Problem with floppy emulator

[ivathoma]

Hi,

I bought one of the SD floppy emulators for my old A1200 a few months ago, and it worked without any problems.
Recently the sound on the A1200 disappered so I decided to buy a refurbished A1200 from Amigakit.com.
Both the old and the "new" A1200 has KS 3.1.

I'm having problems getting the SD floppy emulator to work on the "new" A1200, the LCD display switches between T 002/003 while making a sound similar to the one a floppy drive makes when waiting for a diskette.

I've tried different cables, re-formatting my SD card and tried different jumper settings on the floppy emulator, but the result is still the same.
I'm using the latest firmware and autoboot for DF0.

Do you have any suggestions on what to do? It feels like I just wasted 150 £ on this A1200


Ivar.

[Jeff]

Hi,

I bought one of the SD floppy emulators for my old A1200 a few months ago, and it worked without any problems.
Recently the sound on the A1200 disappered so I decided to buy a refurbished A1200 from Amigakit.com.
Both the old and the "new" A1200 has KS 3.1.

I'm having problems getting the SD floppy emulator to work on the "new" A1200, the LCD display switches between T 002/003 while making a sound similar to the one a floppy drive makes when waiting for a diskette.

I've tried different cables, re-formatting my SD card and tried different jumper settings on the floppy emulator, but the result is still the same.
I'm using the latest firmware and autoboot for DF0.

Do you have any suggestions on what to do? It feels like I just wasted 150 £ on this A1200


Ivar.

mhh this strange...
Have you tried an true floppy disk drive on this Amiga?

[ivathoma]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply.

No, I didn't really test the floppy drive when I got the A1200.
I am going to put it back in and test it right away.
Just need to find one of my old Amiga games to test with.

Ivar.

[Jeff]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply.

No, I didn't really test the floppy drive when I got the A1200.
I am going to put it back in and test it right away.
Just need to find one of my old Amiga games to test with.

Ivar.

Another question : What is the revision of this Amiga ?
And the Model of disk drive used ?

[ivathoma]

I just tested with the floppy drive and it seems to work fine.
I tested with a harddrive as well and it also seems to work.

[ivathoma]

Where can I find the revision number?
The disk drive is a Panasonic. It says A1200 SG on the label in addition to some registration numbers of some kind.

[Jeff]

At which position is the jumper of the floppy emulator ? Which cable are you using ? Is it twisted ?

[ivathoma]

The jumper is in the standard position, set to ID0 floppy A.
I'm using a standard Amiga cable, non-twisted (I've tried with the cables that worked, which I used on my old A1200 as well).
The KS is version 3.1, revision 40.068

[ivathoma]

I just tested the SD emulator in my old A1200 now with the exact same cables and jumper settings and it loaded Autoboot.hfe without any problems.
I'm really puzzled oO

Edit: If you want I can upload some pictures of the set-up.

[Jeff]

I just tested the SD emulator in my old A1200 now with the exact same cables and jumper settings and it loaded Autoboot.hfe without any problems.
I'm really puzzled oO

I have read somewhere that some A1200 use 1.44MB PC floppy disk :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1200

The revision of the A1200 manufactured by Escom was fitted with PC-based 'High Density' floppy disk drives that had been downgraded to Double Density drives. This resulted in some software incompatibility (PC style drives do not supply a "ready" signal, which signals if there is a floppy in the disk drive.)[8] Escom released a free circuit upgrade to correct this issue.

So try to change the interface mode into the HFE file to "PC 1.44MB" or "PC 720KB" to see...
(this setting can be changed into the sd card floppy emulator settings window. This must be done before converting...)

[ivathoma]

Ahh, I think Escom used these floppy drives.
This A1200 might very well be one of these.

I will try to do this and report back

[Jeff]

Ahh, I think Escom used these floppy drives.
This A1200 might very well be one of these.

I will try to do this and report back

Yes this is very possible !
More informations here (in french):
http://amigaga.chez-alice.fr/classic/bi ... 200fix.htm

[Jeff]

Some more informations:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1277

http://www.softpres.org/article:hard:fi ... _connector

It seems that you have to revert one Escom modification on the motherboard.

[ivathoma]

I tried changing the interface mode in the HFE file to "PC 1.44MB", but got the same result.
When making this change to the interface file, will it apply to all HFE's or do I need to convert them afterwards with this setting activated?
In which case I would need to have autoboot.hfe as adf.

Judging by the link you gave in french (http://amigaga.chez-alice.fr/classic/bi ... 200fix.htm) it seems I indeed have an Escom A1200.
The floppy drive has the brand name Panasonic JU-257A516P, which seems to be a PC floppy drive.

Unless there is a way to fix this by software (editing the firmware or config file) I guess my only choice would be to unsolder the pin at 2 and move it to pin 1?
Do you think that would resolve the problems?

Thanks for all your help thus far!

[Jeff]

I tried changing the interface mode in the HFE file to "PC 1.44MB", but got the same result.
When making this change to the interface file, will it apply to all HFE's or do I need to convert them afterwards with this setting activated?
In which case I would need to have autoboot.hfe as adf.

No. Change the setting, load the HFE file and reexport it (overwrite the old one).
I don't know if you need to select "PC 1.44MB" or "PC 720KB"

Judging by the link you gave in french (http://amigaga.chez-alice.fr/classic/bi ... 200fix.htm) it seems I indeed have an Escom A1200.
The floppy drive has the brand name Panasonic JU-257A516P, which seems to be a PC floppy drive.

Unless there is a way to fix this by software (editing the firmware or config file)...

no config file or firmware change are needed, just the HFE file change setting are needed.

...I guess my only choice would be to unsolder the pin at 2 and move it to pin 1?
Do you think that would resolve the problems?

For sure !