Old Floppy Drive Becomes New Turntable

vinyl1 writes "This must be the ultimate in retro-cool hardware hacking. The floppy drive is obsolete, but the turntable is not, and that got one guy to thinking. He provides a full tutorial on how to turn that worthless old floppy drive into a most desirable piece of audio gear."

Comments

Where its at!

[Prophetic_Truth]

I got two floppy drives and a microphone!

nerdcore rules

Before anyone asks...

[rhennigan]

Because he can.

Re:Before anyone asks...

[ceeam]

.. or because he cannot find a date.

I've always wanted to do something like this

[ReformedExCon]

There are some times I wish I had spent a little more time studying electronics than doing other things, and this is definitely one of those times. The most impressive part of the project is the variable resistor that allows him to control turntable speed manually. Unfortunately for me, I haven't got the knowledge, much less the gumption, to figure something like that out on my own.

I don't suppose he tested the torque of the motor to see how quickly he could get the record to playing speed. That's one of the key features that I understand to be important to audiophiles. And for the DJs, I imagine they are interested in what sort of clutch (?) mechanism there is that could help the motor recover from an accidental reversing of direction.

Seriously, I need to go to Barnes & Noble and pick up a book on basic electronics. It's one of those itches that I just haven't had the resources to scratch.

Re:I've always wanted to do something like this

[radish]

Audiophiles are interested in a turntable which:

Has no vibration from the motor transmitted to the platter/tonearm.
Has stable speed (startup speed is unimportant)

Typically you'll see them use fairly low torque belt drive setups (the belt helps with both vibration and speed flutters).

DJs are interested in a turntable which:

Starts fast (thus has high torque)
Has variable speed (pitch)
Doesn't mind being stopped, reversed, etc (there's no "accidental" about it!)

These are typically direct drive units, where the platter actually forms part of the motor itself. For example, in the classic SL1210, the coils are in the base of the unit, and the magnets are mounted right onto the (free spinning) platter. There are no gears, cogs, belts or anything else to wear out. The things are virtually indestructable. It's also worth noting that most of the movement of a record under a DJs hand is facilitated not by the platter but the slipmat - the platter continues turning underneath. This is very beneficial to the startup time, as when you release the record friction grabs it and it's up to full speed right away.

Re:What about the stylus?

[biglig2]

If you RTFA, you'll see that the floppy is being used as a very cheap source of a small, low-vibration, brushless motor and control electronics, with a fast start up and low power requirements so it can be run of batteries, for someone who is making a custom turntable.

There is something beautiful about ...

[fake_name]

...a hack allows you to read obsolete media of one type with obsolete hardware of another type.

Re:There is something beautiful about ...

[Vo0k]

In the good old times when 8 bits was the data word size, I got a vinyl record with songs of some band. And the last track was a program for ZX Spectrum - a quiz about the band. To use it you had to copy the track to tape and then load in the tape-recorder of the computer. Never got around to do this, but I still have the record somewhere.
Not booting, but...

Re:That would make one *terrible* turntable

[LardBrattish]

Well according to the article (You did READ the article before sounding off didn't you ;) it's so quiet he couldn't hear the motor in operation and had to add an LED to be sure. The actual turntable is quite cool because it's shaped vaguely like a Fender Stratocaster body with a glass platter.

LED???

[STFS]

From the article: "I had to fit a LED to find out when it's on because it's so quiet!!!".

Ummm... wouldn't the turntable actually turning be a dead givaway???

Re:That would make one *terrible* turntable

[biglig2]

If you RTFA, you'll see that the floppy is being used by a custom hifi shop to build a custom turntable. They're not doing this because they can't afford a turntable, or don't know where to buy one; they're using a floppy drive as a source of parts. The idea being that floppys are actually very sophisticated devices, and are only ridiculously cheap because of the huge economies of scale involved in their manufacture.

cool DIY project, but:

[DingerX]

As someone who's used his share of cheap belt-drive turntables acquired at garage sales (and then rewired), and who has had some experience at spinning platters this project needs:

Direct drive. There's a reason why DD turntables cost more. Those pulleys wear out, they slip, they stretch on start up and oscillate as they balance out. Why bother with a brushless motor if you're slapping it to a rubber band? Why praise the electronic speed control features of the floppy motor when you're wiring it to a system that by design can't regulate it? Give me torque. When I press that "go" button, I want it spinning perfectly at 33, 45 or maybe 78 RPM, now, not a quarter turn from now. I'm sure there's a way to wire a floppy to do just that, so get back at it!

cf. The Hold Steady, "Everyone's a critic and most people are DJs"

Re:cool DIY project, but:

[iainl]

It all depends on what you want the turntable for. Direct Drive is indeed vital if you want the "45rpm, right when I press the button" demands of a DJing deck, but belt drives (that admittedly need occasional recalibration as the belt wears out) usually offer less flutter than similarly specced direct ones.

If you're wanting an audiophile deck for just putting a record on and listening, then you probably don't want DD after all.

Re:That would make one *terrible* turntable

[_Shorty-dammit]

uh, that's not a stepper motor

Use a Scanner

[pklong]

Not as impressive as the LP Ripper using a scanner.

Re:Use a Scanner

[BetterThanCaesar]

Standard plug: We did roughly the same thing, but with 78 RPMs. Of course, it sounded much better, because of the lower resolution of 78 RPM disks.

http://www.s3.kth.se/signal/edu/projekt/students/0 3/lightblue/

Mirrordot

[spydir31]

http://mirrordot.org/stories/e40c721288bda9f3e80e1 d99957ec156/index.html

Re:That would make one *terrible* turntable

[the_weasel]

Which is why I hate the new breed of slashdot users.

This was a home project - he did it because he wanted to, not because he needed to. Would you have preferred he watched survivor? Or that donald trump show? Maybe downloaded, so he could be spoonfed his entertainment.

This is one of the few slashdot stories of the past few days that actually belongs here. In my opinion.

Think about it for a minute.

Re:That would make one *terrible* turntable

[xappax]

As you'll notice, the turntable you linked to is "belt drive", which is great for playing records from start to end (like most people do), but if you try to stop and then abruptly start the record again, it takes the belt some time to get it spinning at the correct RPMs again.
So you get that cartoony effect where the sound starts out all slowed down and gradually reaches the correct pitch.
If you tried to scratch one of these, it's go like:

Rock the - rrrrrRRRRROOOOOCK the - rrrrrRRRRROoooock the beat!

Direct drive turntables are used by DJs and musicians because you can physically stop the record, or scratch it or whatever, and when you let it go, it'll return to the correct speed almost immediately, so it's like:

Rock the - Rock - Rock the beat!

Direct drive is better, but significantly more expensive, which is why it's cool that you can make them out of something as crappy as a floppy drive.

Re:The patent finally expired, I guess.

[Zeinfeld]

Actually Stodartt was not the first person to think about reading a vinyl recod using a laser, or even the first to succeed. Philips did this for VIDEO with Laservision.

While working on the Laservision scheme the Philips engineers realized that what they should do instead is completely redesign the system from scratch. They joined up with a group of Sony engineers working on a similar project and the result is known as Compact Disc.

What this guy has done is to turn his floppy drive into (part of) a gramophone. In other words he has turned a recently obsolete technology into an even more obsolete technology.

Vinyl records were a dreadful technology. They scratched, they wore out and the sound from them was distorted in all sorts of ways by the production process. Worst of all they allowed 'audiophiles' an excuse to spend $15,000 plus on equipment and then brag about it at tedious length.

The high end market for audio equipment is essentially a high tech version of the fortune teller industry. The service is essentially a fraud; if there is a difference in sound it is negligible. People pay for it because of the flummery thaqt surrounds it.

This guy has just discovered that you can get a high quality motor for about a buck.