CD32 floppy options

[nuy]

Hello all.

I'm in the market for a TF330 (or more specifically, a board with HDD and RAM facilities). Over the past few days I've been making myself familiar with the reqs, chief among them being a riser. One thing that has held me back however is a lack of floppy options. I don't currently own a working Amiga and am unlikely to in the future, and I have a ton of floppies from when I was a youngster that I'd like to access again. Naturally I gravitated towards the Analogic/FWSI floppy.... thing, and also the riser they sell (which appears to be the shuttle for an SX-32). Reading through the forum threads here on Exxos indicates neither of these will work with the TF330. And of course the common riser provided (Kipper) has no floppy functionality. The only board historic and modern that I can find mention of working with TF330 that has a floppy interface is the Elsat Promodule (which are like hen's teeth).

So before I commit to getting a specific riser given a rather limited budget, I just have a couple of basic questions:

1. Is there any other riser that I have missed that has facility to hook up an FDD that will allow TF330 to work? (doesn't matter if internal or external connector)
2. If not, is there likely to be?
3. If not, other than an SX-1/SX32/Elsat, is there any other means of achieving the end goal of having a CD32 as a desktop computer (ie. with floppy, extra RAM, HDD)

Thanks muchly.

*Edit: Elsat, not Eltac...

[terriblefire]

Hello all.

1. Is there any other riser that I have missed that has facility to hook up an FDD that will allow TF330 to work? (doesn't matter if internal or external connector)
2. If not, is there likely to be?
3. If not, other than an SX-1/SX32/Elsat, is there any other means of achieving the end goal of having a CD32 as a desktop computer (ie. with floppy, extra RAM, HDD)

Thanks muchly.

I've no plans to make a floppy riser. I dont think any of the ones out there work with TF330s (Analogic one definitely does not). The reason the ESP header was added to the TF330 was so that you could copy adfs via samba and mount them in workbench.

It sounds like you want an A1200. Just get one of those instead?

[nuy]

I've no plans to make a floppy riser. I dont think any of the ones out there work with TF330s (Analogic one definitely does not). The reason the ESP header was added to the TF330 was so that you could copy adfs via samba and mount them in workbench.

It sounds like you want an A1200. Just get one of those instead?

Thanks for the reply. Sadly, budget and personal circumstance rule an A1200 out. I've pretty much got space for one Amiga "system" in my cramped gaff, and I already have the CD32s (one of which is out for recapping as I type). I've got a budget of around £200, and a refurb A1200 is gonna be around twice that. So with all that in mind, the aim was to see if I could make a full desktop system from the CD32.

At a push I could probably pick up the Analogic FDD or riser in the future and just swap between that and the riser with TF330 hanging off it for when I want to use floppies; the difficulty then is still getting stuff off the floppies to the HDD of course.

During my research I did find an interesting set of videos culminating in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6wB3tZS4QM

Based on this:

http://megaburken.net/~patrik/CD32_Disk_Drive/readme

Unfortunately my hardware skills end at being able to take the case off and admire the chips inside. Given the description of that interface at a technical level, would this work with the TF330 or suffer the same issue as the Analogic?

[terriblefire]

Unfortunately you are pretty much the only person that wants what you want. So it is going to be expensive.

[go0se]

There was a user https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/*amiga*collector* (**EDIT** Fixed URL) on eBay UK last year selling CD32 floppy drive interfaces that plugged into the riser. They seemed to be cards that he had built himself.

I bought one from him for £25. Used it once with a gotek, seemed to work fine, unplugged it, forgot about it, and have now seemingly lost it!

Not ideal for you as you won't be able to use it in conjunction with the TF330 (unless you get yourself a triple riser but better value than the alternatives.

He seems to still be active on eBay, perhaps worth sending him a message to see if he still has any available.

[terriblefire]

I'm still kinda confused why anyone wants a floppy drive in this day and age. When i want to transfer stuff to the Amiga i just put the CF card in a PC and use WinUAE to transfer.

Real floppies... if i had a collection of floppies i wouldnt want to use them incase i damaged them and a gotek is about the same effort to put data on as a CF card. Plus you pretty much need WHDLoad to play games.

[go0se]

I have no rational explanation as to why I bought it, just that it said CD32 on it and I wanted to see if it worked

The FDD novelty soon wore off. Although a Gotek with a rotary encoder and the drive sound modification has a certain charm. The anticipation of waiting of disk games to load at 1X and swapping disks has a nostalgia that is lost with the WHDLoad experience. Beyond two disks that soon turns into tedious frustration though!

[go0se]

I was suitably annoyed by having lost that FDD riser adapter that I have just ripped my storage room apart in a quest to find it as I knew it was in there somewhere!

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[nuy]

Unfortunately you are pretty much the only person that wants what you want. So it is going to be expensive.

Long term expense is manageable, it's the short term burst spend that isn't feasible (currently). I think my next best hope is commissioning a build of the Bruce Abbot interface.

[nuy]

I'm still kinda confused why anyone wants a floppy drive in this day and age. When i want to transfer stuff to the Amiga i just put the CF card in a PC and use WinUAE to transfer.

Real floppies... if i had a collection of floppies i wouldnt want to use them incase i damaged them and a gotek is about the same effort to put data on as a CF card. Plus you pretty much need WHDLoad to play games.

I have no rational explanation as to why I bought it, just that it said CD32 on it and I wanted to see if it worked

The FDD novelty soon wore off. Although a Gotek with a rotary encoder and the drive sound modification has a certain charm. The anticipation of waiting of disk games to load at 1X and swapping disks has a nostalgia that is lost with the WHDLoad experience. Beyond two disks that soon turns into tedious frustration though!

Nostalgia is a huge part of it, but is sometimes a bit nebulous. For me, the overall package of the experience is what I enjoy experiencing. As an example, my 65XE is packed with upgrades and peripherals (upgrades in welcome thread, peripherals include AVGCart/SIO2SD/SDrive/XF551 with 3.5" mech) and yet I find most pleasure in booting up a game from cassette, making a brew or grabbing a beer while it loads, reading the instruction manual and then playing half an hour of Pole Position (or whatver). I think it's simply because it's exactly what I did as a kid. The convenience of having mass storage available is certainly a huge benefit, yet having the mod cons available doesn't have to exclude the old ways that people derived pleasure from all those years ago.