Adafruit
Adafruit Floppy FeatherWing with 34-Pin IDC Connector
$10.90
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The Adafruit Floppy FeatherWing lets you read and write 3.5-inch or 5.25-inch floppy disks using a Feather microcontroller. It connects to standard 34-pin ID...
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The Adafruit Floppy FeatherWing lets you read and write 3.5-inch or 5.25-inch floppy disks using a Feather microcontroller. It connects to standard 34-pin IDC floppy drives and includes built-in level shifting between 3.3 V Feather logic and the 5 V signals that floppy drives require.
Floppy drives stream raw bit transitions at high speed, so a fast microcontroller with large SRAM and DMA capability is needed. This FeatherWing is currently supported with the Feather M4 and Feather RP2040 only — ESP32, ATmega, nRF52, and other platforms have not been ported.
Key Features
- 34-Pin IDC Connector – Pre-attached 2×17 header for standard floppy drive cables
- 5 V Level Shifting – On-board boost converter provides 5 V logic output and shifts incoming signals to 3.3 V
- Write Disable Switch – Physically prevents accidental writes, ideal for archiving use cases
- 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch Drive Support – Works with both form factors
Supported Use Cases
- Data Archiving – Read raw bit patterns from floppy disks for preservation; compatible with Greaseweazle and FluxEngine command-line tools running on your computer
- FAT Disk Read/Write – Read and write FAT-formatted floppy disks from Arduino or CircuitPython, or via USB connection to a computer
- Floppy Music – Drive stepper motors for musical sequencing projects
Important: Floppy drives require external 5 V power at up to 2 A — they cannot be powered from USB alone. 5.25-inch drives also need a 12 V supply.
Note: Only compatible with Feather M4 and Feather RP2040 boards. You will also need a 34-pin IDC cable, a floppy drive, external power supply, and floppy disks — many of these items are vintage and may require sourcing.
Ideal For
- Floppy disk data archiving and preservation
- Retro computing projects
- Interfacing modern microcontrollers with legacy storage
Package Contents
- 1× Floppy FeatherWing with 34-pin IDC connector and level shifting circuitry
- Pin headers for Feather connection (unsoldered — assembly required)
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- boost converter
- A boost converter is a switching power circuit that raises a lower input voltage to a higher output voltage. It is used when a device needs more voltage than its power source provides, for example running a 5 V sensor from a 3.3 V supply.
- CircuitPython
- A beginner-friendly version of Python designed to run directly on microcontroller boards. If a product supports CircuitPython, you can often program it by copying code files onto the board rather than setting up a more complex toolchain.
- ESP32
- ESP32 is a family of low-cost microcontroller chips and modules from Espressif with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. They support programmable firmware and over-the-air updates, and are commonly programmed with toolchains such as the Arduino core and ESP-IDF.
- FeatherWing
- A FeatherWing is an add-on board made to plug into the Feather microcontroller board layout. Knowing a product is a FeatherWing helps you check whether it will physically and electrically fit your Feather-style mainboard.
- Headers
- Rows of connector contacts on a fixed pitch (commonly 2.54 mm) used to link a board to a breadboard, jumper wires, or another board. They come as male pin headers and female socket headers; when a module ships with pre-soldered headers it can be used straight away, whereas bare pads require soldering the pins yourself.
- IDC connector
- An IDC (insulation-displacement contact) connector clamps onto a flat ribbon cable to carry many signals at once in a neat, keyed bundle. When a product uses an IDC connector it can be joined to a matching ribbon cable without wiring each signal separately, and the keying helps prevent reversed connections.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a single chip that runs a stored program and controls connected inputs and outputs such as buttons, sensors, displays and communication interfaces. In a device built around one, it is the part that executes the code and coordinates the device's behaviour.
- RP2040
- The RP2040 is a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller chip from Raspberry Pi, used on many maker boards and offering programmable I/O, multiple GPIO pins and reasonable processing speed. Code and accessories built for that chip should work where RP2040 compatibility is listed, though demanding tasks such as reading a camera can require careful pin allocation and timing.
- SRAM
- Fast temporary memory used by a processor while a program is running. More SRAM helps with projects that handle larger data buffers, networking, displays, or more complex code.
