Analogic's CD32 disk drive expander unit mini review.

Paul_s · 23 November 2007, 15:14

I found these the other night on fleabay (still some left

)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=180181356684

So, it arrived today..

The unit itself is basically a Sony FDD unit housed in a cream coloured plastic (pretty sturdy). Manufactured by Index Information.

Slots straight into the back port on the CD32 and is a good fit - there is also a RTC (real time clock) which is contained on a seperate PCB (see pics).

Other ports housed on the unit are a Printer Parallel port, 15-pin port (god knows what for - PC joystick?) and a PSU socket by the looks of it on the side, although non supplied - worked fine without one

It also has a hole slot so you can fix the unit in place permanetly to your CD32.

Loading times from floppy is as quick as a 1200 - when you insert a disk in the CD32 blanks the screen and then takes around 3 seconds to pick the disk up and start loading whatever's on it.

There's no special keys to press to enable the unit, CD's are loaded as before.

To sum up:

Pros:

Excellent if you only play a few AGA-only games which were not ported to the CD32 format.
Loads pretty fast.
Must be quite rare as I've never seen them before

Floppy disk clicking sound

You pretty much have a basic no-frills 1200 (adding keyboard of course to the mini-din slot on the side) but without RGB/Serial ports - although you could probably rig something up for the RGB if you were fussy enough

Cons:

Would be better colour coded to the CD32!
No manual supplied although do you really need one for something this simple?

Not an SX1 or SX32 by a long shot

Pics;

Charlie · 23 November 2007, 16:13

Neat-O

Almost tempted to get one for my CD32, esp as it gets far more use than either of my A1200's. (I just seem to take them to bits, add stuff & put back together again)

As you say, shame so little attention was given to the appearance. Would have been a whole lot more tempting in black & shaped like a +3 for the Acorn Electron. (should that ring any bells here)

I would be sold if it had an IDE header - CD32 with internal IDE and floppy drive...

Zetr0 · 23 November 2007, 16:15

@Paul s

Awesome review my friend.. looks great

(i will be finished with your memory adapter this weekend my solder mop finally arrived!!!)

BippyM · 23 November 2007, 16:16

Paul send it to Zetr0 so he can cheaply manufacture some more

Charlie · 23 November 2007, 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by bippym

Paul send it to Zetr0 so he can cheaply manufacture some more

Great idea! He would do it properly too.

BippyM · 23 November 2007, 16:51

Yup and get Binox to have the case made in that transparent blue

cane · 23 November 2007, 19:07

Thanks for the review Paul_s

, I'm tempted to buy one - I'd buy one if it's a bit cheaper.

It would be awesome if the battery clock could be replaced with some home made ram expansion.

Zetr0 · 23 November 2007, 19:58

has anyone got pinout / schematics on the cd32 port?

if so it might be easy to adapt an A500 8mb Fast ram project from Aminet.

narmi · 23 November 2007, 21:15

I suspect the pinout would be similar to the expansion port of the A1200. It might be easier to make an adapter board to allow A1200 accelerators to be attached.

Zetr0 · 23 November 2007, 21:33

here we go

CD32 expansion bus
http://www.technick.net/public/code/...cd32_expansion

A1200 expansion bus

http://pinouts.ru/Slots/A1200CPU_pinout.shtml

very close indeed

If its possible to handle the bus correctly then i believe it would be simple to build a port interface.... hmmm still need an ide or scsi interface....

Charlie · 24 November 2007, 00:18

CD32 expansion bus
TBH I've not taken a look but pins 1-7 may be connected

Agent 88 & 68030

Agent 88...

Would I pull the Blizzard '060 + SCSI out of my A1200 to connect to my CD32 if I could?
Hell - Yes!

Paul_s · 24 November 2007, 00:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie

I would be sold if it had an IDE header - CD32 with internal IDE and floppy drive...

Yea tis a shame but I do like the simplicity of CDs for loading stuff... the disc drive will help me play those odd A1200 games I've been missing

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@Paul s

Awesome review my friend.. looks great

(i will be finished with your memory adapter this weekend my solder mop finally arrived!!!)

Excellmental - ta very much my love.

Can't wait to try the ram upgrade thingy

Quote:

Originally Posted by bippym

Paul send it to Zetr0 so he can cheaply manufacture some more

He'll probably turn it into a SX-32++++++++++++++

Quote:

Originally Posted by bippym

Yup and get Binox to have the case made in that transparent blue

That would be cool to re-case it... really needs it though for the 32.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie

CD32 expansion bus
TBH I've not taken a look but pins 1-7 may be connected

Agent 88 & 68030

Agent 88...

Would I pull the Blizzard '060 + SCSI out of my A1200 to connect to my CD32 if I could?
Hell - Yes!

Oh god, that would be awesome! The official 030 accelerator for the CD32 never did happen... Would be one powerful beasty with a card like that inside... would probably fit pretty well too

nujack · 24 November 2007, 19:13

@Paul_s: Could I use a FMV-card in the 2nd slot or only the battery-clock-card? Will the disk-drive work when I have plugged a FMV-card to this slot?

TheBoss · 25 November 2007, 10:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Oh god, that would be awesome! The official 030 accelerator for the CD32 never did happen... Would be one powerful beasty with a card like that inside... would probably fit pretty well too

At least we managed to get the SX32 Pro, full 68030 (+MMU) 50Mhz but I wish for 040/060 versions too

check sig for how it looks if interested.

alexh · 25 November 2007, 23:05

It would be very easy to add fastram using one of these, the realtime clock board could easily be replaced with a different card with extra features.

I made an internal fast-ram interface for the CD32 a long time ago.

Nice find. £40 is too expensive though.

Paul_s · 27 November 2007, 00:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by nujack

@Paul_s: Could I use a FMV-card in the 2nd slot or only the battery-clock-card? Will the disk-drive work when I have plugged a FMV-card to this slot?

I don't see why not tbh, but I couldn't say for sure as I don't own a FMV card

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

It would be very easy to add fastram using one of these, the realtime clock board could easily be replaced with a different card with extra features.

I made an internal fast-ram interface for the CD32 a long time ago.

Nice find. £40 is too expensive though.

Yea, £40 was a bit OTT and they are not new either. Would be cool with a fastram upgrade - think that's what I might look at using

kolla · 27 November 2007, 02:50

My wish list for a CD32 upgrade card:

* more RAM somehow
* a megabyte or two of flash ram for kickstart modules etc
* battery backed clock

And then either:
* clock port, for subway, poseidon kickstart modules on the flash memory
* USB-disk or USB flash memory, USB memory card driver to boot from
* USB-ethernet stick that works with Poseidon's sana2 driver :-)

or (the harder way, I think)

* buildt in memory card reader (CF or SD) to boot from
* buildt in ethernet controller (and a sana2 device driver)

Ofcourse a CPU upgrade as well would be nice, even only a empty socket for those of us who already have spare 030/882? Maybe it will be possible to do CPU upgrades using FPGA in not a too distant future :-)

Zetr0 · 27 November 2007, 04:30

@kolla

Hello there,

Welcome to the EAB, i am sure you will like it here, there is plenty of mischief to get up to

.

I believe there are some open source plans for clock ports on an A500 68k socket so arguably since the CD32 has a full pin out on its expansion bus, it would be quite simple to convert the existing project. IDE would need some level controll though, but again, there are plans on aminet that adds SCSI to an a500 68000 socket so... easy to re-implement....

imma working on the memory

30 November 2007, 20:33

Hi there,

having been reading these boards for however many years I thought I would finally join the party.

I just had a query about this CD32 floppy drive. Is it only compatible with AGA software or do older games work on it to?

Cheers

Phil

Zetr0 · 30 November 2007, 20:55

@Philski

Hello there,

Weclome to the EAB

as you have read .... theres plenty of mischief to get upto

the floppy drive, i belive can be booted from too... as the cd32 is an AGA machine it should play AGA games..

depending on the drive mechanism however it may limmit some overly protected games,

but it should all be good

23 November 2007, 15:14	#1
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,334	Analogic's CD32 disk drive expander unit mini review. I found these the other night on fleabay (still some left ) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=180181356684 So, it arrived today.. The unit itself is basically a Sony FDD unit housed in a cream coloured plastic (pretty sturdy). Manufactured by Index Information. Slots straight into the back port on the CD32 and is a good fit - there is also a RTC (real time clock) which is contained on a seperate PCB (see pics). Other ports housed on the unit are a Printer Parallel port, 15-pin port (god knows what for - PC joystick?) and a PSU socket by the looks of it on the side, although non supplied - worked fine without one It also has a hole slot so you can fix the unit in place permanetly to your CD32. Loading times from floppy is as quick as a 1200 - when you insert a disk in the CD32 blanks the screen and then takes around 3 seconds to pick the disk up and start loading whatever's on it. There's no special keys to press to enable the unit, CD's are loaded as before. To sum up: Pros: Excellent if you only play a few AGA-only games which were not ported to the CD32 format. Loads pretty fast. Must be quite rare as I've never seen them before Floppy disk clicking sound You pretty much have a basic no-frills 1200 (adding keyboard of course to the mini-din slot on the side) but without RGB/Serial ports - although you could probably rig something up for the RGB if you were fussy enough Cons: Would be better colour coded to the CD32! No manual supplied although do you really need one for something this simple? Not an SX1 or SX32 by a long shot Pics; Last edited by Paul_s; 31 May 2009 at 10:35.

23 November 2007, 21:33	#10
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	here we go CD32 expansion bus http://www.technick.net/public/code/...cd32_expansion A1200 expansion bus http://pinouts.ru/Slots/A1200CPU_pinout.shtml very close indeed If its possible to handle the bus correctly then i believe it would be simple to build a port interface.... hmmm still need an ide or scsi interface.... Last edited by Zetr0; 23 November 2007 at 21:46.

30 November 2007, 20:33	#19
Philski Posts: n/a	CD32 Floppy drive Hi there, having been reading these boards for however many years I thought I would finally join the party. I just had a query about this CD32 floppy drive. Is it only compatible with AGA software or do older games work on it to? Cheers Phil

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23 November 2007, 16:13	#2
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	Neat-O Almost tempted to get one for my CD32, esp as it gets far more use than either of my A1200's. (I just seem to take them to bits, add stuff & put back together again) As you say, shame so little attention was given to the appearance. Would have been a whole lot more tempting in black & shaped like a +3 for the Acorn Electron. (should that ring any bells here) I would be sold if it had an IDE header - CD32 with internal IDE and floppy drive...

23 November 2007, 16:15	#3
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Paul s Awesome review my friend.. looks great (i will be finished with your memory adapter this weekend my solder mop finally arrived!!!)

23 November 2007, 16:16	#4
BippyM Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Derby, UK Age: 48 Posts: 9,355	Paul send it to Zetr0 so he can cheaply manufacture some more

23 November 2007, 16:51	#6
BippyM Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Derby, UK Age: 48 Posts: 9,355	Yup and get Binox to have the case made in that transparent blue

23 November 2007, 19:07	#7
cane Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: .hr Age: 45 Posts: 540	Thanks for the review Paul_s , I'm tempted to buy one - I'd buy one if it's a bit cheaper. It would be awesome if the battery clock could be replaced with some home made ram expansion.

23 November 2007, 19:58	#8
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	has anyone got pinout / schematics on the cd32 port? if so it might be easy to adapt an A500 8mb Fast ram project from Aminet.

23 November 2007, 21:15	#9
narmi Guru Meditation Error Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 92	I suspect the pinout would be similar to the expansion port of the A1200. It might be easier to make an adapter board to allow A1200 accelerators to be attached.

24 November 2007, 00:18	#11
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	CD32 expansion bus TBH I've not taken a look but pins 1-7 may be connected Agent 88 & 68030 Agent 88... Would I pull the Blizzard '060 + SCSI out of my A1200 to connect to my CD32 if I could? Hell - Yes!

24 November 2007, 19:13	#13
nujack Zone Friend Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Leipzig/Germany Age: 49 Posts: 458	@Paul_s: Could I use a FMV-card in the 2nd slot or only the battery-clock-card? Will the disk-drive work when I have plugged a FMV-card to this slot?

25 November 2007, 23:05	#15
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	It would be very easy to add fastram using one of these, the realtime clock board could easily be replaced with a different card with extra features. I made an internal fast-ram interface for the CD32 a long time ago. Nice find. £40 is too expensive though.

27 November 2007, 02:50	#17
kolla Banned Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Trondheim, Norway Posts: 1,893	My wish list for a CD32 upgrade card: * more RAM somehow * a megabyte or two of flash ram for kickstart modules etc * battery backed clock And then either: * clock port, for subway, poseidon kickstart modules on the flash memory * USB-disk or USB flash memory, USB memory card driver to boot from * USB-ethernet stick that works with Poseidon's sana2 driver :-) or (the harder way, I think) * buildt in memory card reader (CF or SD) to boot from * buildt in ethernet controller (and a sana2 device driver) Ofcourse a CPU upgrade as well would be nice, even only a empty socket for those of us who already have spare 030/882? Maybe it will be possible to do CPU upgrades using FPGA in not a too distant future :-)

27 November 2007, 04:30	#18
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@kolla Hello there, Welcome to the EAB, i am sure you will like it here, there is plenty of mischief to get up to . I believe there are some open source plans for clock ports on an A500 68k socket so arguably since the CD32 has a full pin out on its expansion bus, it would be quite simple to convert the existing project. IDE would need some level controll though, but again, there are plans on aminet that adds SCSI to an a500 68000 socket so... easy to re-implement.... imma working on the memory

30 November 2007, 20:55	#20
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Philski Hello there, Weclome to the EAB as you have read .... theres plenty of mischief to get upto the floppy drive, i belive can be booted from too... as the cd32 is an AGA machine it should play AGA games.. depending on the drive mechanism however it may limmit some overly protected games, but it should all be good

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