exxos blog - random goings on

[Steve]

Does anyone know of any micro-ATX motherboards which have a floppy connector ?

I built a very small PC years ago which never got used. Thinking I could swap the motherboard in that something which has a floppy port and used as a slave machine.

The USB floppy drive arrived earlier does not work with 720K :( No surprise, but ironically the TECH drives datasheet does say it supports 1MB and 2MB modes. So it has to be the controller at fault :( Pretty bonkers that someone would go to the effort of designing a chip not build in 720K support as well.

I have my 890FX motherboard on the way. I can build that up as a slave PC. But considering the power requirements and the physical size of the whole thing..

I've got a couple of Pentium 3 motherboards with CPU spare if you want one. Could just have it for retro purposes. They're fairly low power compared to modern machines. They're not mini though, just regular ATX size. Would run WinXP like a dream.

[exxos]

I've got a couple of Pentium 3 motherboards with CPU spare if you want one. Could just have it for retro purposes. They're fairly low power compared to modern machines. They're not mini though, just regular ATX size. Would run WinXP like a dream.

Will keep it in mind thanks :)

Now I think about it I still have my older dualcore PC in the loft... but I think there may be another solution yet...

[exxos]

Got a couple of external floppy drives which *should* support DD & HD on their way. This should get me running again at least.

Been looking for USB projects and there's a few like this one https://github.com/roybaer/usb_floppy_adapter where the issues tab explains it all really.

I contacted the guy who does flash floppy / greeseweezle about the possibility of adapting to work as a normal floppy drive would. But he doesn't seem to get what I'm talking about. So assume that's a dead end now.

Its pretty sad really that nobody in like 20 years has developed a proper floppy adapter. There's only the China interfaces and they don't support 720k. I suppose trying to track down the project creator would be near impossible.

[sporniket]

I was on holidays when I read about the death of your previous motherboard, so at one point I was idle enough to imagine that one could get a dev board like that one for the infamous CY7C68013A (that ubiquitous chip that powers all those cheap USB logic analyser) and write a firmware to address a good old WD1772. That would not allow making copy of protected disks. Plus it would need some OS driver for user friendly integration in Windows/Linux/OS. Of course I have no time for that.

EDIT : instead of OS driver, allow Hatari to interface with it.

[Cosmic Puppet]

Screenshot 2022-08-28 153418.jpg

https://www.floppydisk.com/drives

Dude. These modules work for DD and HD. I have one and can easily use disks from Atari to PC and vice versa.

I managed to get some in the UK sold on ebay quite cheaply, though they seem scarce at the moment, with a lot being from the US.

Model is MPF82E. You just need a USB cable for them.

[exxos]

Model is MPF82E. You just need a USB cable for them.

Thanks. Yeah that's one of the drives I ordered and a 88E. If they work well, I'll see if I an source a few for my store. I did find a new one but knocking £100 :(

Going to dismantle one and see what custom crap is on the PCB so I can't clone it..

[exxos]

Ahhhh.. I have a USB floppy... and theres a USB port on the back of my NAS drive! Now I can share anything on a 1.44MB floppy across the internet! :twisted: :twisted:

IMG_0173.JPG

[derkom]

Ahhhh.. I have a USB floppy... and theres a USB port on the back of my NAS drive! Now I can share anything on a 1.44MB floppy across the internet!

Presumably the NAS has that port for backup purposes? I think you should start backing up the whole NAS on floppies! :lol: :twisted: :fire:

[Icky]

@exxos, you could copy over your entire floppy disk collection to your NAS. That should keep you busy for a while :hide:

[exxos]

Presumably the NAS has that port for backup purposes? I think you should start backing up the whole NAS on floppies! :lol: :twisted: :fire:

:shrug:

1.JPG

2.JPG

Seeing if I can give guest access to everyone so they can access the floppy. It is read-only, I have the tab set ! :lol: