Industrial Solutions

Guest Post from a satisfied customer of Southern Germany:
(Translated, original post in german language >>)

Floppy Disk Drive retrofitting: USB Floppy Emulator for KETRON SD 5 In older keyboards – e.g. in my KETRON SD 5, the input device is a floppy drive und the internal RAM memory is supplied with information by a floppy disk. I would never replace my KETRON SD 5 with a modern keyboard however; the reason is the good quality.

With the IPCAS USB floppy emulator for USB pen drives, the known disadvantages …

• Sensitive to mechanical wear and tear
• Problems with dust, oil and other adverse environmental conditions
• Malfunction due to permanent mechanical load
• Low memory capacity

… of conventional floppy disks, which anyway are hardly to buy, can be totally attributed to the past.

Most salient features:

• The old floppy disk drive is replaced 1:1. The connections are identical, so no further changes have to be made.
• The USB Stick at the USB Floppy Emulator replaces the old diskette entirely. USB memory components have long life spans and high capacities.
• The new USB floppy drives and USB memory components are practically immune to impacts from magnetic fields, dust or shock.
• The contents on 100 floppies can easily be placed on one single USB Stick. That saves a lot of time and costs!

To replace the equipment I’m proceeds as follows:

1. Opening the keyboard (screws located on the bottom)
2. Slide back the panel of the keyboard
3. Removal of the floppy disk drive (FDD)
4. Detach of the data cable from the floppy drive controller
5. Inserting a floppy controller computer cable to the floppy connector
6. Connect this cable and the power supply cable (4-pin.) to the emulator.

Now the keyboard will switch on and the floppy drive (with inserted USB flash drive) are energize and the keyboard reports: not formatted.
After that, the format command must be executed according to the display information.
Then the emulator should set to 01 (with the Up button). The UP switching and formatting and will resist until 99.

If the formatting performs, you play the songs on the respective place (00-99), then – start playing – as usual.
When the formatting is completed, copy the songs on the respective place (00-99). Afterwards, as usual, start the playback.

More information on the ipcas UBS Floppy Emulator solutions >>

The ipcas FloppyEmulator V3 supports nearly all disk formats. Also special Formats like CP/M, DEC Rainbow, extended DOS or Stäubli JC3/4/5 are supported.
The parameterization and configuration is complete without jumper.

More information about the FloppyEmulator V3 >>

The "USB Disk Format Tool" is a small console application to format a USB flash drive for use with the Floppyemulator.

The USB Disk Format Tool is now available for download in the support area and on the product page.

Supported operating systems: Windows 2000/XP (x86)

Using the USB Disk Format Tool and the USB Disk Index Selector together (for example in a batch script), a variety of actions can be automated.

• automated formatting
• automated switching
• automated selection

Note:
Of course, the USB Floppy-Emulator works completely operating system independent when using only one disk image per USB flash drive.

If you are only looking for a comfortable USB-Flash-Drive disk images format tool, you can use the "USB floppy format tool for Windows" (also available in the support area).

The USB Disk Index Selector tool is a small console application for the USB-Floppyemulator. Simple activities such as switching between virtual disks can be automated.

The driver UFBFfilte.sys can be installed and de-installed with the console application USBSelector.exe, without additional and extensive software. This tool allows you to switch through the index and select/set a floppy disk image for use.

The example script “test.bat” shows how to automatically switch through 10 disk indexes on a USB Device “H” and create a file on each disk.

test.bat:

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@echo off
setlocal
 
set basePath=%~p0
set usbApp="%basePath%\USBSelector.exe"
set drive=H:
 
:doInstall
@echo.
@echo *** Install driver for %drive% ***
@echo.
%usbApp% -d%drive% -i
 
:doTest
@echo.
@echo *** Create a test file on index 0-9 ***
@echo.
for %%i IN (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) DO (
	@rem @echo Select index %%i, write file %drive%\00%%i.txt ...
	%usbApp% -d%drive% -n%%i
	@rem @echo errorlevel=%errorlevel%
	if not %errorlevel% NEQ 0 @echo 00%%i > %drive%\00%%i.txt
 
	rem use the ping command to wait for a little while ...
	ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 >nul
)
 
:do UnInstall
@echo.
@echo *** uninstall driver ***
@echo.
%usbApp% -d%drive% -u
 
:end
endlocal

Please note:
After switching a little break must be made before switching again.
The number of actual disk indices is not checked.

Supported operating systems: Windows 2000/XP (x86)

Note:
Of course, the USB Floppy-Emulator works completely operating system independent when using only one disk image per pen drive.

The USB Disk Index Selector Tool is now available in the support area and on the product page.

Comparison of the ipcas floppy emulator with 3.5 inch and 5 1/4 inch floppy drives.

Demonstration of the Floppy Emulator: A USB Pen Drive in use as floppy disk or up to 100 floppy disks in one USB Pen Drive.

Where’s the replacement?

On Saturday (April 24) the Japanese Newspaper Mainichi Daily News reported that Sony would stop its production of 3.5 inch diskettes (Floppy Disks) by the end of its current business year in March, 2011. The report spread like a wildfire in the media and particularly throughout the web. (Refer to reports in the portals of cnet and BBC.)

Sony released its first 3.5″ floppy disk in 1981 (in those days with only 720 KB memory space). The gradual decline of the 30-year old data carrier had already begun several years ago. The respective disk drives have practically disappeared from current PCs.

But what is going to happen to all the old machines, systems, measurement devices, electronic musical instruments and similar devices? This haunting question is recently being heatedly discussed in a lot of forums and blogs.

Diskettes are still being used as the main removable memory carriers, especially in the industrial production sectors, but also in many smaller facilities such as robot controls and lab instruments. In many cases this is not even due to aging machines, but actually because manufacturers want to keep their systems supplied with the proven, stable, and compatible disk drives.

We are offering a most practical and cost-effective way out of this dilemma – the ipcas Floppy Emulator! It provides you with a brilliant alternative if you want to keep your old systems up to date.

All you have to do is replace the legacy disk drive in your system with the ipcas Floppy Emulator and you can then simply use an USB pen drive to replace your old floppies.

What experiences have you made in recent years with floppies and old disk drives? Just tell us where you are still using floppies or cannot do without the old floppy disk drives. Please consult us – no strings attached. We’ll be sure to find the best solution to suit your individual requirements.

No more floppy disks!

Many machines and devices are still using floppy disk drives as the only means of data input.
CNC, milling, injection mold, or embroidery machines, laser cutting devices and integrated control systems, just to mention a few,
are still being fed data with floppy disks several times a day.

Swap your legacy floppy diskette drive for the new USB floppy emulator!
From now on use reliable USB pen drives instead of vulnerable diskettes!

Good news for you:
You won’t ever need floppies anymore and yet you’ll be able to secure a guaranteed long-term future for your machines and systems.

Photos: Taken at the Embedded World 2010

Further information on the Floppy Emulator product page.
Or please contact us.