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Re: FC5025 5.25" USB floppy controller available
Steven Hirsch wrote:
Michael J. Mahon wrote:
Maybe someone will start offering a FD-55, modified to handle
"flippy" disks, in a case with a power supply and the FC5025,
ready to connect to a USB port!
Don't know about the "flippy" diskette mod, but an older (mid-90s)
vintage external CD-ROM case is just perfect for holding and powering
the drive. I cannibalized an Apple CD300i SCSI external unit
yesterday. Unfortunately, this chassis did not have room inside for the
PCB, so I removed the 50-pin "Centronics" style connectors and ran the
34-pin ribbon cable out one of the mounting holes. Used a pair of
Panduit nylon panel anchors and small tie-wraps to hold the board on the
top (if you unclip the little mount brackets, you'll have a pair of
holes at each end at the perfect spacing for this!)
Looks reasonably neat and took about 15-minutes to whip up.
I put my FD-55 and the FC5025 into an external case last night.
It took a little destruction of the "built-in" USB to IDE board,
but now it all works and looks pretty--even with a rear "power"
light. ;-)
external drive has an external power brick, but that's fine
with me.
It was a white plastic case that I picked up at Fry's about a year
ago because it was about $10 after the rebate. It's the same
width and height as a standard 5.25" drive, and about 2" longer.
I cut off the IDE pins on the included adapter board, which also
carries the power and USB-B connectors and the power LED.
That mangling made rom for the FC5025 to fit under that board
after Dremeling off two of its four mounting posts. It's still
quite secure.
Then I used the Dremel to cut the traces to the built-in's USB
connector (except for ground) and wired it to the USB connector
on the FC5025.
It works great, looks untouched, and finally puts that cheapie
enclosure to use. ;-)
Next step--the two-sided index pulse mod... ;-)
-michael
NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."