PC floppy adaptor for Amiga

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by indigolemon

Teac arrived today. Note that it needs power for the drive or reader to work - just usb connected isn't enough. Sadly my plan to hook it onto the spiders internal port is a bust, as Poseidon doesn't like the fact I booted with the card reader attached - hopefully the Gotek is more tolerant Don't want to have to open the case and replug it every time!

If not... Add a switch to the +5v line on the USB cable. If it's not powered, it shouldn't be detected.

[indigolemon]

Originally Posted by Mr B

If not... Add a switch to the +5v line on the USB cable. If it's not powered, it shouldn't be detected.

It did occur to me - but it seems to take the power form the floppy drive connector. Wondering if switching the data line(s) would do it?

[Mr B]

No idea really. Also, cutting data-lines wouldn't be my first choice for the simple reason of signal integrity.

[bugsymalone666]

Mine arrived pretty swiftly and I have this mitsumi drive now:



I did find that the adaptors do need a minor modification to the power cable. In the case of my Mitsumi it actually needs both earths connected so I did this temporary jumper



and after that it worked fine and loaded canon fodder 2 just swell

I think it might be useful on the future adaptors to maybe have that extra earth cable even if jumped just at the connector end (which I think is how the Scsi is in my A590)

Long term for me it shouldnt be a problem because I am putting everything in a tower case and will run the drive direct from the PC PSU, put for others it might be useful.

[Stedy]

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

Mine arrived pretty swiftly and I have this mitsumi drive now:

Attachment 56452

I did find that the adaptors do need a minor modification to the power cable. In the case of my Mitsumi it actually needs both earths connected so I did this temporary jumper

Attachment 56453

and after that it worked fine and loaded canon fodder 2 just swell

I think it might be useful on the future adaptors to maybe have that extra earth cable even if jumped just at the connector end (which I think is how the Scsi is in my A590)

Long term for me it shouldnt be a problem because I am putting everything in a tower case and will run the drive direct from the PC PSU, put for others it might be useful.

I've sold a couple hundred adaptors, tested with various PC floppy drives over the last 10 years and it's the first time both ground pins have been needed.

Glad everything else is working fine.

[Sinphaltimus]

Sooo, my adaptor arrived today.

It's version 2.5 for Amiga.

I have some questions.

I understand i have to make the cable myself - I got that from the website. BUT, I need to ask these questions anyway...

I have an external Amiga floppy with a broken drive in it.

My understanding from comments above is that the extra circuit board in these external adaptors are not needed with v2.5 of your adaptor. Is this true if I want to connect it as DF2:?

BUT, (trying to take the lazy route here), can I plug it into one of those anyway?

I ask because it would save me a lot of time and possible errors making the cable.

So I'm thinking, instead of making the cable, just plug it direct to the external board?

What's your take on this Stedy?

[Stedy]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

Sooo, my adaptor arrived today.

It's version 2.5 for Amiga.

I have some questions.

I understand i have to make the cable myself - I got that from the website. BUT, I need to ask these questions anyway...

I have an external Amiga floppy with a broken drive in it.

My understanding from comments above is that the extra circuit board in these external adaptors are not needed with v2.5 of your adaptor. Is this true if I want to connect it as DF2:?

BUT, (trying to take the lazy route here), can I plug it into one of those anyway?

I ask because it would save me a lot of time and possible errors making the cable.

So I'm thinking, instead of making the cable, just plug it direct to the external board?

What's your take on this Stedy?

Hi,

You may get away with just plugging a regular PC drive into the adaptor board of the external drive. When the Sony drive failed in my Amitek external drive, I fitted another drive, just plug in and go. You may be lucky.

You could re-use the cable and connect it to the V2.5 adaptor, what type of cable is it inside the drive, a regular 34 way connector?
This should work.

If you want the new adaptor/cable to work as DF2: are you connecting it to an existing drives daisy chain output?

It should work, set to DF0: but you'll need to move the int/ext jumper to 'EXT' for the drive select logic to work.

Ian

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Hi,

You may get away with just plugging a regular PC drive into the adaptor board of the external drive. When the Sony drive failed in my Amitek external drive, I fitted another drive, just plug in and go. You may be lucky.

Hah, never thought of that. It's a newer floppy with USB and card reader combo. I'll try that just to try it because I'd have nothing to lose but time doing the rest if it doesn't work.

You could re-use the cable and connect it to the V2.5 adaptor, what type of cable is it inside the drive, a regular 34 way connector?
This should work.

I dunno yet. This is a new idea for me so I haven't dug the old external drive out of storage yet. I'll be doing this project over the coming weekend so I'll be sure to report back as soon as I have the drive out and open again.

If you want the new adaptor/cable to work as DF2: are you connecting it to an existing drives daisy chain output?

Yes. I planned to do exactly that.

It should work, set to DF0: but you'll need to move the int/ext jumper to 'EXT' for the drive select logic to work.

Ian

Duly noted, that you so much for taking the time to answer.

Once I have everything out and apart, I'll post pictures. I will actually start a new topic for that and share the link here. I want to try what others have mentioned above, connecting the USB from the floppy combo drive to the USB on the gotek.

So with this being the start of an entirely different project I didn't know I wanted to do, I thought it best to give it it's own topic.

[Sinphaltimus]

OK, a few things...

1. Plugging in the PC floppy direct to external encasement does not work for me in this instance.
2. Plugging in the Amiga floppy adaptor to the external encasement then attaching the PC floppy does not work for me.

Not a big deal as it has changed the scope of my setup.

I decide I'm going to move the Floppy adaptor and PC floppy drive to DF0, move the GoTek to DF2 (essentially swapping their positions while leaving DF1 alone (standard Amiga floppy).

I'll follow up when ever I get around to making those changes. I also want to connect my GoTek to the PC floppy's USB and card reader so it's going to involve further modifications to my GoTek moving the OLED display to a faceplate along with the rotary dial/switch.

[malko]

@Sinphaltimus: Did you manage to make it working ?

[Akiko]

Can I please possibly buy 2 adaptors?

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by malko

@Sinphaltimus: Did you manage to make it working ?

LOL - I never went that route. The adaptor sits in a box. The problem I have is no place to connect the USB headers for the card reader slots. So I stuck with my Amiga floppy drives. I am keeping it in case any of my Amiga drives fail, I can simply use a normal PC floppy to replace.

[Stedy]

Originally Posted by Akiko

Can I please possibly buy 2 adaptors?

As stated on my website, end of April they will be available. Currently have the batch of 75 in the workshop, need to verify the design, then test, and package the first batch of 12 ready for sale.

[Stedy]

Hi,

The V2.5 adaptor is now on sale again and ready to ship, order here, http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Sales/sales.html.

Spent some time today verifying the new batch. This involves booting some scene demos (Spaceballs 9 fingers, State of the Art, RSI Megademo), copying and formatting disks and loading games. The new batch worked flawlessly.

A pic from my test setup, on the right hand side, the red PCB is a prototype picoPSU adaptor, powering the Amiga. Behind the floppy drive is the adaptor PCB and just visible, the other green PCB is my audio mixer. I use my own products.


Closeup of the PCB,


Finally, this needs some firmware updates but here is the V3 design:

Yes that's a Gotek, currently with Cortex F/W, will soon add Flashfloppy, linked up to a regular PC drive. The V3 design was originally created, 8 years ago for experimental HD support. I could have made it work but the issues with users modifying drives for the hack, meant I dropped it. Roll on 7-8 years and I've re-purposed it as a plug and play real floppy/gotek switcher.

The wire links are there as I need to support real Amiga (shugart interface) floppy drives and PC floppy drives so I have to 'break' the PC-Amiga wiring on my adaptor, luckily the CPLD has spare pins for this.

The idea is that the adaptor supports genuine Amiga floppy (or PC modded to Amiga) and Gotek or PC floppy and Gotek. A jumper will select the mode. A switch, wired into the board, will allow swapping DF0:/DF1: on the cable and a PC floppy cable (with the twist) should work. Will also bring out connections from the LEDs so you can connect LEDs elsewhere to know if DF0: is real floppy or Gotek. The board you see will gain some more wires soon, getting the PC/Amiga switch correct first.

One limitation is that this adaptor will not work with easily with external drives. The internal floppy header has SEL0/SEL1 for DF0:/DF1: and the external 23 way connector has SEL1/2/3. I should draw this as it's easier but the daisy chaining of SEL1/2/3 on the external connector will cause conflicts, not sure I can work around this.

I'm not going to put a release time frame on this one yet. Have a couple of projects to clear first then I can really get stuck into this. As with all my projects, will make the design files freely available.

[shaf]

Ian I already have your 2.5 version but if it can work with as an Amiga HD drive i'll buy a ver. 3.0 when its available.

Shaf

[Exfso]

I know sales are suspended at present, but having trouble finding the price of these units, I live in Australia.

[Stedy]

Originally Posted by Exfso

I know sales are suspended at present, but having trouble finding the price of these units, I live in Australia.

The current V2.5.2 design has been discontinued. The V3.1 design I have not costed up yet, I have two prototypes, just need to finish the VHDL code for it.

The V3.1 design supports Amiga, PC and Gotek drives and can switch DF0:/DF1: around and is plug and play. This newer design will cost a bit more but makes the older, simpler designs obsolete. Kind of handy doing it now as I've sold out of the existing stock. Until the current pandemic eases, I'm not shipping any orders to reduce my exposure on the trips to the Post Office. It gives me time to make a tweak or two to a design before I commit to production orders of ATX adaptors and floppy adaptors.

Ian

[Leon Besson]

Sorry to bring this thread back from the past. But as managed to get a hold of the 2.5 version off an EBay seller (Had contacted Ian first but he told me he hadn’t anymore for sale).
Can anyone confirm if these adapters are supposed to work with a PC floppy drive where you power in the Amiga and the PC floppy drive has a click signal waiting for a disk to be inserted?

At the moment I only appear to get this to work with a floppy disk already inserted into the drive and powering up. No go if I just try to insert a floppy disk (Bootable) after powering up as it does nothing.

The seller has given me a Standard straight through floppy cable (no twist) and I’m just plugging in power directly into the floppy drive.

Have tried changing the jumpers on the adapter from ext to int and Df0 to df1 etc…

There is also a 4 pin power connector on the adapter. So I take it this is if you want to use bypass power to the Floppy drive?

[Leon Besson]

Originally Posted by Leon Besson

Sorry to bring this thread back from the past. But as managed to get a hold of the 2.5 version off an EBay seller (Had contacted Ian first but he told me he hadn’t anymore for sale).
Can anyone confirm if these adapters are supposed to work with a PC floppy drive where you power in the Amiga and the PC floppy drive has a click signal waiting for a disk to be inserted?

At the moment I only appear to get this to work with a floppy disk already inserted into the drive and powering up. No go if I just try to insert a floppy disk (Bootable) after powering up as it does nothing.

The seller has given me a Standard straight through floppy cable (no twist) and I’m just plugging in power directly into the floppy drive.

Have tried changing the jumpers on the adapter from ext to int and Df0 to df1 etc…

There is also a 4 pin power connector on the adapter. So I take it this is if you want to use bypass power to the Floppy drive?

Okay looks like the resolution here is that SJ1 on the boards I received from the seller were not jumpered. Just applied a blob of solder to bridge the 2 points and all is well.