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Lisa Widget 10MB loose wire question.

VERAULT

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Jan 30, 2012
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Location
Connecticut, USA
So I am trying to repair a clicking 10MB Lisa Widget HDD. Taking it apart I noticed a wire was loose from the connector, but since its a 5 pin connector I dont know where it should go. ITs the red wire going into the header that connects to the backplane board of the widget; header J6 20200929_203525_resized.jpg20200929_203551_resized.jpg

Anyone have a lisa or widget Hdd and can take a peak at the back and see where the wire connects?
 
Yeah no go, tried a slight adjustment of head position and checked all the connections. It just clicks indefinitely. I wont open it up outside a cleanroom so the drive is junk.
 
I've heard of a few Widgets where even just a brief opening on a clean kitchen table to reattach the transducer glass was fine. You got nothing to lose at this point by opening it.
 
If I'm understanding it right, it needs perfect alignment if you wish to recover whatever was on the drive due to existing track alignments.
However if you don't care for the data, just stick it back "close enough" and use BLU to run a low-level format and see what happens. I've personally never verified if Widgets used an embedded servo track or were more or less the same as stepper motor technology, but with a voice coil and the linear encoder instead of a servo track, like the RK05.

Wouldn't you want to verify that and possibly save $400? ;)
 
Of course. That is certainly no small amount of money! But everything I have read states widgets are just failure prone garbage and have been from the start.

Everheard of Neowidex? https://github.com/stepleton/NeoWidEx I cant find a working disk image so I cant try it but its supposed to be alot of low level tools to diagnose or even fix failed widgets.
 
Of course. That is certainly no small amount of money! But everything I have read states widgets are just failure prone garbage and have been from the start.

Everheard of Neowidex? https://github.com/stepleton/NeoWidEx I cant find a working disk image so I cant try it but its supposed to be alot of low level tools to diagnose or even fix failed widgets.

I've heard of it. I wrote it :-D

Is there a reason that https://github.com/stepleton/NeoWidEx/blob/main/NeoWidEx.dc42.zip doesn't work? It should be a standard Disk Copy 4.2 disk image.

Also, if you have skill with a soldering iron and are happy with 5MiB ProFile emulation instead of Widget emulation, you may be able to build a hard drive emulator for double-digit bucks: https://github.com/stepleton/cameo/tree/master/aphid . Hacking it to pretend to be a 10MiB ProFile shouldn't be that hard. But emulation of the full Widget command set (not necessary for the Office System, I don't think) is next level.
 
I just dont have a MAC at the moment setup for making disks. I had a really nice Mac LC I restored but I sold it to someone who really wanted it. I was hoping someone could have it on an image that will work with my floppy emu.

Aphid huh? That looks great! Yeah Thats definitely a better choice cost wise. Thanks I will definitely look into that.
 
The .dc42 image should work on a Floppy Emu---you just have to unzip the file and place it on the Floppy Emu's SD card.

When considering ProFile replacements, be sure to check out IDEFile too, another build-it-yourself option. (I couldn't have made Cameo/Aphid without all of Dr. Schaefer's excellent notes).
 
You can also make a BLU disk (and bootstrap one in if you don't have another way to write a floppy), and use that to write out the .dc42

That's actually how I write most of my Lisa disks.

-J
 
You can also make a BLU disk (and bootstrap one in if you don't have another way to write a floppy), and use that to write out the .dc42

That's actually how I write most of my Lisa disks.

-J

Is it similar to ADTPro? There arent any good videos on youtube about BLU.
I was about to use it when I discovered most of the keys on my keyboard arent working (foam/foil meltdown) So I need to rebuild the keyboard.
 
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