26 Pin Floppy Drives

[normanator]

Picked up a couple of 3.5" FDD drives, and didn't notice until later they have 26 pins instead of the usual 34. Read some posts here in the forum about adapting a 26 pin cable to a standard 34 pin drive, and even see some ready made adapters online.

Has anyone ever tried the opposite?

Also, what native systems were these created for? I'm seeing older Toshiba/Sony laptops. Anything else?

Considering the number of 26-to-34 adapter postings, are these drives unicorns?

 

[Chuck(G)]

IIRC, the original Sony 0A-D30 3.5" drive used a 26-pin interface. I seem to recall that it didn't exactly match up with later 26-pin 3.5" floppies.

 

[normanator]

Yeah these look more modern like a 34-pin drive, so guessing they're the later models.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I also believe that the 1/6th height drives e.g. Teac FD05 all use a 26 pin connection and used in laptops and notebooks all over the place. Also part of the Teac FD-505 "Combo" drive, which is pretty much a combination of an FD-05 and an FD-105.

 

[T-R-A]

Also, what native systems were these created for? I'm seeing older Toshiba/Sony laptops. Anything else?

Lots of older Compaq's used the 26-pin FDD

 

[retro-pc_user]

My Austin and AMS laptops use the same thing, but only Citizen W1D floppy drives are accepted.

 

[mbbrutman]

I also looked into 26 pin drives recently, as I thought it would be neat to use two of them in the space that a standard 1/2 height 5.25 inch drive uses. The adapters all seem to go the wrong way .. I want to use the 26 pin drive on a 34 pin system.

 

[lowen]

My Tektronix TDS360 scope has a 26-pin slim 3.5" drive; I have an HxC Slim to put in it, just haven't done so yet.

I have a couple of combo 5.25/3.5" drives where the 3.5 has a 26-pin flat cable connection to the interface board on the 5.25 drive. I think one was in a Compaq DeskPro 386. Not original equipment, more than likely.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I've got one such drive in an SD card+USB hub 5.25" insert that uses a 26 flex to 34 pin header. You might look for one of those.

 

[GreenCrayon]

My Amstrad 5286HD has a 26-pin 3.5" floppy drive; it's a slim Citizen U1DA-38A. It's a desktop, not a laptop, but definitely much smaller than most desktops of the era.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Yeah these look more modern like a 34-pin drive, so guessing they're the later models.
View attachment 65616View attachment 65615View attachment 65614

Those appear to be the exact same drives used in the Tandy 1400LT laptop.