PC floppy adaptor for Amiga

[keropi]

complete stuff!!!!

[gizmomelb]

either is fine with me - assembled is nice as it means there's more likelihood of me using it rather than keeping the parts on a shelf for the next 6 months. But I have a soldering iron so I can always assemble it when I unpack my soldering iron etc. out of storage.

[twizzle]

completely assembled

[tonyyeb]

Originally Posted by twizzle

completely assembled

Lazy

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by tonyyeb

Lazy

LOL, he might not be able to solder.

[tonyyeb]

Originally Posted by Eclipse

LOL, he might not be able to solder.

Hence my tongue-in-cheek smilies

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by tonyyeb

Hence my tongue-in-cheek smilies

I noes, hence my LOL's
Anyway I think a kit is a good idea as even if you can't solder someone would always be willing to do it for you. Hell you could even have a go yourself.
Plus I imagine that the prices that Stedy will get the components for is going to be far cheaper than Maplins will ever be. I know that some of us can get components from RS,Farnell and Rapid etc. but I'm just thinking of what's easiest for those that can't.

[tonyyeb]

Yeah a kit would be nice (and as you say cheaper than individuals buying bits from Maplins). I have no problem doing the soldering for myself.

[mfilos]

Definitely complete! 2x for sure

[twizzle]

Originally Posted by Eclipse

LOL, he might not be able to solder.

i can solder,but i have never assembled a PCB board , (car wirering looms & switches )
so if someone has the skills and equipment that can do a better job than i can
then i would pay for this to be done for me

[Stedy]

Hi,

Finally returned from the workshop.

With Xcopy, for some reason the Diskchange signal changes from a logic 1 to logic 0 at the same time as SEL0, this causes nREADY to deassert. Thus the disk is not ready!

Dcopy does not cause any issues with the diskchange signal.

In both cases, there was a disk in the drive before I clicked copy.

Need to study the Shugart bus a bit more.

If anyone is interested, some logic analyser captures are here:
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/download...start_zoom.png
This is the troublesome case, nREADY goes high after Diskchange goes low. Notice the short, less than 1us time base.

Running the same test with D-copy 3.1
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/download...start_zoom.png
nREADY stays at logic 0!

For a sanity check, a normal disk access whilst loading a game
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/downloads/loading_game.png


Probably the cause is a signal I did not monitor but at least I know why the error occurs, just got to fix it.

Also found out that the Amiga motherboard connects nINUSE to MTR0 so I did not need to add that wire link on my PCB.

Off to read a book on Amiga Hardware....

Ian

[billy]

Kits are more than adequate if it cuts your production costs significantly.

Also in either case I would have to say I'd order two units since postage to the United States will likely double the cost per unit... unless you want to toss them in Santa's bag and have him deliver them

[Stedy]

Hi,

Post and packaging costs will follow that which I used for my ATX adaptor, 1 price for anywhere in the world.

It will be £2 for the first unit and just 50 pence for additional units. The assembled board weighs about 30g + 10g for the padded bag, so not too heavy to send via airmail.

If someone wants a number of unassembled PCBs I can probably send 1-2 more for the same postage amount. Am trying to make this a DIY friendly PCB, my ATX adaptor boards with SMT parts, whilst great for reducing cost/size, were not DIY friendly

I have a few more tests to try this weekend on the unit, then I will prototype the new PCB. With time pressures it may not be possible to start shipping PCBs until mid-November. Taking a month out does get in the way of hardware mods!

Bye,

Ian

[tonyyeb]

I'm willing to wait. Nice little project to build and it will save trying to find original A3000 drives.

[Secret Vampire]

I'd be up for a couple in kit form, would be nice to have an internal floppy in my A4000, even though there's no hole for it.

[Eclipse]

Hi Stedy,
If you look on Aminet you can find a package called "PCFloppy2Amiga".
Although for external drives the author had the same problem with the diskchange and he goes into great detail about why and how he solved it.

Just wondering if it would be a help maybe.

EDIT: You are correct in that it has to latch high.

EDIT: EDIT: MK2
Nearly all drives are set for DC, hence moving either a jumper or SMD link on the modded drives. I'm sure it's pin 2 on a floppy drive. If it is it should be as simple as reconnecting it.

[Zetr0]

how did i miss this wonderfull bit of hackery!?



damn !!!

Stedylicious, some fine work indeed sir! put me down for two kits

i suppose any thoughts for your next revisions, would be perhaps two FDD headers? maybe activity LED?

[keropi]

Yeah, I want 3 of these too!

[reanimator]

i'd be interested in 1 kit

[tonyyeb]

Any update Ian?