A1200 woes

[Fern]

Yeah, I always loved them as a data storage format. Very reliable and would be great for backups! Also, I want people to look at my finished A1200 and go "holy crap, minidisc drive! cool!"

If by some miracle the power connector is the same as a floppy drive, I wonder if it might be possible to steal power from where the internal FDD plugs in. If it needs the big ol' molex connector, that'd be a pain in the arse but not the end of the world. I may well end up using a PC PSU anyway, and there's generally enough molex connectors hanging off them. Getting power to it one way or another shouldn't be too hard - making it look neat and tidy could require some skillz.

I'd much rather the drive was IDE. If I can work with the onboard IDE controller instead of having to mess about finding/affording a SCSI controller for the Blizzard I don't even own yet, that would be preferrable. A splitter/adaptor cable thingy would be much cheaper.

[Harrison]

I am very inclined to take some pictures and document my progress. While the pros on this board have probably had worse to deal with, it might possibly be helpful for those less experienced (like me!) to have a guide on "What to do if you buy an Amiga and it turns out to be a piece of crap". Wish me luck!

If you want somewhere to document your progress, we now have the perfect place within our new Wiki site:

http://wiki.classicamiga.com/Amiga_DIY

You could have a page to document your project as it progresses, posting image and information about it.

I've also not seen a data MD drive before either. If you can get it working with the A1200 it would also be cool to document that in the Wiki.

I use MiniDisc a lot (even now that they're a bit old hat) and I think they're the most reliable format ever.

Sony always invent the most robust and highest quality new media types, and normally everyone else completely ignores them and leaves them out in the cold (Betamax, MiniDisc, MemoryStick etc). I was so glad they finally won one with Blu-Ray.

I just had a look at the MD Data Drives and saw that there is also an external USB one that uses a newer Hi-MD format, allowing 1GB of data per disc, compared to 305MB for the original MD Data discs. You can fit USB to an A1200 so that could be an option.

I also saw that the MDM-111 is SCSI.

As for power, I reckon it'd be the same power connector as a 3.5" hard drive or an internal CD-ROM drive.

I'm also guessing it would be the same as either an internal floppy or 3.5" HD. Therefore a Y-Splitter cable from the floppy drive power header would work fine.

For the cable... if it's SCSI, it depends on the type of SCSI connector. SCSI would also present another problem ..... the A1200 doesn't have built in SCSI, so a SCSI controller card would be needed.

For SCSI it is easy enough to do an internal setup using a Blizzard accelerator + the SCSI expansion card for those. However actually finding one of the SCSI cards will be very hard. I did see one for sale on ebay a while back and that sold for £30. Shame it isn't IDE as that would have been a much cheaper option, just requiring a £10 buffered IDE interface.

In this case I think going for a CD-RW is a much cheaper and easier option than the MDM-111 drive, which might not even work with an Amiga if drivers don't exist.

[Harrison]

Yeah, I always loved them as a data storage format. Very reliable and would be great for backups! Also, I want people to look at my finished A1200 and go "holy crap, minidisc drive! cool!"

If by some miracle the power connector is the same as a floppy drive, I wonder if it might be possible to steal power from where the internal FDD plugs in. If it needs the big ol' molex connector, that'd be a pain in the arse but not the end of the world....A splitter/adaptor cable thingy would be much cheaper.

As I mentioned above, yes you can steal power from the floppy drive power header. Most people (including myself) fit a y-slitter cable to this header to continue power the floppy drive, plus another drive. You can easier find or make cables that have 3 pin molex or floppy style connectors.

[Fern]

In this case I think going for a CD-RW is a much cheaper and easier option than the MDM-111 drive, which might not even work with an Amiga if drivers don't exist.

I'm guessing I'd be S.O.L for drivers Can't imagine anyone's tried to bodge the MDM-111 into an Amiga before so nobody would have needed to write any. I was kinda hoping that the OS might see it as a hard disk and it would "just work". If that's not going to be the case, it would be a massively expensive and pointless venture. And being SCSI, it can go straight to hell. My last encounter with SCSI drives was inside a Yamaha A3000 sampler, trying to fit an internal ZIP and hard drive. That was a huge faff to get working, and they even gave me a controller on the mainboard to get started with! I'd rather not go through that again.

Still, there may be other options for internal MO drives out there, and I'll always have the CD-RW as a fallback.

[woody.cool]

In this case I think going for a CD-RW is a much cheaper and easier option than the MDM-111 drive, which might not even work with an Amiga if drivers don't exist.

I'm guessing I'd be S.O.L for drivers Can't imagine anyone's tried to bodge the MDM-111 into an Amiga before so nobody would have needed to write any. I was kinda hoping that the OS might see it as a hard disk and it would "just work". If that's not going to be the case, it would be a massively expensive and pointless venture. And being SCSI, it can go straight to hell. My last encounter with SCSI drives was inside a Yamaha A3000 sampler, trying to fit an internal ZIP and hard drive. That was a huge faff to get working, and they even gave me a controller on the mainboard to get started with! I'd rather not go through that again.

Still, there may be other options for internal MO drives out there, and I'll always have the CD-RW as a fallback.

I've never seen any of these Sony MDM-111 drives about before. Where can one be bought?

[Harrison]

I don't think Sony make the drive any longer. I just did a quick search on ebay and there are none that I could see.

[woody.cool]

I don't think Sony make the drive any longer. I just did a quick search on ebay and there are none that I could see.

Damn!

[Fern]

Well, it looks like I've found every single one of the parts I need in the near future at AmigaKit! Even a new RF shield which might well be easier than cleaning the old one.

Have you guys done much shopping with this company? They seem to have all the goods in stock but a recommendation or two would be nice

Also, what is the general opinion on this piece of kit:

http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/...&cart_id=52674

Seems like there would be plenty of room on the back panel for mounting the ports, and as I can't think of any other practical use I might have for the clockport, it might be a good investment, particularly for transferring files easily between the A1200 and a PC. I do not intend using anything more power-hungry than a USB memory stick, but by the looks of things I would already need to be running an 1230 board to use it. Are there any alternatives to the Subway worth considering?

[Harrison]

Yes Amigakit.com is a great Amiga store. They are even a member of this very forum if you take a look (username "amigakit.com").

Most of the regular members of classicamiga, including myself, have purchased from them and we have always been very happy with their service and their continued devotion to the Amiga community.

Another Amiga store I would like to highly recommend to you is the German store http://www.vesalia.de/ They do an equally great job and are larger in terms of content. They also support the more recent PPC systems more than Amigakit, which tends to stick more closely with the older classic Amiga range.

As for the subway, yes it is a great addition for an A1200. It is AFAIK the only USB upgrade available for the A1200, unless you did a tower conversion, then you could use a PCI USB card. However I don't think the subway is very easy to find these days, and it is quite expensive when you do find one.

An alternative to transfer files easily is via a CF card reader. For this you have two options. Amigakit sell a PCMCIA to CF card reader + the software to use it. This allows you to transfer files via CF card to the Amiga. Alternatively you can also get a CF card to IDE adapter and connect the CF card directly to the A1200's IDE port and use it like an IDE HD. It's silent, solid state, faster than an HD, and you can connect it to a PC to copy files.

Regarding software hut, I've heard that must of the items they list as being on their site are not actually available, and also that some have had trouble with them. I've never ordered from them myself so cannot say from personal experience, but I would recommend sticking with Amigakit and Vesalia if you can as I have purchased items from both many times.

[woody.cool]

Another Amiga store I would like to highly recommend to you is the German store http://www.vesalia.de/ They do an equally great job and are larger in terms of content. They also support the more recent PPC systems more than Amigakit, which tends to stick more closely with the older classic Amiga range.

Vesalia are a regular for me. Everything I've bought from them has been superb, althugh delivery takes it's time because their in Germany. Still quick for where they are though.

100% Recommended.