HP / Agilent 8753es Floppy Drive...

#98774

I have wondered if it's possible to replace the 8753es floppy drive with a USB thumb drive? I googled the question and was led to this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Slim-Floppy-drive-Emulator-Lecroy-Oscilloscope-Tektronix-TDS3014-TDS3054-Agilent/291291990999?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D40718%26meid%3D74de73df581f456ab5af29156ebb5074%26pid%3D100290%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D291291990999%26itm%3D291291990999%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2060778&_trksid=p2060778.c100290.m3507

3-1/2" diskettes are plenty laying around, but the drives are becoming scarce. You can get external floppy drives to plug into a USB spigot, but if these conversion drives work, can anyone think of a reason not to change? The manufacturer claims they will work with the 8753 series of Network Analyzers that already have the floppy drive.

Just curious what your thoughts are.

Burt, K6OQK

--
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, CA 91201 U.S.A.
K6OQK

#98789

I spent some time looking into those USB drives and didn't get the feeling that they work well. Somebody on this list (Eugene?) installed one in his 8753D and documented the process. There are a few threads on this forum.

However, I have some good news. One of my 8753ES needed a new floppy drive and after spending a lot of time searching for the same one and studying the minimal information available from TEAC, I determined that the TEAC FD-05HG-XXXX floppy drives used in laptops do work as a replacement. I bought two Lenovo drives, PN FD-05HG-8848 and FD-05HG-8849. Both work and actually sound tighter than the original drives. There are no jumper settings to deal with, the Lenovo drivess worked immediately. You can find them for $10. I suspect Dell (and other) versions of the TEAC drive would work the same.

FYI, the original drives wereTEAC FD-05HF 5630-U, and in later production FD-05HF 8658-U. The HG series seems to be a superset of the HF series, it has selectable speed 300/360 rpm. The HF is single speed (300 rpm).

Vladan

#98793

Vladan,

Did you try the one in the link I sent? The page claims it has been designed to work with the HP8753 series of instruments.

There are a bunch of cheaper versions floating around.

Burt

Show quoted text

On August 24, 2019 7:19:56 PM PDT, "pianovt via Groups.Io" <pianovt@...> wrote:

I spent some time looking into those USB drives and didn't get the feeling that they work well. Somebody on this list (Eugene?) installed one in his 8753D and documented the process. There are a few threads on this forum.

However, I have some good news. One of my 8753ES needed a new floppy drive and after spending a lot of time searching for the same one and studying the minimal information available from TEAC, I determined that the TEAC FD-05HG-XXXX floppy drives used in laptops do work as a replacement. I bought two Lenovo drives, PN FD-05HG-8848 and FD-05HG-8849. Both work and actually sound tighter than the original drives. There are no jumper settings to deal with, the Lenovo drivess worked immediately. You can find them for $10. I suspect Dell (and other) versions of the TEAC drive would work the same.

FYI, the original drives wereTEAC FD-05HF 5630-U, and in later production FD-05HF 8658-U. The HG series seems to be a superset of the HF series, it has selectable speed 300/360 rpm. The HF is single speed (300 rpm).

Vladan

--
Sent from my Android thingamabob with K-9 Mail. Please pardon the spelling errors as the dog can't spell so good.

--
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, CA 91201 U.S.A.
K6OQK

#98796

No, I have not tried any of them. I based my conclusion on reports from others which I have been carefully watching. I don't recall if anyone reported on the design from India which you linked. If you search this forum, there was a conversation about this general topic not long ago, and a number of them before. As I read the posts over the years, every one of these devices had a quirk. I use the analyzers for work, so it's not a hobby. If something goes wrong,with an obscure thing like home-brew firmware/software, I am in trouble. One member said that he was happy with his drive, but it turned out to be a $400 item and the post was not really a review with enough details.

Keep in mind that the floppy drive also serves to install/upgrade the firmware, back up the eeprom, and that it is interrogated during system boot. (the analyzer will not boot without it). You will need to test all its functions. I am not saying the conversion can't be done, but you will have to test some obscure functions to find out if everything works.

You will find that the floppy drive is not used often for saving measurement results and instrument states. There is internal RAM for that. There exists a utility pack by John Miles which allows you to save all that to a pc via GPIB. Another member of this forum has designed an adapter to transfer data to your web browser. I think it's called KISS 488. NOTE: I have not tried it, and have no idea how well it works (if some has, please post a review).Cal kit data can be installed via another utility, VNA CalKit manager. So, I am making the case that the floppy drive is critical for the analyzer's housekeeping, and usable for storing states and images.

If you try the emulator you linked, please post a review.

Vladan

#98814

Gang,

I just talked to a friend of mine who has an 8751 VNA. He successfully replaced the floppy drive with one from this company:

https://www.plrelectronics.com/

I don't know if that speaks to how well it would work in the 8753es.

Burt, K6OQK

At 01:58 PM 8/24/2019, you wrote:

Show quoted text

I have wondered if it's possible to replace the 8753es floppy drive with a USB thumb drive? I googled the question and was led to this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Slim-Floppy-drive-Emulator-Lecroy-Oscilloscope-Tektronix-TDS3014-TDS3054-Agilent/291291990999?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D40718%26meid%3D74de73df581f456ab5af29156ebb5074%26pid%3D100290%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D291291990999%26itm%3D291291990999%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2060778&_trksid=p2060778.c100290.m3507

3-1/2" diskettes are plenty laying around, but the drives are becoming scarce. You can get external floppy drives to plug into a USB spigot, but if these conversion drives work, can anyone think of a reason not to change? The manufacturer claims they will work with the 8753 series of Network Analyzers that already have the floppy drive.

Just curious what your thoughts are.

Burt, K6OQK

--
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, CA 91201 U.S.A.
K6OQK
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, California U.S.A.
biwa@...
K6OQK

--
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, CA 91201 U.S.A.
K6OQK

#135933

Hey all,

I am resurrecting a very old thread. The 3.5” floppy drive in my 8753D started acting up, so I purchased a new Teac FD-05HG 8848 drive based on the advice in this thread.

The new drive functions perfectly but is about 5mm narrower than the original drive (FD-05HF 240), so it leaves a gap in the front panel and doesn’t quite fit the original drive tray.

I designed and printed a simple spacer to take up the 5mm gap and now the drive fits perfectly.

The spacer is here: https://www.printables.com/model/506677-teac-fd-05hg-floppy-drive-spacer

One interesting thing I learned while working on this project is that these floppy drives use M2.6 mounting screws, which I had never encountered before.

Cheers,

Jeff

Show quoted text

From: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io <HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io> On Behalf Of Burt K6OQK
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2019 6:13 AM
To: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP / Agilent 8753es Floppy Drive...

Vladan,

Did you try the one in the link I sent? The page claims it has been designed to work with the HP8753 series of instruments.

There are a bunch of cheaper versions floating around.

Burt

On August 24, 2019 7:19:56 PM PDT, "pianovt via Groups.Io" <pianovt@...> wrote:

I spent some time looking into those USB drives and didn't get the feeling that they work well. Somebody on this list (Eugene?) installed one in his 8753D and documented the process. There are a few threads on this forum.

However, I have some good news. One of my 8753ES needed a new floppy drive and after spending a lot of time searching for the same one and studying the minimal information available from TEAC, I determined that the TEAC FD-05HG-XXXX floppy drives used in laptops do work as a replacement. I bought two Lenovo drives, PN FD-05HG-8848 and FD-05HG-8849. Both work and actually sound tighter than the original drives. There are no jumper settings to deal with, the Lenovo drivess worked immediately. You can find them for $10. I suspect Dell (and other) versions of the TEAC drive would work the same.

FYI, the original drives wereTEAC FD-05HF 5630-U, and in later production FD-05HF 8658-U. The HG series seems to be a superset of the HF series, it has selectable speed 300/360 rpm. The HF is single speed (300 rpm).

Vladan

--
Sent from my Android thingamabob with K-9 Mail. Please pardon the spelling errors as the dog can't spell so good.

--
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, CA 91201 U.S.A.
K6OQK

Lothar baier

#135934

M2.6 is commonly sold as a “repair screw “ for stripped M2.5 threads , it also needs to be noted though that as with most other metric threads M2.5 comes with 2 different pitch sizes 0.35 and 0.45mm

Show quoted text

From: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io <HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io> On Behalf Of Jeff Keyzer via groups.io
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2023 1:54 PM
To: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP / Agilent 8753es Floppy Drive...

Hey all,

I am resurrecting a very old thread. The 3.5” floppy drive in my 8753D started acting up, so I purchased a new Teac FD-05HG 8848 drive based on the advice in this thread.

The new drive functions perfectly but is about 5mm narrower than the original drive (FD-05HF 240), so it leaves a gap in the front panel and doesn’t quite fit the original drive tray.

I designed and printed a simple spacer to take up the 5mm gap and now the drive fits perfectly.

The spacer is here: https://www.printables.com/model/506677-teac-fd-05hg-floppy-drive-spacer

One interesting thing I learned while working on this project is that these floppy drives use M2.6 mounting screws, which I had never encountered before.

Cheers,

Jeff

From: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io <HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io> On Behalf Of Burt K6OQK
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2019 6:13 AM
To: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment@groups.io
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP / Agilent 8753es Floppy Drive...

Vladan,

Did you try the one in the link I sent? The page claims it has been designed to work with the HP8753 series of instruments.

There are a bunch of cheaper versions floating around.

Burt

On August 24, 2019 7:19:56 PM PDT, "pianovt via Groups.Io" <pianovt@...> wrote:

I spent some time looking into those USB drives and didn't get the feeling that they work well. Somebody on this list (Eugene?) installed one in his 8753D and documented the process. There are a few threads on this forum.

However, I have some good news. One of my 8753ES needed a new floppy drive and after spending a lot of time searching for the same one and studying the minimal information available from TEAC, I determined that the TEAC FD-05HG-XXXX floppy drives used in laptops do work as a replacement. I bought two Lenovo drives, PN FD-05HG-8848 and FD-05HG-8849. Both work and actually sound tighter than the original drives. There are no jumper settings to deal with, the Lenovo drivess worked immediately. You can find them for $10. I suspect Dell (and other) versions of the TEAC drive would work the same.

FYI, the original drives wereTEAC FD-05HF 5630-U, and in later production FD-05HF 8658-U. The HG series seems to be a superset of the HF series, it has selectable speed 300/360 rpm. The HF is single speed (300 rpm).

Vladan

--
Sent from my Android thingamabob with K-9 Mail. Please pardon the spelling errors as the dog can't spell so good.

--
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, CA 91201 U.S.A.
K6OQK

#135959

On Friday 16 June 2023 03:25:02 pm Lothar baier wrote:
M2.6 is commonly sold as a “repair screw “ for stripped M2.5 threads , it also needs to be noted though that as with most other metric threads M2.5 comes with 2 different pitch sizes 0.35 and 0.45mmI have a box of screws consisting of stuff commonly used in "PCs" of various flavors,  both added to from hardware that came with various cases and stuff I've pulled when scrapping things out.  These are mostly two flavors,  6-32 and "metric".  The metric ones are used to mount both floppy and optical drives,  and not too many other places that I can see.

Do any of you guys know what thread these are?

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