External CD drive for the Amiga 1200

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by Thalion

Apart from doing such device just for fun i can't see any good use nowadays for only a CD-Drive.

I removed the CD drive from my A4000. There is so little space and with an ethernet card it's kind of redundant.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by kolla

A standard laptop drive can still do CDDA? I have the impression that it typically is done in software with modern laptops.

It's usually possible with PATA drives. SATA will be digital only.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

You're probably right. I should throw all my Amiga CDs in the trash then, since I don't have a CD drive that I can connect to my A1200.

Mine are all ISO mounted with diskimage.device over smbfs. Faster to use (instant random access) and more convenient than digging through a big pile of CDs.

[Mick]

My suggestion would be to integrate a 2.5"/3.5" hard drive caddy into it.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by Jope

Mine are all ISO mounted with diskimage.device over smbfs. Faster to use (instant random access) and more convenient than digging through a big pile of CDs.

For me it's not so convenient. I have to go into the workshop, turn on the PC and wait 2 minutes for it to boot up and connect to the network. Then there's the time spent copying all those CDs, more precious space used up on the PC's hard drive, and finally I would miss out on the 'retro' experience of working with physical CDs (the most important part!).

I also have doubts as to how well this would work with bootable CDs, and it obviously won't work with audio CDs. Not the ideal solution for those of us who want to do all the things we used to do when we had a CDROM drive on our Amiga.

[madcap]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

I also have doubts as to how well this would work with bootable CDs,

Bootable CDs? I'm pretty sure there's no such magic in classic Amigas... right?

[-Acid-]

Originally Posted by madcap

Bootable CDs? I'm pretty sure there's no such magic in classic Amigas... right?

Of course there is, they just like any other disks with a startup sequence so long as your roms have drivers for the cd drive and know how to boot from it (CDTV, A570 on A500, CD32 etc). I'm sure with the right tweaks to a custom rom any Amiga would be capable of it.

[Marchie]

Playing CD32 games on the 1200 with CD audio would be cool.

[tech3475]

Originally Posted by Marchie

Playing CD32 games on the 1200 with CD audio would be cool.

The main issue will be mixing the audio, as this will have to be done externally.

Only reason I've opted for a 5.25" drive with a headphone jack.

[Wachi]

The problem of mixing audio could be solved with something like this, which fits perfectly in the box.

https://www.bigbookofamigahardware.c...t.aspx?id=1968

[Marchie]

Originally Posted by tech3475

The main issue will be mixing the audio, as this will have to be done externally.

How does the CD32 do it?

I assume this was (yet) another function of the Akiko chip? (which I would think should be included in any 1200 CD drive if you want CD32 compatability)

[theq]

The CD32 uses a separate DAC to decode CD audio, LC78835M (U31). And by using two op-amps (one for each channel) to mix it with the other audio from the Paula chip.

[mgfalc]

Hi all, I'm the guy working on the external CD drive for the Amiga 1200. I've created a Facebook group page called Amiga CDnest Project [CD1200] which you are more than welcome to join to see updates! I'm originally from Scotland, but live in Australia.

The case is currently 3D printed / metal fabricated but I'm currently exploring options to injection mould. The interface is currently IDE, using a neat IDE cable, however I am exploring eSATA which would be my preference. There was a user by the name of Zetr0 on EAB that I believe got an IDE to SATA adapter working, but I haven't had any luck so far (bought 3 so far, with 2 on order). The 1200 has a really slow IDE interface that most new devices don't seem to support. Any help and feedback is appreciated! Thanks, Marc

[tech3475]

Originally Posted by mgfalc

Hi all, I'm the guy working on the external CD drive for the Amiga 1200. I've created a Facebook group page called Amiga CDnest Project [CD1200] which you are more than welcome to join to see updates! I'm originally from Scotland, but live in Australia.

The case is currently 3D printed / metal fabricated but I'm currently exploring options to injection mould. The interface is currently IDE, using a neat IDE cable, however I am exploring eSATA which would be my preference. There was a user by the name of Zetr0 on EAB that I believe got an IDE to SATA adapter working, but I haven't had any luck so far (bought 3 so far, with 2 on order). The 1200 has a really slow IDE interface that most new devices don't seem to support. Any help and feedback is appreciated! Thanks, Marc

Note sure if useful, but I managed to get a slot loading SATA ODD to work on the Amiga using this with IDEFix97:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SATA-Fema...72.m2749.l2649

The difficult part for me was setting the Master/Slave correctly since on both this and my CF card adapter the header was unlabelled so it took some trial and error.

The downside to this though is CD32 audio is lost but I got it to at least boot/run a game.