Hi everyone,

I got an Enhancer 2000 drive a couple of days ago and it's got a small
fault, the drive mechanism won't lock down.

Looking at the mechanism nothing appears to be missing, however the pin
that extends from the clamping mechanism to what appears to be some sort of
spring loaded latch seems to be out of place.

I can't work out where this pin should be when the latch is open or closed,
if someone has one and could take some digital pictures that would be
fantastic.

Mike

Here is a side view of mine in the C-one setup I've got.  Right now I don't
have access to a camera, other than a lousy webcam, so pics won't be as
detailed as what you see here.  This is a dead on side view.

http://pages.prodigy.net/snogpitch/c-one/Images/3.jpg

What should I be looking for?  Maybe a pic of how your's looks will shed
some light to what is wrong with it.  Maybe a pointer directing the eye to
the problem area you suspect.

Maybe others could chime in with suggestions based on your additional info.

On 12/17/03 6:52 AM, in article vgg0uv0e4agtke6d1kqppr1cu745humvfu@4ax.com,
"Mike Paull" <mpaull@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I got an Enhancer 2000 drive a couple of days ago and it's got a small
> fault, the drive mechanism won't lock down.
> 
> Looking at the mechanism nothing appears to be missing, however the pin
> that extends from the clamping mechanism to what appears to be some sort of
> spring loaded latch seems to be out of place.
> 
> I can't work out where this pin should be when the latch is open or closed,
> if someone has one and could take some digital pictures that would be
> fantastic.
> 
> Mike
> 
> 

-- 
Snogpitch

snogpitch@prodigy.net
ICQ: 4989342
Webpage: http://pages.prodigy.net/snogpitch/

Hi Snogpitch,

I solved it after some quiet uninterupted time to myself with the drive! 

Looking down at the mech you see the clamping mechanism is held clamped by
a protruding pin which locks into a spring loaded "hook". When you have a
disk you want to release you press the clamp down and this spring loaded
hook moves to the right allowing the pin to be released and the clamp to
rise to it max height allowing the disk to pop out.

It was the pin that was the problem, it was bent in such a way that the
spring loaded hook wasnt grabbing or holding it. Looks like the previous
owner may have been a bit zelous one day and tried to clamp the disk in
before it was all the way in, and kept pushing hard bending the pin. Thats
the only explanatio I can think of. 

Anyway, it all works now.

Is there anything special about the dos on these drives, any extra commands
or other interesting things to know? Unfortunately I didn't get a manual
with this one and I know nothing about them. It still has it's original
Enhancer 2000 dos roms.

Mike




On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 04:34:25 GMT, Snogpitch <snogpitch@prodigy.net> wrote:

>Here is a side view of mine in the C-one setup I've got.  Right now I don't
>have access to a camera, other than a lousy webcam, so pics won't be as
>detailed as what you see here.  This is a dead on side view.
>
>http://pages.prodigy.net/snogpitch/c-one/Images/3.jpg
>
>What should I be looking for?  Maybe a pic of how your's looks will shed
>some light to what is wrong with it.  Maybe a pointer directing the eye to
>the problem area you suspect.
>
>Maybe others could chime in with suggestions based on your additional info.
>
>On 12/17/03 6:52 AM, in article vgg0uv0e4agtke6d1kqppr1cu745humvfu@4ax.com,
>"Mike Paull" <mpaull@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>> 
>> I got an Enhancer 2000 drive a couple of days ago and it's got a small
>> fault, the drive mechanism won't lock down.
>> 
>> Looking at the mechanism nothing appears to be missing, however the pin
>> that extends from the clamping mechanism to what appears to be some sort of
>> spring loaded latch seems to be out of place.
>> 
>> I can't work out where this pin should be when the latch is open or closed,
>> if someone has one and could take some digital pictures that would be
>> fantastic.
>> 
>> Mike
>> 
>> 

Mike Paull <mpaull@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:<vgg0uv0e4agtke6d1kqppr1cu745humvfu@4ax.com>...

> I got an Enhancer 2000 drive a couple of days ago and it's
> got a small fault, the drive mechanism won't lock down.

> Looking at the mechanism nothing appears to be missing, however
> the pin that extends from the clamping mechanism to what appears
> to be some sort of spring loaded latch seems to be out of place.

> I can't work out where this pin should be when the
> latch is open or closed, if someone has one and could
> take some digital pictures that would be fantastic.

I have a CHEEEP digital camera and an ENHANCER 2K drive.
My drive locks disks into place with a push type tab, not
a twisty like key on 1541 - II's or 1571's.  Is the disk
locking mechansim on  my drive the same as on Mr. Paull?

Yeah!   :)  btw, my drive sounds like the one described by Paul Rosenzweig

I don't use the drive much since I got it second hand.  Part of the reason
it got installed into the C-one.  I don't remember if I have a manual for it
or not, but it seemed to work fine using normal DOS commands.

-- 
Snogpitch

snogpitch@prodigy.net
ICQ: 4989342
Webpage: http://pages.prodigy.net/snogpitch/


On 12/18/03 4:23 AM, in article 4qr2uvsudqhjiufnog98j5ei099si6c7kl@4ax.com,
"Mike Paull" <mpaull@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> Hi Snogpitch,
> 
> I solved it after some quiet uninterupted time to myself with the drive!
> 
> Anyway, it all works now.
> 
> 
> Mike
> 

I don't know if it's the same drive or not, but there used to be a 1541
clone sold years ago called the Enhancer. It wouldn't load many copy
protected games, so we tended to avoid it, but it was quieter and
(seemingly) faster.

Mike Paull <mpaull@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:<4qr2uvsudqhjiufnog98j5ei099si6c7kl@4ax.com>...
> 
> Anyway, it all works now.
> 
> Is there anything special about the dos on these drives, any
> extra commands or other interesting things to know? Unfortunately
> I didn't get a manual with this one and I know nothing about
> them. It still has it's original Enhancer 2000 dos roms.

A quick eyball scan of my manual reveals no exotic commands.  The notes
in my manual question the need for collins (colons?) in the command text.
They may even prevent the intended action of the command.  The after
market disk drives tried very hard to be as compatible as could be with
1541's.  That meant that their command sets had to be identical with the
1541 commands.  Early disk archive programs probably didn't work with
the ENHANCER.  These programs examined the ROMS of the source drive to
decide if a disk archive was possible.  There was no way to overide
the archiver's decision that the source drive was compatible enough
for archiving needs. Thats the only reason why I possess 1541-II's,

This drive was somewhat faster than the 1541.

Mine is the same as yours and Paul's. It has a tab you push down which (
now, after the fix ) locks into place. I was curious about the dos commands
because I have another drive which has that allows formatting all 40
tracks, I think it's the Excelerator Plus. I guess most of the aftermarket
drive makers opted for more compatability than extras.

Mike



On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 12:40:23 GMT, Snogpitch <snogpitch@prodigy.net> wrote:

>Yeah!   :)  btw, my drive sounds like the one described by Paul Rosenzweig
>
>I don't use the drive much since I got it second hand.  Part of the reason
>it got installed into the C-one.  I don't remember if I have a manual for it
>or not, but it seemed to work fine using normal DOS commands.

They opted for compatability over extras which is probably a good thing.
They're a nice drive, I hadn't seen one in years so i'm happy to have got
one. These things are rare over here, we didn't see that many different
aftermarket drives in Australia.

Mike



On 18 Dec 2003 08:02:00 -0800, r_u_sure@mybluelight.com (Paul Rosenzweig)
wrote:

>Mike Paull <mpaull@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:<4qr2uvsudqhjiufnog98j5ei099si6c7kl@4ax.com>...
>> 
>> Anyway, it all works now.
>> 
>> Is there anything special about the dos on these drives, any
>> extra commands or other interesting things to know? Unfortunately
>> I didn't get a manual with this one and I know nothing about
>> them. It still has it's original Enhancer 2000 dos roms.
>
>A quick eyball scan of my manual reveals no exotic commands.  The notes
>in my manual question the need for collins (colons?) in the command text.
>They may even prevent the intended action of the command.  The after
>market disk drives tried very hard to be as compatible as could be with
>1541's.  That meant that their command sets had to be identical with the
>1541 commands.  Early disk archive programs probably didn't work with
>the ENHANCER.  These programs examined the ROMS of the source drive to
>decide if a disk archive was possible.  There was no way to overide
>the archiver's decision that the source drive was compatible enough
>for archiving needs. Thats the only reason why I possess 1541-II's,
>
>This drive was somewhat faster than the 1541.

I haven't had a look at the pcb yet however a 1541 dos rom copied onto an
eprom quickly solves such issues!

Mike



On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 13:01:43 GMT, "Kaschim" <kaschim_@_insightbb.com>
wrote:

>I don't know if it's the same drive or not, but there used to be a 1541
>clone sold years ago called the Enhancer. It wouldn't load many copy
>protected games, so we tended to avoid it, but it was quieter and
>(seemingly) faster.
>

Yeah mine has the push type tab. My problems were internal, it's hard to
describe, suffice to say I think the last owner abused the drive however
now, after some TLC, it works fine!

Mike


On 18 Dec 2003 03:51:07 -0800, r_u_sure@mybluelight.com (Paul Rosenzweig)
wrote:

>Mike Paull <mpaull@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:<vgg0uv0e4agtke6d1kqppr1cu745humvfu@4ax.com>...
>
>> I got an Enhancer 2000 drive a couple of days ago and it's
>> got a small fault, the drive mechanism won't lock down.
>
>> Looking at the mechanism nothing appears to be missing, however
>> the pin that extends from the clamping mechanism to what appears
>> to be some sort of spring loaded latch seems to be out of place.
>
>> I can't work out where this pin should be when the
>> latch is open or closed, if someone has one and could
>> take some digital pictures that would be fantastic.
>
>I have a CHEEEP digital camera and an ENHANCER 2K drive.
>My drive locks disks into place with a push type tab, not
>a twisty like key on 1541 - II's or 1571's.  Is the disk
>locking mechansim on  my drive the same as on Mr. Paull?