PC floppy adaptor for Amiga

[tonyyeb]

Wow! Looks great! Will you be producing the boards, Ian?

[Stedy]

Hi,

In the next few days I will be uploading the complete design to my website, this includes schematics, PCB and bill of materials. The first design I am calling the DD floppy adaptor, as it only supports double density disks.

The high density adaptor will be a future project.

At this point I must ask, would there be sufficient interest in a run of PCBs/kits of this double density only adaptor?

I have done some pricing, based on a run of 50 boards.

A single bare PCB without parts would cost 2.50 UKP/2.60 EUR.
An assembled PCB would cost 7 UKP/7.30 EUR.
A kit of parts and PCB would cost 5.50 UKP/5.80 EUR.

Please let me know your interest in the next week or two.

Ian

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Please let me know your interest in the next week or two.

Ian

Count me in please, Ian!

Kit of parts and PCB - 2 off

prowler

[alexh]

Was it not practical to make the PCB connect directly to the rear of the FDD without a cable?

[tonyyeb]

Originally Posted by Stedy

A single bare PCB without parts would cost 2.50 UKP/2.60 EUR.
An assembled PCB would cost 7 UKP/7.30 EUR.
A kit of parts and PCB would cost 5.50 UKP/5.80 EUR.

Kit for me!

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by Stedy

A single bare PCB without parts would cost 2.50 UKP/2.60 EUR.
An assembled PCB would cost 7 UKP/7.30 EUR.
A kit of parts and PCB would cost 5.50 UKP/5.80 EUR.

Please let me know your interest in the next week or two.

Ian

Ian,

Could you put me down for 2 fully assembled PCBs please? (like a man choosing his peach halves in Asda... you go for them to be produced by Mr. Del Monte (you in this case)... not flying to where they are grown yourself )

Thanks

[Stedy]

Hi,

It will be early February before boards are available. The PCBs will be ordered on a 15 working day lead time, this reduces the cost by 200%. I will make one prototype of the new PCB in the next week, whilst I await final quotes for the PCBs, want to be sure the design is good before sending 50 out for manufacture!

The current PCB is 54mm x 48mm, which will easily fit behind an existing drive. It also has provision for fixing Escom floppy drives with a no solder mod. I use a test clip and flying lead to the 23 way connector of the external disk drive.

Currently looking for ready made power leads to see if I can offer them. This may affect the unit prices slightly.

I am also looking into using Google Checkout instead of Paypal, the lower fees from Google are a welcome incentive.

@Alexh

The original plan was to use a 34 way through hole socket side mounted on the PCB. This would then plug into the back of the drive. These parts are available for £3.93 each at Farnell! Whilst browsing through Rapid electronics I found cheaper 68 pence parts and possibly the right angle part I require. The details on the website were sketchy so I have logged a tech support call to confirm the part details.

If the right angle socket is available, the PCB will be much simpler!

So in summary, yes it will connect to the back of the FDD directly.

[cane]

@Stedy
I'd take one fully assembled, maybe two.

[pubzombie]

Yes Please I Will Take One

[Crown]

I will take one or two.

[JLPedro]

Interested!!!

[Calgor]

Just to be clear, this PCB will convert for example the Amiga Tech drive into a DD amiga drive that can read ALL amiga DD disks, even those with funky formats that the AT 1200 drives could not read? i.e. it will be a fully compatible Amiga drive. And hence it will also not be able to work with an Escom/AT motherboard which expects PC-type drives.

I would like one to put onto my AT panasonic drive to save that soldering job and only solder the simpler fix on the AT 1200 motherboard.

If so, then I would like 1 or 2.

[Jope]

You will need to solder the a1200 mobo as per the SPS site in order to use this board.

[Stedy]

@Calgor

This adaptor will make an AT/Escom A1200 drive work as a normal Amiga floppy drive.

The PCB swaps the nCHANGE signal from pin 34 of the PC drive to pin 2 of the Amiga.
Apparently, Escom severed the connection to the nRDY signal on pin 34 of the FDD connector. My adaptor board has a clip on probe to connect the nRDY signal generated on board to pin 1 of the external floppy connector, thus restoring the signal.

I will verify this but you will not need to solder any wires on the A1200 mainboard or remove the existing wire link modification.

@thread

I aim to prototype the revised PCB this weekend and test it before sending out an order for 50 PCBs. Will also aim to get the supporting webpage up.

[Stedy]

Hi,

I have not forgotten about this, just been a little busy.
I need 2 connectors to finish the prototype PCB, with the current weather conditions, deliveries in the UK are a little slow!

Pending a successful test of the Escom fix and new design as a whole, I will proceed with a PCB order. Please see my ATX adaptor thread and express interest there too.

[QuasaR]

1 assembled kit would be perfect for me since I don't have any soldering tools

[Supamax]

I'm interested too!

[tonyyeb]

Ill have to pull out. Money woes!

[Photon]

This is to connect a PC floppy to an Amiga? In what way is it better than "PC0:", if you know what I mean?

[twizzle]

@photon

it means that if there are no more amiga floppy drives available in the future, you can use this adaptor to connect a pc floppy drive,
then it act as a std amiga floppy drive
so in afect you should be able to hdd pc floppys? will have to ask stedy on this 1