Floppy disk keyed backward on Fanuc 160i -L

[jmullett]

Was working on a Cincinnati laser cutter w/ Fanuc 160iL control and wanted to replace the dead (dirty and gritty) floppy drive. When I slapped a new one in the drive acted as if it was plugged in upside down, continuous green light and spindle. However the drive and connector were both keyed. So I looked at the old drive and noticed that it was keyed exactly opposite as the one I bought from the PC store.

Are these some sort of special proprietary drive? If so, anyone know where to get one?

[HuFlungDung]

Maybe you can invert the cable at the motherboard end? Some of that old stuff did not have keys on the cable, otherwise how would I know that they can be plugged in backwards?

Or, shave the key off a spare cable and try it upside down in the connector.

[jmullett]

Actually, that's exactly what I did, I just hacked away at my new floppy drive and made a notch to allow the Fanuc cable to be installed in the same orientation as the original Sony disk drive did. It fixed the constant light constant running problem but it was not recognized by Win 2000 in the Fanuc control.

I am just wondering if it is some kind of special drive made especially for Fanuc. It doesn't make sense that it would be though.

[HuFlungDung]

I suppose you tried both plugs on the cable? IIRC, one has a half twist in part of the cable, can't remember what that is about unless it was A or B identification.

[blackbeard52]

the cable is oriented for A (twisted side) at the front of the cable and B in the middle. The fanuc does not have a proprietary floppy.... however if you have an older motherboard it may only recognise the 520 size as opposed to the 1.44 meg...
It may be that you have to search out an old computer store that has some of those in storage or even in old systems.

Bob