Floppy drive replacement (expanding the theme).

[joska]

I finally had some time to take a closer look at my stash of drives last night. You are both right. I have Atari drives (both from STE's btw) that looks like the one in Silly_Pony's picture, where the bezel ("poking through-bit" excluded) has the same thickness as the typical PC drive. In this case it's rather easy to transplant the bezel to a PC drive, as long a you find a good solution for the eject button.

I also have Atari drives (small button) where the bezel is several mm thicker than the typical PC drive, which seems to be the kind of drive atarieterno has. In this case either the PC drive or the bezel has to be cut down to make it fit. Large button drives is a completely different thing and doesn't seem to have any dimensions in common with "modern" drives except for the width.

Btw. I also have PC drives where the bezel is thicker than usual, these drives does not fit in an ST unless a rectangular hole is cut in the ST case.

[catmando]

Haha you just put two drives on the table and took a photo. Wow genius of the year here.

Look where the mounting holes are. Line them up using that. Then try again. Lo-and-behold the ST bezel will extend further out.



If you don't line up mounting screws, you don't get correct answer. Simple as that.

Finally!!! (only took 20 posts of fluff when 1 picture will do)

[catmando]

I finally had some time to take a closer look at my stash of drives last night. You are both right. I have Atari drives (both from STE's btw) that looks like the one in Silly_Pony's picture, where the bezel ("poking through-bit" excluded) has the same thickness as the typical PC drive. In this case it's rather easy to transplant the bezel to a PC drive, as long a you find a good solution for the eject button.

I also have Atari drives (small button) where the bezel is several mm thicker than the typical PC drive, which seems to be the kind of drive atarieterno has. In this case either the PC drive or the bezel has to be cut down to make it fit. Large button drives is a completely different thing and doesn't seem to have any dimensions in common with "modern" drives except for the width.

Btw. I also have PC drives where the bezel is thicker than usual, these drives does not fit in an ST unless a rectangular hole is cut in the ST case.

[joska]

You mean show me some pictures? I don't have any, but take a look at spiny's picture earlier in this thread. See the variation in bezel thickness?

[Atarieterno]

Haha you just put two drives on the table and took a photo. Wow genius of the year here.

Look where the mounting holes are. Line them up using that. Then try again. Lo-and-behold the ST bezel will extend further out.



If you don't line up mounting screws, you don't get correct answer. Simple as that.

I am not the genius of the year here, neither I am not the one who has more patience here to support the asshole of the forum (title that you deserve on your own merits).
Do you think the alignment of the screws in a photograph is decisive? the assembly of the floppy disk drive in the computer is the greatest test! In the 5 units of PC that I have adapted, when assembling them in the computer they exceeded 3 mm in length when I tried to use the front of the Atari floppy disk drive, in all of them, that is why I needed to cut the thickness of the front on the inside. Do you think I like to waste my time or do unnecessary work?
I do not like being called a liar, especially someone who does not propose solutions. I have adapted 5 floppy drives and the computers externally retain an aspect similar to the original; you have replaced a floppy disk drive and you have mutilated the external case of the computer and it is also black: genius of the year here!

P.S. I regret this kind of situations in the forum and I apologize to the moderators, but my patience is not infinite and there are times in life when idiots need to be called idiots. Thank you for the wisdom of Joska that provides data instead of a sterile criticism as idiots do.

[catmando]

You mean show me some pictures? I don't have any, but take a look at spiny's picture earlier in this thread. See the variation in bezel thickness?

It's a nice picture but it proves nothing in regard to the first post in this topic unless he turns them all over and lines up the mounting holes (as they are the constant that never changes as the mounting posts are in a fixed unmovable position)

Happy to be proved wrong of course

[joska]

Ok...

John Doe has an STFM with a broken floppy drive. He has a generic floppy drive from a PC that works, but he wants the STFM to look stock so he wants to transplant the bezel from his broken STFM floppy drive to the PC drive. Now, the problem is that the bezel on his broken drive is *thicker* than the one on his PC drive, so with the bezel transplanted the distance from the mounting holes to the front of the bezel (again, "sticking through"-bit excluded) is too long - it does not fit inside the case.

See the problem? Either the bezel or the floppy drive itself has to be modified to make this bastard fit.

Excerpt from spiny's picture:

bezel thickness.png

What do you think happens if you move the bezel from drive A to drive B?

The distance from the mounting holes to the bezel front is almost the same on all drives, but the thickness of the bezels is not regulated by any standards. That's why it's problematic to move bezels between different drives.

[Silly_Pony]

Do you think the alignment of the screws in a photograph is decisive?

Yes because you use the screws to attach it to the computer. It is, as said above, the unchangeable constant. Unless you drill through your motherboard.

I think that the rest of your post is not worth duplicating in a quote, it is strange and not connected to reality. Particularly the weird accusation I have "mutilated the external case of the computer", I have no idea what made you imagine this. Nothing I wrote, for sure.

[Atarieterno]

Yes because you use the screws to attach it to the computer. It is, as said above, the unchangeable constant. Unless you drill through your motherboard.

Nobody denies the alignment of the threaded holes, but that does not prevent the problem of the exchange of the front in the floppy drives and that is the problem that I expressed and to which I propose a solution that has worked for me.
I'm not going to waste more time with you, since I do not see anything positive and you only try to criticize me, so I invite you to follow your path and do not read my posts that apparently bother you so much.

I have explained the solution I have made with the floppy drives available in my house, if someone has other solutions that keep the original appearance on the outside of the computer: I will be happy to know them, I just look for the best for our machines!

José Antonio.

[Silly_Pony]

do not read my posts that apparently bother you so much.

Only one of us has had a severe mental breakdown in this thread, and it is not me.

[GokMasE]

I modelled this in Sketchup a couple of years ago:

MPF920-ST.png

It's a bezel and ejectbutton for the popular (and good!) Sony MPF920. Unfortunately it's not quite finished, needs a bit of adjustment to fit correctly in the ST case.

Can the Sketchup original or STL/GX files be downloaded somewhere? And is this still a work in progress?

It indeed seems the Sony drives are the ones to go for in terms of replacement floppy drives.


Regards,

/Joakim

[Atarieterno]

I modelled this in Sketchup a couple of years ago:

MPF920-ST.png

It's a bezel and ejectbutton for the popular (and good!) Sony MPF920. Unfortunately it's not quite finished, needs a bit of adjustment to fit correctly in the ST case.

Can the Sketchup original or STL/GX files be downloaded somewhere? And is this still a work in progress?

It indeed seems the Sony drives are the ones to go for in terms of replacement floppy drives.


Regards,

/Joakim

Ideally, a 3D front panel adapted to PC floppy drives would be manufactured, that is: with the eject button slot displaced conveniently.

[joska]

Can the Sketchup original or STL/GX files be downloaded somewhere? And is this still a work in progress?

PM me next week. The files are on my work computer and I'm still on vacation.

[Miguel]

The distance between the front screw holes and the bezel face on a PC drive such as the Mitsumi D359T (which can be easily modified to work in an ST) is 35mm whereas the distance between the front screw holes and bezel face an Atari drive such as the Epson SMD-480L is 34mm meaning that the PC drive actually protrudes by 1mm so whether or not it fits becomes somewhat dependant upon the tolerances of the plastic case.

Now when it comes to swapping bezels you kind of have to bear in mind that the distance from the front screw holes to the bezel face are comprised of two parts (the metal case and the plastic bezel) which can both vary in measurement from one drive to the other meaning that if you take a long bezel off a short case and try to put it on a long case that had a short bezel it's going to stick out like dogs balls.

[Miguel]

I modelled this in Sketchup a couple of years ago:

MPF920-ST.png

It's a bezel and ejectbutton for the popular (and good!) Sony MPF920. Unfortunately it's not quite finished, needs a bit of adjustment to fit correctly in the ST case.

How feasible do you think it would be to make a Atari style bezel that just wraps around the front of any PC floppy drive?

[1st1]

Nice works. For the low height floppy models I solve always that I try to get Epson SMD 3xx drives, there I can swap the cover from ATARI used Epson SMD 3xx.