[smithgrind]

My floppy drive is going bad it looks like. When you try to access it it says "floppy drive unresponsive" or "baud rate detection failed" The machine is a 99 4020 with the 88 hs control. I looked in the back of the pendant and see a board attached to the top of the drive. Is the drive proprietary or will any 3.5 in work?

[fizzissist]

Floppy drives dying, floppy discs going the way of the shaper,,,,you can fix it, and/or install a USB...

I just did that on our '99 4020, and while loading from the USB is different (and kinda weird because of the software interface), you're not limited by the file size of the floppy....

You can order direct from Fadal for over $800, or get it a lot cheaper at Calmotion

http://www.calmotion.com/usbcncfad.html

If I can do this, anybody can do this. But there are some caveats...

The "kit" is supposed to come with a 25' RS232 cable, but it don't. I got some shielded cable and a separate cable end and made my own. You'll have to cut and splice the cable back together anyway. I drilled a hole in the pendant and mounted the USB on the rear of the pendant, not the side by the floppy because I didn't like my thumb drive vulnerable to the isle traffic.

On the other end I ran the wire outside the main control box (after running the cable through the raceway from the pendant), re-attached the RS232 shell, and plugged it into the RS232 port. That way, if I need/want the regular RS232 port, I only need to unplug)

Power for the USB adapter is easy to find on the board inside the pendant.

It took me around 3 hours,,but I'm slow and was trying to be real careful, and ...I hadn't done it before. The factory guy would supposedly do it in an hour...I doubt it.

The software is built into the adapter and comes with a delightful instructional door magnet.

Sorry I can't help with the floppy issue, but I'd anticipated that one day it'd die and I'd need an alternative that had larger capacity, and was easy to run DNC.

[ThatguyDave]

I second getting the USB from calmotion and basically agree with everything Fizzissist said. My kit actually came with the usb cable though

[fizzissist]

I have to correct....was supposed to get the 14' cable, but got a 6' in a bag.
Would have had to get more cable anyway.

Dave,...When I load a program, it loads into local memory at the onset, and without the program name line...ie:

N1 O280 (FACING

...I get the %, then the line after, but not the one above. Have to go in and insert it. Wish I didn't have to have the the program in the front, and not in a folder, otherwise, no apparent problems.

[smithgrind]

600 bucks is a little more than I wanted to spend on this. I could just DNC it now from the shop computer as the cable is hanging there close by, I just haven't tried it yet. I was hoping that it was just a generic floppy.

[jjobezo]

600 bucks is a little more than I wanted to spend on this. I could just DNC it now from the shop computer as the cable is hanging there close by, I just haven't tried it yet. I was hoping that it was just a generic floppy.

Post some pictures of the floppy, especially the connection end and any identifying information. Also post a picture of the cable connector and power connector.

[iess525]

As far as I know, any floppy drive should work. Sony is the one used on Fadals.

If you decide to go with the Calmotion USB, I can get you that as well. If I recall correctly, there is two connection options for it.

[smithgrind]

Hey, it's been a while and I just got around to replacing the disk drive as I had a shop p.c. bite the dust recently so I scavenged the disk drive out of it and plugged it into the Fadal. All the connections are the same. It didn't make any difference. When I try to copy to the disk or from or directory, I get a baud rate detection error. Sometimes after I get the alarm I'll hit manual and the machine will sort of lock up for a minute until it gets it's act together then it come around.

Any other ideas of what to check?

[smithgrind]

Hey, it's been a while and I just got around to replacing the disk drive as I had a shop p.c. bite the dust recently so I scavenged the disk drive out of it and plugged it into the Fadal. All the connections are the same. It didn't make any difference. When I try to copy to the disk or from or directory, I get a baud rate detection error. Sometimes after I get the alarm I'll hit manual and the machine will sort of lock up for a minute until it gets it's act together then it come around.

Any other ideas of what to check?

Hold the phones!!! I just looked a little closer with a flashlight and noticed there's a little fuse in the moniter cabinet next to the drive which I assume feeds power to the drive. It looked fine before but just checked it with a meter and she's dead so I'll replace it and see what happens.

[smithgrind]

No luck, that fuse didn't fix it.