Amiga 600 Floppy Emulator Mod (with LCD) *Updated

[RetromanIE]

Thought I'd start a thread about this mod I'm doing on my Amiga 600.
I'm installing a floppy drive emulator internally and also mounting a small basic LCD screen into the case.

This is the emulator:



It didn't come with any wires or anything like that so its up to the user to sort out any extensions or mods to the lcd or buttons. After a super fast order from the ever reliable SK Pang (which arrived today) I hooked up some solder free wires and extended the LCD(solder free for the moment).



A quick tidy up on the wires and time to see how she'll sit inside the A600:
(You can see the basic idea I'm going for with the lcd and buttons. They will be mounted inside the case so the lcd pcb wont be showing or anything like that)



Another option:



SD card slot will need cutting as well:



That's really it for the moment. I've got another empty A600 case coming from the UK and it should be here this week.
So I have a second chance in case I feck up the cutting

.

[RetromanIE]

I did a bit of work on the case this evening and have the screen in as well as the sd card port setup. It's only roughly done and will need some fine sanding and more cutting work to get everything perfect. I've not even screwed the case closed as I'll be doing more tomorrow.

[RetromanIE]

I'm very undecided about what type/size/colour of button to use on this mod (as well as the positioning on the Amiga 600 case itself).
I've got the screen and pcb properly installed inside the case and the button wires soldered up and ready to go. Everything is working as it should and I've connected up 3 buttons temporarily for testing.

This is how the internals are looking now:





These are the types of buttons I have at the moment.
Obviously I wont be using the Sanwa type as it's much to large but its just there for size comparison.



I've ordered a few different variations of this type as well in case I go with the very small and discrete button option.


http://www.ebay.ie/itm/180732232689?...84.m1439.l2649

I was thinking that maybe a black and white colour scheme so as not to clash too hard with the white of the case. Maybe two whites for the Next and Previous buttons and a black one as the centre Select button?

I'll keep at it and hopefully it wont look bad once I've decided on the buttons.


.

[RetromanIE]

I've mounted the buttons externally for now in a very expensive prototype box






Here's a video of the Amiga 600 loading up "Extreme Violence" using the Floppy Emulator.
You can see its slow when compared to loading from hdd but this is still just a floppy drive running at normal speed. I've not looked into how to speed it up yet and am happy enough with the normal floppy speed for now (there is a CF hdd inside as well after all). Plus, this is how it was when I got one as a kid. We didnt have any fancy hard drives back then. It was slow floppy disks all the way

The TV has loads of interference as I'm using really bad composite cables on it until some new RGB ones arrive (hopefully tomorrow).
My Amiga 1200 power accident melted my old Amiga RGB cable

[RetromanIE]

Mostly complete now. I just need to decide if I want to disguise the buttons by painting them white or using some white Sugru to cover them up a little.

Something to protect the baby






Not everyone is going to like the buttons and button placement I've gone with but its how I wanted to do it this time.

[RetromanIE]

So I thought I'd revisit this mod and change the LCD to another type(an easier to read LCD). I'm replacing the current negative blue LCD with a new "Positive RGB 16x2" LCD unit from Adafruit. It's a pretty easy job as I'm not doing anything with the main floppy emulator part, it's purely rewiring and remounting the LCD panel(mounting is the hardest part).

Now, the HxC floppy emulator that I have in the Amiga 600 doesn't directly support RGB LCD's. They will work but there is no switch to change the the colours on the panel. I could wire something in but I want to keep this as simple as possible and not have any extra buttons on the Amiga.
So, with this in mind I've wired up the power to the blue and green backlights (or LED side lights I suppose is more accurate) on the panel.


This is with only the blue backlight. You can see it looks decent but can be difficult to read the text in certain lighting conditions or at certain angles.
(Sorry the photos aren't as good as usual. I didn't have my DSLR and used my iPhone 5 instead.)
Click for full size.




Here is is with both blue and green backlights power up. It's sort of a cyan/aquamarine colour and is very clear and easy to read.



I could also have wired and powered the red backlight but it doesn't look great on the Amiga, so I've wired it in, but left disconnect. It's a simple job then in the future to change the colours by connecting the cables or wiring them up to some switches or a controller board to easily get a lot more colour options.

Now I just need to solder in the connections or maybe try out my new "Wire Glue" and cover with some epoxy. Will post an update and more pics in the next day or two.

.

[RetromanIE]

So I got it mounted anyway. I never could find a proper bezel to fit the lcd so I used more sugru this time to try and blend it in a bit rather than just having gaps around it like the last one. I can cut the sugru to a more perfect shape after 24 hours or so.








Next to an A1200(the text on the LCD is easily readable even with the backlight off, unlike the previous one):



SD Card Manager Software for Amiga:

[RetromanIE]

Just a quick video round-up of this mod.