Everybody knows what USB is. Everything connects to it. Keyboards, mice, printers, digital cameras, network devices (wired or wireless), lights, humping dogs, you name it. However the one thing that has never existed is a 5¼-inch USB floppy drive. Oh sure, you can get the 3½-inch USB version easily, but no 5¼ is to be found; it doesn’t exist. A floppy to USB converter will act as a bridge between your old floppy storage discs and your contemporary computer. You can explore a range of inexpensive floppy to USB adapters on eBay, and learn what they can do for you. What kinds of adapters are there? Youll find USB to floppy adapters. Unitek SATA/IDE to USB 3.0 Adapter, Unitek IDE Hard Drive Adapter for Universal 2.5'/3.5' Inch IDE and SATA External HDD/SSD, Suppo 0 Sold by Tekcom Shop USA.
- 5.25 Floppy To Usb Adapter
- 5.25 Floppy Drive To Usb Adapter
- 3.5 Disk To Usb Converter
- 3.5 Floppy To Usb Conversion
Get rid of floppies. Use Pen drives in place of floppies on your machines!
Replace your legacy Floppy disk drive with our Converter!
Use USB Pen Drive instead of vulnerable . diskettes!
You can store data of up to 100 floppies on one Pen drive!
With the rapid growth and advancement of USB technology, especially USB storage devices, traditional and mind bothering floppy drives are gradually being moved out of usage.Several old machines and devices are still dependent on old floppy drives as the only way of inputting the data for processing. To mention few of these are Robots and Machines used for knitting, laser-cutting devices, weaving, embroidery, musical keyboards, milling, CNC and injection molding are still getting their source by the use of so called vulnerable floppies. Adding to the vow of industrial users in addition to the waste of financial resources a lot of precious time is being wasted in inputting data in the machines.
With the rapid change in USB technology the goods news for users is that:
No more waste of time and precious resources as you will never require floppies ever again. With the use of our emulator you will have a secure and guaranteed long term reliable solution to your problem of transferring data to your industrial machines.
Few of the worries with old Floppy Disks:
- Non availability at IT retail stores.
- Gets damaged by
- when placed in the range of apparatus generating Magnetic effects like Phones, Stabilizers etc
- Dusty places and other adverse climatic conditions
- Gets weared out Mechanically
- Out of 10 out of box 7 gets damaged on 1st use
- Capacity is very low.
Features of our Magic Box :
- Against every one floppy disk drive users need one Simulator. The unit has been designed in such a way that all the connections are same ( data and power ), so no customization needs to be performed while swapping the unit.
- The USB Pen Drive USB when inserted in the USB Floppy Emulator replaces 100 floppies at a time.
- This USB converter and Pen drives are almost resistant rather immune to effects created from magnetic field, dusty environment or shocks.
- A simple software provided at free of cost to format a USB Pen drive into 100 blocks of 1.44/1.2/720 kb capacity each or as per user requirements.
This USB Floppy Converter is a boon for all users working on all devices that currently using old floppy. disk drives to transfer data.
| Ports, buttons and display of the Floppy to USB (Original Colour of the product may differ ) |
This USB as floppy gives a new life to your old machines as it takes over the place of substitutes the old legacy floppy disk drive!
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Types of available Interface for Floppy to usb
1.) 34 Pin Standard FDD Interface - These version of floppy drive to usb are with standard FDD height and are available in 1.44 MB , 720 KB Double Density and 1.2 MB format versions
2.) 26 Pin Ziff Type FDD Interface - These versions of floppy to usb are with Half height or slim version which are available in 1.44 MB and 1.2 MB format versions
3.) USB Port Floppy Emulator - These 1.44 MB versions of usb as floppy are for new generation computers and laptops which do not come with standard 34 pin FDD Interface. These act as a USB Floppy drive for these machines when plugged on the USB port.
Specifications
| Floppy Drive to USB | Details | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface |
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| Compatibility |
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| Diagnostics LEDs | Busy-Green | ||
| Display | Two-digit, 7 segment display to display current virtual . block | ||
| Voltage supply | 5 V DC (ranges 4.5 5.5 V DC) 4pin voltage socket for 3.5' drive | ||
| Casing | Smoke Grey/Black Plastic case | ||
| Frame size | 3.5 inches and Half Height /Slim versions | ||
| Measurements W/H/D | approximately 100 mm - 25 mm -122 mm | ||
| Temperature range | 0 to 65 C | ||
| Relative humidity | 5% to 90% ( non-condensing) | ||
| Scope of supply | Floppy Disk to usb Converter (Connect like a legacy 3.5' . drive) | ||
| Switches on Front Panel | Left- 10-90 , Right- 00-09 | ||
| Price Per Unit | US $55 to $180 ( based on different Model ) |
5.25 Floppy To Usb Adapter
Why should I Convert Floppy to USB?From last so many years the floppy disk and the slow RS232 serial communication was the unique means to transfer data from a computer to system. These days the floppy discs are phasing out and are very hard to find in computers and are rarely seen on any shops. So in different countries like UK & USA vendors are providing replacements of floppy drives. But, what will happen if a very expensive industrial machines is stalled for just because that there is no floppy drive compatible to your machine in the market to replace the defective floppy disk drive. We definitely hope that users will not be with the mind to store hundreds of them to keep the machine running?
Now there is no need to worry, as almost everyone has and alternative which will allows to convert floppy to usb on almost any industrial machine or old computer currently working on floppy drive. The best thing is that there is no need to change or upgrade any software or any wiring circuit so as to upgrade the old machines to use USB as floppy. You only need to swap the floppy to usb by replacing the old floppy drive with this usb as floppy. There are no tedious steps involved in it , and no engineering level experience required to use the floppy to usb. Just disconnect the old floppy drive and change with the new floppy disk to usb and that's all! After swapping the floppy drive with floppy disk to usb your machine will now be able to run for another many more years without any worries of floppy drive and you will be able to use usb as floppy.
How floppy drive to usb works?The floppy to usb gets itself installed on the standard 34 pin or 26 pin Ziff type interface of machine and fools the machines as if it was still connected with a floppy drive. When the machine tries to read or write or try to perform any action of floppy disk drive, it sends a signal to floppy drive to usb which is connected on the FDD channel. Here the magic of floppy drive to usb starts. It reads the USB pen drive connected and then emulates the data to be processed as a floppy drive thereby treating usb as floppy, thereby transferring the data to the machine/device/equipment in the same way that is used by standard floppy drives. In simple words, your equipment will never come to know that the information it was trying to get actually came from a USB flash drive.
5.25 Floppy Drive To Usb Adapter
Embroidery machines like Tajima, Melco, SWF, Lasser , Saurer , Happy , Barudan and Brother can easily be configured to read from USB Flash drives using these easy to install floppy to usb.
3.5 Disk To Usb Converter
Just for the compatibility issues there are 2 different dimensions of floppy disk to usb available with us. One is the standard 34 pin full height interface version of floppy to usb which comes with 3 different format versions i.e 1.44mb , 720 kb double density and 1.2 mb formats. The second type of floppy drive to usb is with 26 pin Ziff type interface with half height slim version which comes is 1.44 , 720 kb double density versions.
3.5 Floppy To Usb Conversion
See : Frequently Asked Questions on USB as Floppy Drive emulatorQuestion. I have installed floppy to usb emulator on my machine and its Green Led on the front panel of usb as floppy drive emulator is permanently on? When I disconnect the data cable the green light in front of the floppy drive to usb emulator goes off ? Answer.The front green led indication on floppy disk to usb converter symbolizes a busy signal. In normal correct scenario the green led should only glow when the floppy to usb emulator installed on the equipment is trying to read or write to the usb flash drive. Most probably this error occurs when the FDD interface cable is reversely plugged into the floppy drive to usb converter. Kindly twist the interface cable in such a way that the green/black/red lined side of data cable points to the other direction. To summarize, if the 34 pin FDD interface cable which is installed on floppy disk to usb emulator will have the green/black/red lined side is towards the power connector side , just reversely plug it so that the green/black/red lined side is pointing away from the power connector of floppy to usb emulator. Question. I have formatted the USB flash drive with your application so that it becomes compatible with floppy to usb converter. But when keeping it plugged in computers usb port , I try to see the other blocks created its states that it is UNFORMATTED. Please suggest Answer. This normally happens when you try to format the USB Flash drive in a computer which is infected with virus. The virus does not allow creating blocks on usb flash drive which also makes usb flash drive non compatible with usb as floppy emulator. We recommend to check for any suspicious files like autorun.inf in the flash drive. You can use cmd command in run option. Then go to the USB flash drive letter by issues command at cmd f: ( we assume that usb flash has been assigned F drive letter ). Then issue command dir /a/s. See for check for any suspicious files like autorun.inf or any other unnecessary files in the flash drive. To reconfirm the correct format operation, after formatting, just unplug and re-plug the usb flash drive in computer's usb port . Check its properties to see if has been successfully formatted as per your needs or format size, or if still it is in full sized format capacity. Like if you have formatted it in 1.44 mb format size , its properties should show 1.38 MB free and Zero bytes used. Once you have checked this you will be able to usb this in floppy to usb emulator. Question. After inserting the usb flash drive in the usb port of floppy disk to usb upgrade kit the 7 segment display in front displays does not change from “0.0.” to “00” , and it does not read . What has happened? How could this be resolve? Answer. When you insert the usb flash as floppy in the usb port of floppy to usb emulator and the 7 segment display does not remove the dots in between the numbers , means the usb flash drive which is being inserted into the floppy drive to usb emulator is not being detected or is not compatible and will not treat usb as floppy. Either the USB flash drive is not compatible with the floppy drive to usb emulator or the flash drive has gone faulty. Please replace the usb flash drive. These issues commonly arise with USB flash drives that are not backward compatible with USB 2.0 technology. Few brands which we do not recommend to be used with floppy to usb converters are Sandisc, Transcend. The recommend media to be used as usb as floppy are Kingston Data Traveller series. Question. I have installed the floppy drive to usb adapter in my CNC machine. The green busy indicator does not come when we try to read or write. How could this be resolved? Answer. Please re-check your cable connections of floppy drive to usb adapter. Try reversing the side of fdd cable at the usb as floppy emulator end. See if the Green light glows continuously. If yes, then the reverse the fdd cable connector again. By doing this reversal at the floppy to usb converter end, we just verified that cable was initially plugged in right direction. In case the problem persists, some jumper settings need to be done at the usb as floppy disk emulator end. At the back of floppy drive to usb emulator, try placing a jumper from S1 to S0 or M0. If still the front green led of usb as floppy emulator does not comes up while accessing, please get back with complete details of machine version and the old floppy drive installed. Question. We have installed the floppy drive to usb adapter, but when we plug in the flash drive the front Led’s start flickering. What could be the issue? Answer. The data cable is plugged in reverse direction at the back of floppy disk to usb emulator. Reverse the direction of cable connections of usb as floppy disk adapter. Question.When we insert a usb flash disk with data in floppy to usb emulator, it shows the contents, but on reading gives error “Disk Not Ready” or “Unable to read” or “Disk unformatted”. How to resolve this error and successfully read usb as floppy? Answer.We would require the complete configuration of your machine, along with the details of old floppy drive which was installed. Few jumper setting, need to be done at floppy to usb emulator end, which could be done once we receive the data required. Question. We bought the floppy to usb adapter for Haas CNC. But on receiving the floppy drive to usb we found that one pin is blocked at cable end so it could not be fit in the floppy emulator. Please suggest? Do we need another version to make usb as floppy disk to solve our purpose? Answer. Actually there are several CNC , EDM , Robotics machines which have those pins blocked. You have 2 solutions to make usb flash as floppy disk, either you can just remove/cut that pin at the floppy to usb adapter end, or if you try to push the cable a little harder while inserting into floppy drive to usb emulator, the blocked pin in FDD interface Cable would get unblocked. By this there will be no damage done to the equipment or the floppy disk to usb emulator as these are all grounding connections which are internally connected together. Question.We are trying to use the software bundled with the floppy disk to usb adapter with windows 7, but it’s not working. Is there any compatibility issue ? Answer. Firstly, this software is generally required in case of version of floppy to usb is 1.44U100 , 720 KB U100 and USB floppy emulator. It is not at all required in case of other usb as floppy emulator. Currently, the software has some issues with Windows-7 when you trying working in multi-block version. However we have a workaround solution for Windows 7 (32-bit). Please mail us for the details of that process. Rest the updated version will be uploaded as it is developed. Question.I have a CNC machine with two floppy drives attached. One acting as a: ( System Boot Disk ) and the other as b: ( data access ). When we try to install two of your floppy to usb , the machine does not recognize both usb as floppy disk, but when we remove either of the floppy drive to usb converters , the a: gets detected. Can we not install both floppy disk to usb at a time on the same fdd cable? Answer. If you are to install two floppy to usb on same fdd channel, you need to manually configure the two usb as floppy disk converters. You will notice a twist in the fdd cable. The floppy to usb which will have jumper on S1 will act as A: and will be plugged on the end of twist. And the floppy drive to usb converter that has to act as b: will be plugged before the twist , but the jumper installed at S0. |