Nice showcase! I built up a floppy featherwing from Adafruit to gain access to Greaseweasel based on a previous video of yours. I didn't go with an external enclosure though, just embraced the "80s clear electronics look" and used a rainbow colored ribbon on the bare drive. It's delightfully janky but worked surprisingly well.
All your linux tool usage keeps inching me closer to turning one of my spare laptops into a full-time linux box for purposes like this as I get more original disks and creating backups for my vintage machines.
@@bluephreakr I used to have MXLinux on my mobile station a few years back. We've got Ubuntu workstations at my workplace, so might as well use it more than testing different distros.
The 37-pin version was the "official" IBM external floppy port. The original IBM PC floppy controller featured it, as did the external adapter for the IBM PS/2 series.
I didn't actually think to check if that was the same as the IBM pinout, that would be awesome if it is, I don't know if those drives are that common but that would be nice if so!
@@TechTangents Years ago, I had the official IBM external 5.25" drive kit for the PS/2. Contained a adapter that plugged directly where the second 3.5" drive would go which attached to a ribbon cable that went to a dummy Microchannel card with the DC-37 plug. The external drive was built like a tank (typical IBM) and had it's own built in power supply.
Great and simple project, a more aggresive but cleaner option could be to adapt the Greaseweasel inside the caddy and go direclty with the drive interface, of course you're stuck with a permanent modified enclosure and a Greaseweasel inside but the resultant will be cleaner.
That doesn't surprise me only because the GreaseWeazle is how I get adf files on to a disk to use on my Amiga. WinUAE is used for so many things when it comes to the Amiga.
Certainly seems the best of the flux readers and so pleased to see it being used with the decoded img. So many times I have seen downloaded flux images that are unreadable when the fm/mfm could have been verified at the read time. The Gw does a good job writing too.
This is rad. I set up my greaseweazle a few months ago. I ended up using an enclosure from an dead external USB CD-ROM drive. Unfortunately I couldn’t use the power supply because it would only put out 12 volts when it was connected to a USB. This is a much better solution.
I remember thinking this was totally normal, because my sister's Amstrad 2286 had an internal 3.5"… and an external 5.25" on a Centronics port. I didn't even realize how odd it was until years later.
Please use oval/oblong pads where possible if a board is going to be hand-soldered; that's a lot easier to solder than those tiny pads. Also, the Density Select trace is very close to pin 14 in the original design; there's enough space to route it differently.
Another great video making creating interfaces and adaptors for old kit. I have a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook sound card which i acquired cheaply as it doesn't have the breakout cable and I cannot find one for sale anywhere, not even a clone. Is there any way you could look into making one and help those of us out without the skills to do so?
Given that DB25 cable carries 5V and 12V power, you'd want to be damn sure that the pinout is correct before powering up a drive you aren't 100% sure of as otherwise damage is very likely.
Not sure what "the originals from Japan" means, but from my (limited) understanding of Japanese, there's really no way to end a word in a hard consonant "k" sound. In the basic sound primitives, there are vowels, the lone standalone consonant (that is, 'n'), and (what would be, in English) two- and three-letter combinations like 'wa', 'do', 'shi', 'kyo', etc.. So, for a native pronunciation of "Teac", it would end up being "te-a-ku" (phonetically, "teh ah ku") or something similar. That said, AFAIK, the official pronunciation is "TEE-ack". I'm sure "TEEK" reads correctly somewhere in the world, but in US English, that would be either "Teec" or "Teak". Although I'm not sure what the origin of "Teac" actually is, and standard English rules (insofar as such a thing even exists) may not apply, so anything's possible, I guess.
What I did was just connect the drive to the GW using a standard floppy cable, plugging the power supply directly into the drive and bypassing the external interface but keeping the case. Why introduce the needless complexity of an extra board?
This looks so easy, where in reality it is not. I get to the point the drive starts spinning. Thats all. We need a good explanation about wiring, device ID's, cable twists, jumper settings, choosing the right drive, dealing with "no track 0 found" errors and such.
Lol this is exactly what I need both the 5.25 drive the adapter and even the IMB version of DoS you used. I need disks so I can use my Pc-7500 and see if it’s workinf
SK-6000 E Vintage Ergonomic PS/2 Computer Keyboard .. computer recognizes the device but it does not work / when I go to the drivers it appears missing. I've already scanned the internet and I can't find it. Could you help me?
💯% my thoughts :-) make a nice power input on the back, maybe even put a step down in it for good measure and use a 12V wall wart only 🤩 But yes, this would maximize usability at the cost of defacing the original external drive enclosure… So I can understand why it’s not done.
Does the greaseweasel not provide enough power by itself? It's on USB after all. It could pull 2A/5V (usually) and provide that to the disk drive. Surely that'll be enough for a disk drive?
@@wmlindley Easy to solve with a step-up converter, as long as the USB bus provides enough watts. And the little board looks like it still has plenty of space for that. And even if not enough USB power, you can always go USB-C 😎
I have an external 5.25 drive which has a 25pin lead. Where can I obtain these adapters already built? if not where can I buy the pcb? excellent design btw and thank you for making it :)
I recall hearing that there are issues getting the flux data for 360k disks from 1.2M drives. Does something in the FD-55GFR/Greaseweasel/FluxEngine stack handle that or am I miss remembering? I'm looking to get a drive for imagining so it would be nice to know if I should really try to get an FD-55GFR in order to avoid the need to get a seperate 360k drive.
In general you can read a 360k floppy fine in both a 360k drive and a 1.2M drive but because the 1.2M drive will have a head half the pitch of a 360k drive, 360k disks written in a 1.2M drive may not work well in 360k drives or even another 1.2M drive.
I have done it with the Greaseweazle using a 360k drive to a 360k disk before but I probably wouldn't use this setup for writing disks with the 80 track drive since writing 360k disks is more useful. But writing flux back is definitely possible. I've read that it's not preferable to do it since you are combining the timing tolerance issues of the original drive that wrote the imaged disk and your drive's own tolerance issues. Personally I would still do it but just be aware of what problems can happen.
While I have no desire to do so. Do you or the community in general, have an issue with reselling pre-built PCBs for an upcharge? I’ve seen some people selling projects like this. So as long as proper credit is given to the project, how do you feel about this?
An interresting material. Maybe not the adapter itself, for me at least, but FluxEngine - yes. I tried to compile it on my Linux laptop (my basic machine) but failed with the GUI 😕And the command line tool itself is not that useful.
Your opening theme reminds me of 80s tech/computer TV shows.
Definitely Mr. Wizard vibes, too
Nice showcase!
I built up a floppy featherwing from Adafruit to gain access to Greaseweasel based on a previous video of yours. I didn't go with an external enclosure though, just embraced the "80s clear electronics look" and used a rainbow colored ribbon on the bare drive.
It's delightfully janky but worked surprisingly well.
All your linux tool usage keeps inching me closer to turning one of my spare laptops into a full-time linux box for purposes like this as I get more original disks and creating backups for my vintage machines.
Just start. Today. I would explain how but something I wrote was eaten by the RUclips bots. Sad really, nothing offensive was written.
@@bluephreakr I used to have MXLinux on my mobile station a few years back. We've got Ubuntu workstations at my workplace, so might as well use it more than testing different distros.
The 37-pin version was the "official" IBM external floppy port. The original IBM PC floppy controller featured it, as did the external adapter for the IBM PS/2 series.
I didn't actually think to check if that was the same as the IBM pinout, that would be awesome if it is, I don't know if those drives are that common but that would be nice if so!
@@TechTangents Years ago, I had the official IBM external 5.25" drive kit for the PS/2. Contained a adapter that plugged directly where the second 3.5" drive would go which attached to a ribbon cable that went to a dummy Microchannel card with the DC-37 plug. The external drive was built like a tank (typical IBM) and had it's own built in power supply.
Great and simple project, a more aggresive but cleaner option could be to adapt the Greaseweasel inside the caddy and go direclty with the drive interface, of course you're stuck with a permanent modified enclosure and a Greaseweasel inside but the resultant will be cleaner.
Fun fact: UAE (Or at least, WinUAE) supports using the GreaseWeazle natively for Amiga disks.
That doesn't surprise me only because the GreaseWeazle is how I get adf files on to a disk to use on my Amiga. WinUAE is used for so many things when it comes to the Amiga.
Certainly seems the best of the flux readers and so pleased to see it being used with the decoded img. So many times I have seen downloaded flux images that are unreadable when the fm/mfm could have been verified at the read time. The Gw does a good job writing too.
This is rad. I set up my greaseweazle a few months ago. I ended up using an enclosure from an dead external USB CD-ROM drive. Unfortunately I couldn’t use the power supply because it would only put out 12 volts when it was connected to a USB. This is a much better solution.
I remember thinking this was totally normal, because my sister's Amstrad 2286 had an internal 3.5"… and an external 5.25" on a Centronics port. I didn't even realize how odd it was until years later.
Damn this is really neat. Would be really fun to see a greaseweasel driver for emulators. Wine has had CD rom support for years
Very nice! I have a Greaseweazle and a 5.25" drive myself (NEC FD1157C), nice seeing a video being made about FluxEngine too!
The Macintosh II and other NuBus Macs also had the ability to run a 5.25" floppy drive from a PC with a special card.
Please use oval/oblong pads where possible if a board is going to be hand-soldered; that's a lot easier to solder than those tiny pads.
Also, the Density Select trace is very close to pin 14 in the original design; there's enough space to route it differently.
Grease weazel is a crazy good name.
This is a simple hack but a great achievement. It is a big coup for legacy access. Great job. Did not know of the Greazeweazel previously too. Thanks!
Dude! A friend pointed me to your channel. Your videos are super helpful. Thanks. I wish I could absorb all the videos quicker. 😂
I love this kind of kit
this is like a dream come true for me
10:14 yo this emulator looks kinda cool 👀
Handy if you have that external enclosure
this has the same feeling to it as the 2011 macbook egpu mod
I'm going to name my first kid grease weasel
Another great video making creating interfaces and adaptors for old kit. I have a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook sound card which i acquired cheaply as it doesn't have the breakout cable and I cannot find one for sale anywhere, not even a clone. Is there any way you could look into making one and help those of us out without the skills to do so?
I have been thinking about making an external 5 1/4" drive but if I can find one of these I would prefer it.
Can use this tech to save the old data
Given that DB25 cable carries 5V and 12V power, you'd want to be damn sure that the pinout is correct before powering up a drive you aren't 100% sure of as otherwise damage is very likely.
In the UK they pronounce it “tee ak” but the originals from Japan pronounce it “teek”. But either way, I dig the video.
Not sure what "the originals from Japan" means, but from my (limited) understanding of Japanese, there's really no way to end a word in a hard consonant "k" sound. In the basic sound primitives, there are vowels, the lone standalone consonant (that is, 'n'), and (what would be, in English) two- and three-letter combinations like 'wa', 'do', 'shi', 'kyo', etc..
So, for a native pronunciation of "Teac", it would end up being "te-a-ku" (phonetically, "teh ah ku") or something similar.
That said, AFAIK, the official pronunciation is "TEE-ack". I'm sure "TEEK" reads correctly somewhere in the world, but in US English, that would be either "Teec" or "Teak". Although I'm not sure what the origin of "Teac" actually is, and standard English rules (insofar as such a thing even exists) may not apply, so anything's possible, I guess.
In Japanese, teac is not pronounced as teek.
Tee-ack or tee-ak is the closest.
When written in katakana, it is "ティアック".
Golden Image; ah, a name familiar to UK Amiga users for their high quality mice, and other peripherals.
Wow, quite something! Would this also be able to READ APPLE II 143K 5 1/4 inch floppies? Those had the "WOZ"-controller.
I like to think that it's pronounced the way Big Clive pronounced grease as "greez", so it would be "greezweazle".
What I did was just connect the drive to the GW using a standard floppy cable, plugging the power supply directly into the drive and bypassing the external interface but keeping the case. Why introduce the needless complexity of an extra board?
This looks so easy, where in reality it is not. I get to the point the drive starts spinning. Thats all. We need a good explanation about wiring, device ID's, cable twists, jumper settings, choosing the right drive, dealing with "no track 0 found" errors and such.
anyone can make a link to that molex power angled connector? what ever i search on amazon og google never finds this used here.
pretty neat !
Lol this is exactly what I need both the 5.25 drive the adapter and even the IMB version of DoS you used. I need disks so I can use my Pc-7500 and see if it’s workinf
Greaseweazle!!!
I'm not sure about the 25-pin being the more common, I have three of these drives that use the 37-pin
Which Greaseweazle case do you use? I like. it's beautiful.
It is only for floppy imaging. You can not access directly the contents of the floppy disk with DOS or File Explorer, right?
SK-6000 E Vintage Ergonomic PS/2 Computer Keyboard ..
computer recognizes the device but it does not work / when I go to the drivers it appears missing. I've already scanned the internet and I can't find it. Could you help me?
Great work ! , Does this also work with a Commodore 1011 drive ? thx
I want one. Where can I Get it. Because I’ve been wanting to do this. I don’t have an external 525 drive but I want one with USB.
Man that neat and handy to have awesome. Aslo want to ask what Linux do you use it looks so clean and neat.
im a bit nuts i would stick it right inside that box and add a USB port..
I did that with my GreaseWeazle. I use it was a 3.5 disk drive. Bought an enclosure that houses the GreaseWeazle and the disk drive. It's nice.
💯% my thoughts :-) make a nice power input on the back, maybe even put a step down in it for good measure and use a 12V wall wart only 🤩
But yes, this would maximize usability at the cost of defacing the original external drive enclosure… So I can understand why it’s not done.
I probably would have put the greaseweazle inside of the case and replaced the cable exiting the enclosure with USB.
where can I find this drive model? If it's hard to find, which 5.25" floppy drive hardware do you recommend purchasing?
I need something for Dos/Win9x max. Win2k and USB 2. Does the software work on this?
Does the greaseweasel not provide enough power by itself? It's on USB after all. It could pull 2A/5V (usually) and provide that to the disk drive. Surely that'll be enough for a disk drive?
Some 5.25" drives also need 12V for the stepper motor.
@@wmlindley Easy to solve with a step-up converter, as long as the USB bus provides enough watts. And the little board looks like it still has plenty of space for that.
And even if not enough USB power, you can always go USB-C 😎
Nice !
Will this setup work for the IBM external floppy drives for the PS/2?
I have an external 5.25 drive which has a 25pin lead. Where can I obtain these adapters already built? if not where can I buy the pcb? excellent design btw and thank you for making it :)
the past is now old man
I recall hearing that there are issues getting the flux data for 360k disks from 1.2M drives. Does something in the FD-55GFR/Greaseweasel/FluxEngine stack handle that or am I miss remembering? I'm looking to get a drive for imagining so it would be nice to know if I should really try to get an FD-55GFR in order to avoid the need to get a seperate 360k drive.
In general you can read a 360k floppy fine in both a 360k drive and a 1.2M drive but because the 1.2M drive will have a head half the pitch of a 360k drive, 360k disks written in a 1.2M drive may not work well in 360k drives or even another 1.2M drive.
Where can I buy such an adapter?
Why did you sound unsure that you were going to be able to release this?
Wonder if there is a power supply like the molex but with sata power.
Why not use an adapter?
Can it write flux images back to a blank diskette?
I have done it with the Greaseweazle using a 360k drive to a 360k disk before but I probably wouldn't use this setup for writing disks with the 80 track drive since writing 360k disks is more useful. But writing flux back is definitely possible. I've read that it's not preferable to do it since you are combining the timing tolerance issues of the original drive that wrote the imaged disk and your drive's own tolerance issues. Personally I would still do it but just be aware of what problems can happen.
While I have no desire to do so. Do you or the community in general, have an issue with reselling pre-built PCBs for an upcharge? I’ve seen some people selling projects like this. So as long as proper credit is given to the project, how do you feel about this?
An interresting material. Maybe not the adapter itself, for me at least, but FluxEngine - yes. I tried to compile it on my Linux laptop (my basic machine) but failed with the GUI 😕And the command line tool itself is not that useful.
Aaaand - I did it. Pretty useful GUI. I wonder if they will expand the image database.
is there anyone in england that could build me a board for my 5.25 drive please ?
What linux distro are you running?
kubuntu
Ver best way to keep my bitcoin Wallet XD
I blame Apple 😉
YYYYYYYYYYYY CANT IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII..................
3 weeks no video, what am I paying for?
Noice
Very good!