Looking for answers to using a cdrom with A1200

[scrappysphinx]

Hi zetr0, i have connected the cable with the red stripe towards the back of the amiga, the same way the cf adapter was connected (which is working) and the other end of the cable the red stripe lines up with the number 1 on the buffered device board.

Mike

[Zetr0]

heres a pic of how the pins are arranged,


essentially you need to twist the cable from the mobo to the adapter

[Zetr0]

again, with a simple device its about the through wires are identical no matter wich way, BUT

pin one (bottom left a1200) need to be connected to pin one on the adapter and in that orientation its top right. and the need to twist the cable.

the 44pin IDe cable provides 5v power, this is needed by the adapter, at the moment you are sending 5volts down the wrong line.

[scrappysphinx]

Thank You Zetr0!

My cable is not actually long enough to twist (only the 3cm cable that is shipped) but i have connected the device upside down, therefore reversing one end of the cable, and connected the cf adapter and workbench has booted. Seems i'll need a longer cable but for now i can test the cdrom drive too!

feel quite daft now as tried reversing the cable early but reversed both ends lol

Thanks again zetr0

Mike

[TheCorfiot]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

again, with a simple device its about the through wires are identical no matter wich way, BUT

pin one (bottom left a1200) need to be connected to pin one on the adapter and in that orientation its top right. and the need to twist the cable.

the 44pin IDe cable provides 5v power, this is needed by the adapter, at the moment you are sending 5volts down the wrong line.

Glad you resolved it,
Always pays to listen to his Zetro'ness

[Zetr0]

LOL, its an easy mistake, i am glad that you didnt kill your device. (fingers crossed)

[scrappysphinx]

Hello again guys,

after a few hours red faced for not correctly connecting the cable and nearly frying the buffered device, i decided to try again.

I have now connected a cf flash hd and a toshiba slim dvd-rom and got both working however it still needs tidying up and putting into position.

Pic is here

sorry about bad phone cam pic, still not got round to buying batteries.

My next step is to split the power cable from the floppy drive as i now have dvd-rom but no floppy and to find a long 2.5" ide cable as the 3cm i have is too short to twist when connecting the buffered device. Once i have these items i will start to work on mounting in position and customising the case.
*Zetr0 - I promise better photos for that stage*

Mike

[Zetr0]

Thats great news Scrappy!

If you need more info on the power spliter, have a lookie at the A600+ project link, that will have a How to make a 4 pin splitter (CDROM, CFIDE, FDD *Mobo)

[scrappysphinx]

latest news:

I have tried to make a power splitter using the original floppy power cable that came with the amiga and one i cut off an old pc power supply.

The original amiga cable has 4 wires, red, black, black, brown.
The pc power cable also has 4 wires, red, black, black, yellow.

I have wired the red to red, blacks to blacks, yellow to brown.
This powers the floppy just fine but when i connected the slim dvd the power light lit up but just stays on and i think its now blown as i have tested in pc and get the same result.
I tried an old 3.5" cdrom drive and i heard a loud pop and the drive now smells of smoke.

Have i wired the connectors wrong somewhere?
I don't want to risk blowing the amiga or another drive so any information is highly appreciated.

Here is a pic of how i've done it.


Thanks

Mike

[TheCorfiot]

Originally Posted by scrappysphinx

latest news:

I have tried to make a power splitter using the original floppy power cable that came with the amiga and one i cut off an old pc power supply.

The original amiga cable has 4 wires, red, black, black, brown.
The pc power cable also has 4 wires, red, black, black, yellow.

I have wired the red to red, blacks to blacks, yellow to brown.
This powers the floppy just fine but when i connected the slim dvd the power light lit up but just stays on and i think its now blown as i have tested in pc and get the same result.
I tried an old 3.5" cdrom drive and i heard a loud pop and the drive now smells of smoke.

Have i wired the connectors wrong somewhere?
I don't want to risk blowing the amiga or another drive so any information is highly appreciated.

Here is a pic of how i've done it.


Thanks

Mike

Dear oh Dear oh Dear,

Did you use a Meter to check the voltages at the connectors before connecting the CD or Floppy
Regardless of colour coding, or even keeping your wits about you, errors can creep in so easily, sod's law.

If you have access to a Meter check it now with no Floppy or CD connected to make sure it is right before connecting anything else.
Symptoms do not sound good though
Sorry

[scrappysphinx]

hi corfiot, i dont actually have a meter.
I have tested both the slim dvd and the popped cd drive in my pc and confirmed both are now dead. looking at the connectors on the power cables i believe i have wired back to front. i have switched these cables so that the yellow goes to the red and the red to the brown and the blacks to each other and used my pc dvdrw to test and amiga and idefix pick up the dvdrw fine but i believe i will source a power splitter rather than make one myself and will have to get another slim dvd.

Mike

[TheCorfiot]

Unfortunately 5V circuits don't like 12V stuffed up their behinds..
Meters are very cheap to buy and always good to have handy if you want to undertake any Hackery. They are a good second opinion and have helped save quite a bit of my hardware...

Don't let this put you off though, anyone can look at these mods, success and fails, but few have the courage to go for it.
As Delboy said "He who dares wins!!!"

[Zetr0]

@scrappysphinx

hmmm pickles... i just LOVE pickles

okay... firstly if you have to HOC YA GRAN and get a multimeter, you can get 'em for around £2 so there is no excuse... one must always be prepared for the engagement of Hackery... for the just knoble cause that it is!

now the other way is to note the orientation of the connector to the motherboard.

as it is the same type of molex connector, holding another one adjacent to it will give you the pin out..

As my esteemed friend TheCorfiot suggests, wire colouring standards and commodore are nothing more than pot-luck... infact its more likely you will find an edible pot noodle first now that i think of it.

anyway... worse case scenario ya plumbed the optical drive.. fear not... collect yourself and try again, if not however i am sure i have one spare SFF optical drive i can offload to ya may even throw in a nicely made cable too

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@scrappysphinx

hmmm pickles... i just LOVE pickles

Me too!

okay... firstly if you have to HOC YA GRAN ...--snip--

Zetro, you are spending too much time with other member of this board...


I almost pee my pants!

Don't get me wrong, m8. That sentence is just too funny for a serious guy like you. And I don't forget you're my "other-side-of-pond test-dummy" (that's a joke!). [ ]s to everyone.

[Zetr0]

@rkauer

LMFAO!!!

me.... serious.... damn.... when did that happen.... LOL

[scrappysphinx]

Hi Zetr0, after a blowing not one but 2 drives, the sff and a 3.5" dvdrom, i did hold the pc molex next to the amiga molex and correct the wiring. I have now given up on self constructing the power cable and have ordered these two powers splitters to create a working power solution.

splitter 1

splitter 2

As i blew the sff dvdrom i have also ordered a brand new teac cd-224e for £4.99 delivered.

i have also ordered a longer 2.5" ide cable that is long enough to twist as the 3cm i had was just too short.

just waiting on delivery from ebay and amigakit and when all arrives i will test again. as soon as i get a working solution i will look at the case and provide you with the promised long awaited hardware pr0n.

Mike

[Zetr0]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am such a sucker for hardware pr0n!!!!

Good luck my friend

[scrappysphinx]

latest update:

Sorry to be a pain and keep asking all of these questions i just dont want to blow more stuff as my wife is beginning to bug about the money.

I have recieved power splitters, a 14cm twistable 2.5" ide cable and a new Teac CD-224E-N cdrom drive this morning.
I now have all the different things and have a setup which looks exactly like Magno Boots in post #4.

This is my current setup.

14cm 2.5" from amiga ide to 4 way buffered device.
3.5" ide cable from port 0 to 3.5" cf adatper with 2gb cf card.
3.5" ide cable from port 1 to PA-CD1 slimline IDE adapter connected to the sff CD-224E.
Power splitter from header on amiga mobo to another splitter with then gives me the two small molex connectors required for power to the cdrom and floppy drive.

When i switch on the amiga it just instantly comes up with the purple screen with the hand inserting the disk into the drive and the information about the roms.

If i disconnect the PA-CD1 adapter from the cdrom but leave the cables connected it boots the cf card and tells me unable to open scsi.device unit 2.
If i replace PA-CD1 adapter with my standard 3.5" pc dvdrw drive it boots fine and detects the cdrom which works beautifully.

I heard somewhere that the sff can have the master/slave hardcoded into the firmware, would this be an issue?

Sorry to be a pain.

Mike

[Zetr0]

@Scrappy

Heys m8y,

okay lets see what could be the problem.

okay, this is indeed a master slave issue you are suffering from, its only a few ROM's that have the MA/SL/CS set in the firmware, most have SL or CS selected by the JAE adapter... let me grab a pic for you...

a while back there were a lot of similar probs involving certain types of SFF rom and JAE so I put this together with what i could find on the net to help

http://www.guildserver.co.uk/project...?g2_itemId=781

it will help immensely

[cosmicfrog]

sorry to hear about you letting the magic smoke out off you dvd/cd drives

but very glad to hear you still trying to make it all work
I`m sure in the fullnes of time you will
may my ribbits be with you scrappy