I have two issues with inserting 5.25" floppies into my external Unidisk floppy drive model A9M0104.
First issue is that the disk would get stuck while putting the disk in, as shown in this video.
The root cause seems to be not enough clearance for the disk to slide in. A 5.25" floppy disk has 2 stress release notches above the disk access hole. As you slide in the disk, it gets pushed down slightly causing it to catch on the 2 notches. The proper solution for this seems to be just adding an extra washer which will increase the clearance.
After adding this extra washer, I have no issues sliding in any floppies.
The second issue I noticed is that when I close the door after inserting a disk, the disk get bend down as shown in this picture.
This is caused due to the disk not being able to be put in all the way,. When closing the door latch, the disk will get caught on it due to not being all the way in. To fix this one, I took out the metal stopper clip and bend it so that the disk could slide in an extra 1mm.
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Lastly, while I had this clip put, I bend open the spring holding this clip by 90 degrees. The disk wasn't really being pushed out on eject due to the spring losing tension over the years . By bending the spring, I get a very satisfying eject. The disk comes out 30% now, whereas before it was barely getting pushed out.
I wonder if anyone else with this drive has the same issues? They both seems to be design issues that probably were there when the drive was new. Note the internal drive on my two Apple IIc which have very similar drives don't have the first 2 issues mentioned. The eject being weak probably occurs on all of these type of drives over the years.
First issue is that the disk would get stuck while putting the disk in, as shown in this video.
The root cause seems to be not enough clearance for the disk to slide in. A 5.25" floppy disk has 2 stress release notches above the disk access hole. As you slide in the disk, it gets pushed down slightly causing it to catch on the 2 notches. The proper solution for this seems to be just adding an extra washer which will increase the clearance.
After adding this extra washer, I have no issues sliding in any floppies.
The second issue I noticed is that when I close the door after inserting a disk, the disk get bend down as shown in this picture.
This is caused due to the disk not being able to be put in all the way,. When closing the door latch, the disk will get caught on it due to not being all the way in. To fix this one, I took out the metal stopper clip and bend it so that the disk could slide in an extra 1mm.
Lastly, while I had this clip put, I bend open the spring holding this clip by 90 degrees. The disk wasn't really being pushed out on eject due to the spring losing tension over the years . By bending the spring, I get a very satisfying eject. The disk comes out 30% now, whereas before it was barely getting pushed out.
I wonder if anyone else with this drive has the same issues? They both seems to be design issues that probably were there when the drive was new. Note the internal drive on my two Apple IIc which have very similar drives don't have the first 2 issues mentioned. The eject being weak probably occurs on all of these type of drives over the years.
