Status update, January 2011

The updated design has taken much longer than expected. The plan is to have the final prototype design by the end of February. Once tested I can then order the new PCBs and start procuring the parts. Full details will appear on this page when ready.

Introduction

Presented here is a simple circuit that allows PC floppy disk drives to be used with the Amiga computer. This design only supports double density disks. You can fit a high density drive and use it with double density disks without problems.

The design has been tested using Workbench Format/Copy, Xcopy, Sanity Arte Demo, Spaceballs 9 Fingers Demo, State of the Art Demo, RSI Megademo and numerous trackloader based games.

The design also allows you to fit the unit in place of an Escom A1200 floppy drive, which will restore support for trackloader based games and demos with a simple no solder modification.

Schematics and PCB files are online if you want to make your own unit, I also sell assembled units or kits.

V1 Design information

The design is simple, it swaps connects Diskchange from pin 34 of the PC drive to pin 2 of the Amiga. It generates the nREADY signal based on the nSEL0 signal and nINDEX, which signals to the Amiga that the drive is ready for access.

The schematic is available here (click to enlarge):
The PCB is shown here (click to enlarge)

Finally, you can download the Eagle CAD files and Gerbers here, Floppy.zip 67K

Assembled unit

The assembled units look like this

Component side of PCB.

Underside of PCB

Connected to a disk drive

Testing the unit

I have tested the unit with the following un-modified disk drives
Mitsumi FA404M,
Epson SMD300,
Alps DFE354H090F
and Sony TBC
 

Purchasing assembled units or kits

When units or kits are available for sale they will be listed here.
The Mark 1 design has sold out.

User manual and installation instructions

The user and installation manual is here, 271K PDF.
The assembly manual is here, 804K PDF.

Updated 05 May 2012