A2000 internal drive switcher

[system11]

Does anyone know if a mod allowing switching of two internal A2000 drives?

I'd rather just buy one if they exist, otherwise I'll design something myself.

[Jope]

An A500 df0<->df1 boot selector will work fine to switch between the internal drives in an a2000.

[system11]

I looked at those but it seemed like they only toggle the select lines and don't do anything about the drive LED ones. Last night I designed a circuit board which will do the whole job and in theory will even let you switch them without power cycling the machine. I'll post the full details here if it all works, fingers crossed that I don't instead blow up my A2000.

It's designed to fit to the side of the drive cage, should be a very tidy installation, switching is as easy as shorting the jumper, you could run a two wire switch to it or even a single wire if the other side of the switch is connected to ground.

[Jope]

Hm, that is true. Even though the selects go to the right drive, the in use signals are not swapped.

I'm interested in seeing your solution. :-)

[system11]

Well the PCBs are in the queue at oshpark so let's see how it comes out... I've just realised the ribbon cables will be slightly tight going past anything in the video slot so I might made a revised type if it works where they pass through the side of the drive cage instead of around the back. Right now that wouldn't work as the 'slot' to access screws in the 5.25" bay is covered by the board.

[idrougge]

Why not just add a switch to the ribbon cable with enough poles to switch both the drive select and light signals?

[Jope]

Quad pole double throw. I just had to check whether it is even a thing.. Apparently it is. :-D

[system11]

Yes that would work, use mini mate-n-lok connectors half way down the cable after it's in the drive cage, but I'm already too far down the project now

I'm having two designs made to see which fits the best.

[system11]

Made one, it works.

I'll be making two to sell since I have parts to do so, and then posting the project on my blog with instructions / link to getting PCBs made. Just waiting on some cables so I can make nice photos of the completed installation. You can safely switch it while the machine is on, but it'll confuse the hell out of workbench if it thinks you have a disk in a particular drive.

[system11]

Fits beautifully. Actually Workbench copes quite well - just put an image on the Gotek and a real disk in the floppy, flipped the switch and they both disappeared and reappeared on the correct drives. The twin power connectors are in case you need to use the board as a splitter.

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by system11

and in theory will even let you switch them without power cycling the machine.

note that this only works if the drives are both DD or HD.

[system11]

I would have thought crtl-a-a would be fine too? By power cycling I mean you don't have to actually power the machine off entirely.

At the moment it's a Chinon which is probably low density only (I'm using HD blanks but they all format to DD) and a Gotek.

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by system11

I would have thought crtl-a-a would be fine too? By power cycling I mean you don't have to actually power the machine off entirely.

At the moment it's a Chinon which is probably low density only (I'm using HD blanks but they all format to DD) and a Gotek.

Right... My remark was relating to restart, not power cycling specifically - sorry!

[system11]

Project page:

http://blog.system11.org/

[dalek]

Thanks so much for releasing this

Great work

Great Work

I was also trying to design a boot selector like this.
But I got stuck at lines 14 and 16.
both seems to drive the motor of the drives, where line 14 is connected to inuse1 and line 16 is coming from another circuit of the motherboard.