Just Wondering
i have heard everyone say that you need an official disk system belt. Is there any other drive belts I could use?
if we said you needed an official one why would there be another one you can use.
it's not like we were lying
I don't know exactly what you mean by "official," 'cause I don't think Nintendo makes them anymore. There are both good and bad generic brands (i.e., some fit better than others and last longer). I've never bought any except from featherpluck. He knew the good brand, I assume, but he doesn't come around these parts much anymore.
nintendo made them until 2003 (which was when they stopped their mail in repair service), so there are quite a few official belts floating around. kris uses the official ones, and when i bought his broken twin fami thats what he gave me to fix it. he told me he's had trouble with the generic brands.
jfgoods on ebay sells official belts
Here you can go to an electronics store with the belt diameter and thickness and they'll sell you a suitable generic replacement, I don't see why bother so much for a piece of rubber ;D
i dont think you understand, the size required is ONLY used on famicom disk system.
no electronics store will have it, not even anything close
Wow :o sorry. I've replaced several weird Atari disk drive belts, VCR idlers and some other stuff and the guy at the electronics store never missed one. They have a chart for measuring the broken belt and it gives a number which gives you the correct belt. Never thought the FDS was so special since they seem to cover almost all diameters and thicknesses, even if they're not widely used. They come from an Argentinian industry called ElectroGoma (http://www.electrogoma.com.ar). Maybe Switchstance could tell us more about the subject ;).
Also, I think a slightly smaller diameter could work.
I wasn't being mean.
But I basically live inside an FDS drive
There's nothing you can buy other than the specially made FDS belts.
Not only that, the third party ones even cause issues, Kris was using one and it wouldn't load like half his games.
Used an official and everything worked.
These drives are so finicky, so incredibly unreliable and overall terrible, that the only benefit to having one is the games :)
This made me so curious I actually want to take apart one of my Disk Systems now. ;)
Quote from: kite200 on August 22, 2007, 10:19:17 pm
But I basically live inside an FDS drive
I'm guessing the electric bill is prepaid. :)
Yeah, JL.
If anyone has trouble with their FDS drive, I can try to repair it. However, you have to give me your FDS, a belt (available on ebay) plus a 10 dollar fee to make it worth my time, plus you have to pay shipping to me and shipping from me to you. That being said, I may not even be able to fix it since you don't know until you try.
That also being said, I have aquired a great amount of skill working with FDS drives and if it IS fixable, I could do it
You could try to write an article of your Disk System knowledge. With pictures and descriptions. That might help other people (like me ;) ) getting into this stuff.
Has anybody here tried running a Disk System RAM adaptor connected to a PC parallel port and use transfer software to load FDS files onto the RAM adaptor? I do a similar approach for emulating an Atari disk drive with a serial cable, and saw some Youtube videos showing the parallel FDS interface, but I don't know anybody who tried it.
yes, ask madman and chimeyfolk butter, they write disks that way.
It's pretty common among the nes developing community
Quote from: kite200 on August 21, 2007, 07:02:04 pm
i dont think you understand, the size required is ONLY used on famicom disk system.
no electronics store will have it, not even anything close
Eeeh? Well Me and my father just replaced the belt with a spare belt that he had (probarly taken from a cassette/video recorder or something). The belt wasn't even the same thickness, and still it works (at least with Volley ball which is the only disk I have).
Where we just lucky? Will no other games work? ???
I don't understand the timing mechanisms of the FDS, but if one works more should work. And it's possible that some will work while others don't, but then that might be a problem with the timing setting, instead of the belt itself.
I guess you mean the speed that the motor that drives the belt is set to? My father adjusted it slightly and - whoops It worked.
I wasn't totally honest in my earlier post, cause I have one game more, it's SMB2, actually it's Volley Ball that is ON the SMB2 disk. On side B. SMB2 on side A wont start but Volley Ball starts without any problem now. Perhaps the SMB2 on the A side is corrupted. I'm not event sure it works at all, since I haven't tried it in another FDS. Anyway the error message I get when trying to load SMB2 is:
Err. 27 (Block end mark seen but ends prematurely.)
I'm thinking that small games like Volley Ball perhaps loads better cause they are small, and when it comes to games that are bigger (and require more movement of the reading-mechanics) the FDS gets problem?
I'm thinking of getting an official belt, and try it if other games wont work in the future.
What other things is there to do that would make a FDS to work better? Tuning the speed of the motor is one thing, anything else?
I'm no expert, but try adjusting the speed again, just slightly, and see if SMB2j works. It's possible that something may be wrong with SMB2j, and remember that pirate disks can be a pain to get working...I don't know if you're messing with pirates at all.
I think the official belt isn't necessary to change for your FDS. You can find flat belt in cassete radio repair shop. When I tial to replace new belt, I bring my diskdrive to radio spare shop and asked for flat belt diameter to replace on the diskdrive. He tial to replace by change diameter of flat belt and finally I got it. My FDS work great by change these belt. ;)
well, kite seems to have said most things for me. ive used some different belts from different sellers that vary in price from japan and i found that the really cheap that people sold seemed to work properly about half the time. i stopped buying those and would buy a bit more expensive ones that always worked. i've never tried to by belts that weren't specifically sold as disk system belts though so I don't know if you could get something equivalent in some electronics store.
also, from my experience adjusting the speed of the drive is very important for getting it to work. The placement of the gear on the spindle and in what position the reading head will rise completely and drop(not sure if this makes sense to unless you've worked on one before, or maybe that doesnt make sense either way since I know no terminology), and also completely cleaning off the outer edge of the gear where the belt rubs against and sometimes has some melted rubber still stuck to it that may mess it up.
But all in all these things are little bitches sometimes.
what you said makes perfect sense, don't worry.
but yeah these drives are basically the worst thing ever made
??? OK my friend, i have the Err.27 in some of my games ( original & clones), i just replaced the belt on my Famicom Disk. How do i adjust the speed on the disk to see if i can fix my problem. Another thing where can i find a good replacement belt for my TWIN Famicom. Thanks
twin famicom belt is the same as the disk system
Now I have replaced the belt with another belt, that came as replacement, with a friends Disksystems that he bought at Yahoo Japan. And wow! Yeah now we're rocking! All 20 disks I have here works, except for side B of one of the disks.
Halleluljah! Now let's get some cool games for my collection!
I got a Famicom Disk System for Christmas, but whenever I try to play anything, it just hangs at the load screen and makes a buzzing noise. No error message is given. Is this just an issue with the belt, or would this be a sign of another problem?
Does the buzzing noise come from the tv or the disk system? If it comes from the disk system,it probably means the belt is melted and the motor is spinning nowhere. If the system has no belt, the motor can't move the head, which means that the head can't activate some of the switches inside, making the system ''locked''.
Yeah, the buzzing is coming from the FDS. Guess I'll be looking for a new belt then. Is there anywhere around that has them cheap, or should I just be watching Ebay?
I would say just watch ebay. They seem to still have a pretty good supply of belts, but they are kind of growing in price, so I would suggest buying a couple.
So this morning around 5am I won an auction for a FDS Disk Drive Belt. I don't need one seeing as how my disk system was completely new when I bought it about a year ago, but due to the age of the system and the drying up supply of belts I fear that eventually the time will come when I need to replace the belt and be unable to due to being unable to aquire a new belt. So quick few questions:
1. What is the average approximite lifespan of the FDS belt?
2. In the meantime while I wait for the old belt to detererate, where/how should I store the spare belt?
3. Anything else I should know?
Any tips from experienced members of the community?
These belts are so hard to come by that i don't want to mess anything up.
I bought a drivebelt on ebay today....
jfgoods777 listed a few after I sent him a question if he still had them in stock..... not the best deal I guess (22usd with shipping to Sweden).... but worth to have one spare....I ¨recently bought a twin famicom...and I think it´s always good to have a spare belt...
about storage.... I think you should keep it in a cool dry place (as everything else) :P
I guess you could use chalk or something on a dry belt before you change it.... to soften it up.....thats my guess anyway.....
I just bought a FDS and it needs a new belt, does anyone know the length of the belt. And if anyone has any alternative ideas instead of a belt,(maybe some kind of band or something) please share with us because this is starting to be frustrating. thanks alot.
I'd think it's best to track on down one eBay or Yahoo! Japan auctions. Seems no one here has any. I've got five coming, two of which I'm gonna use right away, but it'll be a few weeks.
When I was putting mine in I kept thinking I was going to break it. ::)
That would have sucked. 20 dollars for a rubberband that breaks :(
Um...is jfgoods and his belt replacement guide gone? I'm seeing the domain for sale: http://www.jfgoods.net/disksystem.html
It looks like he still sells on ebay as jfgoods777. Maybe he can point you in the direction of his new domain or share the info with you to post here.
EDIT: His new site (info from ebay seller's page) is here: http://jfgoods.sakura.ne.jp
http://jfgoods.sakura.ne.jp/disksystem.html --thanks!
i know they say a fds belt last 5 years but dose that mean a belt that is off a system has a self life of more than 10 years with out the stress? also would a silicon belt be a good replacement as long as you found on that was the same size i think it last a lot longer :-\
When they give that estimate, they're making some kind of calculation of what they think "average use" is. Really, it's an assumption. The FDS drive is only spinning (and only powered) when the RAM adapter is actively reading or writing to it. How long the belt lasts will depend on what kind of games you play, and how much you use the FDS. If you amuse yourself by going up and down the elevators in Metroid, forcing it to load each time, you'll shorten the belt's life ;) Storage conditions matter too. If it lives in your living room, it's probably fine, but if it's stashed in a basement or attic that will work against the belt.
I swear I remember someone getting the exact dimensions of a belt so they could just go into a store and ask for a belt that size.
I don't know if it was here or Digital Press, but I think you would have a hard time finding a store that makes belts for electronics, what with magnetic media long gone.
Quote from: Tupin on March 17, 2009, 10:11:29 am
but I think you would have a hard time finding a store that makes belts for electronics, what with magnetic media long gone.
Fortunately, where I live that is not correct. My preferred electronics store sells replacement belts of all shapes and sizes, made by an Argentinian company called ElectroGoma.
I guess you could always go to a place that repairs vacuum cleaners and just say it's for a really small vacuum. :D
But... but the FDS doesn't suck! :P
From digitpress: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showpost.php?p=364440&postcount=93 (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showpost.php?p=364440&postcount=93)
Quote...I took some measurements on the belt and it seems that what is needed is a flat (not round or square) belt-sometimes called ribbon instead of flat. I believe it was just shy of 1mm (.040") thick and it was 2mm (.080") wide. it had an inside diameter of 9 1/8 inches. Since it might be a bit streched, it may have originally been 9 inches...can't confirm this until my belt dies and I replace it though, heh heh.
I seem to recall somebody mentioning it was a very strange size and that they'd have to be custom made.
My FDS drives came with a square belt and a 'solder washer' to adapt them to the bigger motor spindle, and they work just fine.
Some of you might find these videos interesting that I found while browsing youtube. It shows you how to make a FDS belt and replace it:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJbWPVS0Suk&feature=related
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjmZM_ZxRhc&feature=related
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKU9-GuUBCg&feature=related
I watched those before, they're pretty cool. However, I did not know where to find that piece of rubber to make new belts. ???
Has the jfgoods disk belt replacement tutorial moved again?
http://jfgoods.sakura.ne.jp/disksystem.html (http://jfgoods.sakura.ne.jp/disksystem.html) doesn't seem to work anymore...
here a good belt:
https://www.risingstuff.com/store/products.php/Famicom-Disk-System-Drive-Belt/cPath,10
I miss Luke videos, i hope he can short things out
Okay, I have a question. How rare is it for vintage disk systems or Twin Famis to have perfect belts? Or are they always melted and messed up?
It probably matters more the environment the disk system was stored in. Humidity & temperature will affect rubber longevity more than the amount of usage.
Okay, cool. The reason I ask is the guy who sold me my Twin Famicom said the disk system wasn't working, but when I took it apart just now the belt was pristine. It wasn't seated correctly though, so that may have been the problem. It was also way too dusty and gross inside to have been replaced.
Oh, and can anyone tell me if the eject button sticking when there isn't a disk in the system is normal behavior? I don't have any disks yet to test with.
The disk system probably needs adjusted to work correctly. Let us know if you need help once you get some disks to test it with.
The yellow eject button should be flush with the casing/faceplate until you insert a disk, at which point it will pop out.
I'm hoping I won't need to adjust it, but that's probably the problem. Thanks.
Let me know if you need help. I can probably talk you through it pretty easily.