Catweasel solves the ADF transfer problem!

[Eco]

I just purchased the Catweasel MK4 PCI card, made by Individual Computers. I initially got it to get some authentic SID sound and the joystick ports for my C64 emulation, but I just realized that it is also a perfect solution to write real Amiga disks out of ADF files.

I already have several solutions to the problem in place (A4000 with a HD disk drive, two Amigas connected to the internet, CD-ROM, even the serial cable..) but I think the Catweasel takes the cake, since it does not require anything on the miggy side - people with A500s and A600s are fine! You don't even need an Amiga drive on the PC, you can use your existing bog-standard PC floppy drive. The Catweasel won't hog it, it can share the drive with the controller on your motherboard. :-D

[Eco]

Getting use of the ports in WinUAE should definitely be a priority. I guess transparent support for Amiga floppies (i.e., just insert an Amiga floppy in the PC drive and off you go) should be possible, but let's get the ports supported first. My trusty PC Competitor interface will tie me over until then :-)

I didn't even try to do the passthrough thing yet, I just read that it is possible. I have two floppy drives so I dedicated an extra 3,5" drive for the Catweasel.

[Eco]

For utilizing your SID chip on the Catweasel, use the ACID 64 Player and the VICE emulator. Jens said that VICE also supports the joystick ports.

When I asked Jens about the WinUAE/Catweasel configuration instructions I found, he told me that:

The MK4 currently does not work at all under WinUAE, but all necessary changes to make installation *much* easier (and without having to remove the Windows driver!) have been done to the driver V 0.1.0.7, which is also an update to the MK3, so the next version of WinUAE will be much easier to use with the Catweasel MK3 and MK4.

Jens also said that there are plans for drivers which will allow you to make use of the Catweasel ports in the "Game controllers" section in the Windows control panel.

[Eco]

@Edpon

The Catweasel MK4 is a PCI card, as seen here. Its main purpose is to allow you to read/write non-standard disks (such as Amiga and C64 disks) using standard PC floppy drives.

There are also two "atari-style" joystick ports, and a mini-din connector for keyboards.

Additionally, the MK4 has two sockets for SID chips, the C64 sound chip. Currently you can use one SID chip only.

The current driver software and application support does not enable the full potential of the card. But you definitely can use it to read and write Amiga disks, for use in any amiga, using the supplied image tool. That is actually my reason for posting this thread.. It's a clever way to write real Amiga disks out of ADF files.

It's also good for preserving your Amiga floppies, just read them and burn the images on a CD. By the way, if you have important stuff on your Amiga floppies, consider doing this as soon as possible. My Amiga disks seem to be deteriorating, but for some reason C64 disks are still going strong, 20 years after the were written... :-o:-D

[Eco]

For some more technical info, see the Catweasel MK4 announcement on the Individual Computers website.