Opus WP-85 Brother Word Processor

[Gateway-2000]

I have a Brother Word Processor that has a shifty Floppy drive that has lots of trouble with disks. I have seen the drive work once, as it was my dads machine, and by the time I got it the Floppy drive to work one time, and I immediately realized the importance of the data contained on the 20 or so disks. I have since been in a pursuit of trying to save the data for around a year and a half. Fluxengine seems like it could be my solution. How would I go about building one, and using the software to extract and read these files? I already have access to old computer parts such as fdd's and cables. Additionally, If there are not already validated WP-85 properties, I am happy to help test on my word processor.

[davidgiven]

Hello!

I don't know anything about the WP85 (I've been collecting information on the Brother word processors here: https://github.com/davidgiven/brotherdb) but it seems to be a fairly standard CRT 240kB device. These are well supported by FluxEngine.

For information about using FluxEngine with Brother disks, check here: http://cowlark.com/fluxengine/doc/disk-brother.html
For information about building your own, check here: http://cowlark.com/fluxengine/doc/building.html

However, I'm not really updating the FluxEngine hardware any more (the software continues to be worked on) as the PSoC5 development boards are getting harder to find, although I see that they are now in stock at about $20 plus shipping. You might want to try a Greaseweazle instead: https://github.com/keirf/greaseweazle/wiki This is basically a different take on the same hardware and you can get a full device for about $25. The FluxEngine client works seamlessly with them. (They have better hardware than they do, but I have better software.)

However, bear in mind the warning about disk alignment on the Brother disk format page. If your WP85 works then this is easily work-aroundable, but if it doesn't there's a chance you'll have to resort to extreme hardware tinkering to get the data off the disks.

[Gateway-2000]

I will have to resort to that extreme hard ware tinkering you mentioned. I honestly need a new floppy drive for it if I am being honest, but I have no clue where to find a 15 pin floppy drive, or the manual for the wp-85, I will look into the Greaseweazle. Is it straightforward to get the text data from the disk images once they are on a modern computer?

[davidgiven]

Brother 120kB and 240kB drives are deeply weird. They're single-sided with a felt pad instead of one disk head, and they do quarter-step track stepping. You may not want to get rid of it as it turns out they're the same drives as the ones used in Roland synthesisers and there are always desperate synth people wanting replacements.

As for getting the text data... it's ASCII with control codes, but the format hasn't been reverse engineered yet. If you just want the raw text it shouldn't be too hard; load it into a text editor and then delete all the junk.

[Gateway-2000]

you got it, I have been working on this all day, I will tell you how it goes at the end

[Gateway-2000]

I have been working hard on this for 4 days now, and I have had issues getting the command line program to run. I got the software for flux engine on a raspberry pi, but it was too slow to work right, I tried ubuntu and got lots of errors, and I have decided to stick to windows 11 (my laptop). I keep getting permission errors when trying to see the RPM and the fdd never reacts to anything, despite getting power.

[davidgiven]

I'm sorry, I missed your message. Are you still having problems?

[Gateway-2000]

I ended up looking for different solutions, and in the end I was able to use the Flux engine software on the raspberry pi after hitting multiple dead ends in windows. I am relieved to get the text files off of those disks, thanks for you help.