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SteveE671
- Burleson, TX
Which 3d modeling wizard is going to design one of these?
Off topic:
Holy crap - Burleson, TX? I went to high school in Arlington, TCJC in Ft Worth, UT of Arlington, and art school over in Dallas near North Park a million years ago.
One of my best friends from high school actually lives down near you by some lake! What a trip.
Man if I'm not mistaken you might be sorta near where 8-Bit Guy lives, too.
Anyhoo - back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Do you mean some sort of bracket to be put in the place of the internal floppy drive?
Holy crap - Burleson, TX? I went to high school in Arlington, TCJC in Ft Worth, UT of Arlington, and art school over in Dallas near North Park a million years ago.
One of my best friends from high school actually lives down near you by some lake! What a trip.
Man if I'm not mistaken you might be sorta near where 8-Bit Guy lives, too.
Anyhoo - back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Do you mean some sort of bracket to be put in the place of the internal floppy drive?
I for one would love a case (with wiring included) to use a Gotek as an external drive. Then I could use it as df1: on my A1000.
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SteveE671
- Burleson, TX
Yep, the 8-bit Guy doesn't live far from me in Kennedale. He's even come to our Amiga club meetings.intric8 wrote:Off topic:
Holy crap - Burleson, TX? I went to high school in Arlington, TCJC in Ft Worth, UT of Arlington, and art school over in Dallas near North Park a million years ago.
One of my best friends from high school actually lives down near you by some lake! What a trip.
Man if I'm not mistaken you might be sorta near where 8-Bit Guy lives, too.
Anyhoo - back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Do you mean some sort of bracket to be put in the place of the internal floppy drive?
As far as a mounting bracket goes, yes. Something that replaces the internal drive. I have a gotek mounted in the really nice slim case, but when you plug it into the 1000, it doesn't like it. I have it configured as a second drive, still don't like it. Internally, the drive works no problem.
This is just my personal opinion, but I find the Gotek hideous. The last thing I'd want to do is have a USB thumb drive sticking out of my 1000's floppy drive.
However...
I have a good friend who has converted his A1000 to a MiSTer. I joking call it his Señor 1000, since it's a MiSTer.
The name has actually stuck.
It's unbelievable to see in action.
Sadly, he received so much hate and raised eyebrows when he published his work on converting the A600 the same way, he's not planning on ever publishing the (incredible, jaw-dropping) results. Total crying shame how the Amiga/Retro community reacts to innovation these days. Makes me sad and mad, but ah well...
In any case, what he would do in a case like you're describing is use one of these.
According to him, it's an HxC like the Gotek but better. "The hard part would be fitting the eject button to the front push button."
But as far as the MiSTer conversion he did, he tucked the mister in custom designed brackets - that he designed and printed - down in the case. Then he used one of these extensions to feed the SD card up to the floppy drive hole.
Finally, to hold the SD card in place, this is what his mad 3d design skills produced - printed black so you don't really see anything.
Here's the actual machine in action.
And what's crazy? It can be any Amiga you want it to be, and it's 100% solid. I could do a Pepsi Challenge with this machine and most folks wouldn't know if it was original or brand new. But then you could blink and I could turn it into a Mac, or an SNES. Or even a C64. It's fantastic.
Anyway... that A1000 miracle will stay put in his basement for his personal amusement.
If it were me (maybe someday? I still use floppies) I'd go the Lotharek route described above just to try and keep the appearance tidier. But I bet someone over on A1k.org might do something like you need if they haven't already.
I mean, having done my own internal floppy drive (it was a nightmare) with my A1000 Phoenix, I think it would only take a 3D print similar to the current metal bracket, but re-shaped to fit the gotek's case. And since floppy disks aren't involved anymore, having it be perfectly aligned (like with floppies) wouldn't even be that necessary anymore. I suppose you could even keep the original button in place, too, just for looks. Man... but if I was forced to use a Gotek, I guess I'd aim for the smallest USB drive I could find. Something like this.
However...
I have a good friend who has converted his A1000 to a MiSTer. I joking call it his Señor 1000, since it's a MiSTer.
The name has actually stuck. It's unbelievable to see in action.
Sadly, he received so much hate and raised eyebrows when he published his work on converting the A600 the same way, he's not planning on ever publishing the (incredible, jaw-dropping) results. Total crying shame how the Amiga/Retro community reacts to innovation these days. Makes me sad and mad, but ah well...
In any case, what he would do in a case like you're describing is use one of these.
But as far as the MiSTer conversion he did, he tucked the mister in custom designed brackets - that he designed and printed - down in the case. Then he used one of these extensions to feed the SD card up to the floppy drive hole.
Finally, to hold the SD card in place, this is what his mad 3d design skills produced - printed black so you don't really see anything.
- These are the custom brackets - designed entirely by Mattsoft in Seattle - for his build.
- Matt with his fantastic creation.
Anyway... that A1000 miracle will stay put in his basement for his personal amusement.
If it were me (maybe someday? I still use floppies) I'd go the Lotharek route described above just to try and keep the appearance tidier. But I bet someone over on A1k.org might do something like you need if they haven't already.
I mean, having done my own internal floppy drive (it was a nightmare) with my A1000 Phoenix, I think it would only take a 3D print similar to the current metal bracket, but re-shaped to fit the gotek's case. And since floppy disks aren't involved anymore, having it be perfectly aligned (like with floppies) wouldn't even be that necessary anymore. I suppose you could even keep the original button in place, too, just for looks. Man... but if I was forced to use a Gotek, I guess I'd aim for the smallest USB drive I could find. Something like this.
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Mr.Toast
- Roseville, CA
That looks like a fantastic solution, there-and the 3d design is great!
I understand the aversion to jamming a dremel cutting wheel into a vintage case and causing heartburn from a historical preservationist perspective. But, it just seems stupid to jump on someone who is executing a respectful modern solution to hardware and housing that is 100% likely to crumble to dust no matter how well preserved the gear is.
I personally got back into the "scene" because it became interesting again with new hardware and modern implementations/augmentations of classic technology. The new stuff is making the old stuff fun again- and the more people getting in on this vibe mean more of our classics will live to see a few more decades.
.Toast
I understand the aversion to jamming a dremel cutting wheel into a vintage case and causing heartburn from a historical preservationist perspective. But, it just seems stupid to jump on someone who is executing a respectful modern solution to hardware and housing that is 100% likely to crumble to dust no matter how well preserved the gear is.
I personally got back into the "scene" because it became interesting again with new hardware and modern implementations/augmentations of classic technology. The new stuff is making the old stuff fun again- and the more people getting in on this vibe mean more of our classics will live to see a few more decades.
.Toast
@Mr.Toast - exactly.
I'm still running mostly classic gear (and a few fpgas) but that's Matt's game, too. He's all about preservation - more than most I've ever met. And he's pretty brand agnostic about it even though he has preferences. But he's also for experimenting and having fun and quite frankly innovation.
And he never ever destroys anything. That Señor 1000? All the original parts are carefully packed into anti-static bags and put into organized water tight plastic bins. At a moments notice he could reassemble any of his projects back to life with original parts.
But man. He brought his Señor 1000 to the last Seattle C= Club meet in February and it was freaking sensational. I was blown away when I saw the 600 in action. But the 1000 pulled at my heart and mind strings hard core.
I won't be shocked if I find myself trying to build what he's built in 10 years. The only piece missing for me today is the lack of floppy drive support. But in 10 years? I may not care about that as much anymore. Who knows.
The cores and the support for the MiSTer is beyond tremendous and seems to be accelerating at a shocking rate. And I love Matt's approach to using them. They aren't some Frankenstein little orphan Borg squid sitting on your desk. They are elegantly integrated into the original form factors we all love.
That's bad ass.
I'm still running mostly classic gear (and a few fpgas) but that's Matt's game, too. He's all about preservation - more than most I've ever met. And he's pretty brand agnostic about it even though he has preferences. But he's also for experimenting and having fun and quite frankly innovation.
And he never ever destroys anything. That Señor 1000? All the original parts are carefully packed into anti-static bags and put into organized water tight plastic bins. At a moments notice he could reassemble any of his projects back to life with original parts.
But man. He brought his Señor 1000 to the last Seattle C= Club meet in February and it was freaking sensational. I was blown away when I saw the 600 in action. But the 1000 pulled at my heart and mind strings hard core.
I won't be shocked if I find myself trying to build what he's built in 10 years. The only piece missing for me today is the lack of floppy drive support. But in 10 years? I may not care about that as much anymore. Who knows.
The cores and the support for the MiSTer is beyond tremendous and seems to be accelerating at a shocking rate. And I love Matt's approach to using them. They aren't some Frankenstein little orphan Borg squid sitting on your desk. They are elegantly integrated into the original form factors we all love.
That's bad ass.
I'm all over the place with my attitudes on preservation.
My A1000 has never been opened up, and has just enough patina to let people know it's a real driver. If I changed a bunch of stuff inside it wouldn't be an A1000 anymore. I'm making an exception for the Rejuvenator because that's a period-correct accessory being reproduced. I currently have the display going through composite to an HDTV because I want to preserve the 1084. Just knowing I have a CRT is enough. I don't need to be putting wear on it. Once I get the A500 cleaned up, the A1000 will probably go back in its' original box until the Rejuvenator is ready.
As for the A500, the condition of that machine is such I don't mind modding it. ACA500+ / internal Gotek / custom rattlecan paintjob for the top case half / OSSC for display (because I can share it with my retro game consoles) I'm open to suggestion for other A500 upgrades.
My A1000 has never been opened up, and has just enough patina to let people know it's a real driver. If I changed a bunch of stuff inside it wouldn't be an A1000 anymore. I'm making an exception for the Rejuvenator because that's a period-correct accessory being reproduced. I currently have the display going through composite to an HDTV because I want to preserve the 1084. Just knowing I have a CRT is enough. I don't need to be putting wear on it. Once I get the A500 cleaned up, the A1000 will probably go back in its' original box until the Rejuvenator is ready.
As for the A500, the condition of that machine is such I don't mind modding it. ACA500+ / internal Gotek / custom rattlecan paintjob for the top case half / OSSC for display (because I can share it with my retro game consoles) I'm open to suggestion for other A500 upgrades.
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SteveE671
- Burleson, TX
I'm trying to think ahead. I like the good old floppy drive. I like the sound they make. Eventually, it will die. If there was a way to insert a modern solution in it's place and make it look aesthetically pleasing with no cutting or modifications, that would be great I'm not going to mod my case for any reason.
Steve, in lieu of an internal A1000 Gotek, you could plug an ACA500+ into the side of the A1000. Combine that with a flash card reader for your PC and use the flash card to move files between the A1000 and modern machine. Yes it's visible outside the case, but it also adds a floppy alternative like you want.