Jeff Epler has been on a mission of information restoration, trying to archive the contents of classic 8″ floppy disks from a Xerox 820 Info Processor — a problem, on condition that even two-generations-removed 3.5″ disk drives are a vanishingly uncommon sight on computer systems as of late.
“My Xerox 820 CP/M laptop has a big exterior drive enclosure with two 8″ SS/DD [Single Sided/Double Density] floppy drives in it,” Epler explains. “They’ve a ‘Shugart’ interface inside, introduced out to a proprietary-but-documented 37-pin D-style connector. I beforehand made a passive adapter board so {that a} ‘Gotek’ floppy drive emulator might substitute the drive enclosure, and it labored! (and is a LOT much less loud than two 8″ floppy drives spinning on a regular basis!)”
Having constructed an adapter to place fashionable floppy drives in a traditional Xerox (proper), Jeff Epler turned it into the other — to archive disk contents. (📷: Jeff Epler)
Changing an actual floppy drive with a Gotek or related emulator, which permits disk pictures to be loaded from solid-state storage equivalent to an SD card or USB flash drive, is an effective way to get extra life out of a classic laptop system just like the Xerox 820 — launched in 1981 for $3,795 for its two-8″-drive configuration and closely primarily based on the Ferguson Huge Board equipment laptop. There’s the difficulty of going within the different route, although: utilizing the unique floppy drives to create pictures from actual, bodily disks.
“[It] acquired me pondering: might I make a second adapter board that may let me archive 8″ floppies,” Epler explains. “Then, inspiration struck: I did not even want a second board design. As an alternative of becoming a plug (‘male’) connector on the board’s prime facet, I might merely match a socket (‘feminine’) connector on the board’s backside facet. Since I would gotten 5 boards in my PCB order, I simply needed to await supply of the connector and solder all the pieces up.”
Epler has launched design information for the adapter board, permitting different Xerox 820 homeowners to observe swimsuit. (📷: Jeff Epler)
The ensuing reversed connector permits the bodily Xerox floppy drives to hook up with a contemporary USB floppy controller such because the flux-sampling Greaseweazle or Adafruit’s prototype Floppsy. With appropriate software program — Epler used the official Greaseweazle software program, regardless of choosing the Floppsy on the {hardware} facet — the 8″ disks could be learn into pictures for archival functions, and to make use of in emulated type with the extra dependable and far quieter Goteks now put in within the Xerox 820’s floppy disk housing.
Epler’s write-up, which features a information to each studying from and writing to authentic 8″ disks, is now accessible on the Adafruit Be taught portal; KiCad design information and Gerbers for the adapter board can be found on Epler’s GitHub repository below an unspecified license.