Compatible PCMCIA CD Drives for A1200?

[Argus]

If you are at all handy DIYer, forget pcmcia and buy an internal ide 4-way adaptor and a laptop ide cddrive.  You can then have a cd drive right inside the case. Physically you can cut an appropriately sized hole in the case on either side of the keyboard ribbon connector and it should fit (mine is to the right of it next to the floppy).

[Argus]

amigakit is correct, take the power from the floppy power connector (you'll need some y-adaptors).  Mine works fine with an a500 p/s but a goliath or bigfoot would be better. No power problems with 500 mb 2.5 inch ibm h/d, 24x teac cdrom, Winner 4-way adapter, apollo 1230/40mhz w/ 32mb simm and silversurfer on the clockport. Give it a try before you cut/modify your case top cover.

[Argus]

dvvrue95 wrote:
OK,

so I picked up a used Teac cd 224e slimline from ebay should be with me by Thursday, now just a couple more questions;

1. the winner 4way adapter is this same as the ide 4 way buffered adapter from AMigaKit (@ 16.99)?

Don't know what Amigakit sells, I have a Winner 4-way made by DCE.  These were rebadged and sold by Power Computing and Eyetech back in the day so there's a million of them out there.  You'll need IDEFix software or the like to make it work.

2. can you explain about these y adapters for the power I checked out the FDD pinouts and pin 12 is +5v so I was planning on doing a bit of soldering, but the y adapter sounds a better option with my soldering expertise!

No need to do any soldering, just get yourself a bunch of pc internal power adaptors (that convert the larger drive plastic connector to smaller floppy drive form factor).  You literally plug these in backward from the A1200's internal floppy power plug. Just make sure that you run the right power numbers to the drives.  You really shouldn't have a problem because these connectors are all keyed to prevent mixups.  The A1200 m/b power connector itself has a keyed plastic piece so you shouldn't mix up +5v and +12v; the two wires in the middle are gnd.  Some A500s (all?) on the other hand are missing this plastic key piece so watch out.

OK three questions
3. Am I understanding you correctly, the hole in the case to take the drive is at the REAR of the 1200?

Yeah, you need to carefully cut a hold matching the teac drive in the top portion of the A1200 case.  Before you do this, make sure that everything works and fits together.  It can be a tight squeeze but it's doable.  Maybe I'll post a picture(s) of mine since I mounted it to the right of the ribbon cable and all the others I've seen are to the left hand side of the case.

thanks, Ian.