controlling the floppy-disk drive motor - increase the lifespan of certain diskette units

controlling the floppy disk drive motor elektor april 1984 A look at the technical specifications of certain diskette units will show that the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) indicated by the manufacturer is only valid as long as the drive motor only runs for a fraction of the total operating time. The interface published by Elektor has no way of operating the motor for only a short time. The circuit proposed here enables the motor to run only when the floppy disk drive is selected, and it is stopped again about a dozen seconds after the unit is deselected. controlling the floppy disk drive motor increase the lifespan of certain diskette units The floppy disk interface for the Junior Computer published in Elektor 91, November 1982, was a perfectly feasible and affordable disk drive, but it did not allow the drive motor to be stopped, even when the floppy disk was not being ac- cessed. This certainly makes the access time as small as possible, as there is no delay while waiting f...