heads and bingo I have a good drive.

I also found a cheap lot purchase of drives on ebay 10 for $25 - figured maybe I would get lucky and find some drives in there that would work. I did get 4 mfp920s out it, black face :(

OK.. now where I am at - I have one good SMD-340(1 done!!) I still have the the backup SMD-380. I have 1 mfp920 that I have done the drive ID mod and it works fine. I have a TEAC drive that also works great after the ID mod.

Interesting thing in testing that I found out. I had a bunch of HD disks - that originally I wanted to use on an STF and so I covered the open hole with tape so that it would format them. The SMD-340 does not seem to have a sensor there.. no matter if its covered or not, it will allow me to try and format it in HD.. so I could try and format DD disks, or how I found out is I managed to format an HD disk I had the tape over.

The PC floppy drives - the MFP920 and the TEAC both have sensors there, and they are much more picky about the disks - many disks that I can read and write with the SMD-340 the others gives me hassles, ALL can read - run Dungeon Master no problem.

Hmmmmmmm....

James
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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by IngoQ »

Just for the sake of completeness:

Using HD floppys and formatting as DD is likely to produce unreliable results. The reason is, that HD floppies have a thinner coating and smaller particles, which makes a more precise and localized magnetic field. DD writing uses twice the energy as HD, so some sort of over-magnetizing happens, which makes erasing and overwriting difficult.

Here is a link explaining in more detail:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/guzis.html
Ingo :geek:

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Re: Epson smd-340

Post by Bikerbob »

IngoQ wrote: Wed Dec 20, 2017 1:37 pm Just for the sake of completeness:

Using HD floppys and formatting as DD is likely to produce unreliable results. The reason is, that HD floppies have a thinner coating and smaller particles, which makes a more precise and localized magnetic field. DD writing uses twice the energy as HD, so some sort of over-magnetizing happens, which makes erasing and overwriting difficult.

Here is a link explaining in more detail:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/guzis.html
That I find interesting, because... if I format a disk that is giving me hassles with the SMD-340 in DD mode, and then format it after in HD it works.. a lot of the time. If I do it in HD.. I error out most of the time.. I am wondering if that has to do with the engergy in DD being greater, it formats sectors which might give HD troubles because it is using less energy to do it??? hmmm

James
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