My Custom A1200 Project

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Thanks for the answers to questions guys - I'd not noticed there was anything on here until this morning lol

I've used a 3mm by 6mm self-tapping wood screw to stick a screw through where there previously wasn't one on my 1D4 - used fine sandpaper to take the tip off ;)
 
I don't know what you think of your black case, but I have to say, I'm not all that impressed with mine. I went to have a look at the screws and stuff last night and noticed that the top half of the case was starting to look rather banana shaped! Needless to say I screwed the two halves together there and then to stop it getting any worse. I hadn't bothered because I just haven't got round to cutting out the USB holes yet and still cannot decide if I like the HxC enough to fit it. I've always found the intermediate hfe format and the constant to and fro from a PC to be a real nuisance.

On a positive note I found a couple of screws in a jar that worked for the LED board so at least my top case has LEDs now. I removed, trimmed and re-soldered the wires while I was at it as they were looking a bit fragile from being disconnected so many times.
 
Mine looked a little bent after a while, but now it's full of Amiga it's straightened out. I quite like it, although I would have preferred the HxC to be a bit flusher to the surface. The newer HxC firmware supports ADF so no need to use HFE. I figure it's just not Amiga if things are too easy ;)
I don't know what you think of your black case, but I have to say, I'm not all that impressed with mine. I went to have a look at the screws and stuff last night and noticed that the top half of the case was starting to look rather banana shaped! Needless to say I screwed the two halves together there and then to stop it getting any worse. I hadn't bothered because I just haven't got round to cutting out the USB holes yet and still cannot decide if I like the HxC enough to fit it. I've always found the intermediate hfe format and the constant to and fro from a PC to be a real nuisance.

On a positive note I found a couple of screws in a jar that worked for the LED board so at least my top case has LEDs now. I removed, trimmed and re-soldered the wires while I was at it as they were looking a bit fragile from being disconnected so many times.
 
Oh that's very interesting! That's basically the two reasons I don't like the HxC. There's not a lot we can do about the fact the display doesn't sit flush. I suppose if they had done then the hole would have been too big and it would have been too close to the word "Amiga", but native ADF sounds fantastic.

I have no idea if we are allowed to add links to these things here but I had got wind of such a thing and spent a good hour or more reading the HxC forums yesterday and couldn't find such a firmware. I ended up assuming it must have just been the "paid for" firmware for the GoTek drive. If you're allowed, can you point me in the right direction please? I've had my HxC for years and I might finally use it if it can read ADFs directly!!
 
Hi Martin,

I'm assuming that you have the "Official" HxC hardware (from Lotharek), in which case you just need to go to: http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html

Looking at the release notes of the firmware, ADF support was added on the 8th December 2013 lol - although I bought mine a year ago and it came with firmware older than that (it's had bug fixes for it more recently too). I'm not sure about the HxC firmware for the Gotek, assumably you'd need to get the HxC firmware from that from somewhere else... The manual for the HxC doesn't say anything about ADF either, but then again it's not been updated since 2011 :)

C

Oh that's very interesting! That's basically the two reasons I don't like the HxC. There's not a lot we can do about the fact the display doesn't sit flush. I suppose if they had done then the hole would have been too big and it would have been too close to the word "Amiga", but native ADF sounds fantastic.

I have no idea if we are allowed to add links to these things here but I had got wind of such a thing and spent a good hour or more reading the HxC forums yesterday and couldn't find such a firmware. I ended up assuming it must have just been the "paid for" firmware for the GoTek drive. If you're allowed, can you point me in the right direction please? I've had my HxC for years and I might finally use it if it can read ADFs directly!!
 
I'm using an original HxC from Lotharek, yes (full fat version, not the slim).

Strangely I can't see any firmware release notes that say anything beyond 29 Sept 2013 - which I believe is the firmware I have. There is a later Beta firmware but it has no release notes. I wonder if the ADF firmware has been moved behind the €10 paywall?
 
The release notes I was looking at were for the conversion program... Could have sworn I saw ADF support in one of the documents I've read though for the firmware. I could be wrong - my Amiga hasn't been in a running state for quite some time!

Edit: I knew I'd seen it somewhere: http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_...xc_floppy_emulator_firmware_release_notes.txt it's supported on the HxC firmware for the Gotek, not the full HxC - that's somewhat irritating :(
I'm using an original HxC from Lotharek, yes (full fat version, not the slim).

Strangely I can't see any firmware release notes that say anything beyond 29 Sept 2013 - which I believe is the firmware I have. There is a later Beta firmware but it has no release notes. I wonder if the ADF firmware has been moved behind the €10 paywall?
 
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Ah, OK - I knew about that. I just popped to where my Amiga is and tried the latest beta firmware, just to confirm and sadly it doesn't recognise ADF directly, only HFE. The usefulness of being able to use ADF directly would be negated somewhat if there was a native ADF to HFE conversion tool for Amiga OS - maybe there is somewhere. I'll investigate.

There are a couple of other irritations with it like the files being in a seemingly random order but there must be ways round that. I shall play some more before finally deciding whether to cut the case opening or not.

And I'll also keep an eye on your build - nice work. Sorry for going off on a tangent!
 
Minor mini update - the CD Audio cable is in now that I've shortened it :) And there's an unmolested Bifrost sat on the back of my DVDROM too...

IMG_2281.jpg
 
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As the LED connector on the SCSI2SD doesn't share a common ground with the LED connector on the motherboard, a more inventive solution was required to get the HDD activity LED working.

A very helpful chap named Brek Martin (I think he's on here under a different name) came up with the idea to use an optocoupler (which I didn't know existed), which he did a spot of testing with, and drew me up a little diagram:

IMG_2303.jpg

So I dutifully made alterations to my Bifrost board - which work great!

IMG_2326.jpg


Lovely :) Hopefully you can see it running by clicking here:

https://www.facebook.com/Cozzer79/videos/pcb.10155332821955516/10155332821070516/?type=3&theater
 
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My laser mouse upgrades turned up yesterday, so both my mice underwent surgery to be neutered:

IMG_2410.jpg


It's a nice tidy job, although it confused me for a while that the board doesn't sit flat; it's at about a 3-4 degree angle from front to back. Silky smooth action now though!

IMG_2412.jpg


Other than being a little lighter, and being super accurate, you'd not know they'd had anything done to them (unless you flip them over lol)
 
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Mouse mat seems nice too, where did you have it made?


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It's a postcard from Amigastore.eu that came with the kits - It'd make a fab mousemat I agree, going to try to get it laminated at work on a larger piece of card as it's not very big!
Mouse mat seems nice too, where did you have it made?
 
Great! Lol by the way I've already commented on Fb on your 2 pictures... I hope my 6 pcbs will arrive soon, all my mice are very impatient! :)


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Minor update - got a new trapdoor to allow more air to my BPPC

IMG_2614.jpg


Minor modification needed to make it fit my Kickstarter case, but very happy with it :) Edit: Decided that I prefered a different design later on lol
 
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Not a major update, but worthy of note - my BPPC etc. is on its way to Stachu100 (Stan) at the moment, if anyone can figure out what its problem is, he can :) I suspect it was mistreated at some point, but it's in a good place now.
 
Stan (Stachu100) has fixed my BPPC/BVPPC :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmwBEZ7YupA

P_20170914_223732.jpg


One of the SMD coils (I'm assuming one near the rear of the fan connector) was faulty, possibly where it had been used to inject power in a previous installation - which is why the fan wasn't working

P_20170914_230609.jpg


Bad joints on the BVPPC connector caused it to not function when the BVPPC was installed - I'm assuming that there was a short

P_20170914_234549.jpg


The VGA cable also had breaks at the connectors - most likely age related. Not so much an issue for me as I'm going to be using a Ratte cable

So now I wait for its return, and can finally start getting my installation together!
 
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This happened today :)

443_E3_D08-17_FA-4_CCA-8_D17-14_EC9_DB694_DC.jpg


All in good working order :) Just need to finish the software install now!

I’ve managed to close her up too - but she’s now too heavy to stand on the box for the case lol

9400_E106-_D880-4_EBC-_BBCD-2_BE820_F02_CC3.jpg
 
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Powered on this morning to setup the Bifrost colours (Deep Blue throughout at the moment), and have discovered my first minor (I think) issue - the drive read light is constantly on, and no disks are readable when mounted in the HxC... This suggests I've a short somewhere. Haven't any disks handy to try the physical floppy drive at the moment so I'll have to leave her be for a while. I might have time later to disconnect a few things, but I don't want to damage anything by ignoring it.
 
Fixed my floppy drive issues... I'd managed to create a very odd extension cable to connect to the HxC (and another one the same last night following the same flawed logic), which turned out to be 1>34, 2>33, 3>32 and so on... Knocked out a new 1>1, 2>2 cable today and hey presto! It works great lol

I've updated the Bifrost colours to White for power and deep Purple (Lukhash purple :cool:) for floppy and HDD activity - not yet found a good way of photographing it, but at least it's all in good order!
 
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