CNC Information | Learn CNC | CNC Programming G-Code

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right category but here goes:

I work for a ­meta­l fab shop running a variety of CNC equipment including two Mitsubishi lasers. One of these is a ML3015LV Plus.

This laser has a floppy drive, but no USB support. With floppy disks no longer being manufactured anywhere, it is getting harder/more expensive to find/purchase floppy disks. That being said, I'm searching for a reasonably priced alternative.

I've done quite a bit of homework on hardware floppy-usb drives, but these units cost between $250-700.

I've looked into network support but the 'compatible' PCMCIA network adapters are $100. Getting to my actual question, would it be possible to just use a PCMCIA USB adapter and transfer the drivers to the control to enable USB loading of NC programs?

Mits strongly suggests that this is not a possibility; but seeing that the control is running Windows XP ­embed­ded (v2002, SP2) the hardware support is theoretically there.

Best case scenario, a $15 fix for a large headache, worse case scenario I have a busted $500k machine. Does anybody have experience or advice on this sort of thing?

I guess these are the sort of units you are referring to
http://www.floppytousb.com/

Here are some on Ebay, starting at about $36 and free shipping.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=floppy+to+usb&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Just in case, this might be of use in some form,
(copied from http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/408697.html)

KB307844 How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307844

The short version:

Note: this assumes you do NOT have a floppy drive using drive letter
B: already. If you do, you will need to unplug it first to free up the
drive letter for reassignment.

1. Right-click on 'My Computer', and select 'Manage'
2. Select 'Disk Management' from the left-hand pane of the window that appears
3. On the right-hand pane, locate your ZIP drive (it will be one of
the removable drives, and should be currently associated with F
4. Right-click on the drive and select 'Change Drive Letters and Paths'
5. Click 'Change'
6. Change the drive letter from 'F:' to 'B:'
7. Click OK, click OK again, close the Management Console, you're done.
8. Reboot, and see if your change has worked.