[net.micro.cbm] keeping the 1541 cool

paul1@garfield.UUCP (Paul Drover) (08/21/84)

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 	Lately I've heard alot about about the unreliablilty of the 1541 disk
 drive. It would appear from the various article posted to this news group
 that the problem is relates to the heat emitted. The heat causes the 
 hardware inside to expand and contract as the device is used, thus causing
 heads to misalign. The next step being an expensive trip to your nearest 
 commodore dealer.
	What I want to do is to get one step ahead and keep my 1541 cool.
 I was thinking about mounting a small d.c. motor/fan to the chasis on 
 the interior of the disk drive. One day after using, I opened the beast,
 and noticed that the majority of the heat was being emmitted from the 
 transformer. I also noticed that there was a good deal of room, more 
 than enough to accomidate a small fan. What I was wondering was where 
 to obtain the necessary current to opperate the fan, and if taping the 
 circiutry (sp?) would create problems reading and writing to the disk?
	I would appreciate any comments on the idea,positive or negative
 and would gladly share any information that I obtain with other 1541 
 owners.

					Paul Drover
					 paul1@garfield

ejk47@ihuxn.UUCP (Ed Kufeldt, ihuxn ejk47) (08/23/84)

Paul, in regards to mounting a fan to help keep your
1541 disk drive running cool, I have a couple of suggestions.

 1.  The head alignment problem is due to poor design of the
     disk drive.  There are no sensing switches that sense the
     end tracks and slow the head servo motor.  Instead, the
     head is slammed into a physical post to limit its travel.
     That is why the head does not stay in alignment for any
     period of time, not because of heat-warpage.

 2.  If you still are looking to put a fan in the disk housing
     you might try one of the ones powered by a "Hall-Effect"
     motor.  They usually run on low voltage DC and do not generate
     any RFI noise that might trash your disk.

                                 Ed Kufeldt
                                 ihuxn!ejk47
                                 :~}