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USB2ISA 5.25 Floppy maybe?

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First post, by davidinark

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I just bought a USB2ISA board that has been discussed on here before by others. Not really understanding what it does, I foolishly thought I could connect it to my Win10 machine, have it detect my isa floppy controller and it would let me run a 5.25 floppy.

Anyone have experience with how this thing actually works? I’m a noob as far as passthrough to dosbox etc, so no idea how that even works.

Would gladly discord/zoom with anyone willing to help figure this thing out. The documentation leaves little to be desired and tech support… well… the dude ignored my questions and answered what I can inoy guess are standard questions they usually get or just answered the wrong email altogether.

Anyway. Any help/guidance is greatly appreciated. And if you need the device hands-on to mess with, we can work out a lending situation maybe.

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Reply 1 of 7, by Solo761

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I don't know about that kind of adapter, but would maybe something like this work?

I use adapters like these to connect 3.5" floppy drives to modern PCs. Also works with GOTEK drives.

At first glance only problem seems to be that it has connector on board and it plugs into floppy drive directly, while older 5.25" drives use edge connector instead IDC connector that 3.5" use, but that could be solved with pin headers like these to connect regular floppy cable to the board.

Unfortunately I don't have any 5.25" drives so can't test if this would work 😕

Reply 2 of 7, by Vynix

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Solo761 wrote on 2023-01-16, 07:48:
I don't know about that kind of adapter, but would maybe something like this work? […]
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I don't know about that kind of adapter, but would maybe something like this work?

I use adapters like these to connect 3.5" floppy drives to modern PCs. Also works with GOTEK drives.

At first glance only problem seems to be that it has connector on board and it plugs into floppy drive directly, while older 5.25" drives use edge connector instead IDC connector that 3.5" use, but that could be solved with pin headers like these to connect regular floppy cable to the board.

Unfortunately I don't have any 5.25" drives so can't test if this would work 😕

That USB-FDD adapter won't work with 5.25 drives, it's "hard-coded" to work with only 1.44M drives, no 720K nor 5.25 1.2M/360K drives.

Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]

Reply 4 of 7, by davidinark

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You can add the dma/irq settings if you know what they are, can figure out how the ars software actually makes it stick, and figure out how to make the whole thing talk to your machine. Lots of hoops I’m trying to jump through. Supposedly, they have a win98 dosbox-x config that will take the i/o, dma, and itq and pass it along, meaning the drive “could” show up as a 5.25” drive. Maybe. If you hold your tongue just right and sacrifice an mfm controller…

Reply 5 of 7, by Horun

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davidinark wrote on 2023-01-18, 02:30:

Supposedly, they have a win98 dosbox-x config that will take the i/o, dma, and itq and pass it along, meaning the drive “could” show up as a 5.25” drive. Maybe. If you hold your tongue just right and sacrifice an mfm controller…

Heheee Thanks ! I needed a good laugh 😁

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 6 of 7, by darry

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davidinark wrote on 2023-01-18, 02:30:

You can add the dma/irq settings if you know what they are, can figure out how the ars software actually makes it stick, and figure out how to make the whole thing talk to your machine. Lots of hoops I’m trying to jump through. Supposedly, they have a win98 dosbox-x config that will take the i/o, dma, and itq and pass it along, meaning the drive “could” show up as a 5.25” drive. Maybe. If you hold your tongue just right and sacrifice an mfm controller…

Until I see a reasonably detailed account of this being done successfully written by someone trustworthy, I strongly feel that an MFM controller won't be enough . A burnt offering of a new-in-box Adlib Gold card might just do it, however . 😉

Reply 7 of 7, by Tetrium

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Vynix wrote on 2023-01-16, 12:25:
Solo761 wrote on 2023-01-16, 07:48:
I don't know about that kind of adapter, but would maybe something like this work? […]
Show full quote

I don't know about that kind of adapter, but would maybe something like this work?

I use adapters like these to connect 3.5" floppy drives to modern PCs. Also works with GOTEK drives.

At first glance only problem seems to be that it has connector on board and it plugs into floppy drive directly, while older 5.25" drives use edge connector instead IDC connector that 3.5" use, but that could be solved with pin headers like these to connect regular floppy cable to the board.

Unfortunately I don't have any 5.25" drives so can't test if this would work 😕

That USB-FDD adapter won't work with 5.25 drives, it's "hard-coded" to work with only 1.44M drives, no 720K nor 5.25 1.2M/360K drives.

One thing I'd want to exist is a USB 2.88MB floppy drive, oh well 😒

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