weedeewee wrote on 2021-08-23, 15:39:

FYI, if the cable has 5 connectors, 3 34 pin IDC 2 34 pad slot connectors, with one pin connector on one end, and the other four on the other end, where two, one pin, one slot connector are seperated via a twist in the cable from the other two connectors.
The cable is only for two floppy drives.

Awe my dream of having a floppy orchestra is shattered! It makes sense though..

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-08-23, 16:14:

snufkin wrote on 2021-05-28, 21:32:

Joakim wrote on 2021-05-28, 21:15:

Hmm interesting idea. I happen to have an old lightbulb, but my wiring is 50 Hz, and this drive is 360 rpm I believe. (If it matters at all.)

I think incandescent light bulbs are too steady to have much of a strobe effect (the filament doesn't change temperature fast enough). I think some CFL have faster flicker rates than the mains. So it might only work with old fluorescent tubes. I think I was expecting this drive to spin at 300rpm, sheet 10/16 talks about the timing diagram showing a 16 sector 300rpm disk. Also wikipedia lists quad density 5.25" as 300rpm.

Still, find out when it spins.

Cheap LEDs have a bit of flicker, I think they use one string for the pos cycle and another string for the neg cycle though so are 120Hz (In North America, that would be 100 in Europe I guess.)

Naw. Us Swedes have ca 50 Hz.. the railway is 16.7hz though... Nope it does not make sense!

The LEDs flicker at twice line frequency is what I'm saying because there's a different string of them on in each half cycle.

Hmm ok. I did not know that. I have mostly IKEA bulbs so they are prolly not stable..

Progress! I tried to connect the drive outdoors. Had my daughter filming so it went and it just started spinning waiting for its commands. But the toddler woke up so I have to continue later...

depends on the phosphor used on the LED package too, the "warmer" type have a longer persistence phosphor, the bluer type might not use a phosphor or have a shorter persistence one.

So ok I managed to get this thing working with all the help I got here. It is now recognized by windows 98. In bios I tried the 3.5" 720kb setting but when I try to format a disk it just sais invalid media or track 0 bad. It might be the disks I'm using cause they are not marked DD.

With my layman's eyes I also think the rpm is a bit uneven.

But at least it tries so the connection seems to work..

I dunno if an oldskool util like this would be any help that supports different format sizes...
http://cd.textfiles.com/microhaus/mhblackbox2 … RUC/MAXI201.ZIP

RPM uneven with something with a belt probably means it's got a shiny spot or a stiffer bit and a softer bit. Possibly if it's wear shine, then turning the belt inside out might help. Or rubbing it lightly on sandpaper.

So I attempted to measure this using my high speed phone camera. I get the rpm to 457.. this is when the drive is just sitting here and spinning idle..

It is quite stable though.

Joakim wrote on 2021-08-23, 16:54:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-08-23, 15:39:

FYI, if the cable has 5 connectors, 3 34 pin IDC 2 34 pad slot connectors, with one pin connector on one end, and the other four on the other end, where two, one pin, one slot connector are seperated via a twist in the cable from the other two connectors.
The cable is only for two floppy drives.

Awe my dream of having a floppy orchestra is shattered! It makes sense though..

IMG_20210823_185253.jpg

FYI, sometimes there would be a slot connector next to the pin connector that goes on the controller/mainboard, because old controllers could have a slot instead of pins, so that would get you six connectors in total on the cable.
😀