Problems connecting external CD-ROM and CF HD on A1200 with 4xIDE Buffered Interface

[lauramacfan]

Hi everyone,

I have an Amiga 1200 and I am trying to connect an external CD-ROM drive alongside my CF hard disk. Years ago, I managed to do this using the old version of the 4xIDE buffered interface (which I really miss), which worked perfectly. Unfortunately, I now have the newer version from Amigakit, and have never been able to figure out how to use it. The way the connectors are placed makes it extremely hard to plug it in correctly. I did various tests, but when I turn my Amiga on, either the CF hard disk won’t boot or the CD-ROM drive won’t be recognized. I have many IDE cables, both 2.5” and 3.5”, and nothing seems to work. Unfortunately, from what I see from this photo, I may be missing the right cable: https://wiki.amiga.org/images/b/be/A..._installed.jpg

My problem is that this seems to be a custom cable, which I can’t find online. As you can see, the red pin connected to the Amiga motherboard is on the left side, and it passes under the buffered interface, and then gets connected to it with the red pin still on the left side. All standard IDE cables would have the pin ending on the right side. It looks like this could be a cable with a twist. To try to avoid this issue, I also tried to rotate the interface, but the cables and the CF adapter cause a bulk, and there is no space for the keyboard ribbon, which also prevents me from closing the case.

What am I doing wrong? Where can I find this cable?

Thanks for your help!

Laura

[thomas]

Indeed the cable on the photo has the second connector in an unusual orientation. But for a first test you should be able to use the cable you have. Just make sure that the red line of the cable connects pin 1 on the mainboard to pin 1 on the splitter.

Also note that there are two "port 0" on the splitter, one 2.5" and one 3.5". They are shortened, which means you can use only one of them. If you connect the CF card to the 2.5" Port 0, the CD drive needs to go to Port 1. And it will only be seen if you install the software to activate the second port.

(theoretically you could use a master device on the 2.5" port 0 and a slave on the 3.5" port 0, so that both are seen without installing software. But this only works if your CF card reader has a master/slave switch *and* the CF card supports slaves.)