Amiga 600 & HxC Floppy Emulator

[saxabar]

Thanks to Jope here you are my A600 with HxC acting as DF0 connected to the external floppy port.
I've installed a switch (near the mouse port) that inverts pins 15 and 16 of thel PLCC 8520 (CIA-B) so I can use the HxC as DF0 when I need to boot games/demos or as a normal DF1 drive.
The HxC can be connected using a External Floppy A1011 or making a correct cable.
Be careful with the PLCC, its near the internal floppy connector, quite difficult to desolder the pins.
Useful info here:
http://www.amiga-stuff.com/hardware/8520.html
A similar mod could be done for A500 (quite simple) or A1200 (PLCC).

[Retro1234]

Well done guys Now both you and Jope have one of these hows bout a little review.

[saxabar]

Originally Posted by Boo Boo

Well done guys Now both you and Jope have one of these hows bout a little review.

Mmm, a review... unfortunately my english is not very good but I will try to highlight the main features and the cons.

There are two versions of HxC: USB and SDcard. I have the USB because it's easier to find and it's more user friendly (just drag and drop the images).

I have tried it with my a500, a600 and a1200 (and also atari st and msx) and it works flawlessly.

Usually you have to disconnect the internal floppy drive and to attach the HxC instead of.

It has 4 holes arranged like the ones of the floppies so it could be easily mounted inside the case.

It supports ADF and IPS. I tried a lot of them and they worked very well.

After connected the device to the amiga and turned on the PC you have to load the program (it works with winxp but also with old 9x versions) and then you have to drag&drop the images you like to use.
If required you can change the disk (for example multi-disk games) dragging the second, etc image on the pc program.

Advantages :
easy to use
highly compatible

Disadvantages :
images are readonly (but SDcard version can write)
you have to open the case and disconnect the standard floppy (but it's possible to use the trick like I've done or use it as DF1)

Price:
60Euro more or less (I found it on ebay)

Conclusions:
I'm very happy with it also because it supports a lot of different formats (and others are coming)

[Retro1234]

Thanks thats a good Review and 60Euro is Ok -Im definitely intrested in getting one of these but id rather have a standalone one.

[saxabar]

Here you can find all the schematics to build it and other useful info:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html

Using it in conjunction with PowerCopy Pro probably you could write back (some) copy-protected IPS images to floppy

[whiteb]

Originally Posted by saxabar

IPS images

IPF ?

[saxabar]

Originally Posted by whiteb

IPF ?

IPF sorry, mixed SPS with IPF

[bebek]

Originally Posted by saxabar

Disadvantages :
images are readonly (but SDcard version can write)
you have to open the case and disconnect the standard floppy (but it's possible to use the trick like I've done or use it as DF1)

I think that SD version does not support writing on Amiga.