Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Retrofan on June 16, 2010, 09:03:35 PM
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I've seen this at Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180516490246
They will be available on 26.06.2010
Will they be usefull?
(http://www.torlus.com/floppy/images/finalsdhxcfloppyemu3.jpg)
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Its a nice project... Except it doesnt support native ADF format read\write you have to convert them. It does not mount to the case floppy slot very well... PCB Board should be designed as a drop in floppy replacement with controls and sd accessible through floppy slot and well as screwing to the floppy mounts on the case... Its kinda a fugly install in its current form... But a nice concept none the less... Just my 2 cents...
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ive got one and the only problem is that it doesnt mount well into the case... it will involve a bit of hacking to get it in there.
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Write support not available on Amiga computers !
That's the only problem I have with it and that is not useful when saving a game.
You are better off with a CF adapter and IDE controller, even if it is for an A500 and then WHDload on it and your done.
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It says "LCD and buttons can be put on an external front panel"
If so, I think they should have done it so the LCD screen could be towards the right of the Amiga, in the place of the floppy into something similar to a floppy box, and the SD card beside...
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They say LCD and buttons can be put on an external front panel, so they should have done it so the card could fit into the floppy hole and the LCD screen, buttons and SD card could be in a panel outside where the floppy goes, covering the hole of it.
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It's a nice project indeed! Not to mention it's the only way to have an internal floppy type of implementation to an Amiga 600 with A603+Indivision ECS :)
Some drawbacks are:
- Not being able to write but only read from images (for Amiga computers)
- Not native ADF support (have to convert every ADF to HFE through software)
- Not Alphabetical order in files (iirc it's based on creation timestamp)
You can easily mount an header in a designated part on the PCB where all the signals (for LCD panel + 3xButtons) exist, to mount it externaly wherever you want on the case (with a bit of hackery ofc)
(http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/2572/dsc03109m.th.jpg) (http://img153.imageshack.us/i/dsc03109m.jpg/) (http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8248/dsc03122nc.th.jpg) (http://img245.imageshack.us/i/dsc03122nc.jpg/) (http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9529/dsc03142b.th.jpg) (http://img341.imageshack.us/i/dsc03142b.jpg/)(http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/1909/dsc03121j.th.jpg) (http://img683.imageshack.us/i/dsc03121j.jpg/)
Jeff made a firmware for Atari users being able to control the SD Emulator from the computer (without LCD screen) making it very nice without extra modding to the case.
Dunno if he will ever make a firmware that will support Amiga as well... but here's hopin' :)
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How about using an Acrappy emulator to control the device? I'm pretty sure the Amiga can do it.
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@Mfilos,
Where did you get the cables to extend the screen, i can't find anything?
Anychance you can get me some if I paypal you the funds?
By the way your A600 always puts mine to shame, such a nice peice of work. Wish I had your Skills :)
Steve.
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I do not have the SD version, but I do have the USB version.
The only real benefit to these (that I can see) is being able to load ADF images off a virtual drive, thus negating the need to wrestle with your aging floppy drive and floppies. Some games may not be friendly with WHDLoad or your Computer for that matter, so this may be a solution there. Likewise it's great for system installs or floppy based installs like Brilliance, which is pretty much the only thing I use mine for. A reason I feel makes a device like this well justified.
If your goal is to back up floppies, another solution is on the way from a different source.
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Will they be usefull?
Very! That is - apart from the two main holdbacks mentioned above being the inability to write (at the moment) to a file on the Amiga and the awkward shape/layout.
From the perspective of the actual job it does, it's fantastic. It realistically means not having the need to have mountains of floppy disks to hold my favourite games/programs! I've got a 2g SD card I convert the files to using my PC, put them in the emulator on my A4000 and enjoy!
When I found out about this project a while back, but realised that only the USB/PC reliant version was being made I remember opening a thread on this forum to get an idea of the interest for the SD card based version - the result was well in truly in favour of this version! The author got involved in the thread, and here we are! I don't regret buying one, and I'd have to put it on par with usefulness to the 1541-Ultimate! :D
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Good News !!!
Amiga Write support added
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
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UFE looks better but it needs someone to bring it into productions.
http://busydizzys.com/index.php/2010/07/28/emulating-an-amiga-floppy-drive-and-others
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UFE looks better for Amiga, but I like the work of Jeff and the many systems supported..
It's a shame that I couldn't buy one yet, but I hope to have one really soon...
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Important update of the SD HxC Floppy Emulator for Amiga users:
-> Write support added for Amiga !
Quote:
22/08/2010: Firmware SD HxCFloppyEmulator v1.3.0.0
- Amiga Write support added :
Note to the Revision B PCB owners :
To activate this new features you need to add a Microchip 23K256 SPI SRAM chip and 4 resistors.
The connection to do is :
23K256 pin 1 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 22
23K256 pin 5 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 27
23K256 pin 6 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 28
23K256 pin 2 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 29
23K256 pin 8 & 7 -> VCC3.3V (this voltage can be found at the capacitor under the sdcard connector or at the output of the regulator)
23K256 pin 4 -> GND
23K256 pin 3 -> Not connected.
(a 100nF capacitor is also recommended at the pin 8 of the 23K256)
After this modification you should see the message "SRAM OK" at power up.
More infos here:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html#SDCARDFloppyemulator
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Hi,
Finally i managed to port the file selector software to Amiga:
(http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/vrac/amiga_hxcfemng.jpg)
Rev B & C Hardware are supported. You have just to get the lastest firmware update and file selector software on the project website:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html#download
(http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/vrac/sdhxcfe_insidea500.jpg)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zP6p9SBLw)
A small video demo of SD Card HxC Floppy Emulator used with the file selector software:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zP6p9SBLw
Project webpage:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
Producer webpage:
http://www.lotharek.pl/
:)
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I can only thank you for your hard work, because this product kicks some serious ass! With this control software it's an almost perfect replacement for any FDD drive. I'll order one as soon as I have some free cash. Thanks.
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It seems to me that the selector software is just an ordinary amiga program that boots from a default image, and not something that runs on the floppy emulator with overlay on the amiga display, like the UFE one - am I right? If so, is there anything preventing a more system conform gui based selector application to use from workbench? Some of us use our machines for more than gaming consoles, you know :)
The cooles thing would ofcourse be to have a device driver so that one can actually mount the SD card itself from AmigaOS as well.
Oh, and support for ISO files, I know - aint gonna happen, it's a floppy drive controller there after all :)
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It seems to me that the selector software is just an ordinary amiga program that boots from a default image, and not something that runs on the floppy emulator with overlay on the amiga display, like the UFE one - am I right? If so, is there anything preventing a more system conform gui based selector application to use from workbench? Some of us use our machines for more than gaming consoles, you know :)
Yes this is exactly this, and a WB tool is something possible too.
But for the moment my programming skills on Amiga is not enough to do this ;-)
Maybe latter :-)
(if someone want to code this, contact me by email)
The cooles thing would ofcourse be to have a device driver so that one can actually mount the SD card itself from AmigaOS as well.
Oh, and support for ISO files, I know - aint gonna happen, it's a floppy drive controller there after all :)
You got the point : For example i plan to code a small Hard Disk driver for Atari ST to emulate an hard disk drive from the SDCard. On Amiga this is less interesting, or maybe on A500. Anyway this can be interesting to put floppy images on the SD from the WB... mhh nice idea ;-) .
Here a small tech doc for programmer explaining how to use the "Direct Access Mode" of the HxC Floppy Emulator:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/SDCard_HxC_Floppy_Emulator_Direct_Access_mode.pdf
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Can you leave your floppy drive in and install this as a second floppy?
Can you access the disk and files it contains in shell or workbench?
Steven
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Wow cool, so there is direct access methods, meaning basically that all the crazy stuff I mentioned might be possible :)
Btw - how do I know what revision my HxC-SDs are? My two ones are from Lotharek, and they're red PCB, so perhaps Rev A?
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Wow cool, so there is direct access methods, meaning basically that all the crazy stuff I mentioned might be possible :)
Btw - how do I know what revision my HxC-SDs are? My two ones are from Lotharek, and they're red PCB, so perhaps Rev A?
No it's a revision B version.
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Can you leave your floppy drive in and install this as a second floppy?
Yes
Can you access the disk and files it contains in shell or workbench?
Steven
This is a floppy emulator so yes.
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Rev C SD HxC Floppy emulator are now available:
(http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/vrac/sdhxcfe_revc.jpg)
:)
Note: You can remove the LCD screen if you want.
Hi,
Finally i managed to port the file selector software to Amiga:
(http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/vrac/amiga_hxcfemng.jpg)
Rev B & C Hardware are supported. You have just to get the lastest firmware update and file selector software on the project website:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html#download
(http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/vrac/sdhxcfe_insidea500.jpg)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zP6p9SBLw)
A small video demo of SD Card HxC Floppy Emulator used with the file selector software:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zP6p9SBLw
Project webpage:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
Producer webpage:
http://www.lotharek.pl/
:)
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Can somebody tell me if it's possible to connect it internally as second floppy, and the most important, how?
I would like to know the measurements it has, please.
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Can somebody tell me if it's possible to connect it internally as second floppy, and the most important, how?
I would like to know the measurements it has, please.
Which machine ? A500, A600, A1200 ?
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A1200. Could it be something like a ribbon cable that could connect both at the same time and configuring one of the floppys as primary and the other secundary if that's possible? Sorry, I'm almost new opening PC's and so...
Or perhaps with the 4 device buffered interface?
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A1200. Could it be something like a ribbon cable that could connect both at the same time and configuring one of the floppys as primary and the other secundary if that's possible? Sorry, I'm almost new opening PC's and so...
Or perhaps with the 4 device buffered interface?
You just need a pc floppy cable with 3 connector (1 connected to the A1200, 1 to the floppy disk drive, and the last one to the emulator.).
http://openbookconsulting.org/giip/hardware/images/floppy-ribbon-cable.jpg
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Rev C (with amiga write support) SD HxC Floppy Emulator Preorder is now open ! :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180575793600
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Rev C (with amiga write support) SD HxC Floppy Emulator Preorder is now open ! :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180575793600
Thanks for doing another run of these Jeff. I've been wanting one since the write support was added! Pre-order placed.
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Ah, so mines are rev B - good to know :)
Maybe you could quickly summarize the differences between the three revisions?
Eidt: OK, from reading a little (hohum) I see that the rev B needs modifications to have write support for amiga, while rev C doesn't. Does that mean that a modified B is identical with a rev C, or is there more? :)
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Eidt: OK, from reading a little (hohum) I see that the rev B needs modifications to have write support for amiga, while rev C doesn't. Does that mean that a modified B is identical with a rev C, or is there more? :)
Yes modded rev B = rev C
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I want to make a clear enclosure like this:
(http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/fitzsteve/IMG_9883.jpg)
And I need to know the measurements the A1200 card has. Are they 100x65mm?
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I would like to know if there's somekind of switch to change between Df0 and Df1 that could be done in an A1200, and a guide to do it if that's possible.
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I would like to know if there's somekind of switch to change between Df0 and Df1 that could be done in an A1200, and a guide to do it if that's possible.
Why not take an external 3,5" floppy drive case and build it in there ?
Then take a connector just like the external DF1 connector and place it near the Joystick port 1 (warning label) on an A500 and solder a floppy cable to it and your done.
You can use the DF0 space for a harddrive or CF adapter.
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I would like to keep the Chinon one inside and adding it outside. I've heard about making a switch to change between Df0 for one or another... and in the A1200 I don't have place to put another floppy output (I'm using the trapdoor under the floppy for USB and an Indivision Aga connector whenever I get one).
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There's one thing that I like in the HxC project (that others will hate), appart of the use it gives, that is the hackering you have to do to install it. I love that part. Well, I've been thinking how to put it, inside or outside the A1200.
I was thinking to make it outside, like the photo of the clear enclosure, I've bought the perspex even. What I was going to do, that the one that did it didn't get to do is to put the buttons and close the box. He wanted to put the screen at the front and the buttons too. My idea if someone wants to do it is very simple: you close the box making a slot at the front side to introduce the Sd card, you leave the screen where it is, which is the best place to see it, and you only have to make three 3mm drills on the upper side of the box, above where the buttons are. Then you can cut three 3mm acrylic clear rods that you pass through the holes, with a drop of loctite over the buttons and you can use that rods as buttons from outside of the box.
I think that's a good idea, and didn't want to comment till I had it finished, but thinking well the best way will be to make it internally... Why?
I was thinking why the guy that did that beautiful external HxC floppy in the clear enclosure sold it, and what I believe is that if you find difficult to make the switch to change Df0 from a floppy to the other (I do), and if you want to keep the Chinon one inside working, you will have for example only a couple of games that will play from Df1, that has to be very frustrating.
So, what I'm planning to do now is to put it internally, with the same ribbon cable of the floppy with two connectors for both floppys. I have some ideas of how to do it too, that will post when I'll make it.
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Are there pin headers for the buttons? That would be helpful for making a custom case since you could easilty put buttons wherever you like.
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Pin headers... no, for what I've seen it has Mitsumi 4 pin buttons (recently I had to change one of the tank style mouse, that's why I know them now), but yes, you can solder a cable on the hole where they plug into, or solder pins and put them wherever you want, but would be too much cables, and with an acrylic or perspex clear rod you don't need to change the position, and it would look beautiful.
EDIT: For those that never look the Amiga marketplace forum, look what nice Commodore PC cases are for sale on Ebay:
http://amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54985
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Are there pin headers for the buttons? That would be helpful for making a custom case since you could easilty put buttons wherever you like.
Yes there are a "front panel" connector on the board with buttons and lcd signals.
For the pinout have a look in the user manual:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/SDCard_HxC_Floppy_Emulator_User_Manual.pdf
@Retrofan : please read the manual for the front panel pinout...
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But for the external clear enclosure you don't need to move anything as I said, and it would mean always more cables that you see on it. In a metallic box or inside the Amiga you can put as much cables as you want, as you don't see them, and yes, it's prepared to solder a header leaving the buttons where they are and put others outside.
I've seen this in an abime thread:
"The bad thing with this adapter (as it comes) is that it doesn't have a header for mounting the LCD Display + Buttons externaly. (In my case since I'm gonna install it inside A600 - in Floppy drive's position - I wanted the LCD+buttons somewhere else).
Of course the header place exists along with the signals so I just soldered the header myself.
(http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/1802/dsc03106qh.th.jpg) (http://img121.imageshack.us/i/dsc03106qh.jpg/)"
(http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5254/dsc03110u.th.jpg) (http://img268.imageshack.us/i/dsc03110u.jpg/)
EDIT:
I'm still not sure if making it externally or internally. I have to think in the benefits on having the screen (externally) or not (I won't make that hole on the Amiga), and I won't be booting games from Df0, as I use Whdload.
I have a dude. Do I need to use the buttons if I put the HxC internally?
Will I need at least the eject button?
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Hi
New Rev C SD HxC Floppy Emulator Preorder :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180592972686
and a new webstore is now open :
http://www.lotharek.pl/
http://lotharek.pl/null/product/info/3
Project webpage :
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator
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I have a dude. Do I need to use the buttons if I put the HxC internally?
Will I need at least the eject button?
If you intend to use the file image selector software you just need the "next" button.
Connect this one on the front panel connector. (without removing the on-board buttons ;-) )
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Hi:
On saturday I received my HxC and I've made my own style clear enclosure. It's made to size and I changed the buttons it had and the ribbon cable connector and I put an angled one to avoid having to put more cables inside. For the buttons, as I said I've made 3 longs rods, and for the Sd an slot.
So it's closed, not as the one of fitzsteve. Do you like it?
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5026/abcd0020uk.jpg
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You just need a pc floppy cable with 3 connector (1 connected to the A1200, 1 to the floppy disk drive, and the last one to the emulator.).
http://openbookconsulting.org/giip/hardware/images/floppy-ribbon-cable.jpg
Will this definitely work on an A1200? You can have your internal Drive as DF0: and the HxC as DF0? - If it does this would make life a lot easyer
Having the HxC as DF1 is pointless
There is some info on EAB about building a switch so you can connect the HxC to the external port and switch between DF0 & DF1
& Nice Case Retrofan and nice to see the updates Jeff :)
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Hi:
On saturday I received my HxC and I've made my own style clear enclosure. It's made to size and I changed the buttons it had and the ribbon cable connector and I put an angled one to avoid having to put more cables inside. For the buttons, as I said I've made 3 longs rods, and for the Sd an slot.
So it's closed, not as the one of fitzsteve. Do you like it?
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5026/abcd0020uk.jpg
Really nice job, congratulation!
I'm planning to use transprent plexi in my next project too. :)
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Will this definitely work on an A1200? You can have your internal Drive as DF0: and the HxC as DF0? - If it does this would make life a lot easyer
Having the HxC as DF1 is pointless
There is some info on EAB about building a switch so you can connect the HxC to the external port and switch between DF0 & DF1
& Nice Case Retrofan and nice to see the updates Jeff :)
I have just talk to Fitzteve and he has told me "...The irony is that now the ACA630 is comming out with a simple jumper switch to make external FDD (or the HxC) DF0 it would have done what I wanted and maybe I wouldn't have sold it (http://eab.abime.net/images/smilies/frown.gif)"
I have to see if that's possible in the ACA 1230...
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If you intend to use the file image selector software you just need the "next" button.
Connect this one on the front panel connector. (without removing the on-board buttons ;-) )
Hi:
Where the file image selector software is? I haven't seen it.
Oh, forget it, I've found it. I will install it. Thanks.
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Really nice job, congratulation!
I'm planning to use transprent plexi in my next project too. :)
Then I tell you: you can use 3mm perspex one, but I woudn't do again at the rear part, as the cable is thick it will make preasure on it while moving, so you should use 4mm one, and you'll have to cut the plastic rubber of the cable where it plugs so it will let you introduce it, and you don't need to change the buttons. I've thought you can use the ones it has and use an small clear tube (or heat shink tube if you find black rods) to join them to the rods :)