Minimig Questions

[Starglider]

Hi Amigang, I've tried signing up to the Minimig forum but the activation email was never received, but I'm sure you guys know something about the Minimig.

These are my specific needs and I'm wondering if Minimig is the hardware to go for:

• I want to be able to boot floppy ADF files from a flash card, including obscure ones not available on WHDLoad.
• I want to be able to restore my old Amiga hard disk backup from floppy ADF files, onto a bootable virtual (not real) Amiga hard disk also stored on a flash card.
• I'd like to connect the keyboard of a dead Amiga 500 to the device.

So far, I've ruled out the following:

• HxC only boots virtual floppies not HDs.
• ACA500 only boots virtual HDs not floppies.
• Raspberry Pi is great but the problem comes when connecting an A500 keyboard, as you need to program an Arduino Leonardo board as a go-between.

Will the Minimig allow all the above, especially connecting the A500 keyboard via some sort of PS2 adapter?

[Starglider]

Thanks, yes I've considered getting both into a working A500.  But the Minimig would be cheaper.  Buy 1 device instead of 2.

Do you know if the Minimig does the 1-2-3 above?

Edit: Actually I guess they come out to equal the same price. Still I do prefer the 2-in-1 functionality without having to hack my floppy disk drive to put the HxC in.

[Starglider]

many thanks for the detailed response. So what you seem to be saying is that there is no device that can provide all three of my wishes in one single device? Namely floppy emulation, hard disk emulation, connection of Amiga 500 keyboard.

[Starglider]

As lumi said above, the Chameleon64 should (the docking station adds the Amiga500 keyboard connector and 4 joystick ports), and possibly the newer versions of the FPGA Arcade using a Keyrah (although I'd email MikeJ for confirmation of that first).

I have a ClassicWB HDF file based on WB3.1 that runs on all three of the machines to boot into a nice Workbench screen and run WHDload.  Other games/demos can be run from "floppies" by mounting an ADF file.

I'm sorry but isn't Chameleon64 only for the Commodore 64?

Are you saying I can just plug an Amiga 500's keyboard (not the Amiga itself) into a Chameleon64, via a docking station, and the Chameleon will give me full Amiga emulation, and allow me to boot virtual HDF and ADF files?  No actual Amiga required?

[Starglider]

Looks cool. Also looks unavailable.

But how do I load my ADF and HDF files onto it? I see no SD card port.

[Starglider]

Ah yes thank you.  This pretty exciting.

So just to clarify:

I can boot ADF floppies from Chameleon64
I can boot HDF hard disks from Chameleon64
I can plug my Amiga 500 keyboard into Chameleon64 (via dock)

One last thing then, can I install it into the A500 case, using extension leads to break out the sockets (like joystick) to the A500 rear ports?  Or would I have issues as the Chameleon64 buttons need to be accessible?

[Starglider]

Also, where can I buy the Chameleon64 + dock? Out of stock everywhere.

[Starglider]

Woah $325 without the dock.

 can I install it into the A500 case, using extension leads to break out the sockets (like joystick) to the A500 rear ports? Or would I have issues as the Chameleon64 buttons need to be accessible?

Can it emulate all  kickstarter chips and different processor like UAE?

[Starglider]

Thanks for the advice.  It's just that I already own the dead A500, so A1200 doesn't really fit in the plan.  Plus the A500 is my nostalgia.  If I'm going to use an A1200 I may as well put a Vic-20 around the Minimig as I never owned that either

I'm leaning towards putting a Raspberry Pi in the A500 case and breaking out all the cables to the back ports. Then using the Arduino Leonardo to handle the A500 keyboard. Seems that's the cheapest way to achieve ADF and HDF emulation. $32.50 instead of $325 without the docks.