Using SX-1 on CD32 in different case

[Cooljerk]

The SX-1 is a pretty great upgrade to the CD32, offering more features than the more recent terrible fire upgrades and pretty much turning your CD32 into a full A1200, only minus the PCMCIA port. For several reasons (desire to use gotek floppy and plipbox), I prefer using the SX-1, but I have always absolutely hated the design of the add-on. It juts out the back of the CD32 in a very ugly way and dramatically expands the footprint of the console. I've always been much more receptive to the shape of the ProModule, which was a similar add-on.


So lately I've gotten the idea to maybe build a separate case for the SX-1 that routes it below the console instead. Talking to a friend who does hardware mods for me, he said the main concern is engineering needed for high speed date lines and length considerations, which stops him from simply building a ribbon cable with such an edge connector. With that in mind, I've come to wonder if using the included SX-1 riser could be the solution:





As you can see, the SX-1 normally connects via a riser board that includes two passthrough connectors -- one in the back for the SX-1, and one internally in the CD32. The idea was that secondary add-ons like the FMV cart could sit inside the CD32 with the riser board, while you could connect the SX-1 in the back.


Looking at the riser board, it appears mechanically simple. There appears to be a trace for every pin on the edge slot, running to both pass through slots one to one. The only extra hardware is an audio out port, with some resisters sitting on those traces running to the port as you'd expect.


So my question is whether or not the SX-1 would work like this:





It would not be very difficult to build a small case to house such a board under the system, my only concern is whether or not something like this would work. I'm too paranoid to actually try it this way at the moment for fear of somehow frying something on either the SX-1 or the CD32, so I've been reaching out to more knowledgeable engineers on these amiga boards to weigh in. Any idea on whether or not this will work?

[th4t1guy]

I have not tried this (I would be hesitant as well). I assume you want to plug the cd32 into the FMV connector, the SX-1 into the CD32 connector, and leave the SX-1 connector empty. In the giant tf328 thread, someone discovered that the riser from the floppy addon ( https://www.bigbookofamigahardware.c...t.aspx?id=1880 ) did not work with the tf328 because there were some parts on the riser that were required by the floppy controller, and this interfered with the addon. It's possible that Paravision did something similar on the SX-1.
Also, looking at the images here: http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/sx1
it looks like the FMV connector does not have the full set of pins connected to it as are connected to the SX-1 connector.

IMO, you would be fine with a ribbon cable, except you would have to reverse the pins to change the orientation on it.