Dying Classic Floppy drives

[Jeff]

I haven't seen any updates to the floppy drive replacement project in a while. It sure looks like a much needed development. In the mean while as all of our floppy drives are getting sick and dying... :-)

One of my A4000T's has this device attached to the back of a Sony PC floppy drive and it works quite well.
http://amigahardware.mariomisic.de/cgi-bin/showhardware_en.cgi?HARDID=381

The floppy drives still seem to be around too. Granted these are black;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280116208705&rd=1&rd=1

but I think they would still work if we could replicate the small circuit board. It seems to have 1 PAL. How hard would it be to make a dozen or so of these?  Would it even be worth the trouble?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Jeff]

My A4000T came with that model Sony HD drive installed with the little converter on the back and it works great. It looks like a standard drive that is still available. I could probably make the little board with Eagle or something, but I have never actually done it. Someone that has made PC boards before could probably do this in no time, and there are companies online that you just email the .brd file to.

As far as duplicating the PAL IC, for all I know this could range from simple to impossible. Again someone will know:-)

Either that, or we need a device that will replace the floppy with an SD card, or perhaps a modification to the Kickstart ROM so the machine will boot to something other than a floppy drive at DFX:
 

[Jeff]

The only currently available Catweasel is a $110.00 PCI card unless I am missing something. None of my classic machines have a PCI slot, at least not yet.

What I was looking for is an inexpensive readily available solution for replacing floppy drives on classic machines, not all of which even have Zorro slots.

[Jeff]

The small PCB with the PAL was exactly what I was thinking about trying to replicate. This seems to allow certain HD floppies to work in HD mode.

This site has plans for a simpler version (DD Only I'm sure), and even seems to sell the ready made boards. Perhaps I'll just try that instead.

http://www.amigasc.nm.ru/english/download.html

If you can't copy that PAL with your correct equipment and experience I won't even try:-D

Thanks to everyone for all of the ideas.