Compatible PCMCIA CD Drives for A1200?

[bob808]

I am thinking of adding a PCMCIA CD drive to my A1200, but cant find a list anywhere to say what drives are compatible?

I have found a couple of drives on ebay that say they are ok, but anything with a buy now is about £60 which is a bit more than I would like to pay.

Just looking for PCMCIA Cd drives has shown a lot more, but I cant tell if they would work or not - and if so where would I get the drivers?


Thanks

bob808

[amigakit]

Welcome to Amiga.org!

The only PCMCIA compatible drives I know are the Commodore CD1200, Reno and Archos Amiga CDROM drive.  All long out of production

You can get a second hand SCSI CDROM with Squirrel and use that with the A1200 but as you have found, they will be around £60+ as a package.

Another alternative to a CD drive is an A1200 PCMCIA to Compact Flash adapter to be used in conjunction with a PC/Mac.  With an appropriate CF card you could transport potential large amounts of data to your A1200 from a CD inserted into a PC/Mac.

A good option is a PCMCIA Network Package, either Wireless or Ethernet Wired.  All our cards come with EasyNet which allows you to access shares in the PC and transport data straight from a CD drive.  It would displayed on the Workbench as if the CD drive was local to the A1200.

Finally we have external CD drives for use with the Subway A1200 USB adapter.

Hope this helps!

[amigagr]

i most agree with the last option, the external cd on usb. if you thinking upgrating your amiga a bit seriusly, the usb is a must. it will give you a lot of options for stuff you can use with amiga.

[bob808]

Thanks for the advice

I have for my main Windows PC a Sony usb dvd writer - would this work with the USB card?  If so then that could be my way forward.

For the time being, I will give the network a try just to get OS 3.9 installed as I have an ethernet pcmcia card for the amiga.

I also have a PCMCIA > CF adapter and 1GB CF II card so will give that a go and see if it works on the amiga.

thanks again

bob808

[Matt_H]

A little more info:

Drivers for the CF adapter: Aminet

The Archos PCMCIA CD Drive was also sold under the label Q-Drive by Amiga Technologies (Escom). I've never seen one other than my own, though.

[amigakit]

Difficult to say, only some CD drives work (Sony hasn't been tested)

[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).

[dvvrue95]

Hi Argus,

like the sound of the internal cdrom option, question how do you power your drive?

thanks, Ian.

[amigakit]

I suspect you take the +5v split from the FDD power line but if you have accelerators et al you will need a suitably powerful PSU to accomodote the extra load from the CD drive.

[amigagr]

the usb doesn't have enough transfer rate for writing cds if you thinking to use this way too your dvd writer.

[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.

[Amiduffer]

 :-?  I have a question.

My trusty 'ol IBM Thinkpad 600 is slowly heading towards its final resting place. My idea is salvaging it for parts that could go in a modified A1200, like the internal CDdrive using the 4way IDE.

On a more ambitious tack, even making a sort-of laptop, using the monitor and keyboard from the Thinkpad.

Is that even possible? Connecting a laptop monitor and keyboard to an A1200?

[vk3heg]

Amikit: All our cards come with EasyNet which allows you to access shares in the PC and transport data straight from a CD drive.  It would displayed on the Workbench as if the CD drive was local to the A1200.

Does Easynet come as just the software package (I already  have a 3com 3C562D/3C653D pcmcia card)?

[Matt_H]

Is that even possible? Connecting a laptop monitor and keyboard to an A1200?

Extremely difficult. I don't think it's been done before. You'd probably need to scandouble and then rewire the 1200's video output to a small nonstandard ribbon cable and do the same for the keyboard - which will probably require a custom interface chip as all PC keyboard adaptors do. Plus the 1200 motherboard won't fit in almost all laptop cases.

So in summary, I don't think it's worth attempting unless you're an electronics supergenius.:crazy:

[dvvrue95]

I know this is getting a bit of the thread but ....... I would also be interested if Easynet was available as S/W only since I have a 3CCE589ET Ethernet PCMCIA card using unregistered versions of Genesis/Miami and full version of AExplorer.