Funny thing is, some of the usb floppy controllers like what's present on that small PCB have various pins you can tie high or low to specify what kind of floppy drive it controls.

INCLUDING 5¼" DRIVES

IS that why some or all of the USB one can't read 720 disks? if yes would it be possible to solder some wire and install a switch?

My USB floppy works with 720K disks
The only problem with it is often I get a "code 38" in device manager and have to reboot to make it work again. VERY annoying

cdoublejj wrote:

IS that why some or all of the USB one can't read 720 disks? if yes would it be possible to solder some wire and install a switch?

No idea honestly, I meant the drive itself, not the disk. A 1.44MB drive should read 720k disks no problem. Obviously, an old 720k drive wouldn't be able to read 1.44M disks.

Hi, I have the same problem - missing FDC on new mobo.
I googled a lot but found only external USB floppies, internal floppy/card reader combos but not a simple adapter with 34-pin FD on one side and USB on second side. I wonder there's no such cheap crap on ebay like cheap IDE to SATA adapters or why there's no some hackers project using some MCU with USB peripheral to do the conversion (guys on C64 scene do a lot of such stuff). Seems that many people still needs it. The only adapter I found is this overpriced crap
http://shop.deviceside.com/prod/FC5025
but that works read-only!
I prefer an adapter over external floppy because I want to have built FDD in my case and I want to be able to easy replace it if drive mechanics will fail. I have a bunch of old FDDs... Unfortunately external floppies seems to use some slim drives with non-standard connectors so the circuit board with USB controller cannot be easily reused with a standard floppy. Anybody has an idea how looks the controller in such external drive?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-3-5-USB-Exte … CsAAOSwcu5USF0G
If it can be detached and reused (with some wiring)? Or something else?

Such a thing exists. I bought one here: link. Unfortunatelly it seems this seller doesn't have it anymore.

zyga64 wrote:

Such a thing exists. I bought one here: link. Unfortunatelly it seems this seller doesn't have it anymore.

Yeah, nice, this is it! Maybe if there would be more requests from users the seller would ask manufacturer making a new batch...

RayeR wrote:

zyga64 wrote:

Such a thing exists. I bought one here: link. Unfortunatelly it seems this seller doesn't have it anymore.

Yeah, nice, this is it! Maybe if there would be more requests from users the seller would ask manufacturer making a new batch...

That kind of seller rarely manufactures anything. They are usually just distributors.

PCBONEZ wrote:

That kind of seller rarely manufactures anything. They are usually just distributors.

If it were the case though that this was the sole distributor (which seems to be the case here), it wouldn't be the first time.
For example, not too long ago I was looking for a Wireless N MiniPCI (not PCIe) card, and there was a single seller of it on eBay with thousands of sales for that one item. I contacted him and he told me his distributor is out of stock. I did a bit of digging, and of the sellers that I did find still selling it, they were all used items and they had a very limited quantity.

The manufacturer did one batch of a few thousand, and then ceased production of it completely.

mockingbird wrote:

If it were the case though that this was the sole distributor (which seems to be the case here), it wouldn't be the first time. […]
Show full quote

PCBONEZ wrote:

That kind of seller rarely manufactures anything. They are usually just distributors.

If it were the case though that this was the sole distributor (which seems to be the case here), it wouldn't be the first time.
For example, not too long ago I was looking for a Wireless N MiniPCI (not PCIe) card, and there was a single seller of it on eBay with thousands of sales for that one item. I contacted him and he told me his distributor is out of stock. I did a bit of digging, and of the sellers that I did find still selling it, they were all used items and they had a very limited quantity.

The manufacturer did one batch of a few thousand, and then ceased production of it completely.

Certainly that happens too.
More often such sellers are just distributors.
If you ask them a basic question like "what chip does your device use" they generally don't have any idea.
.

Yes I know he probably isn't a manufacturer but when he will receive more requests (I ask him on ebay) he could contact the manufacturer and tell him that there are people wanting the item so let's make another batch or he can look for some remain pieces in manufacturers stock if any...

I'd be interested if zyga64 could tell us what controller is on the board. If we have a luck that it is a generic MCU (and it would be possible to dump the FW from it) or specific circuit that can be bought on Aliexpress then it wouldn't be hard to design my own PCB or copy the existing PCB from photos. I'm an EE and designing PCBs is part of my job. I can make a small batch of PCBs e.g. in Itead Studio prototyping company for a few $.

I just got a message from ebay seller i889900:
Hello,
There will be another lot soon.
Thank you.
Regards,
William

RayeR wrote:

I'd be interested if zyga64 could tell us what controller is on the board.

Unfortunately there is no description on the chip 🙁

Maybe it's common chip but sometimes chinese intentionaly sand off the marking...

Got a message from the seller. The item is back in stock:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231804517259

Me too, thinking about it. Did someone tried if it can read also DD formats or 1,5-1,7MB high capacity formats? And if a 5,25" FDD would work too?