Changing out floppy drive

flyinneedle · March 4th, 2013, 02:07 PM

Just FYI for all of those like me that are using used Tajima machines with floppy drives. I learned today that the floppy drives are no longer being replaced by Hirsch so if your machines require a floppy disk, better think about usb capabilities. For instance, if your disk drive works now but dies, you can no longer reload your software for the machine. But if you replace it before it dies, you still have the ability to put the floppy drive back on temporarily to reload software, should you have any machine issues. No one seems to know if the machine software can be loaded onto a travel drive and then uploaded to the machine by way of usb....just thinking ahead!

inkman996 · March 5th, 2013, 01:58 PM

Surely the machines only need laptop type floppy drives to operate?

flyinneedle · March 5th, 2013, 05:56 PM

They do but according to my tech, Hirsch no longer offers a replacement. Apparently there are some available out there, but they are not tajima specific. I guess it was a wake up call for me, I had forgotten that the machine has its own software that someday might need to be reloaded and if your floppy drive goes bad, you have no way to "reload" the machine software. My machine locked up one time for an unknown reason and the tech walked me through a reload. Makes me think about updating my capabilties to usb before it goes bad.

minimalist · March 6th, 2013, 10:34 PM

Could you load the floppy into your computer and then copy the files to a usb stick? Maybe try it before the floppy dies.

I did some exploratory surgery on my barudan floppy drive. Sure looked to be the same as any 34 pin floppy drive. Maybe switch the floppy drive in the desktop out with the machine drive and try loading a disk and see if the drive reads the disk. They should be the same. If so, there is no shortage of floppy drives on ebay.

minimalist · March 6th, 2013, 10:36 PM

Forgot to mention that some floppy drives have pin switches. Most of the emulators have pin switches to be used in various different machines, cnc's, and keyboards.

embs · May 17th, 2013, 01:37 PM

Our USB readers can do the tricks - Floppy to USB is the way to go

obemb · June 28th, 2013, 04:55 PM

Send me your old floppys, I'm still running 4 Floppy Tajimas and they're getting harder to find.