I thought maybe on Yahoo Japan but no luck. Is there any type of band that is sold at radio shack, or can be ordered online, that does the job?
Where can I find Famicom Disc System belts?
I thought maybe on Yahoo Japan but no luck. Is there any type of band that is sold at radio shack, or can be ordered online, that does the job?
In hilarious honesty, I actually use a thick rubber band ^_^;
TWO Warnings about using a rubber band:
1) Make sure to include a twist in the rubber band toward what would be the front of the disk system before you place it onto the golden pulley. This is important if you're using the same kind of rubber band I am (i.e., if it's too wide.) This twist keeps it from slipping off and getting caught in the cogs.
Otherwise, this won't be necessary, but your rubber band might not be heavy enough to withstand disk-system usage if it's small enough not to require a twist.
If this is too hard to follow, I will gladly take apart my FDS and take pictures of what I mean.
And
2) Of course, if you use something other than a nintendo-official-belt, or, indeed, sometimes even if you do use an official one, you'll need to adjust the motor speed. Adjusting this isn't really presented very well anywhere at all, but isn't really hard, so I'll try to explain: pull the cover off; you'll see the battery compartment on top of the power-chip-thing, as well as the disk reader part itself. On the disk reader part, near the back, there is a cylindrical metal part. This is the motor. On mine, it has a yellow sticker, which reads ominously "DC 5V." You will simply need to put a small jeweler's screwdriver down into the hole and twist the "screw thingy" in there a little bit left or right. This "hole" is covered by something flexible and black, but it can be moved out of the way.
The easiest way to find "perfect" calibration is to twist it all the way right, plug it in/reinsert batteries, try it; if it doesn't work, turn it a tiny bit to the left; try again. Repeat until you get that happy Famicom copyright screen.
Make sure that the rubber band/belt is on correctly before you attempt to adjust the motor speed.
Again, if you can't find the motor to adjust the speed, I can post pictures.
Warnings about the warnings: Don't do any work on it with it plugged in/with batteries in. If you get electrocuted, it's not my fault and stuff. Always be careful when working on electrical devices.
Hope that helps. I'll edit this in a minute with a pic of another rubber band like the one I use.
EDIT: Here is the picture of the rubber band type that I happened to use (quite successfully, I might add-- all three of my disks work on both "A" and "B" side. Consistently). I placed it on top of the FDS RAM adapter so that you could see its size in comparison if you wanted to go find one.
Last edited by aclbandit; 08-12-2008 at 11:32 PM.
This is great stuff, I'd really like to see the rubber-band method....Don't quite understand the twist, but it makes sense....More info would be awesome....
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Lol, no problem. I just couldn't find ANYTHING to use, the damn thing didn't work anyway, and NO ONE sells FDS belts anymore. Found a rubber band in my floor that hadn't been vacuumed or lost. No clue where it came from, but I found another just like it soon after. It rescued an FDS from death.Originally Posted by ooXxXoo
Supposedly, though, there *are* belts that are "close enough." Didn't find any, though, so I used my salvage-rubber-band. I'll crack it open one more time and post some pics.
LoL....I can't hardly wait to see that!....
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Not true, from time to time they come up in the jfgoods eBay store. In addition there is an installation walkthrough at the jfgoods.net site. He looks to be out of them right now but again they come back in stock from time to time. My Twin Famicom has a belt I got from him and it was perfect condition NOS from Nintendo's old inventory.
I had heard of this place, but since I hadn't seen any in a while, I was afraid he didn't anymore. Never got one from that place, either, since I got my FDS after the belts were out.
However, the JFGoods website's tutorial is what made all of this possible. Otherwise, I wouldn't have ever figured out what all of this stuff in the disk system did, and wouldn't have even tried to replace the band. VERY good tutorial if you've never done this before.
EDIT: Also, the pics are almost ready.
Last edited by aclbandit; 08-12-2008 at 11:22 PM.
Okay, while I had it all apart, I went ahead and took pics of the motor, just to help clarify my statements.
This is the full innards of the disk system. The "drum" toward the center at the bottom of this picture is the motor I was talking about.
This one is a closer view of the motor, in which you can see the magic yellow "5V OMG" sticker and the little black hole:
Finally, we get to the "rubber band belt of doom" pictures. This will (hopefully?) help clarify what I meant about the "twist." Again, this twist is necessary, at least with this size rubber band, to keep it from slipping off and getting stuck someplace.
First, a wider view, just to show off my salvage-rubber band. You can mostly see the "twist" here.
Finally, this is the closer view of the "golden pulley" (not what it's really called. I don't know what it actually is named. Just go with it.) and a closer view of my rubber-band-twist-madness:
Sorry about the low-quality of the pictures, I only have a cell phone camera to work with. Let me know if you have any questions about how I did this. Hope this helps!
EDIT: Also, once we're finished here, I'll likely post a full tutorial of this in My Blog.
Last edited by aclbandit; 08-12-2008 at 11:34 PM.
The pics are not working. I would like to see what they look like. I plan on buying another disk system here in the next few days on yahoo Japan. I am assuming when it arrives it will be broken. I shoulda kept the one I had.Okay, while I had it all apart, I went ahead and took pics of the motor, just to help clarify my statements.
This is the full innards of the disk system. The "drum" toward the center at the bottom of this picture is the motor I was talking about.
This one is a closer view of the motor, in which you can see the magic yellow "5V OMG" sticker and the little black hole:
Finally, we get to the "rubber band belt of doom" pictures. This will (hopefully?) help clarify what I meant about the "twist." Again, this twist is necessary, at least with this size rubber band, to keep it from slipping off and getting stuck someplace.
First, a wider view, just to show off my salvage-rubber band. You can mostly see the "twist" here.
Finally, this is the closer view of the "golden pulley" (not what it's really called. I don't know what it actually is named. Just go with it.) and a closer view of my rubber-band-twist-madness:
Sorry about the low-quality of the pictures, I only have a cell phone camera to work with. Let me know if you have any questions about how I did this. Hope this helps!
EDIT: Also, once we're finished here, I'll likely post a full tutorial of this in My Blog.
Hey InsaneDavid? Does your twin Famicom have imputs for just RF, or can you use av cables? I have been thinking of getting one of those.
Yep, just noticed that my pictures only show up once. Apparently blogspot won't allow direct usage. Let's see if I can remember my photobucket account... sorry about that, I'll have it fixed up quick as I can.
EDIT: Couldn't remember my photobucket account, but now I've got a new one ^_^;. All images should be fully available now, sorry about the previous FAIL.
Last edited by aclbandit; 08-12-2008 at 11:34 PM.
The Twin Famicom supports standard AV output, same as the AV Famicom and as the original toaster NES - composite video and single channel composite mono. I split the audio cable with a Y splitter into dual mono so it plays out of both speakers on my TV. It is without a doubt one of the finest designs in all of video gaming. I have an AN-505-BK, Black and Green.
There are four models, the AN-500 comes in Black / Red (AN-500B) and Red / Gold (AN-500R), they also have a more domed top. The AN-505 comes in Black / Green (AN-505-BK) and Red / Blue (AN-505-RD), they have a flatter top with better ventilation and turbo switches on each controller.
Both feature the microphone on controller two and support the native Famicom expansion ports. Some good information here. And of course remember the whole thing uses one power adapter. Controller cords are also longer on the AN-505 models.
haha...Lol....Great job!....McGyver style... Seeing these pics was definately worthy....
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*bows*. And what's better, I learned enough about it in the process to be able to fix them in the future. And instead of needing those 20-dollar-belts, I just used a free, lost rubber band.
That is pretty farking amazing.
But I assume you realize that rubber bands do not have the same type of half-life as a genuine drive belt.
Rubber bands are often dry to begin with and only become more dry and brittle over time, whereas a genuine drive-belt has a type of "oil/moisture" base/treatment to prevent it from drying out and cracking (unfortunately in the case of Fami belts, it doesn't prevent it from melting).
And while it shouldn't be rocket science or brain surgery to replace a rubber band with ANOTHER rubber band, it'll probably be a task you'll need to undertake every 2 years or so.
Again, I'm sure you realize this already, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
Of course. I just couldn't find a drive belt, period. So I improvised
Yes, I'll have to replace it faster, probably.However, I won't complain as long as it's working. And you can't beat free for a belt price
Yes, rubber bands usually don't last very long and have the tendency to break, but hey, at least it should keep you going until finding an actual belt....
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Yes, I totally agree on all counts, and as a Fami Disk owner who has succesfully replaced a genuine Nintendo belt, I do think it's pretty damned amazing!
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
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