Maximum length of 600's IDE cable?

[JackL]

Hello all.

I have fitted a compact flash to ide adapter inside my 600. i would like to be able to remove the CF card without opening the 600. the trapdoor has nothing in it and it might as well go there. I have found a 30cm 44 pin ide cable;

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=11467

will this just work or is it to long?

[Jope]

Try it.. The CF card may not be able to drive such a long cable, though.. At least my CF stopped working at around 20cm.

[Nlandas]

   I can't speak with full certainty for the A600 but on my A1200 I have over 30cm of 2.5" cable. Everything is working fine with a buffered IDE controller, laptop CD and a hard drive.

I'm sorry that I can't be specific to the A600 though.

-Nyle

[leirbag28]

 I have an A1200 and tried wit a cable I bought at AmigaKit, it is too long apparently and wont read the second drive attached...I guess you need a Buffered interface or perhaps more power.

I cut the cable short and will try it out soon.

[JackL]

thanks for all the comments.

i have ordered the 30cm one and will try it out and let you know.

[rkauer]

 A tip: use tin foil around the IDE cable, and some insulation over the foil (of course) to prevent short-circuit.

 This helps a lot with long IDE cables. Shame 80 wires IDE cables are not supported by Amiga.

[JackL]

rkauer wrote:
 A tip: use tin foil around the IDE cable, and some insulation over the foil (of course) to prevent short-circuit.

 This helps a lot with long IDE cables. Shame 80 wires IDE cables are not supported by Amiga.

Thanks for the knowledge.

The cable arrived this morning, super fast, i will try it out tonight.

[alexh]

I'm too late, but you could have just bought another CF card and a PCMCIA to CF adapter to use as a "second" hard drive.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130200985417

That way there is no messy cables coming out.

[alexh]

rkauer wrote:
Shame 80 wires IDE cables are not supported by Amiga.

I've got 80-wire (round) IDE cables in my Amiga's.

I thought they were identical to 40-wire cables electronically speaking?

[keropi]

I use 80-wire round cables on my IDE-A4000 too, no probs whatsoever... I even used several 80cm 80-wire cables in A1200 towers, no probs either...

[alexh]

The Amiga IDE connector has an extra pin (pin 20) which it shouldn't have. This pin is supposed to be missing for keying (orientation) to prevent cables being inserted the wrong way round.

Some 80-strand cables have this pin blocked off (as all 40-pin IDE cables if they strictly followed the spec should).

In which case you have to cut the pin off the connector, unblock the hole, or use a different cable.

[JackL]

alexh wrote:
I'm too late, but you could have just bought another CF card and a PCMCIA to CF adapter to use as a "second" hard drive.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130200985417

That way there is no messy cables coming out.

i was under the impression that these couldn't be used as a boot drive - i thought they where only useful with 'easyADF' etc.

With the CF on the end of the cable i can remove it and plug it into a PC run UAE and write files directly to it.

[alexh]

JackL wrote:
i was under the impression that these couldn't be used as a boot drive

You are correct. That is why I said SECOND CF drive. You keep the primary one inside the A600 all the time and use the PCMCIA one to exchange data with the PC.

JackL wrote:
i thought they where only useful with 'easyADF' etc.

Nope, if you install CFD driver and FAT95 it appears as a regular FAT hard drive in both AmigaOS and Windows.

http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/cfd
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95

JackL wrote:
With the CF on the end of the cable i can remove it and plug it into a PC run UAE and write files directly to it.

With the CF in the PCMCIA slot (with CDF & FAT95) you can remove it, plug it into a PC and "just write files directly to it" with Windows explorer (or whatever) just as if it were another drive. No need for UAE. No unsightly IDE cables or hacked case.

[rkauer]

keropi wrote:
I use 80-wire round cables on my IDE-A4000 too, no probs whatsoever... I even used several 80cm 80-wire cables in A1200 towers, no probs either...

 Explaining better: some 80 wires IDE cables use "cable select" instead the "normal" straight pins. Those C-S cables must be avoided.

[Dazxy2001]

alexh wrote:

I've got 80-wire (round) IDE cables in my Amiga's.

I thought they were identical to 40-wire cables electronically speaking?

Yup they are, the extra wires carry additional ground signals to help stabilise data transfer at higher speeds, but below UDMA 3 and 4 theres no benefit to using these, except the round ones look nice and help airflow.