Diskette drive replacement: the USB FDD emulator UDM

The UDM-100 emulator is a device that replaces a floppy disk drive for 3.5″ USB floppy disks with FLASH memory. The advantage of deploying the emulator is the possibility of replacing unreliable USB floppy disks with FLASH memory, which is very reliable in normal operation.

The emulator allows you to record up to 100 “floppies” on one USB FLASH memory. The number of the virtual disk currently in use is selected by the operator using the buttons on the emulator and is displayed on the emulator display.

In this way it is possible, for example, to record on one USB memory all the programs used by a given CNC machine in production. So we don’t have to change storage media at all.

The emulator is suitable for measuring instruments, CNC machines (milling machines, machining centres…), textile machines, various control and recording machines or musical instruments and mixing consoles as well as other older technologies where it is appropriate to replace the floppy disks with a modern device. It is not necessary that the control system is based on a PC platform, it is sufficient if the standard floppy drive interface is accessible (or the missing 12V supply voltage on the drive’s power connector is not a problem). The dimensions and connection connectors of the device are fully compatible with common 3 1/2″ drives; however, we can also cope with atypical connections.

The device is capable of emulating 1.44 MB floppy disks, 1.2 MB 5 1/4″ (5.25″) floppy disks and 720 KB 3.5″ DD disks (version “S”). The operation of the emulator is verified by, among others. on Arburg presses, Siemens CNC machine control systems (e.g. Sinumerik), KUKA and ABB robots, DEMAG machines, AŽD technological computers, electronic musical instruments (e.g. Yamaha PSR-640, PSR-550) and other devices. Currently we know of about 300 successful installations of the device.

For higher consumption, it is possible to modify the device to use memory cards instead of USB Flash.

The new unique software in English for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 is available on the UDM Manager website.

Older floppy disk formats

The UDM-100 emulator is generally easy to use on devices using standard 1.44 MB 3.5″ floppy disks.

If you need to write to and read from 1.2 MB (5.25″ HD floppy disks) or 720 kB (3.5″ DD or HD floppy disks with a taped detection hole), you can order the UDM100s emulator, which allows you to switch its interface to these operating modes. In addition, the UDM100s design allows emulation of the Shugart interface found in some older devices. The price of the UDM100s is the same as that of the UDM-100.

On special order, it is possible to set the emulator to emulate completely non-standard floppy diskettes, for example formats with 1024 B in the sector (typically Japanese COMCO, PC98, etc. machines using 1.21, 1.25 or 1.28 MB formats of the so-called 3-mode 3.5″ floppy diskettes) or other atypical formats, for example Arburg machines. In these cases, we deploy the more advanced UDM-200; the price is about 20% higher than the UDM-100, please contact our technician for an exact quote.

Emulators do not interpret the file system of the device they are built into: it is therefore not a problem if the floppy device does not use the standard FAT12 file system.

If needed, reducers can be provided to connect the emulator to non-standard cables, typically a 26-pin laptop flat cable or the 34-pin connector of old 5.25″ drives.

Special equipment design

We offer several special device designs:

• The “WREN” version is equipped with terminals for an external switching contact that can be used to block writing to the virtual diskette. The terminals are usually connected to a switch with a lock or an output contact of the production monitoring system, which allows only authorized users to write data to the diskette.
• The “APZ” implementation monitors the completion of writing the file to the floppy disk and switches the device to the next virtual floppy disk a few seconds after the write is complete. This variant is used where a batch of data is regularly written to the floppy disk (e.g. system backup, log) and the original technology requires regular replacement of the floppy disk with a blank one.
• The “ENW” version is able to change and read the contents of virtual disks via a computer network remotely via Ethernet.

Dealing with special cases

To solve special cases where it is not possible to use a regular emulator, we have a special workstation for diagnostics of floppy disk drive logs and for reading data from floppy disks. At this workstation we are able to detect the configuration of an unknown non-standard floppy disk drive, even if it is partially damaged (not reading, not writing) and to read floppy disks of non-standard formats and convert them into formats that the emulator or PC computer is able to work with.

In these cases, we usually deploy emulators of the UDM-100s and UDM-200 types, designed for atypical installations.

UDM-100

• Basic emulator for common machines with 1.44 MB 3.5″ floppy disks.
• Typical equipment: injection moulding machine Arburg with Selogica, Dialogica

UDM-100s

• Emulator with expansion to 1.44 MB (HD)/720 kB (DD), IBM or Shugart
• Typical equipment: shugart, YAMAHA keyboards,

UDM-200

• A typical representative of an emulator capable of emulating virtually any floppy disk and drive. It doesn’t matter the format, the file system, the speed, or the transfer rate. It is usually used when the UDM-100 or 100S emulator does not work with the machine.
• Typical equipment: injection moulding machine Arburg with Multronica or Hydronica control system, injection moulding machine Battenfeld with Siemens Simatic control system

• UDM-100 Emulator – Installation and Operating Instructions (pdf, 615 kB)
• UDM-100 ENG Emulator – Installation and Operating Instructions (pdf, 420 kB)
• UDM-100s Emulator – Installation and Operating Instructions (pdf, 666 kB)
• UDM-200 Emulator – Installation and Operating Instructions (pdf, 255 kB)

For emulator software see UDM Manager.