BASF (Was: SCSI to IDE bridges...

[Tony Duell]

> Now who was it that did those slimline 5.25" drives (slightly less than 1/2 
> height) with the eject button (rather than handle) on the front? My brain's 
> trying to tell me those are BASF too*, but I could be wrong. I know I have 
> some in storage back in the UK, and they're not very reliable either.
> 
> * Although maybe they're Epson; the system manufacturer that they came from 
> were as fond of Epson as they were BASF...


These sound like Epson (all apart from the uneliability part, I've never 
had problems with them). Epson made a 1/2 height drive with a 
conventional stepper motor positioner (used in many Torch machines, 
includinf the XXX) and also a 1/3 height drive used in the QX10 (and the 
TF20 floppy unit for the Epson laptops) that had a voice coil positioner, 
a bit like a miniature RK05 (!). 

The only curious thing about the latter is that they have a belt driven 
spindle (prsumably to get the height down, there wasn't space to fit the 
motor in-line with the spindle. And that spidle motor has some curios 
feature, I forget what, but I do rememebr having to dismantle the FG 
(tacho) coil to extract the ends aftre they broke off when I was doing 
somethign to the motor....

-tony