Force Amiga floppy drive to write enabled?

[blakespot]

I have an Amiga 1000 with an internal drive that reads all disks as write protected. It is broken in that fashion.

I have a nice external 1010 that I want as an external 1010. I have a spare 1010 that is full of dust and junk and *?#@**?#@**?#@**?#@*. I don't want to put that in my A1000.

Is there a way to mod the floppy cable to force write enable?

Other ideas? Thanks.







bp

[Matt_H]

Not quite the solution you had in mind, but possibly an easier one:
My guess is that the sensor that detects the write protect status is probably covered in gunk and dust. If you pop the drive open you should be able to access it, right at the mouth of the drive - hit it with some isopropyl alcohol and a q-tip and hopefully it frees up.

[fishy_fiz]

Could also be that the lyttle clip thing that detects if a disk is write protected has broken. My a1200s internal floppy drive has the same problem.

[blakespot]

Isn't it an optical detector? There is a small glass tube in the vicinity of the write protect detect arm. The arm swings fine, so not broken. Have hit with compressed air and a brush, not alcohol tho. Oy.




bp

[fishy_fiz]

Nah, its a physical "switch/button/clip" type thing. When its pushed in it means the disk isnt write protected. When its out it means its going through the hole of the disks write enable/disable thingamy.  (please excuse the tchnical names Im using  .
I learned this the hard/confusing way  

I assume its similar for most floppy drives?

edit: sorry, I misread. Sounds like you've already looked into what I was refering to.

[Jope]

Isn't it an optical detector? There is a small glass tube in the vicinity of the write protect detect arm. The arm swings fine, so not broken. Have hit with compressed air and a brush, not alcohol tho. Oy.

Ah, you have a really ancient drive with a reed tube + magnet working as the detector. First check whether the swinging arm still has the magnet in place, next check that the reed tube starts conducting once you introduce the magnet to its vicinity.