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First post, by Durandal

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Hey all, I recently bought one of those Advantech PCM-9375 single-board industrial computers and am trying to figure out how to connect a floppy drive to it. It has a few different connectors on it, but none of them are the standard 2 row 34-pin header for floppy drives.

http://advdownload.advantech.com/productfile/ … _Manual_ed2.pdf

This manual from Advantech's site implies that there's some kind of floppy module or cable that I need, but I can't find a single instance of such a thing online. Does anyone have any experience with one of these?

Thanks,
Durandal

Reply 1 of 7, by imi

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you could probably just get any PC/104 floppy controller
maybe the mentioned floppy module is just that?

can't find any picture of it:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/adv … 580E-ND/5638943

Reply 2 of 7, by Durandal

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imi wrote:
you could probably just get any PC/104 floppy controller maybe the mentioned floppy module is just that? […]
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you could probably just get any PC/104 floppy controller
maybe the mentioned floppy module is just that?

can't find any picture of it:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/adv … 580E-ND/5638943

I found that page too, but I can't tell if that's even what I need because there aren't any photos, datasheets, manuals, etc. for it online. Digikey is out of stock anyway and I can't find it anywhere else other than a shady site that appears to be based in China.

I also emailed Advantech yesterday and haven't received a reply yet.

Reply 4 of 7, by imi

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regular PC/104 is just ISA on a pin header

according to this: https://www.infinite-electronic.sk/datasheet/ … 75FZ2-J0A1E.pdf the part number listed above is most probably what you need.

Reply 5 of 7, by Durandal

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Warlord wrote:

Apparently the PC-104 port is both a floppy header and a printer header, and the module determines what it use.

imi wrote:

regular PC/104 is just ISA on a pin header

according to this: https://www.infinite-electronic.sk/datasheet/ … 75FZ2-J0A1E.pdf the part number listed above is most probably what you need.

So if PC/104 is just ISA with a different connector, another option would be to buy/make an ISA adapter for it and use a floppy controller card, right? I may go down that route if Advantech doesn't reply and I can't get my hands on the floppy module.

EDIT: this looks like it could be an option for my use-case.
https://arstech.com/install/ecom-prodshow/isapc104.html

I'm trying to make a tiny all-in-one portable/luggable PC for convenient and native copying/dumping of 3.5" floppies, since it's something I do often and don't have the space to setup a full PC tower. Inevitably I'll also end up using it for games 😜 I might try to design the case to fit a 5.25" floppy drive too, although that would increase the weight significantly. Maybe I'll mount an external connector or something.

Reply 6 of 7, by Thermalwrong

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It does look like it requires the extra module, but why not try using a USB floppy? It looks like it's new enough to have native support for that, but I guess not as ideal because it's not a direct floppy controller.

Reply 7 of 7, by Durandal

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Thermalwrong wrote:

It does look like it requires the extra module, but why not try using a USB floppy? It looks like it's new enough to have native support for that, but I guess not as ideal because it's not a direct floppy controller.

I've always had bad experiences with USB floppy drives. They never work quite right for whatever reason, I'm sure somebody here knows why. And when it comes to attaching a 5.25" drive via USB I know that this exists:
http://shop.deviceside.com/prod/FC5025
But it doesn't say outright that it would be compatible with a drive capable of writing 360KB disks, it only lists the Teac FD-55GFR as being for sure compatible, which can't write 360KB.