I’ve received several emails asking me to help modify specific types of floppy drives to record analog audio, but since all drives and taped decks are different the best I can do is explain the basic things to look for.
Enable the drive: Ground the motor pin, both select/enable pins to start the spindle motor.
Stepping the head: Tie the index pin on the connectors to the step pin.
Head direction control: Attach a switch between ground and the direction pin. This allows you to step the drive in or out.
Erasing the disk: While the spindle is turning move a strong magnet over the surface to erase the data on the disk.
Attaching the head: Try to trace the flex cable wires to one of the heads and check continuity on the pins. Attach the tape deck head wires to a pair of pins with continuity and try it out. If it doesn’t seem to work try another set of pins. I’ve also recorded audio to the disk by hooking an audio amplifier to the head.
Tags: analog audio, floppy drive, Jeri Ellsworth
Awesome Jerry! I was going to ask if you could setup a keyboard and to set the head position and make a kind of synth. Maybe record samples on each of the tracks and select the track with a keyboard. You could get frequency modulation too by quickly changing the rotation rate with keys as well.
Using the HD would also be neat, but I really like the floppy trick. Did you try recording PWM or PCM digitaly?
Is there some club meeting in Austin you attend? I am very near Austin and would love to Geek out with you and Fat Man. My email is dfowler - you know what goes here - uchobby.com
I am really interested in this project however, am I understanding the implementation correctly? You connected a Tape playback / record head to the armature of the disk drive to get the audio to play off the disk?
Thankyou. I’ve been trying to work out how to trace the head connections to get this to work. I really fancy a floppy disc based mellotron.
Thankyou again.