Fitting a CD in a A1200 desktop case

[xaccrocheur]

I'm toying with the idea of radically mod one A1200, putting a CD drive in place of the floppy. I remember reading about one such attempt, but the guy fitted the said drive, a very slim one, on the rear panel, top-left, right above the composite out & PSU in, IIRC.

I'd really like mine replacing the FD, as
1-this A1200's FD is dead (not 100% sure yet, but bad shape it's in) and I don't know where I'll find another one
2-I need the room in the top-left. Not, not to stash pot at demoparties:-P, in fact I still don't know what for, but I want this (surprisingly big) space untouched for now.
3-I'd really like the CD to *replace* the FD, and besides, there is still the "disk drive" dsub option if I *must* use a floppy drive (unlikely on this very machine) and it's more natural to pop a CD from the side, than from the bottom, where usually is a big mess of cables & stuff.
4-I happen to have a lot of dead PC laptops here. Sure one of those slim CD readers would do...

My questions :

Have you heard of such a mod ?
Does this (4xEIDE'99 Buffered Interface) fit in a desktop case ?
And the last one, the better one :
Is there a way to use the internal motherboard PSU socket (like to one used by the FD) to power the CD ?
that is, of course, assuming that a *proper* PSU is used, not the stock A1200 one.

Thank you very much, people. I'd maybe manage to use my miggies w/o this forum, but it would be a lot more hassle, and a lot less fun.

[xaccrocheur]

OK I got *all* my answers and then some, by looking at this page. Quote : "The power is pulled from the floppy connector on the motherboard and split off to the floppy and the CD-ROM."

Sorry about the noise.

[Xanxi]

I have seen slim cdrom mounted on the left side on top of the PCMIA slot more usually.
I think the real challenge is to have slim cd, hard drive AND floppy internally in the A1200.
An even bigger challenge is to fit a slim cd in a A600 with hard drive and internal floppy: would love that on my A630, but seems difficult to still power everything with a standard PSU.
The ultimate challenge is to have all and to fit an internal PSU as well :-D

[MarkAshley]

Xanxi wrote:
An even bigger challenge is to fit a slim cd in a A600 with hard drive and internal floppy: would love that on my A630, but seems difficult to still power everything with a standard PSU.

You don't need to. If you wire your A600's PSU to an ATX supply then you can use that to power it, and take advantage of the increased wattage. You could probably tap in to the +5, +12 and GND required to power the drives inside the Amiga, so no need to have the molex connectors going inside the case  :-)

I have built such a cable (to power the Amiga from ATX) and can post details if you want.

[leirbag28]

@Xanxi

I highly recommend you dont get rid of the Floppy

Do it like this Guy:
http://gutjahr.free.fr/index.php?language=en&page=1200cd

In the future your 1200 will be closer to laptop status with everything inside.

If your harddrive is too bulky, get a laptop slim HD...it will be worth it. or even better........get a CompactFlash to IDE connector and boot off a Compact flash card!!!! get a 2gig one or 4gig!

I think that method in the link is the best........one day you will need to ue your floppy port. Dont ruin it.........you will come across an Amiga floppy some day......if not, you can Mod a PC floppy to work in an Amiga as a 1.44 floppy I have heard.............do that if you must.

keep your 1200 intact..........also you can ad USB ports through the clockport.

I want to do all this...but to my A600 including an Apollo630, internal DVDRW, internalCompact flash boot drive.
 USB ports and internal PSU and attached LCD screen.  this is my ultimate project. Also a MASPlayer MP3 decoder. and a Nuclear plutonium chamber for self destruction :-D

I will probably get a 80gig laptop HD for it too...load it with MP3's, games, animations.........Scala backgrounds and sounds...........ahhh what a treat!


EDIT:  forgot to mention.....Installing RedHat and Debian Linux as well as Shapshifter with MacOS....this would be sooooo grand!

I wish Amiga Dealers would offer this service to TURBOrize your Amiga.......the Amiga TURBO kit!!!!  How about it AmigaKIT? or Software Hut?:-D   we simply mail in our Amigas.......and you TURBOtize it!  you can have 3 plans.....TURBO1, TURBO2 and TURBO3.....TURBO3 being the supercomplete Amiga as I described with Linux and Sapeshifter, DVDRW internal and USB!!! wooooooooHoooo!

[vic20owner]

Clean the floppy drive heads... maybe it's not dead after all.

[-BobW-]

@xaccrocheur

I'm the one who built the A1200 that everyone here is linking to.  Take their advice and keep the floppy.  Even if the drive doesn't work you can usually get one cheap on ebay.

Have you heard of such a mod ?
Does this (4xEIDE'99 Buffered Interface) fit in a desktop case ?

That 4xEIDE'99 fits in the desktop case but it really gets in the way if you want the CD-Rom internal.  It sticks straight up from the ide port on the motherboard.

Bob W

[leirbag28]

@-BobW-

WHoa!!! BobW???   your in New York???
Me too!  can I come to your house dude?:-D:-D:-D

I need help modding my CD32 with an internal Slimline. I dont want to mess up the case...help me cut it. Plus installing this thing in the Workbench so it can read it.:-D :-D :-D

D

[-BobW-]

@leirbag28

Hehe.  I'm in New York State not City. :-D I'm actually about 6 hours north of the city.  Way up near Canada.

[leirbag28]

Doh! :roll:

[amigadave]

@BobW,

Great job and detailed instructions for those of us who wish to follow your lead.  I am saving that webpage for later use.  I just happen to have an extra Mac SuperDrive (DVD-RW I think, or some such DVD-R format)  It was working when removed, but I had some trouble writing with it intermittently, which might have been software related.

Was there a reason to have the CD-ROM drive eject out the back instead of the left side?

[-BobW-]

@amigadave

I setup the drive to eject out the back for looks only.  When the drive comes out the side it doesn't quite fit the lines of the case.  Just picky really...

[amigadave]

-BobW- wrote:
@amigadave

I setup the drive to eject out the back for looks only.  When the drive comes out the side it doesn't quite fit the lines of the case.  Just picky really...

Thanks, that is what I thought.  Since my SuperDrive is slot-loading it should not detract the looks as much.