Adafruit Floppy FeatherWing with 34-Pin IDC Connector

Relive the vintage computing days with the Adafruit Floppy FeatherWing, designed for Feather boards and compatible with 34-Pin IDC floppy drives commonly used in PCs. This FeatherWing includes level shifting circuitry and a plug-and-play 34-pin IDC connector supporting 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks for read/write operations.

The FeatherWing features a boost converter for 5V logic levels on the floppy drive interface while safely shifting incoming signals to 3.3V for Feather compatibility. Note that floppy drives require external 5V power supplies capable of delivering up to 2A, as USB power alone is insufficient for their motors.

This product is optimized for use with the Feather M4 or Feather RP2040 boards due to their processing speed and SRAM size; other Feather platforms may not be supported. Key applications include archival reading of floppy disk raw bit patterns, interacting with FAT-formatted floppy disks from Arduino or CircuitPython, and creative floppy disk music projects.

Features:

• Compatible with 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives via 34-Pin IDC connector
• Built-in 5V level shifting with boost converter for floppy signals
• Includes 'Write Disable' switch to prevent unintentional writes
• Designed for high-speed data streaming with Feather M4 or RP2040
• Compact dimensions: 50.8mm x 22.8mm x 13.6mm (2.0" x 0.9" x 0.5")
• Lightweight at 8.4g

Getting Started:

• Solder pin headers onto the FeatherWing for Feather board connection
• Attach a Feather M4 or RP2040 board as the controller
• Connect a 34-pin IDC ribbon cable between the FeatherWing and floppy drive
• Provide external 5V (and 12V for 5.25" drives) power supply capable of 2A
• Use software tools like Greaseweazle or FluxEngine for floppy disk data handling

Includes one FeatherWing with installed 2x17 header and level shifting circuitry.

Learn more and access guides here.