[helfires688]

Hello all, the company I work for recently purchased a 1995 Haas VF3 and we (the engineering dept.) are working on getting the electronic interface working. We currently cannot connect to the machine VIA RS-232 and are looking to make a quick fix by installing a Floppy Drive to USB converter in the machine. I saw somewhere that PLR Electronics makes a great drive that does exactly this (found here: Floppy To USB Upgrades - replace your floppy drive with a USB floppy emulator ). Is this something that is as easy as finding the plug in for it as far as the hardware installation goes? I'm pretty sure that SATA wasn't around back then so I assume its a ribbon cable of some sort.


Thanks for the help!

[underthetire]

Just look inside and see if its the standard ribbon cable. Ive been buying 3.5 to USB drives off Amazon for ~30.00 that work great. Keep in mind, you will need to use the software it comes with to format the memory stick to 1.44.

[helfires688]

So my understanding is that the Floppy drive connects to the video board? Our manual shows port J12 on the video board connects to the floppy drive. If that is the case, how do I figure out which board is the video board?

[dresnerm]

Is your floppy drive in the panel up front (pendant mount) or in the rear of the machine? Either way, the emulators you can buy replace the floppy drive itself. You unplug the floppy and plug in the emulator - same cable, same power connector. The only trick is to be sure pin 1 on the cable is lined up with pin 1 on the emultator (cable oriented correctly).

As others have said, the BIG key to getting this to work is to format the USB to 1.44... some emulators allow you to format multiple drives on the stick ... you can then change the floppy # in the settings ... I did this on mine and even though it's a 4GB stick, you can only have so many drive mappings..

When I installed mine it never worked until the usb was formatted to exactly 1.44 ... then I could read and write.

If your floppy is up front in the pendant panel, the cable will attach to a board in the pendant...if it's in the rear, it may connect directly to your video board ... The video board is top left of rear panel... 2nd board deep ... 1st will be your MOCON, 2nd VIDEO, 3rd is your PROCESSOR .. I highly suggest getting a service manual if you don't have one ... you can download one from the HAAS site.

Good luck

[helfires688]

So our machine doesn't have a floppy from what it looks like, but when I called HAAS, they ensured that we could install one with no changes to the machine. I looked on the video board and couldn't find the connections, does that mean it will be on the pendant?

[dresnerm]

I'll post pics of a spare video PCB I have .. When mounted the floppy connection will be in the top left ... there's a ribbon connector and a power connector ...

If you have a cables hooked, see if you can tell where they run. Mine for instance runs back up into the pendant arm from the rear and all the way back up front to the pendant.

On my VF0, there's a place for a floppy in the rear cabinet too.. just over top of the serial ports. If you don't have the cables running to the pendant you may want to just install the emulator in the cabinet as you can probably find a shorter 34 pin ribbon on ebay that will reach directly to the video PCB from that location ... then you can make a power cable for the 4 pin pwr connector... so all the pendant mount does is extend where the floppy is mounted... front or rear of machine, etc.

having dug all over mine in the last year and 1/2 I'd expect a floppy/emulator addition to be something that should be plug and play. There are some settings that have to deal with floppy dir name and such but surely enabling a floppy isn't required and as long as you have the connection on your video board you should be golden.



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