Can I install a USB Reader on....

QUESTION: Can the 3 1/2 drive to USB drive be installed on a BIESSE ROVER 323 CNC machine?

The floppy drives TO BE replaced so far are as follows :

Mitsubishi Electric
MF355F – 252MG
S/N MO34420

TEAC FD-235HF C929 – U5
P/N 193077C9 – 29
S/N BS76674


ANSWER: Yes, some pins have to be added to make it work. These are the optional pins:

A. Recent IBM drives (past 20 years): No options. Only one standard remains for PCs.

B. Non-american drive options:

- Is the disk drive ID set as Drive 0, 1, 2, 3?
- Is pin 2 a high density disk control pin (controlled by machine, he will try low density then high density manually and see what outputs proper data on the read line)
- Is pin 2 or pin 4 a high density output sensor? (disk drive optosensor tells you whether the tab is missing on the floppy drive)
- Is pin 2 disabled (high density is autodetected and the floppy drive always puts out proper data)
- Is pin 2 or pin 34 the disk change (notification that disk has been ejected and another placed into it)
- Is pin 34 ready or disk change
- (rarer) Is drive at 300rpm or 360rpm
- (rarer) Is drive have 2.0/1.0 capacity (high or double density) or 2.0/1.6/1.0 capacity (high or double or in-between??)



Following is my documentation for the drives you asked for:

My documentation for the Teac FD-235 (standard settings may be changed by jumpers)
1. DRIVE 1
2. Pin 2 not connected (high density automatic)
3. Disk change on 34

My documentation for the Mitsubishi MF355-F
1. DRIVE 1
2. Pin 2 not connected (high density auto)
3. Pin 34 is Disk Change

Looks very STANDARD, for a non-american drive. In this case, the same dipswitch settings may work for both. My documentation says the *Tajima/Barudan/Happy* model that we had should work immediately. The SFDR-1-A, I believe.

USB Reader Question...

QUESTION: I have a Roland MC-50 MIDI Sequencer. Would this unit work so I could replace the floppy drive?



ANSWER: The conditions of whether the USB floppy will work out for your machine are:

1) The system must be using DOS and FAT or FAT16. If MS-DOS or Windows can read the floppy, it is likely to work.

2) We must have the model number of the floppy drive so we can match it to one of our models.

Technical Questions and Answers

QUESTION: I have a number of slim floppy drives on site which I would like to upgrade to your product using USB. The drives I have installed are a slim TEAC model FD-05HF. I have a couple of questions, what are the rear connections on this unit? Are they directly compatible? Is this unit identical in size?

ANSWER: As we mentioned before that the big issue with the FD-05HF is the FFC/FPC type ribbon cable on the back, that it may be placed backwards in the socket incorrectly. The machine may also require a reversed type of FFC ribbon cable, where the silver fingers on the ends are on the bottom of the ribbon instead of on the top (or vice versa).

Basically pin 1 on the motherboard has to correspond to pin 1 on the USB replacement, AND the sockets have to actually contact the ribbons as they may expect the silver fingers on the other side. Sockets may be purchased to do either way, touch the silver fingers on one side, or the other side.

Otherwise its the same size and shape and everything.