Marty:Floppy Drive Repair

FDD Repair

Marty uses a brittle and trash FDD called Matsushita EME-215 or EME-216. It is also used coincidentally by more expensive MSX computers such as MSX-A1GT. It is a 26 pin FFC bezel-less drive.

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  Marty FDD with melted belt

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  Clean the Belt residue off the motor and everywhere else first

Over time the drive belt has melted and needs to be replaced. When replacing the drive belt note to remove the remnants of the old belt from the pulleys on the drive.

It's also recommended to clean the 26 Pin FFC Connector on both sides.

However, one issue plaguing this drive is the drive IC is commonly burned out. Even after cleaning the floppy drive heads along with changing the belt, it will only read and not have write capability.

Belt replacement

Console5 has a belt replacement available for the FM Towns Marty FDD.

• https://console5.com/store/msx-floppy-drive-belt-3-5.html

FDD Replacement

So you decided to replace the garbage drive with a more reliable drive. Luckily some PC drives can be modified to work in Japanese Retro Computers and this includes Marty.

First, you need a 3-Mode bezel-less floppy drive. Commonly the SFD-312B can be modified for 3-Mode operation. If you follow the service manual for common PC floppy drives you should be able to modify a jumper to change the RDY signal and also reroute another signal. You will still need to make a custom cable so the 34 pin floppy drive can interface with the 26 pin FFC from Marty.

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  One variant of the SFD-312B Modified for 3-Mode Operation

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  Marty FDD Pinout