Replacing floppy with a CF card reader?

[moldcore]

I was wondering if something like this would work to replace the floppy drives in a Centurion 6 and 5:
http://www.acscontrol.com/Index_ACS....CF_Adapter.htm

Looks promising.
I was hopping something like a USB port could be installed but this could be an alternative for only $20. With floppies going they way of 8 tract tapes we need to find something soon that will transfer large (3MB or more) files.

[fyffe555]

I use these CF IDE adapters a lot; they work well. BUT they are not hot plugable! You cannot take the CF card out or plug one in whil ethe pc is running because the adapter is connected to the IDE channel. If you try it will blow teh card and maybe the ide controller also.

[Bubba]

I used something similar that I got from geeks.com ($12) to replace the hard drive in my shop computer! Solid state and plugs right in. NO problems!

[Mortek]

I put a 100 meg Zip drive in my machine. I didn't get it from milltronics though. I also put in a hard drive so I can DNC large files from it. You can load a 20 meg file from the zip drive faster than a 1 meg from the floppy.

[moldcore]

Mortek,
What controller do you have? I have a 5 and a 6 that need upgrading, although the Cent5 is too slow to bother with anymore. Our Cent6 has a hard drive already; the problem is or will be someday, getting large files to the hard drive.

Our Cent6 machine came with a 120MB Supperdisk drive that works ok for now (we’ve replaced it twice already). My concern is that someday I’m going to be up a creek when it dies again. They don’t make the disks or drives anymore. Do they still make Zip drives and disks? I used them for years in computers but they eventually wore out also. I can still find some on eBay but that is a crap shoot at best.

I’m looking for a long term solution. Something with no moving parts to wear out. I found that downloading from RS232 is painfully slow for these large files. Could I just replace the drive with a reader that has a USB port or do we need to upgrade the operating system in the controller also to recognize the USB drive?

I’ve tried to get Milltronics to respond to these questions but they haven’t for some reason. I even tried to email them using their website’s information request form on the service page but it has a limit of one or two short sentences, stupid.

[Mortek]

My machine is a cent 6 also. I bought it in the fall of 1997. My hard drive is a standard ide drive. My control only allows me to use I think 2 gig of it. So I have to partition it before I put it in. I Put the zip drive in sometime around 2000. I have replaced it once. The disks get screwed up once in a while, but they are cheap on ebay. I would be interested in installing the compact flash reader also, because of no moving parts. I just don't know how to do it. I don't think my mother board will support the usb port. The reader mentioned above sounds interesting, I just don't know if it is compatible with my control.

[moldcore]

From what fyffe555 is saying it’s probably is not going to work anyway. I have one of these on my desktop computer:reader

But I think your right about the mother boards in the Cent6 not accepting it.

[ViperTX]

Hey bubba....a P/N would help....thanks....nice site....but ya can get lost...

[Bubba]

ViperTX,
Try F-ADIDE2CF-B1, its found under the "IDE Adapters" and are $11.99 ea.

[ViperTX]

TY Bubba.

[Mortek]

The CF card reader would not be a good replacement for the floppy drive if you had to shut the machine down every time you wanted to take the card out or put it in.

[fyffe555]

I've been told today that you can get serial (rs232) to CF adapters that do let you hot plug the cf card. No idea if that's true nor do I have any links. It also depends what you do have available on the base machine I guess..