Floppy Drive Music /w Raspberry Pi

by Strx

14K4310

Intro: Floppy Drive Music /w Raspberry Pi

Use your Raspberry Pi to control a floppy drive to make music!

STEP 1: Materials

  • Raspberry Pi
  • ATX power supply (can be found in old computers)
  • Floppy drive
  • Breadboard
  • Wires (9 female to male and 1 male to male)

STEP 2: Connect the Floppy Drive

Connect floppy drive pin 11 to floppy drive pin 12. This is the grey wires on the picture. This is the "on switch" for the floppy drive.

Connect floppy drive pin 18 to pin 11 on the Pi (gipo 0) This is the yellow and red wire on the picture.

Connect floppy drive pin 20 to pin 12 on the Pi (gipo 1) This is the cyan and green wire on the picture.

Now connect floppy drive pin 17 and 19 to pin 6 on the Pi (ground) This is the orange, blue and brown wire on the picture.

The reason for using a breadboard and female to male wires when you can use female to female wires between the floppy drive is:
1. gives you more space to move around the things.
2. It is easier this way when it comes to connecting pin 17 and 19 to ground.

STEP 3: Power Supply

Connect the ATX power supply to the floppy drive and then locate the largest connector from the ATX power supply and connect the male to male wire from the green wire on the connector to the nearest black wire on the connector.

STEP 4: Prepare Your Pi

Power on your Pi and plug in a internet cable. You can then use one of these methods:

Either

SHH in via a program like PuTTY and do the rest from your computer

Or

Connect mouse, keyboard and a screen.

STEP 5: Install WiringPi

You will need to install wiringPi to control the gipo pins.

in the terminal, type:

sudo apt-get install git-core

then type

git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi

and finally type these two commands

cd wiringPi
./build

for more information on how to install see: https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/wiringpi/download-and-install/

STEP 6: Getting the Music File

Make a new directory named floppymusic with the command

mkdir floppymusic

then go to that directory by typing

cd floppymusic

now create a new C++ file named main with

nano main.cpp

then copy the code from https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f... into that file.

exit and save the changes!

STEP 7: Compiling and Running

install the compiler:

sudo apt-get install g++

and run the command:

g++ main.cpp -lwiringPi

STEP 8: Playing the Music

Now make sure you're in the floppymusic folder and type

./a.out

Congratulations you are now playing music on a floppy drive!

9 Comments

stevanguily 6 years ago

hello i have a problem with the step 7 when i enter this "g++ main.cpp -lwiringPi"

i have this problem

" bash: wiringPi: command not found

g++: error: -E or -x required when input is from standard input"

help me please

FelixD36 6 years ago

hi stevanguily

I had the same problem i had installed the desktop version of raspbian but you have to install the lite version of raspbian than it worked

jackemled 7 years ago

Finally! A way to make these using a Raspberry Pi! Time do dominate the world with musical data storage!

thataintworking 7 years ago

Not a bad start, thanks for posting this. The code runs the head forward the first time you run it, and never moves it back. While this works, the quality of the sound is better when the head moves.

ShrubRustle 8 years ago

I agree with TonyA3, this could be a lot more thorough. A good rule of thumb is to assume your reader knows a lot less than you do, and to always include pictures of everything.

That said, thank you for making this! I've been looking for a way to make floppy drive music without having to buy an Arduino. (Nothing against it in the slightest, I'd just prefer to use what I already have.)

ShrubRustle 8 years ago

I agree with TonyA3, this could be a lot more thorough. A good rule of thumb is to assume your reader knows a lot less than you do, and to always include pictures of everything.

That said, thank you for making this! I've been looking for a way to make floppy drive music without having to buy an Arduino. (Nothing against it in the slightest, I'd just prefer to use what I already have.)

TonyA3 8 years ago

Thank you for the links to the original project - very useful. But as an Instructable (the clue is in the name ;-) it leaves a lot out. For instance "Connect the ATX power supply to the floppy drive" - doesn't even say what this means - any young readers may never have seen a floppy drive used in a PC and what voltages it uses and what connectors an ATX supply has. You should have taken all the available info from the Web and re-edited into this Instructable, so it is more complete. Where is the video of it working? Sorry it is so difficult to comply with the "be positive" directive from Instructables.

Iwantroomservice 8 years ago

Theres literally no way to put the cable in the wrong place, if they can't work that out I suggest they take a basic computing course, it can be very helpful for the elderly.