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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: amigan24 on December 30, 2008, 10:07:53 PM

Title: a1200 / a600 searching for floppy drive..can I bypass this?
Post by: amigan24 on December 30, 2008, 10:07:53 PM: I recently removed the internal floppy drive from both my a1200 / a600 and noticed it now takes longer to boot from the ide cf.

Is there any way to mod the amiga to keep it from searching?
Title: Re: a1200 / a600 searching for floppy drive..can I bypass this?
Post by: amigakit on December 30, 2008, 10:11:18 PM: Amiga DF0: Floppy Terminator:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=832

(http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/amiga-df0-terminator.jpg)
Title: ? * 2
Post by: weirdami on December 30, 2008, 11:29:48 PM: Is that just a resistor on a stick?

and

Is leamancomputing an umbrella corporation?
Title: Re: ? * 2
Post by: whiteb on December 30, 2008, 11:39:12 PM: Quote

weirdami wrote:
Is that just a resistor on a stick?

and

Is leamancomputing an umbrella corporation?

No, its a signal diode. The body color, with the Polarity marking on the right. They allow current flow in ONE direction and not the other, instead of a resistor which adds a certain amount of resistance to the current flow.

Signal diodes are like heart valves, the blood flows one way, but when the blood tries to flow back they slam shut.

Without looking at the other side of the circuit, its probably just bridging two pins of the floppy connector to fool the Amiga into thinking a Floppy drive is present.
Title: Re: ? * 2
Post by: weirdami on December 31, 2008, 12:26:41 AM: neat.
Title: Re: a1200 / a600 searching for floppy drive..can I bypass this?
Post by: amigan24 on December 31, 2008, 05:31:36 AM: Thanks for the quick reply!

This seems like a decent solution but truth be told $10 + shipping (I'd need two units) seems like far more than I'd like to spend if this is in fact just a diode wired to two pins...I'd rather put this money toward an order or two of the indivision units. That and I have plenty of diodes sitting here waiting to be used, as well as needing every bit of space I can get.

Before I get flamed I'd like to point out that if I must pay I will but really, this $10-$15 is already spoken for by amigakit when the items are back in stock.

Having said that, might anyone know the value of diode and what pins if applicable? I noticed this page but really have no idea what this means: http://pinouts.ru/Storage/InternalDisk_pinout.shtml

I'd like to learn! Also, is it possible to power something that would otherwise take a 9v battery using the floppy power connector?
Title: Re: a1200 / a600 searching for floppy drive..can I bypass this?
Post by: orange on December 31, 2008, 07:30:58 AM: have a look at aminet, i'm sure this hack is there. it will tell you what diode (probably any 'ordinary') and which pins.

floppy power has +5 and +12 volts, be careful not to 'overload it' by taking too much current. don't try to get 7Volts (12-5), you might damage something.

you need some 'DC to DC converter' to get other voltages.
Title: Re: a1200 / a600 searching for floppy drive..can I bypass this?
Post by: amigan24 on December 31, 2008, 07:46:28 PM: /doh

Aminet completely slipped my mind. :-)

I found a txt file with the info I needed buried deep within it. All you need is pin 2 and 10 wired together, which is what I figured after I posted, but needed some reassurance.

Thanks again for the advice and now I'm just patiently waiting to send my cash on over to amigakit for an indivision.
Title: Re: a1200 / a600 searching for floppy drive..can I bypass this?
Post by: murple on January 01, 2009, 12:06:50 AM: I forget what it's called, but on Aminet there is a program you can put on your hard drive to disable boot time floppy seek. I have it on my 1200. I sorta recall there were 2 or 3 programs to do this. I assume they'd work on a 600 with a hard drive as well.

Alternatively you could try some of the hardware options already mentioned.
Title: Re: a1200 / a600 searching for floppy drive..can I bypass this?
Post by: orange on January 02, 2009, 10:36:46 PM: murple, but those programs probably won't work on cold boot (the most important one) unless they modify the RDB (probably unlikely)