paul1@garfield.UUCP (Paul Drover) (08/21/84)
[] 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 :~}