I had an idea to use an old 3.5 inch floppy drive as a generator for a propeller clock that I plan to build sometime in the future.


First off is this even possible to use one of these motors as a generator? I saw a hack for a 5.25 inch floppy that does it and the motors at least seem to be similar.


If so, has anyone done this or even pulled the drive motor apart?


I have the drive pretty much stripped bare. I need to disassemble the motor. I removed the 4 screws that hold down the motor control board but I still cannot remove the board.

I suspect I need to first remove the plate that spins the diskette but I do no see how to do this without destroying the motor controller and possibly damaging the motor.

On the bottom of the drive, I can see what looks like the ends of 3 screws but their heads would be under the spinning plate, hence it is why I think I must first remove the spinning plate.

Or are these simply rivets or pins that must be drilled out?

 

My guess is you've got to take the spindle plate off, it was probably pressed on last during assembly.

 

My guess is you've got to take the spindle plate off, it was probably pressed on last during assembly.

I was thinking the same but how to do it without destroying everything is what puzzles me.

 

I was thinking the same but how to do it without destroying everything is what puzzles me.

Prying very carefully at two points opposite each other or devise some sort of puller.

 

There are several LED clocks made with used HDD drive motors, thus I am certain it can be done. If fact the 2.5" drives operate on 5-6V. I'm not sure about using it as a generator to supply power to a device as the RPM's on HDD's can be 5400 - 7200RPM's. The clocks I saw used slits cut in the actual HDD to create the clock arms.

UPDATE:
Sorry, I thought you were talking about a hard drive motor.

 

Update. I got it apart. It was a pin push down through the plate. As I pried it up a bit I could see the head of the pin. I was able to grab it with my nippers.


Yes I planned to use a HDD as the drive. The challenge will be to align everything. Then hope it all holds up under the higher rpms of the HDD.

But at this point I will be happy to just get the floppy driver generating power.