Adafruit Floppsy Rev D brings RP2350 to floppy disk archiving
Adafruit's Floppsy Rev D is a standalone RP2350-based device for imaging, capturing flux-level data from, and emulating PC and Apple Disk II floppy drives.
Summary
Adafruit has previewed Floppsy Rev D, a standalone floppy disk archiver and emulator built around Raspberry Pi's RP2350 microcontroller. The device supports both PC floppy drives and Apple Disk II systems, offering disk imaging, flux-level data capture, and emulation through an integrated touchscreen interface. It includes 8MB of PSRAM for temporary flux data storage, a microSD slot, USB host port, and hardware write-protect switch to safeguard original media during archival.
Hardware and connectivity details
- RP2350 dual-core MCU with 520KB SRAM, plus 8MB PSRAM for flux transition data buffering
- 34-pin interface for PC floppy drives; separate Apple Disk II connector with ±12V rails and motor control
- Custom index detection sensor inputs for Apple drives lacking conventional index signals
- microSD via 4-bit SDIO and USB host port for external storage, cameras, Ethernet adapters
- 2.8-inch 320×240 touchscreen with five-way navigation switch; hardware write-protect switch blocks write-gate signals
- USB-C with PD (12V) or 2.1mm DC barrel jack; onboard 5V, 3.3V, -12V regulation
- Dimensions: 95 × 89 × 23.5mm with mounting points
Why it matters
The device advances open-source floppy preservation tools by packaging Adafruit's existing Floppy software into a standalone, accessible hardware platform. It lowers the barrier for archivists and retrocomputing enthusiasts to recover data from decaying magnetic media without requiring a full PC setup.
Original reference: linuxgizmos.com →