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

[x56h34]

That's nice to know.
A very easy solution for the gaming oriented only crowd, that have only a stock A500, for example. ;-)

[Trev]

I don't think the floppy controller passthrough access been implemented yet. The MK4 also doesn't work under the current release of WinUAE. I would send a friendly email to Jens and let him know that you're anxious for those features to be implemented. :-)

Trev

[Effy]

So you now can also read and write 5,25" C64 floppies ?? Great, need to get me one of those too so I can restart my C64 madness  :lol:

[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.

[BenShep]

The PCI catweasel seems like a great card let down by a lack of software and emulator support.

Still, it seemed worth getting the flipper version because you had the potential of getting sid support + all the other features both on the PC and Amiga.  Now that it is non-flipper it is much harder to justify buying.

Perhaps if the zorro 2 version was improved to have a sid option or a ps2 port it would be a more compelling buy.

[Trev]

@Eco

While technically possible, I don't think anyone will be writing FFS drivers for Windows. Microsoft charges $999.00 for their Installable File System kit, which is a little steep for a hobbyist or a professional developer with little interest in Windows programming. [checking Microsoft's site] Hey! They dropped the price to $109.00, but I'd still like to see a free version. There's a GNU clone of the kit available, but I doubt anyone in Amigaland would be willing to write a GNU driver from scratch.

I'd like to use the passthrough feature just to keep my chassis from getting over-populated. . . .

Trev

[Dwyloc]

I have one on order my self I ordered it to allow me to use my digital Amiga joysticks to play Amiga, MAME and spectrum games and write ADF images back to disk.

Support for reading and writing Amiga floppy under WinUAE would also be nice, but at the moment just being able to write ADF images back to floppy to use on my Amiga is what I was looking for when I ordered it.

As I understand things their were hardware limitations with the  mk3 version made real time winUAE write support unworkable which are fixed with the mk4 and that’s why the driver support under windows is so limited for the older versions of the card.

So hopefully in time we will see full support for the new version under WinUAE as I have never own or used a C64 at this time I am not interested in the SID support, but as I am interested in old games and Emulators in general this may change in the future if SID support is easy to setup.

[orzel]

I too just purchased the MK4.
I just like the fact that this card has been made.
My Amigaforever under XP loves it.
I too am anxious for full functionality, but meanwhile I will be adf(ing)my collection of disks.
I would like to see Cloanto+Winuae+Individual talk so that even dongles are supported through joystick ports.

[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.

[Dwyloc]

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.

To me that would be the most important driver addition that needs to be made.  From the descriptions of the card that I had read I was under the impression that this was already the case.

I guess this is yet another case of Amiga hardware being sold before it is finished, as you cant use the posts under Linux get either as the drivers have not get been updated for the mk4 cards.

Oh well I guess it dose not mater that my card has not yet been dispatched yet a week after ordering it as it will be a while before I can use it for anything useful anyway :-(

[Edpon]

So what is this thing exactly? Is it a double Disk drive; one for the normal PC and one for the Amiga, or is it something else? Also, does this device require you to have Amiga specific disks to write to, to use on ANY Amiga? Thanks.

Ed
 :-D

[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

[BenShep]

It is also available in a zorro II version, where the primary benefits are support for HD floppies and a (non-bootable) ide controller.

[Eco]

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