Remote a std 3.5" 1.44MB flpy dsk drv

[deeptuna]

Hello All and Great Site/Forum,

Looking for a way to remotely connect a standard 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk drive
approx 75 ft away (maybe distance may be reduced to 25ft) from a computer. Would prefer a card interface but may in the future may have (1) serial or (1) ethernet port to work with. Scuzzi (-sp) interface wont support this distance. What is the max distance for the scuzzi interface? Has any one tryied this application before? Any ideas or hints?

Cost is not really an option (sort of) but would like to pick something off the shelf instead of doing another R&D project.

Best Regards

 

[nbucska]

Since you are using a floppy, evidently the speed is not critical. Wouldn't be simpler to use a second cheap PC and
interface the two computers via the serial ports ? <nbucska@pcperipherals.com>

 

Ok some additional application notes.

The disk drive is for a small user interface station (this is for a Semiconductor application where space is tight and we need reletavily high reliability). I think adding another cheap computer is adding additional problems but would be willing to try it if the interface was simple (via the KISS principle). Is there an &quot;serial interface computer w/ a disk drive&quot; in mind that anybody has ran across out there? This comp would have to be smaller than the standard laptop.

Also I could mount a standard size computer laptop maybe 15ft away. How can I interface the disk drive the rest of the 15 ft?

Regards

 

[nbucska]

The degree of complication depends on the application. Do
you want to use the floppy with a canned program transparently -- i.e. as if it were the buil-in floppy
of the main computer -- or do you have/can modify the source code ? or do you want to dump/read from a file ?

Can't you use the floppy of the laptop directly ?
<nbucska@pcperipherals.com>

 

[deeptuna]

Preferably prefer as a transparant application such as the built in model. Could use the disk drive as a dump/read to access files?

Modification of the source code is not the preferred method ie more s/w writing and additional testing.

What is the distance that I could use for a floppy from a laptop directly? (<15 feet)

Thanks

 

[salec]

KISS:

Distance and speed are within the reach of RS422/RS485 links.

If you do a little R&D after all and make a pair of interface boxes to convert signals (that is fairly simple, using two (1 Rx, 1 Tx) cheapo 5 Volt ICs per four signal lines per direction) that run to and from the floppy drive fom TTL to RS422/RS485 and over again, you could bridge the distance with a multi-pair cable.

You will need twice as much circuits in that cable than there is in original floppy cable, a pair for each signal used.

Small Computer Aproach:

Yes, there ARE embedded PC's smaller than 3.5&quot; FDD. Check EPSON and ZFLinux (Sorry, I don't remember URLs)

 

[deeptuna]

There is a good post on this subject that basically summarizes the primary question in Hardware Arch forum

Thanks,

DT