Whilst researching ways to write Amiga discs I found this...

[CraigsBar]

http://m1web.de/ADTWin/

With many new PC's not having floppy drives any more, and it being relatively easy to add a parallel port, would it be possible to create a dsk version. Of this tool to use the same setup with CPC discs?

[pelrun]

Bitbashing a floppy drive via the parallel port? That's grotesque 


USB parallel port adapters also generally don't work for this sort of abuse.

[CraigsBar]

No, Indeed, but both PCI and pcie parallel cards are a: cheap and b: reported to work.
If this can be modified to support the dsk format we might have an alternative to a kryodisk or catweasel 4 to add a floppy controller.

[CraigsBar]

Bitbashing a floppy drive via the parallel port? That's grotesque  [emoji23]


USB parallel port adapters also generally don't work for this sort of abuse.

I love the line....

"Note, that the parallel port is actually not intended to be operated as a disk drive controller"

No shit sherlock!

[Bryce]

I love the line....

"Note, that the parallel port is actually not intended to be operated as a disk drive controller"

No shit sherlock!

Although "not intended", iomega used the parallel port quite successfully for their ZipDrives.

Bryce.

[CraigsBar]

Although "not intended", iomega used the parallel port quite successfully for their ZipDrives.

Bryce.

Oh yeah, even with a pass through I'd I recall correctly. I only had SCSI, ide  and USB zip100's so forgot about those.

[TFM]

Intended? You humans do think in such a variety of strange, unlogical and just weired categories.


We as machines understand the 0 and the 1. Any connection is welcome. 

[CraigsBar]

Heheheh.

[TFM]

Why not? If it works - then it works! 

[CraigsBar]

Indeed, are you volunteering to look at the source and see if it can be modded?

[arnoldemu]

Although "not intended", iomega used the parallel port quite successfully for their ZipDrives.

Bryce.

It's possible they used IEEE-1284 or similar.

IEEE 1284 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But I do believe the writing Amiga drives over a parallel port on a PC doesn't follow any nice specs and they really are hitting the parallel port.
You may need to configure the parallel port to ECP/EEP or similar in the BIOS to get multi-directional data on the parallel port.

I had a parallel port ATA based harddrive that used IEEE-1284. It was made by Shuttle and had a seperate enclosure. It was a bit slow. I now use it to power my CPC

[TFM]

Indeed, are you volunteering to look at the source and see if it can be modded?

Sorry - me only speaking Z80 and ATMega16. 

[pelrun]

If this can be modified to support the dsk format we might have an alternative to a kryodisk or catweasel 4 to add a floppy controller.

Oddly enough, it's actually possible to use a Gotek connected to a CPC to directly read/write a disc in the A: drive, with a few minor mods to the Gotek and the right software...

[CraigsBar]

http://m1web.de/ADTWin/

With many new PC's not having floppy drives any more, and it being relatively easy to add a parallel port, would it be possible to create a dsk version. Of this tool to use the same setup with CPC discs?

Well the drive and cable works perfectly for writing Amiga adf files to floppies. I still hope someone with the required skills here might consider looking at the source for the app to see if adding support for dsk is possible. If so we'd have a new platform for getting games to our cpcs.