Back in the late 80s, and up until the late 90s, slimline and other floppies in portable equipment often used 26 pin FFC connectors with a 1.25mm pitch and a flexible cable. These drives were different from the 34 pin brethren in desktop equipment, which used a larger ribbon cable. Unfortunately, many of the drives used belts which have broken down throughout the years and have become hard to find.

Examples of these belt-driven drives were in devices such as:

• Toshiba laptops (100 series, 400 series, 700 series, T3000 series like the T3100e, or if it's beige, or a 486 or pre-Pentium)
• (EME-279 TC, Citizen W1D, EME-263 MK, EME-213K, EME-113L, EME-213, and more!)
• Tandy laptops (such as the 1100FD)
• Korg synthesizers (Korg N264, Korg N364, etc.)

The simplest solution for many people is to purchase a servo driven 26 pin floppy drive, such as the Dell N8360 floppy drive for $20-30 on major sales sites, but these use a 1.00mm FFC cable. This adapter should solve this problem for you!

I made this adapter for this very reason - I needed an adapter for my Tandy 1100FD and my Toshiba systems to go from 1.25mm to 1.00mm.

Requirements:

• This assembled board - use standard PCB thickness of 1.57mm
• A a Dell N8360 floppy drive (or equivalent)
• A 26 pin 1.00mm FFC cable

Notes:

1. Ensure that you purchase a 1.00mm Floppy FFC cable that is long enough for you to locate the adapter board where there is space
2. The Floppy FFC cable needs to have the conductors on the same side (NOT opposite sides)
3. Ensure that the Floppy FFC is of the reinforced type on the reverse side (there is usually a blue colored stiff piece of plastic on the back side on the other side of the conductors.)
4. When inserting the Floppy FFC into the floppy and adapter board, the silver conductors go TOWARD the front of the floppy drive (you should see the blue part facing you). On the adapter board of the 1.00mm side, the Floppy FFC should have the silver conductors face DOWN. Make sure the conductors are pushed in all the way before you flip down and secure the "door."
5. On the 1.25mm side of the Floppy FFC board where you connect your host (device), the silver conductors fill face UP when you push in the ribbon cable.

When in doubt, use a meter and make sure you have connectivity, and double check your connections!