I'm following along with the Apple Service Level 1 Technical Procedures manual that describes how to test a Disk II analog board. However, when I get to step C, Azimuth Test — see images below — I'm stuck because it requires the Alignment Diskette (Apple part number 090-0004).
- Does anyone know where to get such a disk? Given that there isn't an image of it on archive.org, it appears unobtainable.
- Is this something that I'd need to create on a non-Apple computer? I wouldn't think so, but then I don't know the intricacies of testing the azimuth.
- Is anyone able to tell from the oscilloscope patterns what data Apple had written to the disk? It appears to be extremely repetitive and identical on every track.
Thank in advance for any help or ideas you might have!
____
By the way, for anyone who is looking for the main testing disk used in the service manual, Disk Alignment Aid diskette (P/N 652-0199) is available at Archive.org.
You can't be sure that this will work as expected.
If such image will be used, for example, on an already misaligned Floppy Drive to create such a test disk, the floppy can't be used to align other drives.
If you try to do so, all drive alignments will have the same misalignment as the floppy drive you used to create "your" testfloppy.
You need to use a fully and correct aligned floppy drive... which is something you want be able to do so with home equipment.
From my perspective, the image from archive.org is more or less useless as far as you didn't know that you have a correct aligned and working floppy drive.
Don't bother with the alignment procedure.
You need original alignment diskettes which cost a fortune and are basically unicorns.
Instead use the excellent field-alignment technique thats part of APTEST. It's the only alignment procedure that actually works without the use of alignment diskettes.
All you need are a few known-good disks, preferrably commercially produced ones that were compied using calibrated machines.
Anyway, if you're having aligment issues, APTEST will help a lot. It can also make perfectly good drives totally useless if you screw it up, so be careful and read the included (inside the software) instructions carefully.
Do you where we could find APTEST or if it goes by any other names? I found the APTEST manual http://www.callapple.org/Members/soft/apple2/inhouse/ApTest.pdf but haven't found the disk yet. This might give me the chance to try to win the lotto with adjustments and get this reading my disks again.
APTEST link https://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ground.icaen.uiowa.edu/Collections/Buggie/