PC floppy adaptor for Amiga

[Paul_s]

I'd glady take one. Infact are there any houses for sale on your street? I wanna be a prototype tester

[Stedy]

Hello,

I had a look at the Escom floppy mod. They disconnected the Ready (RDY) signal from pin 34 to one of the 8520 CIAs. The fix on the SPS website involves connecting pin 34 of the Amiga drive to pin 1 (RDY) of the external FDD connector to restore the link.

The only way to do this as a no solder mod would be to take the RDY signal I generate on my board and using a small test clip, connect it to the back of pin 1 on the A1200. Will need to check the physical size of the pins on the DB23 connector of my A1200 to see if it can work.

Will try a few more games at the weekend. I may also have a few games SPS are after, will need to check at the weekend.

@Paul_S

It'll be much cheaper to mail boards to you!
One house for sale in my street is only £237,000!

Time for bed.

Ian

[Eclipse]

Hi
Something like a dual pronged test hook?
Most of the A1200 DB23's for the external floppy are easy to attach to as they are not the covered type.

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Hello,

I had a look at the Escom floppy mod. They disconnected the Ready (RDY) signal from pin 34 to one of the 8520 CIAs. The fix on the SPS website involves connecting pin 34 of the Amiga drive to pin 1 (RDY) of the external FDD connector to restore the link.

The only way to do this as a no solder mod would be to take the RDY signal I generate on my board and using a small test clip, connect it to the back of pin 1 on the A1200. Will need to check the physical size of the pins on the DB23 connector of my A1200 to see if it can work.

Will try a few more games at the weekend. I may also have a few games SPS are after, will need to check at the weekend.

@Paul_S

It'll be much cheaper to mail boards to you!
One house for sale in my street is only £237,000!

Time for bed.

Ian

Mail please Hmmm £237k could buy me Amiga.inc (probably)

[protek]

Great work, Stedy! Say, since the drive mechanism is a HD unit, does this mean that you will be able to use 1,44 MB disks reliably? I mean compared to if you tried to use 1,44 MB disks with an original Amiga drive?

[Overdoc]

Hmm, have you tried X-Copy, yet ?
If your adapter really works than that would be great !
I know some German people wo definitely know their work have been designing such an adapter for years (over at www.a1k.org board), but much more complicated, I think.
So, if you will produce these in big quantities for a cheap price then I would take some of them

[alexh]

Originally Posted by protek

Great work, Stedy! Say, since the drive mechanism is a HD unit, does this mean that you will be able to use 1,44 MB disks reliably? I mean compared to if you tried to use 1,44 MB disks with an original Amiga drive?

I've been using 1.44MB disks in Amiga drives for decades without problems.

[twizzle]

as there are a few differant sizes of floppy drives, and looking at the space required, i also think the best sollution would be a female socket onto the back of the floopy drive, regarding the rdy signal could you not put jumper pins onto the pcb? so if this connection is required you use the jumper connector, if not them you leave it open, or visa versa.

just a few thoughts,

[cane]

I'd take one whenever they'll be ready

[gizmomelb]

Stedy - will you solely be maing and selling these or is there the possibility you'll release a schematic for those of us who want to make and test our own, please?

[chiark]

Put me down for one, possibly two please

Just out of interest, what's the chip actually doing?

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by chiark

Put me down for one, possibly two please

Just out of interest, what's the chip actually doing?

Originally Posted by stedy

SNIP:
the RDY signal I generate on my board...
SNIP

[chiark]

If only I could read...
Cheers Eclipse

[Stedy]

Hi,

I go out for the evening and get a load of replies

This adaptor needs a few more tests, maybe a few prototypes to see how compatible it is. I need to order parts to make any more as I had to dig deep into the parts boxes to make just one.

Schematics and PCB will be available for download when complete. Whilst I will get PCBs made and sell them, you are free to do so yourself.

The prototype PCB is a single sided board with 6 wire links, easily made @ home. The 7438 NAND gate is easily available in DIL package so no surface mount soldering

As I order in bulk it get 20-40% costs saving on the parts, allowing me to sell them at a reasonable price. All I'm looking to do is recoup my component costs and a little extra to cover my time. So far on the ATX adaptor boards I have spent £350, recouped £250 to date.

The schematic, that needs updating is here http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/download...daptor_sch.png

This coming weekend, I will try the RDY signal patch lead on my A1200. Need to check mechanical clearances etc. It is easy to modify the existing PCB for this. I have found a source of 23 way d-type connectors, if required.

Will look through my disk collection for Xcopy. Any particular reason to try it? I use D-Copy and that works fine, even with NDos disks.


Bye,

Ian

[Adropac2]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Hi,


Will look through my disk collection for Xcopy. Any particular reason to try it? I use D-Copy and that works fine, even with NDos disks.


Bye,

Ian

I wouldn't have thought so personally but hey what do i know.Xcopy was the most popular software for backups i'm guessing and maybe it offered modes over other copiers

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by Adropac2

I wouldn't have thought so personally but hey what do i know.Xcopy was the most popular software for backups i'm guessing and maybe it offered modes over other copiers

I may be wrong but only certain versions work on the A1200 don't they?

[gizmomelb]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Schematics and PCB will be available for download when complete. Whilst I will get PCBs made and sell them, you are free to do so yourself.

The schematic, that needs updating is here http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Download...daptor_sch.png

Thanks heaps Ian! I'll be digging out the pcb and etching chemicals as soon as I'm able.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Stedy

The schematic, that needs updating is here http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Download...daptor_sch.png

You're Ian Steadman?

I had not made the connection to your name & nick. I've been a user of your website for many years!

[Stedy]

Hi,

I've updated the design with the new features, all was going well until I decided to check the pinout of the right angle 34 way IDC socket. No one sells them!

Remember this is so that the board plugs into the disk drive.

I checked RS, Farnell, Rapid, ESR, Westfield, and Crownhill my usual suppliers. I can get 34 way right angle plugs but not sockets! Well actually Farnell had one that could work but at £5.75 each, which is more than the rest of the materials put together.

Does anyone know of a source of these connectors?

@alexh

Well I'm Ian Stedman, the Ian Steadman you refer to I don't know of

Ian

[Eclipse]

The external one's I've seen don't use a right angle connector.
They use a standard 34 way right angle pin header.
I'll try to post some pics up so you can see what I mean.

Keep in mind some floppy's have the connector on the left and some on the right. I don't know how much this will affect the design.

Edit: The only one at RS is also £5.61