Has anybody ever heard of this thing?
https://www.redferret.net/floppy-disk-drive-w … emory-tech-boy/
Sounds great for small builds that only have one 3.5" drive bay. Would be even better if the flash cards could be connected via IDE instead of USB.
The floppy part is connected using the 34-pin FDC interface, right?
So, can't use with modern boards...
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Grzyb wrote on 2025-01-24, 14:13:The floppy part is connected using the 34-pin FDC interface, right?
So, can't use with modern boards...
I assume it has pins for floppy drive cable and a USB cable that connects to motherboard header. But not sure.
So it's rather a strange device. Motherboards supported floppy drive until maybe 2010 I think. I think it could be useful for small form factor Windows 98/DOS builds. To make it easy to get data on and off it.
Since the card reader needs some space the floppy drive itself is less then 1/4 height. I doubt they've managed to make it direct drive, although it's not impossible I guess. But my bet is this thing is belt driven, with a very fine belt like what JP laptop drives use. That's next to impossible to service these days, original belts are nonexistent or very expensive and replacements are shit.
That thing might seem great for very light use but once it's dead it's a paperweight. My 2 cents.
I have seen them in black also. More common around the turn of the millennium, and a little after. Sometimes also you just find card media bay ones with a closed in floppy slot and button, no floppy drive installed. So I wonder if it's possible to fit a half height floppy in those.
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Deunan wrote on 2025-01-24, 14:25:Since the card reader needs some space the floppy drive itself is less then 1/4 height. I doubt they've managed to make it direct drive, although it's not impossible I guess. But my bet is this thing is belt driven, with a very fine belt like what JP laptop drives use. That's next to impossible to service these days, original belts are nonexistent or very expensive and replacements are shit.
That thing might seem great for very light use but once it's dead it's a paperweight. My 2 cents.
considering I have one of those right in front of me at the moment, I can easily state after having measured it that the floppy part is likely 15 to 16 mm in height and the rest, 9mm, is for the card reader.
edit: also no belt visible, looks like direct drive to me.
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weedeewee wrote on 2025-01-24, 16:35:considering I have one of those right in front of me at the moment..
Out of curiosity what kind of system do you have it in, or are intending to put it in?
weedeewee wrote on 2025-01-24, 16:35:considering I have one of those right in front of me at the moment, I can easily state after having measured it that the floppy part is likely 15 to 16 mm in height and the rest, 9mm, is for the card reader.
edit: also no belt visible, looks like direct drive to me.
Can you make some photos? Especially if you plan to open it to see the inside.
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-24, 16:40:weedeewee wrote on 2025-01-24, 16:35:considering I have one of those right in front of me at the moment..
Out of curiosity what kind of system do you have it in, or are intending to put it in?
Still pondering about that. It's just laying around for the moment.
Deunan wrote on 2025-01-24, 16:44:weedeewee wrote on 2025-01-24, 16:35:considering I have one of those right in front of me at the moment, I can easily state after having measured it that the floppy part is likely 15 to 16 mm in height and the rest, 9mm, is for the card reader.
edit: also no belt visible, looks like direct drive to me.
Can you make some photos? Especially if you plan to open it to see the inside.
I wasn't planning on opening it.
It looks like an slimline 3"1/2 drive you could find in a laptop or USB fdd but with a normal 34pin connector.
anyway here, this is without having to undo any screws .
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I have one like this in my Amiga 4000. The floppy part is standard 34 pins and is connected as A drive to my A2386 bridgeboard. The card reader part is standard USB2 internal header and is connected to the Deneb USB board of the Amiga. Works fine but could probably benefit from a good clean some day. Thanks to this picture, i see the memory card part can probably be unscrewed to clean the dust inside the drive.
SDHC and SDXC cards won't work in the SD slot. CF type 1 and 2 are fine.
Xanxi wrote on 2025-01-24, 23:45:SDHC and SDXC cards won't work in the SD slot. CF type 1 and 2 are fine.
OK. Thanks for the info. Very useful. So, 2gb max capacity then for SD cards. I guess I could live with it supporting cards of "only" 1388 times the capacity of a floppy disk! 😀
Though that might be a problem if trying to copy across a formerly multi-cd game from GOG
I assume there is probably a limit for CF cards also?
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-25, 06:21:I assume there is probably a limit for CF cards also?
CF is closely related to IDE, so I would expect the same limit as in the pre-LBA48 IDE - 128 GB.
LBA48 needs at least CF 5.0 (2010) - that reader is obviously earlier.
Kiełbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmażysz ją laserem!
I have one of those in black. Mitsumi/Newtronics FA402M. It is installed in a Dell Dimension E520.
I also have a similar unit, YE Data/Scythe YD-8V08, also in black, in another machine.
Is this too much voodoo?
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-25, 06:21:OK. Thanks for the info. Very useful. So, 2gb max capacity then for SD cards. I guess I could live with it supporting cards of […]
Xanxi wrote on 2025-01-24, 23:45:SDHC and SDXC cards won't work in the SD slot. CF type 1 and 2 are fine.
OK. Thanks for the info. Very useful. So, 2gb max capacity then for SD cards. I guess I could live with it supporting cards of "only" 1388 times the capacity of a floppy disk! 😀
Though that might be a problem if trying to copy across a formerly multi-cd game from GOG
I assume there is probably a limit for CF cards also?
Once upon a time, there was supposedly a stretched to 4GB non-SDHC non-SDXC variant of card around, but word was that it didn't even work with a lot of earlier SD implementations so it was a bit of a crock. However, it would be nice to know all the exact details of that in case you can flash firmware to a later card to emulate it.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-24, 14:03:Has anybody ever heard of this thing?
Sure! They were a thing when Shuttle PCs were current.
Just keep in mind that the SD card reader really is an SD card reader (reads SD/TF and MMC).
It likely will not read SD cards beyond 2 GB (there are a few 4GB SD cards).
SD cards and SDHC/SDXC/SDUC cards are not the same.
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RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-24, 14:03:Has anybody ever heard of this thing? […]
Has anybody ever heard of this thing?
https://www.redferret.net/floppy-disk-drive-w … emory-tech-boy/
Sounds great for small builds that only have one 3.5" drive bay. Would be even better if the flash cards could be connected via IDE instead of USB.
ive had a couple of similar ones, one used the standard usb header along side the floppy cable, it would always show all the slots in "my computer" as seperate drives even when there wasnt a card plugged in , which i didnt like.
the other one had a usb mini B which went to single pins which would plug into your onboard header ( i use it with a usb cable like you use for ps3 pads and use it as an external card reader), again all slots would show up as seperate drives even without a card plugged in, which just made things confusing when trying to identify which is which, so i didnt like having it plugged in all the time, i dont think any would actually use just the floppy cable.
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-24, 14:03:Has anybody ever heard of this thing? […]
Has anybody ever heard of this thing?
https://www.redferret.net/floppy-disk-drive-w … emory-tech-boy/
Sounds great for small builds that only have one 3.5" drive bay. Would be even better if the flash cards could be connected via IDE instead of USB.
I have a black one. I haven't used it in ten years or so, it was sitting on my desk I was contemplating tossing it!
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-24, 14:03:Sounds great for small builds that only have one 3.5" drive bay. Would be even better if the flash cards could be connected via IDE instead of USB.
You could probably roll your own if you got a laptop floppy, 34 pin adapter, a cf-ide adapter, and 3d printed bezel.
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-25, 06:21:I assume there is probably a limit for CF cards also?
It has worked before with Hitachi Microdrives up to 6GB but i don't have big CF available to try more than that.
These days it uses a 2GB Sandinsk CF as a fixed drive from the Amiga Mac emulator Shapeshifter.
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-25, 06:21:I assume there is probably a limit for CF cards also?
If it came out after 1997, it’s probably safe to assume that it supports LBA28, so at least 128GB.
If it came out after 2002, it might support LBA48, but even if they did try to include LBA48 support, pata CF’s larger than 128GB were very rare until after 2010, so hard to say how much compatibility testing they could have done.
