USB HxC Floppy emulator and SD HxC Floppy Emulator by Lotharek on ext FDD
 

for those who do not know what this is, see: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html

(I have bought both a while ago, to breath some life in my 1988 A500)

Just wondering: I still have an external Amiga 5.25" FDD lying around in my basement and now instead of removing my internal A500 HDD to connect one of these hardware floppy emulators to it, I would butcher instead the ext 5.25" drive (remove the actual drive mechanism but keep the internal connectors and casing) and connect a PCB of one of these emulators to that now freed floppy connector inside the external drive casing.
Would this actually work?

My A500 has already a hardware switch to boot from DF1 instead of DF0, so in theory with the switch set to boot from ext drive, it should trigger the SD/USB emulator to start booting, no?

Since I still have a spare brand new internal FDD for my A500 still unpacked since a few years now, I prefer to keep this mighty 24yr old machine itself intact, as it never failed on me, I do not want to butcher it, it deserves a better retirement than that :)

Thanks for any brainfarts on this idea whether it would work? (as I am a bit scared I could fry the emulator somehow)

and before I forget, I also still have an A1010 drive if the 5.25 would pose a problem. I may even still have a Cumana 3.5" ext drive in the same storage box, must check that in the next few days.

Yes, I think the SD HxC Floppy Emulator would work just as effectively in an external FDD casing attached to the external floppy drive port.

Yes. Again, I can't see any reason this might not work as you expect.

I don't blame you at all.

I certainly don't think you'll end up frying it.

Both drives' housing would work, of course, but I think the 5.25" unit will serve you just as well.