Arduino Endeavours

First, some history

TEAC Floppy Drive controller & stepper motor

Arduino meets the Floppy Drive

Card Edge Connector on the Floppy Drive

Connecting the floppy controller to the Arduino

1. Pin 12 (Select 1) on the floppy controller's card edge connector needs to be grounded. I simply soldered a short piece of wire between pin 12 and a pin on the other side of the card edge connector, since all uneven-numbered pins are ground.
2. Connect Pin 16 (Drive Motor Enable) to a digital pin on the Arduino. (I used pin 8).
3. Connect Pin 18 (Direction) to a digital pin on the Arduino. (I used  pin 12).
4. Connect Pin 20 (Step) to a digital pin on the Arduino. (I used pin 13).
5. The last connection is to ground the floppy controller to the Arduino. I soldered a wire to the back of the card edge connector (any uneven-numbered pin) and connected it to ground on the Arduino.

Power

Code

/****************************** FloppyStepper ******************************** 
******************************************************************************
* Drives a 5 1/4" floppy drive stepper motor using the on-board driver card. *
*                                                                            *
* http://skylar-arduino.blogspot.com/2011/08/arduino-meets-floppy-drive.html *
******************************************************************************

  The circuit:
  * pin 12 (select 1) to ground 
  * pin 16 (enable) to digital pin 8 (on Arduino)
  * pin 18 (direction) to digital pin 12 (on Arduino)
  * pin 20 (step) to digital pin 13 (on Arduino)
  */

  //Constants
  #define DELAY 3200  // sets speed

  // Stepper pins
  int enable_pin = 8;   
  int dir_pin = 12;     
  int step_pin = 13;    

void setup() {
  // Initial setup of pins   
  pinMode(dir_pin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(step_pin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(enable_pin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(enable_pin, HIGH);
  delay(1);   
  digitalWrite(dir_pin, HIGH);  // clockwise
  delay(1);  
  perform_step(200);            // perform 200 steps
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(dir_pin, LOW);   // anti-clockwise
  delay(1);   
  perform_step(100);            // perform 100 steps
  delay(500);
  perform_step(100);            // perform 100 steps
  delay(500);  
}

void perform_step(long steps) {
  for (long i=0; i < steps; i++) {
    digitalWrite(step_pin, LOW);
    delayMicroseconds(100);
    digitalWrite(step_pin, HIGH);
    delayMicroseconds(DELAY);
  }
  // Set the pin low before we end
  digitalWrite(step_pin, LOW);
}