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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: rossi46 on February 14, 2010, 08:40:44 AM

Title: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: rossi46 on February 14, 2010, 08:40:44 AM

Hi all.

I'm looking to connect an external CD drive to my A1200 and was wondering what my choice of drives actually is. I have the Surf Squirrel SCSI cable already. Can I add any SCSI CD drive?

Alternatively, how easy is it to add an IDE laptop drive to the A1200? Do I need extra cables, drivers or software?

Thanks

Paul

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: tone007 on February 14, 2010, 11:29:27 AM

Any SCSI CD drive should work provided you've got the right cables/adapters to hook it up, and HDD into the 1200 is easy as well, but you will need a 44 pin cable.

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: ElPolloDiabl on February 14, 2010, 02:02:42 PM

Only trouble with the IDE is it maxes about 500k a second. The SCSI will get you up 5MB/s.

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: tone007 on February 14, 2010, 02:15:37 PM

Never had that problem, tried VLC?

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: a1200 on February 14, 2010, 02:24:18 PM

Probably the best way to do it if you have a Squirrel SCSI is the external SCSI CD Drive route.

You can put a laptop drive internally with a Fast ATA buffered interface and IDEfix its quite acceptable. I can't find the pics of my modded ones right now, but I think there must be some pics on the a.org gallery.

The other way is to put an ide cable out of the machine to an IDE drive, such as how I did the A600 on http://www.amiga600.net. However, if I was to do it again, I would put a socket on the side so the cable could be disconnected.

Good luck!

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: rockape on February 14, 2010, 02:52:08 PM

Hi,


See  http://www.amiga-resistance.info/bboahfaq/index.php?sid=76470&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=71&id=3295&artlang=en


And

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/squirrel

For Squirrel info, I have one and it's an easy way to add a SCSI Hard Drive/Zip Drive or CD ROM Drive to your A600/A1200

Regards, Michael

aka rockape

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: TheGoose on February 14, 2010, 04:20:36 PM

Anybody know if anyone has connected a slimline cdrom drive to an A1200 (via IDE) ? Looking for an example. Something like:

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/cd_224e

EDIT

Never mind that, I found some pics and post for this...

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: Tajmaster on February 14, 2010, 05:12:08 PM

Quote from: rossi46;543086

Hi all.
 
I'm looking to connect an external CD drive to my A1200 and was wondering what my choice of drives actually is. I have the Surf Squirrel SCSI cable already. Can I add any SCSI CD drive?
 
Alternatively, how easy is it to add an IDE laptop drive to the A1200? Do I need extra cables, drivers or software?
 
Thanks
 
Paul

As you already have the Squirrel I would go down that route. I have one and use an external SCSI CDROM with no issues at all :)
 
I got an external case off eBay For around £15 quid all inc :
 
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250360350348
 
and any cheap 50 pin SCSI CDROM drive will go into that nicely, job done :)
The IDE method involves a bit more messing around and also means you have a reboot when you start the Amiga cold for the IDEFix patch to become resident.

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: motrucker on February 14, 2010, 07:03:30 PM

Since you have the Squirrel interface, the external SCSI is the best choice by far. I used that same setup with my old A1200 for years with no problems at all. I even added a Sony CD writer that worked fine!
Depending on where you are located, I may be able to help you with an external SCSI drive/case setup.
Good luck

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: a1200 on February 15, 2010, 10:39:01 AM

OK with a bit of searching on the forum, I have found one of the case mods. Note this was an early one I did and my cutting tools were not perfect, so the cut is less than straight, however the silicone sealant was needed regardless to hold it in place.

I did do another one, which was a little tidier, but don't have those pics on me right now.

http://freespace.virgin.net/a1200.68030/drathro1.jpg
http://freespace.virgin.net/a1200.68030/drathro2.jpg
http://freespace.virgin.net/a1200.68030/drathro3.jpg
http://freespace.virgin.net/a1200.68030/drathro4.jpg
http://freespace.virgin.net/a1200.68030/drathro5.jpg
http://freespace.virgin.net/a1200.68030/drathro6.jpg


I don't even have that virgin.net account anymore, so that webspace must have fallen under Richard Branson's radar... I wonder if I dial up on my virgin dial-up account (used when ADSL/3G connection isn't available) and try and FTP in, if could access the space? No matter. Anyway, there are some pics, I will try and find the better mod in the future.

Title: Re: Connecting a CD drive to my A1200
Post by: Karlos on February 15, 2010, 11:46:50 AM

Quote from: Fanscale;543122

Only trouble with the IDE is it maxes about 500k a second. The SCSI will get you up 5MB/s.

For PIO, it rather depends on your CPU. My old PCMCIA atapi CD Rom used to manage about 1.5MB/s, but it sucked up CPU cycles.

Any kind of DMA driven SCSI device will be better, but the first thing you'd want to put on that would be a hard disk.