Return of the Floppies - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: nowlan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 12:57:25 pm
content: Remember the famous floppy drives? They’re back… with multiplied force (yes, THAT „force”) and some friends!http://silent.org.pl/home/2016/07/06/return-of-the-floppies/

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 02:58:04 pm
content: ... My god

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 04:45:52 pm
content: Quote from: XOIIO on July 08, 2016, 02:58:04 pm... It's alive

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 05:13:58 pm
content: If I had that many floppy drives, I'd want to try to make a raid array, just because. A raid 5. Imagine how slow that would be.

author: suicidaleggroll
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 05:17:45 pm
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on July 08, 2016, 05:13:58 pmIt'd be about 63x faster than a single floppy drive, so yes, still slow...

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 05:25:16 pm
content: Quote from: suicidaleggroll on July 08, 2016, 05:17:45 pmI ran into someone on reddit that made a floppy raid, but they didn't have much record of it as it was a long time ago :/

author: Artlav
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 09:26:43 pm
content: ...How the heck does that video have only 50000 views?

author: Kilrah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 08, 2016, 09:49:43 pm
content: It's only 2 days old! The Nirvana one has 160k already...Really awesome! I even prefer this one though

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 09, 2016, 08:06:25 am
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on July 08, 2016, 05:13:58 pmI don't quite have that many FDDs but I have a bunch of old hard disks?(That huge 5.25" drive in the top-left is a whole 70MB)

author: Tepe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2016, 09:45:24 am
content: Quote from: AcHmed99 on July 08, 2016, 04:59:06 pmMust be wonderful to have time to do what you want.

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2016, 12:13:56 pm
content: Quote from: Tepe on July 09, 2016, 09:45:24 amIt is, however it often arrives when one is not young enough to do the things they once wanted to do but didn't have the time.

author: Neilm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2016, 05:23:37 pm
content: Quote from: XOIIO on July 08, 2016, 02:58:04 pm...its full of disc drives

author: JacobPilsen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2016, 08:17:56 pm
content: Death...Quote from: retrolefty on July 09, 2016, 12:13:56 pm

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2016, 08:20:19 pm
content: Quote from: Neilm on July 09, 2016, 05:23:37 pmIt's full of sectors.

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2016, 08:32:17 pm
content: I wonder how he parsed and assigned the music input to the different controllers & devices.Nice work!

author: silent
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2016, 04:40:31 pm
content: I'm glad you like my strange device!There's some more!(open in youtube to get the full playlist)

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2016, 07:17:59 pm
content: Quote from: silent on July 28, 2016, 04:40:31 pmI am in awe, it's excellent.Nine Inch Nails, Closer next please

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2016, 07:36:43 pm
content: Quote from: silent on July 28, 2016, 04:40:31 pmCongratulations on your personal orchestra! It is really impressive.

author: DutchGert
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2016, 10:35:51 pm
content: You sir, are a bosssss

author: System Error Message
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 12:43:23 am
content: Quote from: silent on July 28, 2016, 04:40:31 pmAh so you're the guy made it, pretty nice job though i would suggest finding some more parts to get that base or drum. No offence but i think you look like a hippy lol.If you find a bigger motor that is of lower RPM you could get a much lower tone and maybe retrofitting an assembly line for some drums and other sounds.

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 01:42:35 am
content: Quote from: System Error Message on July 29, 2016, 12:43:23 amHe could actually hack the washing machine to control the tub rotation. If you add a weight to one side of the tub to off balance it, I bet you could make a nice bass sound.I'd add some relays too, for a little extra percussion!

author: boffin
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 01:56:56 am
content: Quote from: suicidaleggroll on July 08, 2016, 05:17:45 pmI used to work at a place that did some disk duplication. We had drives that were 4xsds (4x rotational speed, simultaneous double sided). Could format/write/read-verify a whole diskette in 12 seconds.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 03:46:04 am
content: This is awesome!On sorta similar topic I did use a DC motor as a speaker once.Zero skill involved in mine though, it's literally just hooked up directly to a small amplifier plugged into the computer. I was experimenting with other stuff like coils and magnets. Anything can be a speaker if you put your mind to it.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 06:33:11 am
content: An oldie, but still a goodie:

author: Kilrah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 08:24:16 am
content: Quote from: silent on July 28, 2016, 04:40:31 pmAs you're here, and technical details to share with us? How do you handle sync? What's the architecture?

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 04:26:42 pm
content: Doing music from a floppy drive is not that new: I still remember software to do that on a C64/1541 combination. Though this was more like a little noise than true music. There also was rumor it might influence adjustment and disc integrity.I am still missing old style printers in the orchestra.

author: Kalvin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 04:36:56 pm
content: Quote from: Kleinstein on July 29, 2016, 04:26:42 pm

author: Kilrah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 04:43:25 pm
content: Quote from: Kalvin on July 29, 2016, 04:36:56 pmThat comes out awesome! Even some of the background tones work, impressiveGetting the sheet at the end is also a nice touch

author: silent
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2016, 10:27:55 pm
content: Quote from: timb on July 29, 2016, 01:42:35 amYeah, especially while jumping around the bathroom and breaking the tiles.Quote from: Kilrah on July 29, 2016, 08:24:16 amI have a "central" board which can buffer some frames received from PC. Every frame has a time field which describes the wait time before the next frame passed to the "instruments", so the delay is not performed by PC which may be inaccurate. There are also some minor tweaks like "sync" flag - if more than one instrument play at the same time then the data packets are sent earlier (with sync disabled) and the short sync packet is sent in the right moment to apply new parameters set by previous packets.