Cable hunting - FDD to Slimline sata power - *Now Sourced*

Personally, i've never heard or seen such a cable going from the FDD power to molex. Have seen plenty the other way around. But doing a quick google search I can actually find they appear to exist, one example being:
59a039817cd382.88373868.jpg


Not the same brand, but you could do a search for

InLine - Floppy to SATA Power Adaptor​

 
I'd be weary if you're planning to power a 3.5" hard drive from that cable, as I don't think the floppy power power cables are as thick as the standard power connectors. An SSD drive should be fine.
 
nade said:
Personally, i've never heard or seen such a cable going from the FDD power to molex. Have seen plenty the other way around. But doing a quick google search I can actually find they appear to exist, one example being:
59a039817cd382.88373868.jpg


Not the same brand, but you could do a search for

InLine - Floppy to SATA Power Adaptor​

Click to expand...
There's plenty of fdd to sata power, but it's the slimline sata power which is causing me a headache.

4i1ydn0.jpg
 
Last edited:
CaNsA said:
I know those are available, but it does not answer the question.
Click to expand...
I think the reason you've struggled so far in finding an answer, is that perhaps such an adapter might not exist.

If you wanted to remove the bulk of adapters, you could find the voltages going into the slimline SATA power connector (I'm guessing 5v going by the presence of the red wire) and bodging up your own connector. If you were you able to solder the wires, you might be inclined to say that that way is safer than using a series of adapters, otherwise it might be just as risky.
 
darael said:
I think the reason you've struggled so far in finding an answer, is that perhaps such an adapter might not exist.

If you wanted to remove the bulk of adapters, you could find the voltages going into the slimline SATA power connector (I'm guessing 5v going by the presence of the red wire) and bodging up your own connector. If you were you able to solder the wires, you might be inclined to say that that way is safer than using a series of adapters, otherwise it might be just as risky.
Click to expand...
I appreciate that you are trying to help, but I have already considered everything you have suggested.

The use case is very specific, hence me making this thread.

If someone is able to source the adapter I am asking about it really would be awesome.

I have contacted several cable / adapter manufacturers, just waiting on a reply.
 
Out of curiosity, why do you believe you need this cable? Perhaps there is a more simple solution to whatever your problem is.
 
Mr Evil said:
Have you considered making one yourself? It's only two connectors and two wires.
Click to expand...
This is what I hinting at earlier, but I get the impression that the OP doesn't want to entertain the idea. Just buy the cheap connectors from eBay, chop wires and solder them together, using heat shrink to keep the connections safe.
 
darael said:
I'd be weary if you're planning to power a 3.5" hard drive from that cable, as I don't think the floppy power power cables are as thick as the standard power connectors. An SSD drive should be fine.
Click to expand...

Why?

It uses the same gauge cable and has 5v & 12v so it's fine for 3.5 drives.

The only thing I would be worried about is the quality of the adapter/convert these at time can be very poor quality but the original poster did say it's for laptop drive which means it really only needs 5v plus ground.
 
CaNsA said:
There's plenty of fdd to sata power, but it's the slimline sata power which is causing me a headache.

4i1ydn0.jpg
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're specifying a power cable alone but the purpose of slim sata is to squash power and data into one moulded connector that connects both at once.
 
edGfaCTor said:
Why?

It uses the same gauge cable and has 5v & 12v so it's fine for 3.5 drives.

The only thing I would be worried about is the quality of the adapter/convert these at time can be very poor quality but the original poster did say it's for laptop drive which means it really only needs 5v plus ground.
Click to expand...
It's been a while since I've used floppy power cables, so things may have changed, but the smaller power connectors for floppy drives have almost always been smaller gauge than the standard molex power connector that you would have typically found on IDE hard drives.
 
Last edited:
darael said:
It's been a while since I've used floppy power cables, so things may have changed, but the smaller power connectors for floppy drives have almost always been smaller gauge than the standard molex power connector that you would have typically found on IDE hard drives.
Click to expand...
I suspect that would have been a legacy of the old HDD days, 5.25" drive connectors had their roots in full height drives (twice the height or more of a CD rom drive), which needed much more power to spin up as they had big heavy platters, and usually multiples of them using a drive motor from the 70's or early 80's.

Remember 5.25" drive connectors and their wire gauge/current capacity were specified back in the early 80's and after it was ratified for the AT spec it had to be carried forward in all later PSU specifications to ensure backwards compatibility (the same say IDE and SATA would work backwards at the best common speed/instruction set shared between host and device).
So your 5.25" drive cable is basically set to carry enough current for 2-4x 80's era full height drives, whilst your modern internal HDD is probably not drawing much more than an 80's era floppy drive and those 3.5" drive connectors and cables were set to carry power for at least two floppies from memory.
It's also the reason those old 5.25" cables have been used repeatedly to power things like additional case fans and even videocards, there is/was the spare current carrying capacity in them.

IIRC it's the same reason the ATX connectors have several pins supplying voltages that are no longer used on modern boards directly because the cost of running the connections for that voltage was more than putting a more reliable and tighter tolerance voltage converter next to the part that needed it or there are no longer any parts that need it on the board.

Basically there are still electrical connectors and supplies in our 2024 era PC's that are based on what was needed back when full height drives were in use, and your motherboard may not have had any IO on it other than a large DIN keyboard connector (I remember having one that had an IO card to provide the mouse port, floppy drive and hard drive).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom