How to get files to an amiga

[badalias]

I have a similar situation:

    I have an Amiga 1000 with dual 880K floppy drives (one external, one internal) and the following disks:

Kickstart 1.3
Workbench 1.3
Extras 1.3
2091 Install
2058 RAM Test

Workbench 2.05
Extras 2.05
Fonts 2.05
Install 2.05

    I'm trying to get some games (Legally, of course) and have some ADF files on my PC How  might I get them onto real Amiga disks without spending much money? (<$5) I am able to do small electronics projects/cables, and have good grasp of IBM DOS.

    While I'm at it, I'm looking for a Kickstart 2.05 disk, anybody know where/how I might find one? I have two each of the last 4 disks listed and 4 of the RAM Test disks (All Original ***See EDIT below***), so I might be persuaded to trade my spare copy for the Kickstart 2.05 disk, or any newer Kickstart, Workbench or third party utility disks that are available.


I don't know if any of the disks I have are un-modified, but they have factory supplied Amiga labels on them.

The Extras 1.3 disks below are, unfortunately, modified.
See Basic on Extras 1.3 disk - Where? and Re: Serial/Parallel Cable File Transfers for more details


I also have two Extras 1.3 disks which means that I could also be convinced to trade one of them off for something I'm looking for too...

[badalias]

SamuraiCrow:

As I understand it, (and I could be quite wrong here as I'm new to using Amigas) the A1000 ROM resides on the "Kickstart" disk.

I found a file (Forget what it was named) on aminet that requires ROM images that I don't have and makes a special Kickstart disk. (For dual booting, I think...) Anybody got copies of "KICK13.ROM" and "KICK31.ROM" and ADF files of the Workbench/Extras/Fonts/Etc for 3.1?

P.S.: I also have two Extras 1.3 disks which means that I could also be convinced to trade one of them off for something I'm lookinng for too...

[badalias]

DETAILS!

I need details RE: Sending files via cable from my PC to my A1000. Specifically, the pinout of said cables, and second any/all details about the DOS commands neccessary to do this on both sides of the transfer.

***REMEMBER***
My A1000 has only Workbench 1.3 at the moment...

Also:
Please read my first post about what I'm looking for, and what I will barter with...

[badalias]

Noster:
Due to the questionable feedback, and  my lack of organization, I posted my other post RE: Serial/Parallel Cable File Transfers Waaayyyy down from here.

With an old Amiga with Kickstart 1.3 you cannot use such nice tools as PC2Amiga with a LapLink cable, but you can use a serial connection to transfer files between these computers.

So I've heard, Do you have more details, Perhaps a nice step-by-step for newbies???

If you want to write ADF-files to Amiga disks, you can use TransWarp or TransDisk on the Amiga and ADFSender at the (Windows-)PC.

What are these? Where do you get them? (How do I get the Amiga stuff onto Amiga Disks?)

If you own an old PC (486), you can use TWINExpress for a 115200 baud connection between a standard Amiga and a PC. This tool is also usefull between two Amigas, I have reached upto 190000 baud between two unenhanced A1000's !!

http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/aminet/comm/term/twin_11a.lha

To get the initial file (the transfertool) to your Amiga, you could start a simple terminal program on your PC and copy the file to the serial port connected to your Amiga and open a shell on the Amiga and type something like:

copy SER: to RAM:twin.lha

This way the file is copied to the Amigas RAM-disk.

More details *please*?

[badalias]

Noster wrote:
Build this cable, and copy the transfer-tool (e.g. TransWarp can be found in Aminet) to the A1000 as I've mentioned earlier in this thread.

There were several posts about software problems, (timeouts, write errors, etc...) can you give sep-by-step for idiots like me?

[badalias]

Yeah, thanks, I have a road trip today, and should have gone to bed several hours ago... It's 5AM here, and I've fried several things in the past due to lack of rest... Take your time, I'll be back some time this weekend for sure...

[color=ff0000]***Noster, you're incredible, THANKS FOR THE HELP!***[/color]

[badalias]

Noster wrote:

@chertel + badalias

If you own the original Workbench disk, do you also own the Extras disk containing Amiga Basic?
I will write a small program that is able to read data from the serial port and write it to a destination file in Amiga Basic. Such a Basic program can be transfered to an Amiga and be written to disk using the Type command, because Amiga Basic programs are just simple text-files. So anybody that owns a Workbench (1.2/1.3) and the according Extras disk can transfer the Amiga Basic program to his Amiga and use that program to load a better program (e.g. a terminal program) to the Amiga.

I think it will take 2-3 days to write and test such a tool (currently I'm not fit in Amiga Basic any more, last time I used it was 15 years ago :-)). Are you interested?

I think I have a copy of the disks mentioned, I am interested in the Amiga Basic program, let us all know when it's done. (Maybe even give us a listing in a separate post)

Thanks for the extra effort.

BadAlias

[badalias]

Noster wrote:

@chertel + badalias

If you own the original Workbench disk, do you also own the Extras disk containing Amiga Basic?
I will write a small program that is able to read data from the serial port and write it to a destination file in Amiga Basic. Such a Basic program can be transfered to an Amiga and be written to disk using the Type command, because Amiga Basic programs are just simple text-files. So anybody that owns a Workbench (1.2/1.3) and the according Extras disk can transfer the Amiga Basic program to his Amiga and use that program to load a better program (e.g. a terminal program) to the Amiga.

I think it will take 2-3 days to write and test such a tool (currently I'm not fit in Amiga Basic any more, last time I used it was 15 years ago :-)). Are you interested?

I think I have a copy of the disks mentioned, I am interested in the Amiga Basic program, let us all know when it's done. (Maybe even give us a listing in a separate post)

Thanks for the extra effort.

BadAlias

Am I missing some files on my Extras 1.3 disk? I remember reading that you can see more files on amiga disks using  Amiga DOS, but I have misplaced the only Amiga books I have in a recent move. (They were third party books, not the original amiga manuals.)

Anybody care to tutor me?

My Extras 1.3 disk looks like this:

Tools (Folder)
 - EMacs (File)
 - Fed (File)
 - FreeMap (File)
 - PerfMon (File)
 - IconEd (File)
 - KeyToy2000 (File)
 - Palette (File)
 - IconnMerge
PCUtil (Folder)
 - PCCopy (File)
 - PCFormat (File)
 - ToPCCopy (File)
 - ReadMe (File)
FD1.3 (Folder)
 - BASIC FD files here! (File - Won't open!)
Fonts (Folder - Empty)
Devs (Folder - Empty)
Trashcan (Folder? - Empty)

[badalias]

The PCUtil folder on my Extras 1.3 disk seems to have what I'd need to use 5.25" disks to transfer files to my Amiga using an Amiga 1020 drive. Could I convert my 1010 Dirve to a 1020 drive using a 5.25" 1.2Mb drive from a PC (For example from an old 286)?

BadAlias

Just posted something similar called 5.25" or 3.5" HD External Floppy Drive question as it's more closely related to the topic there.

[badalias]

Check out WarTrans - Warlock's Amiga Transfer Program, I just found it, but alas, I have  no Amiga Basic on my Extras 1.3 disk.

[badalias]

Noster wrote:

that doesn't look like the original Extras disk. The disk seems to be changed and used for other tools, an Extra 1.3 disk should contain this...

Ok, I guess that my Extras 1.3 disk was modified before I got it. (Used computing strikes again!) Anybody willing to mail me a copy of their un-modified Extras 1.3 disk?

If so, e-mail me at mkingsmill@yahoo.com?subject=Extras 1.3 disk and I'll tell you where to send it.

Noster: Could you post a description showing which files belong in which folder?

Noster wrote:

BadAlias wrote:
Could I convert my 1010 Dirve to a 1020 drive using a 5.25" 1.2Mb drive from a PC (For example from an old 286)?

That wont work. The first problem will be the different connector types of 3.5" and 5.25" drives and the second one the different pinout of the connectors. Most PC drives miss the required DiskChange signal and a few pins may have a different usage.
If you want to convert a PC-drive to an Amiga drive, check this:

PCFloppy2Amiga.lha

It describes in detail how to rework a PC floppy to an Amiga floppy.

Parts for PC computers are plentiful in my workshop. There is a ribbon cable for connecting the the drive to the 1010's PCB, I could just replace that cable with one with the correct connectors out of a PC. I have several of these, they are standard parts in the PC world... The power cable inside the 1010 is slightly more problematic as it  is not standard PC (or Amiga) parts. I used a chunk of wiring off a PC-AT powersupply to give me the needed "small" connector on the PCB end, and the "big" connector for the drive.

I guess I only have to alter the drive to fit the Amiga standard. I already have several different LHA's from several different places like aminet, or the Amiga Technical Resource who has a ftp directory full of such files. They all describe various methods to alter PC drives to Amiga standards, but I'm starting to  get a little dizzy reading them all. There seems to be several conflicting methods out there, and most of them are written for modifying a specific brand and/or model of drive. I'll need something more generic than the ones I've read already.

My big problem with the info in the stuff I've read is that it doesn't say it clearly enough when it's a file written for generic PC drives, and the ones written for specific models are (usually) good detail, but too specific to that model of drive.

BadAlias

[badalias]

SHADES wrote:
@BadAlias
Unlikely to happen I'm afraid. The hardware and design of floppy disk drives changes quite dramaticly from manufacturer to manufacturer. The reson why specific drives are mentioned in the conversion to AMIGA drives is that some IBM clone drives have the ability to do some extra things however they have been disabled by jumpers or not attached as the IBM didn't need to use these features.

So, it's just not possible to have a generic guide as the drives differ in the way they are built even using different controller chips and new designs would need to be made/discovered for each drive.

Some drives are just not compatible and have no way to be modified to work at all, then on the other hand, some have less features than others, you're just going to have to look at all the different designes and then decide on which one seems best or easiest to find. Some of the drive designs are quite old now and the drives are hard to find.

Although it is true that each drive's logic board and jumper options are different, the interface is the same. I am interested in what signals need modification on generic PC floppy drives because the files I've  found are usually for upgrading from 880Kb to 1760Kb or just using a 3.5" PC flopppy drive as a cheap replacement Amiga 3.5" drive.

I'm gong the other way - I'm turning a 3.5" Amiga 880Kb drive into a 5.25" drive. The details I want are how to make something more generic. I suppose that my finished product (preferably an adaptor, not a logic board hack) would be similar to a Kylwalda.

[badalias]

Ok...

Hows about the crazy idea of transfering files between an Amiga and a Comodore (Pet, C=64 or C=128)? Anybody have any ideas? If I succeed in hooking up the 5.25" drive, I may want to do this too. (Especially the Pet, as I don't have one, but I have old disks from one, and would like to be able to transfer the files to something else I can use.

[badalias]

I have  been looking around and found this but the description is kinda confusing. Seems like exactly what I'm looking for - if I could follow their description better.

Then comes modifying the mountlist. I'm a  newbie, and have books that could be useful, but cannot be found (they're  lost amongst the stuff still packed since my latest move)

BadAlias


I have gone and rested my brain and come back at it from a new angle.

I think the page linked above means that:

For unit 0 (Is this for drives configured as unit 0 or to make DF0?)

Wire number: 02 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 34
- Re-wired to: 34 14 13 16 15 12 11 10 02

For unit 1
Wire number: 02 10 11 12 13 14 34
- Re-wired to: 34 12 13 14 11 10 02

Does this make sense to anybody? I tried the wiring for unit0 and hooked up the resulting cable to the PCB in my 1010 and did not even get a working drive when I used a PC 3.5" 1.44Mb floppy drive.

[badalias]

If anybody else wanted to know I contacted the author of this, here's the whole chain of Q&A via e-mail

--- Damir Kuticic wrote:
> not like that. unit0 and unit1 is connectors on the
> cable. If you prepared first, twisted connector you
> should use the unit0 changes otherwise use the unit1.
>
> --- BadAlias wrote:
> > Damir:
> >
> >    Do you mean you cut off the connector for A: and
> > re-wired the B: connector, resulting in a cable that
> > gave you DF1? If not, could you give step-by-step for
> > idiots?
> >
> > Matt K.
> >
> > --- Damir Kuticic wrote:
> > > Hi!
> > > unit 0 is first device on cable (twisted), unit 1 is
> > > second device. I took standard pc cable for two
> > > units, then removed first connector and on the second
> > > I made adaption by unit1.
> > >
> > > Good luck!
> > >
> > > To:
> > > Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 5:38 AM
> > > Subject: PC FDD (1.44) to Amiga FDD (880)
> > >
> > >
> > > --- BadAlias wrote:
> > > > Damir:
> > > >
> > > >    I'm trying to use your cable adaptation, is this
> > > > interpretation right?
> > > >
> > > > For unit 0
> > > > Wire number: 02 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 34
> > > > Re-wired to: 34 14 13 16 15 12 11 10 02
> > > >
> > > > For unit 1
> > > > Wire number: 02 10 11 12 13 14 34
> > > > Re-wired to: 34 12 13 14 11 10 02
> > > >
> > > >    Where it says "For Unit 0" is this for drives
> > > > configured as unit 0 or to make the Amiga drive
> > > > DF0? Does it matter which end of the cable I
> > > > re-wire?
> > > >
> > > >    Which connector on the cable should the drive be
> > > > on if I use this on a (PC) dual drive cable?
> > > >
> > > > Matt K.