The connector on a floppy drive consists of 34 conductors. Both control and data use this same cable. Most cables have a twist that interchanges pins 10 through 16 at the end of the cable (on 1). Most floppy connectors have a “key” between pins & 6, and 3 & 5, to prevent the cable from being reversed. At the other end, the dual row connector that attaches to the controller card will usually have a set of ridges that coincide with cutouts in the controller card’s connector. Note that old style floppy-only controllers used a card-edge connector just like that of the drive.
34 PIN IDC MALE at the computer and
diskdrives
| Pin | Name | Dir | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GND | - | Ground |
| 2 | /REDWC | OUT | Density Select |
| 3 | GND | - | Ground |
| 4 | n/c | - | Reserved |
| 5 | GND | - | Ground |
| 6 | n/c | - | Reserved |
| 7 | GND | - | Ground |
| 8 | /INDEX | IN | Index |
| 9 | GND | - | Ground |
| 10 | /MOTEA | OUT | Motor Enable A |
| 11 | GND | - | Ground |
| 12 | /DRVSB | OUT | Drive Sel B |
| 13 | GND | - | Ground |
| 14 | /DRVSA | OUT | Drive Sel A |
| 15 | GND | - | Ground |
| 16 | /MOTEB | OUT | Motor Enable B |
| 17 | RES | - | Reserved |
| 18 | /DIR | OUT | Direction |
| 19 | GND | - | Ground |
| 20 | /STEP | OUT | Step |
| 21 | GND | - | Ground |
| 22 | /WDATE | OUT | Write Data |
| 23 | GND | - | Ground |
| 24 | /WGATE | OUT | Floppy Write Enable |
| 25 | GND | - | Ground |
| 26 | /TRK00 | IN | Track 0 |
| 27 | RES | - | Reserved |
| 28 | /WPT | IN | Write Protect |
| 29 | GND | - | Ground |
| 30 | /RDATA | IN | Read Data |
| 31 | GND | - | Ground |
| 32 | /SIDE1 | OUT | Head Select |
| 33 | GND | - | Ground |
| 34 | /DSKCHG | OUT | Disk Change |
Notes
- Direction is Computer relative Diskdrive
- All odd pins are GND, Ground
- Can be an Edge-connector on old PC’s