Conversation

Notices

1. AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 05:07:08 JST AmigaLove

   I discovered recently that the 800k and 1.44MB macintosh drives with electronic disk ejection shipped with a tiny little gear that fails over time due to a baffling design decision by Apple. The plastic they chose crumbles into pieces as it ages. Thankfully, there is a guy on Ebay who sells custom printed new ones.

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 05:07:29 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     I taught myself how to do this repair. MORE HERE: https://www.amigalove.com/viewtopic.php?t=2591

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 05:07:55 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     And here is the final result. Music to my ears :) https://youtu.be/09pticYdYJk

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 05:14:38 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     • Dan Salvato :amiga:

     @dansalvato LOL!! Totally

     The fact the gear teeth fall into ancient grease you have to pick out makes you feel like you're digging it out of some horrific gooey brie, too. Hah!!

   • Dan Salvato :amiga: (dansalvato@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 05:14:39 JST Dan Salvato :amiga:

     in reply to

     @amigalove I came across this too! In the repair video I watched, the guy said he calls it the "cheese gear" because it's yellow and crumbles like a piece of cheese, haha.

   • Eric Gustafson ☑️ (ericgus@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 05:34:10 JST Eric Gustafson ☑️

     in reply to

     @amigalove Could also be a weird chemical interaction with whatever lubricant Apple opted for and the gear plastics .. over time it caused that reaction but this isnt really unheard of ... seems to be a common issue with say old toys and such , I see this come up on those restoration videos .. gotta love modern 3d printing!

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 06:35:31 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     • Dan Salvato :amiga:

     @dansalvato I just fixed a second drive and the gear in question completely broke down as I was removing it.

     This time around, I'd say the gear was definitely made from white chocolate. No doubt about it. ;)

   • AlanGrassia (alangrassia@noc.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 06:46:11 JST AlanGrassia

     in reply to

     @amigalove
     That guy in eBay, life saver! Folks selling replacement gears got my SE floppy drives back up and running like a pair of champs again!

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 06:46:11 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     • AlanGrassia

     @AlanGrassia Indeed. I just fixed a 2nd drive today. (One more to go!)

     Now I see why he sells them in packs of 4...

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 08:25:20 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     • codepoet

     @codepoet80 that is correct. It's a Sony drive.

   • codepoet (codepoet80@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 08:25:21 JST codepoet

     in reply to

     @amigalove this one isn't on Apple. Sony made the drives, and ya, those gears always crumble...

   • Yoss1960 ✅ (yoss1960@noc.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 08:27:35 JST Yoss1960 ✅

     in reply to

     @amigalove
     Not baffling at all; Apple just screw everyone over. To be fair, so do many other companies, but apple are one of the worst offenders.

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 08:27:35 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     • Yoss1960 ✅

     @Yoss1960
     The disk drive was actually created by Sony. I misspoke when I said Apple chose the plastic.

   • AmigaLove (amigalove@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 13:05:25 JST AmigaLove

     in reply to

     • Patrick Lang

     @patricklang I doubt it was a thought of necessity, more a concept of perceived luxury. Just like electronic motors in your car to roll the window down vs using a hand crank. Or power steering.

     I'm guessing the "manual labor" of pushing a button and your finger's force making the disk eject was considered "low tech" compared to electronic eject. In the 90s CD and DVD trays followed the same path. 🤷♂️

   • Patrick Lang (patricklang@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2023 13:05:26 JST Patrick Lang

     in reply to

     @amigalove I still never understand why auto eject was necessary. Flipping floppy disks was part of the Apple // experience then... later you're waiting on the slowest eject ever. Maybe it was the first stage of planned obsolescence - get people to buy an extra drive because eject is too slow...