Interesting. I do have one external USB floppt drive but I've gone 100% GOTEK floppy emulator for quite some time. They are just 100% reliable.

I see that the adapter powers the floppy drive from the USB port and that might lead to problems. Have you tried running the drive off of a separate PSU?

That's a good idea, I think. Maybe an USB hub with its own PSU could do that job, too.

Btw, weren't there differences between old and new 3 1/2 floppy drives ?
I somewere read the newer ones use 3.3v (because they use SMD parts and tiny motors), whereas the older ones use the 5v.

Jo22 wrote:

That's a good idea, I think. Maybe an USB hub with its own PSU could do that job, too.

Btw, weren't there differences between old and new 3 1/2 floppy drives ?
I somewere read the newer ones use 3.3v (because they use SMD parts and tiny motors), whereas the older ones use the 5v.

Well if the newer one uses 3.3v they will convert internally from 5v rail of the psu
But about the usb hub, as long as the hub have more current capacity this should work if the issue is related with low current provided by the standard usb.
As PhilsComputerLab mentioned its way better to adopt the gotek floppy emulator, its extremely reliable(as long as you use one reliable flash drive)

Yes, after further testing, I think USB 5v is the problem, as mentioned by 133MHz and Jo22 earlier. Will continue testing and report.

.legaCy wrote:

As PhilsComputerLab mentioned its way better to adopt the gotek floppy emulator, its extremely reliable(as long as you use one reliable flash drive)

The Gotek allows using a USB key on an old system. I'm doing the opposite. I want to use an old floppy drive... on a new system.

Could you identify the IC present on that board? With some luck, a few tweaks and possibly a better 5V (and 12V) supply it might be useable for 5¼" floppy drives too.

Maeslin wrote:

Could you identify the IC present on that board? With some luck, a few tweaks and possibly a better 5V (and 12V) supply it might be useable for 5¼" floppy drives too.

That exactly why I bought this. Goal is to have an external 5 1/4 drive that connect to modern computers via USB.
Will get a picture of the IC tonight.

Back in the mid to late 90s, when USB floppy drives were beginning to show up, someone did make an IC that could be configured for the most common variants of floppy drives (5¼DD, 5¼QD, 5¼HD, 3½DSDD, 3½HD, maybe even 3½ED) through nothing more than a jumper setting. Unfortunately this is long discontinued and the manufacturer no longer exists. 🙁

Still, any idea who the company was and/or what the product was called?

The IC on my unit is unidentifiable to me... no written text on it. Any ideas on what I could do to identify it?

It might not be much but looking up the reported Vendor ID / Device ID could lead to somewhere.

133MHz wrote:

It might not be much but looking up the reported Vendor ID / Device ID could lead to somewhere.

reported as a "TEAC USB UF000x USB Device" on location "TEAC USB Floppy"
Hardware ID is "USBSTOR\SFloppyTEAC___USB_UF000x____0.00"

not much else is said when looking at the device details.

I've got a real Teac USB drive, and it works fine but has the same limits as other USB drives (=only 80x2x9 or 80x2x18 floppies).

Keep in mind that I've seen chinese (=chinese unbranded, I know almost everything is made there) USB drives that "clone" the USB IDs of branded drives. I know of a local shop that gets those drives from some chinese suppliers, and I've seen fake Sony and Teac drives from them.

So, although using that IDs will make the drivers work, your USB chip probably is not anything remotely related to Teac.

Beegle wrote:

Hey people. Bought this thing recently : http://www.ebay.ca/itm/34pin-floppy-connector … n-/231804517259 […]
Show full quote

Hey people.
Bought this thing recently : http://www.ebay.ca/itm/34pin-floppy-connector … n-/231804517259

It connects a regular 1.44 floppy drive to your computer via USB, and manages to have the drive recognized in Windows, etc.
However I'm finding this thing VERY unreliable, and I'm wondering if anyone else bought and used it apart from me? The performance changes depending on the USB port I plug it in, etc.

Why I bought it? Because old floppy drives are sometimes more sensitive to old floppies, than newer "natively" USB drives in my experience.

Any input would be appreciated

Holy crap I wish I had known about this sooner! I have been searching for something like this for weeks. I ordered an HP Multibay II 5.25 adapter to use the laptop superdisk drive (because it's black) but it only works in the HP computers it was designed for (of which I have one, so it wasn't a total waste). I REALLY want an internal floppy drive on a modern computer in black, and now I can do it! 😎

Zup wrote:

although using that IDs will make the drivers work, your USB chip probably is not anything remotely related to Teac.

Yes, quite possibly!

Maeslin wrote:

Back in the mid to late 90s, when USB floppy drives were beginning to show up, someone did make an IC that could be configured for the most common variants of floppy drives

Any idea what its name was?

I'm also wondering if using this adapter to work with a 5.25 floppy drive would work.
There are two things :
1. The ribbon cable ending should be a slot instead of the current 34 pins female
2. The electricity should be provided by a molex 12v instead of a 5v, and the current transformed appropriately.

I know it's possible to step up current from 5V to 12V.

If I trust this item's description....
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/mini-5W-USB-to-12V-DC- … TMAAOSwu1VW6LOy
having a 5v to 12v converter would give me around 370mA of power on 12v

Looking at one of my old 5.25 drives, one of them has written on it "12V 0.23A" so if I'm not mistaken, that translates to 230mA and would fit within the scope of the adapter.

Any thoughts?

dont. you should use a separate power supply. Just use a standard 12v wall-wart and a 5v regulator circuit. they make nice regulated switch-mode 12v power supplies, and getting 5v from that is electronics 101. Then you could use as much power as you cared to.

luckybob wrote:

dont. you should use a separate power supply.

I know it's not optimal to step up current in general, but I really like incorporated solutions like a usb-only 1.44 floppy disk drive or a usb-only portable HDD.

Any reason specific to this experiment that you advise me to not try to step up current?

USB just isn't designed to power devices (version 3 changes this to a degree) Just looking at these basic converters on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271843152682

They claim 5v@1A (twice what usb is rated for) converted to 12v@370ma. With the magic of math: it CLAIMS ~88% efficiency. In keeping with the 500ma@ 5v (2.5W) you could only draw ~160ma @ 12v. That's powering NOTHING else. I'm willing to bet the older floppy drives have a HORRIBLE in-rush current when they spin-up.

Now when you drop in a 12v wall-wart, all these limitations go out the door. You can easily make a 12v>5v converter that can handle the logic and drivers, and keep the 12v at 12v.

I could go on, but it is so much more feasible to just have an external device that is self-powered in this case.

Why using a power converter when you can built your own psu ?
A good ol' 7805CV and 7812CV should be sufficient for that task.
They have a thermal overload protection and are quite durable.
Just wire them up to some adequate transformer and you're ready to go.

Why? because you can buy a 12v regulated switchmode supply for like $5US shipped. Add on another few dollars for a pre-made 12v > 5v converter

like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181965335682
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201566546103

Yes, I understand making your own from scratch is admirable. But it is just a power supply, stop making things more complex than it needs to be. I've seen $5000 test equipment torn down, and OFTEN they use a power supply in the 12-20v range to supply several other smaller 3.3v and 5v converters. Have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtcyjByI24U