Modify the GoTek, not the Amiga !!

[Harrison]

To me it's all about modding an Amiga in stealth mode. I used to like heavy case modifications but not anymore since such hardware isn't produced nowadays as all of us know. I think that a Gotek can be easily hosted without cutting the case which could be brought back to its original state if/when the Gotek is removed . Take a look at my version and even though it might all seem greek to you the photos speak for themselves

http://www.amigaplanet.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4987

In case someone has the ability to solder a new tiny lcd screen and drive it through the floppy button hole, then everything could be perfect. I intend to complete this mod in the next weeks. The whole Gotek installation isn't anything special really but i think this is the only way to keep the case intact for further use.

I did consider doing it that way, but as I guess from your comment you hate having the LCD display partially hidden insde the case, making it hard to read, plus the buttons are not easily accessible unless you modded them to extend them out far enough.

A different cool mod would be to utilise the floppy eject hole and make a split 2 button to fit the same shape and connect with the Gotek buttons inside. Maybe someone with a 3D printer could consider that idea? Would be great if a couple of plastic buttons could be made to do that. As for the LCD, I've seem many people relocate them to the top of the case, and the same for the HxC, but again this mods the case and is more obtrusive than fitting a Gotek to the side.

The thing with my A1200 is I already cut a hole in the back for a slimline DVD drive and a smaller whole to access the CF card externally, so I'm not too bothered in modding the floppy bay for a Gotek. I do however have an untouched backup A1200.

 

[BLTCON0]

Heavily modded Amigas are like complex domino setups - one spends ages to reach the desired result only to briefly admire it before it collapses. That's fine, but if we're to be pragmatic and actually use an expanded A1200 the proper solution is a tower setup (be it pre-made or a mod-job). Stuffing a ton of things into a wedge case is a dead-end.

 

[Harrison]

I disagree. The whole point of the original keyboard computer design was to have everything in a single self contained unit. The A1200 is great for this and for mainly gaming you don't need a tower. Only if you are using 040+ CPUs, PPC or graphics cards do you need to do that. I like to keep it portable and in the original A1200 case so it can be moved around easily too. I can't keep everything setup.

I used to have a couple of A1200's towered back in the 90's when I was playing around with all the new stuff coming out, but technology has moved on, and whilst it is amazing what you can do with an Amiga compared to originally, they have been left nearly 20 years behind now so are no good for productivity.

 

[BLTCON0]

...and for mainly gaming you don't need a tower.

Of course you don't. You need something in the trapdoor expansion and an IDE hard drive, a setup which calls for absolutely no mods. Even the upper shield gets to stay. This is a far cry from the "heavily modded Amigas" I targeted, though.
My point was that any member of the set "regular users of heavily expanded A1200s" will opt for a tower setup. Whether this set is currently empty or not is an altogether different matter.

 

[Jepplen]

I just came across this picture which shows an adjusted GoTek drive to fit the Amiga case (in this case an Amiga 500) nicely.

It also made me relive the horror of seeing molested Amiga cases were people thought it made total sense to alter the case of their beloved Amiga just to make a cheap 20 bucks drive fit the casing. oh:

Please.. for the love of all that is holy and dear to you.. make that GoTek fit the Amiga like you see on the picture attached :roll:

Exactly!

There are mods and switches you can add which are reversable (change a chip with some modded raisers etc) and mod the gotek into an external drive as DF0 and use that, i think thats the cleanest way and also 100% reversable!

 

[Harrison]

Expect you then have an ugly external drive connected via ribbon cable. I like having it all self contained inside the one case. I spent years with a spaghetti of wires connecting external scsi cd drives, zip drives, scanners etc, plus external floppy drivers etc. Being able to ditch the mess and reduce the same fuctionality to contain it all inside the single case is IMO my perfect solution. Same for my A600. That has a rom switcher (auto switching, no external switches), internal 4MB fast ram expansion, internal Gotek, CF HDD. It's not what you might call heavily modified because it would also need an ECS Indivision and accelerator squeezed inside, but I don't need those.

 

[geminister]

Exactly!

There are mods and switches you can add which are reversable (change a chip with some modded raisers etc) and mod the gotek into an external drive as DF0 and use that, i think thats the cleanest way and also 100% reversable!

There's even a electronic switch, that atleast works with the A500. That way you can keep your internal floppy. You control what drive is DF0: by holding the mouse button at boot. I've got my Gotek for my A500 in a external drive case with this and it works just fine. And I've used the Gotek to install Workbench and a few other things on my A1200 too. So this is really the most flexible solution, and it means the case is 100% original.

 

[BLTCON0]

There's even a electronic switch, that atleast works with the A500. That way you can keep your internal floppy. You control what drive is DF0: by holding the mouse button at boot. I've got my Gotek for my A500 in a external drive case with this and it works just fine. And I've used the Gotek to install Workbench and a few other things on my A1200 too. So this is really the most flexible solution, and it means the case is 100% original.

Of course there is, I've designed one, the motivation being exactly "keeping the case untouched".
Sale here.
Schematic here.
As I haven't heard of any previous such solution (which is basically why I got down to designing it), I'd be interested in more details on and a couple of photos of the one you have.

 

[Jepplen]

Exactly!

There are mods and switches you can add which are reversable (change a chip with some modded raisers etc) and mod the gotek into an external drive as DF0 and use that, i think thats the cleanest way and also 100% reversable!

There's even a electronic switch, that atleast works with the A500. That way you can keep your internal floppy. You control what drive is DF0: by holding the mouse button at boot. I've got my Gotek for my A500 in a external drive case with this and it works just fine. And I've used the Gotek to install Workbench and a few other things on my A1200 too. So this is really the most flexible solution, and it means the case is 100% original.

There's even a electronic switch, that atleast works with the A500. That way you can keep your internal floppy. You control what drive is DF0: by holding the mouse button at boot. I've got my Gotek for my A500 in a external drive case with this and it works just fine. And I've used the Gotek to install Workbench and a few other things on my A1200 too. So this is really the most flexible solution, and it means the case is 100% original.

Of course there is, I've designed one, the motivation being exactly "keeping the case untouched".
Sale here.
Schematic here.
As I haven't heard of any previous such solution (which is basically why I got down to designing it), I'd be interested in more details on and a couple of photos of the one you have.

WOW i didn't know about that, that would be the absolute best solution for me, it doesn't involve any cutting or "damaging" on any traces or so on motherboard right?

If so you should seriously consider sending that to production for a professional board to sell.
I'm certain there are many potential customers for it and you can earn yourself a few bucks for your work.


@Harrison
I'm not sure how you mean?
There are easy ways to mod a Gotek into an Amiga external drive. See pic below.

 

[geminister]

There's even a electronic switch, that atleast works with the A500. That way you can keep your internal floppy. You control what drive is DF0: by holding the mouse button at boot. I've got my Gotek for my A500 in a external drive case with this and it works just fine. And I've used the Gotek to install Workbench and a few other things on my A1200 too. So this is really the most flexible solution, and it means the case is 100% original.

Of course there is, I've designed one, the motivation being exactly "keeping the case untouched".
Sale here.
Schematic here.
As I haven't heard of any previous such solution (which is basically why I got down to designing it), I'd be interested in more details on and a couple of photos of the one you have.

I will get back to you on that one!

 

[a7mag3ddon]

You don't even need a USB stick on the outside, just mount an internal microSD internally instead using a micro adapter.

You can still access the card to upgrade or copy stuff to it by using the front mounted USB socket and using a basic USB to USB cable to PC.

Simples.

 

[Jeff_HxC2001]

And what about an On Screen Display and capacitive touch sensor solution ? No need to make any hole.
Anyone interested ?

 

[ADz83]

And what about an On Screen Display and capacitive touch sensor solution ? No need to make any hole.
Anyone interested ?

Yes