USB Floppy disk adaptor

[Abandoned Trolley]

Has anybody had any experience with any of those USB to floppy drive
adaptors - like this one on eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285647621457


I want to see if I can get a 5 1/4 inch floppy to work.

On the last motherboard I had which supported floppy drives, it was the
same 34 way IDC cable to both sizes of drive, and all I had to do was to
make a change in the BIOS

Since the latest UEFI BIOS things make no reference to floppy drives I
am wondering if this is going to be possible

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Abandoned Trolley
Has anybody had any experience with any of those USB to floppy drive
adaptors - like this one on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285647621457
I want to see if I can get a 5 1/4 inch floppy to work.
On the last motherboard I had which supported floppy drives, it was the
same 34 way IDC cable to both sizes of drive, and all I had to do was to
make a change in the BIOS
Since the latest UEFI BIOS things make no reference to floppy drives I am
wondering if this is going to be possible

I have a cable like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111731869728?chn=ps&_ul=GB&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A17nYzne8URGeuHNrlRixSjg55&norover=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkscid=101&itemid=111731869728&targetid=1647205088800&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045705&poi=&campaignid=19926849521&mkgroupid=147378848803&rlsatarget=pla-1647205088800&abcId=9311021&merchantid=113588350&gad_source=1

A lot cheaper!

[Andy Burns]

Post by Jeff Gaines

Post by Abandoned Trolley
Has anybody had any experience with any of those USB to floppy drive
adaptors - like this one on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285647621457
I want to see if I can get a 5 1/4 inch floppy to work.

I read people saying that type of adapter is only coded to use 1.44 Mb
3.5" drives

You could use a greaseweasel

<https://decromancer.ca/greaseweazle/>

Post by Jeff Gaines

Post by Abandoned Trolley
On the last motherboard I had which supported floppy drives, it was
the same 34 way IDC cable to both sizes of drive, and all I had to do
was to make a change in the BIOS
Since the latest UEFI BIOS things make no reference to floppy drives I
am wondering if this is going to be possible

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111731869728?chn=ps&_ul=GB&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A17nYzne8URGeuHNrlRixSjg55&norover=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkscid=101&itemid=111731869728&targetid=1647205088800&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045705&poi=&campaignid=19926849521&mkgroupid=147378848803&rlsatarget=pla-1647205088800&abcId=9311021&merchantid=113588350&gad_source=1
A lot cheaper!

But that's for hard drives, not floppies

[Abandoned Trolley]

Post by Andy Burns

Post by Abandoned Trolley
I want to see if I can get a 5 1/4 inch floppy to work.

I read people saying that type of adapter is only coded to use 1.44 Mb
3.5" drives
You could use a greaseweasel
<https://decromancer.ca/greaseweazle/>

I have seen them advertised, but for some reason I thought they were
only for use on Amiga // Atari systems

Obviously I need to have another look at them

[Abandoned Trolley]

Post by Jeff Gaines
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111731869728?chn=ps&_ul=GB&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A17nYzne8URGeuHNrlRixSjg55&norover=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkscid=101&itemid=111731869728&targetid=1647205088800&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045705&poi=&campaignid=19926849521&mkgroupid=147378848803&rlsatarget=pla-1647205088800&abcId=9311021&merchantid=113588350&gad_source=1
A lot cheaper!

Does it support floppy disk drives ?

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Abandoned Trolley

Post by Jeff Gaines
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111731869728?chn=ps&_ul=GB&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A17nYzne8URGeuHNrlRixSjg55&norover=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkscid=101&itemid=111731869728&targetid=1647205088800&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045705&poi=&campaignid=19926849521&mkgroupid=147378848803&rlsatarget=pla-1647205088800&abcId=9311021&merchantid=113588350&gad_source=1
A lot cheaper!

Does it support floppy disk drives ?

You'd need to ask the seller, if not he may know of others? I can't
remember the exact connector, was one pin blocked on on of them?

[Abandoned Trolley]

Post by Jeff Gaines

Post by Abandoned Trolley

Post by Jeff Gaines
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111731869728?chn=ps&_ul=GB&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A17nYzne8URGeuHNrlRixSjg55&norover=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkscid=101&itemid=111731869728&targetid=1647205088800&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045705&poi=&campaignid=19926849521&mkgroupid=147378848803&rlsatarget=pla-1647205088800&abcId=9311021&merchantid=113588350&gad_source=1
A lot cheaper!

Does it support floppy disk drives ?

You'd need to ask the seller, if not he may know of others? I can't
remember the exact connector, was one pin blocked on on of them?

I might not bother - as it appears to be a 40 way connector :-\

[Theo]

Post by Abandoned Trolley
Has anybody had any experience with any of those USB to floppy drive
adaptors - like this one on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285647621457

That appears to be this adapter:
https://wiki.foone.org/w/***@1306_USB_floppy_adapter

Seemingly the chip is a knockoff of the NEC/TEAC UF000x (eg UF0001) USB
floppy controller.

Post by Abandoned Trolley
I want to see if I can get a 5 1/4 inch floppy to work.

I would be a bit dubious, since 5.25" drives need more current drive. We
have no idea what the microcontroller on that board can do (they filed off
the part numbers) but I'd be doubtful it does.

From that page above it says it doesn't support 720k discs, so suspect it
won't support 5.25" formats either.

Post by Abandoned Trolley
On the last motherboard I had which supported floppy drives, it was the
same 34 way IDC cable to both sizes of drive, and all I had to do was to
make a change in the BIOS
Since the latest UEFI BIOS things make no reference to floppy drives I
am wondering if this is going to be possible

Do you want to access floppies from an OS, eg to boot DOS off them, or do
you just want to read the data from them (and maybe write them for your BBC
Micro or whatever). A Greaseweazle will be able to read/write arbitrary
disc formats but I don't think it'll pretend to be a USB floppy drive that
an OS can use natively.

The ***@1306 sounds like it shows up to the OS as a USB floppy so it may
be bootable given a driver in BIOS, but that's its only merit really.

Theo

[Abandoned Trolley]

Post by Theo
Do you want to access floppies from an OS, eg to boot DOS off them, or do
you just want to read the data from them (and maybe write them for your BBC
Micro or whatever). A Greaseweazle will be able to read/write arbitrary
disc formats but I don't think it'll pretend to be a USB floppy drive that
an OS can use natively.
be bootable given a driver in BIOS, but that's its only merit really.
Theo

No booting or any clever stuff like that - I just have a stack of 5 inch
floppies which I would like to read (and a physical drive)