Found a compatible 3.5" Floppy drive for X68000 CompactXVI (maybe..)!

[caius]

Hi all and merry Xmas!
Surfing on Ebay and looking for a replacement or compatible 3.5" floppy  drive for my X68000 CompactXVI,  I found this :

http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-MD3641-1-44MB-3-5-Laptop-Floppy-Disk-Drive-/350369358847?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item5193a423ff#ht_500wt_949

Compare the picture of the Canon MD3641 on Ebay with the one of the original CompactXVI floppy drive , it seems they share 'at least' the same mechanism...maybe we finally found a compatible 3.5" floppy drive for our X68000 CompactXVI (without soft eject,obviously)!
I'll buy the item and then I'll let you know about.

[NFG]

Wow, that's remarkable.  Good find! 

[papa_november]

Awesome job!

[caius]

Thanks!Surely the mechanism is the same, regarding the PCB probably it's different (X68000 has soft eject) but when I'll get it I'll able to tell more about.
IMHO most models of X68000 used Canon parts for their floppy drive, if I'm not wrong also the X68000 ACE series uses most of a Canon MD5501 floppy drive.

[NFG]

I know the Pro series used TEAC drives; I've never known Canon to be involved in other models.  Certainly though they were used in the Compacts!

[caius]

I know the Pro series used TEAC drives; I've never known Canon to be involved in other models.  Certainly though they were used in the Compacts!

Ask to Eidis, he told me this.Maybe Canon uses Teac parts...

[eidis]

 I've been trying to fix one of my floppy drives with a donor drive and  I can 100% confirm that my ACE HD uses drives which mechanics are compatible with Canon MD-5501 because I ordered one from eBay and successfully managed to replace rotating disk assembly. Everything worked like a charm for 15 minutes and then the replaced assembly died on me. Someday I might try it again.

[caius]

I've been trying to fix one of my floppy drives with a donor drive and  I can 100% confirm that my ACE HD uses drives which mechanics are compatible with Canon MD-5501 because I ordered one from eBay and successfully managed to replace rotating disk assembly. Everything worked like a charm for 15 minutes and then the replaced assembly died on me. Someday I might try it again.

Ok.Obviously floppy PCBs are different, I presume.Also the magnetic heads were the same of Ace HD?

P.S.
I found that Canon MD3641 3.5" floppy drive  is used on Premium Exec 386SX 25 old laptop, like this on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.it/Computer-AST-PREMIUM-EXEC-386SX-25-Model-63V-4-4MB-RAM-/230563289793?pt=Retrocomputer&hash=item35aea49ac1#ht_500wt_949