Data General 6039 Floppy Drive Bring Up
Added 2025-03-21 00:52:23 +0000 UTCHello!
The work continues on the Data General microNOVA, in this video I decided to turn my attention to the 6039 dual floppy drive unit. The inability to change memory that we found at the end of the last video turned out to not be us not knowing how to use the machine. Something funny is going on. My hope is that getting the floppy drive connected to the machine will either make it work or at least give an indication of what it is trying to do.
I am still all Data General all the time, today I recorded a second channel video that will be about making serial cable adapters for the machines and reached the half way point on imaging all of the boring floppies I got with it. Some real good progress is being made! I have some more I want to talk about relating to it but I want to save that for a proper update video I plan to record soon.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/tjEcmlUG1Vc
Comments
Interesting, you gave me some new keywords for the search and I found this page which I think is describing the same thing you are here but with more visuals: https://www.ecicaps.com/tech-tools/technical-papers/self-healing-affect-metallized-capacitors/ If that is indeed the method of "self-healing" these types of capacitors have then reforming is a waste of time. This is "healing" via amputation, at best slowly charging the cap might help it not heat up too much but I have a feeling that's not really an issue with these because the process should be a lot faster. It's also possible reforming might be worse because it wouldn't have enough power available to blast cleanly through the diaelectric.
Tech Tangents
2025-03-22 14:12:24 +0000 UTCIt's software I wrote myself for some old HP GP-IB controllable test gear I have: https://github.com/AkBKukU/GPIB-Capacitor-Reforming-Web My cap reforming video shows it all a little more: https://youtu.be/Z-jKsVbKFqM
Tech Tangents
2025-03-22 14:03:14 +0000 UTCwhat hardware and software are you using to reform capacitors?
Steve Jones
2025-03-21 13:43:23 +0000 UTCI am certainly not a capacitor expert, just someone with a funny brain that like to grab onto random trivia. But it is my understanding that with metalized film capacitors the "self healing" actually comes form the tenancy for the deposited metal to be vaporized by any discharges through the dielectric film due to over voltage spikes or manufacturing defects. I wasn't sure if this included oil filled capacitors or just the dry film type, but I found this document that is describing the properties of a particular manufacture's AC oil-filled motor run capacitors, https://www.justcapacitors.com/wp-content/uploads/BMISpecificationsRunCapacitors.pdf and on page 8 of that product sheet it describes that exact mechanism.
Robert Yates
2025-03-21 02:55:33 +0000 UTC
