via disk-image file (and therefore also sector by sector)
Currently the Amiga version can write most formats (except Atari800XL,
Apple IIe)
LINUX versions can read and write Amiga disks.
The DOS/Win95 driver for the PC-ISA Catweasel can only read (all of
the above formats), but will be able to write in the future ... only a
software update is needed!!
The software for the PC-ISA Version can handle 4 controllers (8 Floppy Drives!)
(~85US$) |
Win95 Software runs in a win95-DOS-box!
|
photo shows old version (~130USD) |
Buddha & Catweasel combined controller, (similar to picture)
Zorro board for Amiga ZORRO (A1500, 2000, 300, 4000) supplies
3x (6x) IDE, 2xFloppy
Now with Flash memory and 3 LED connections |
(~85 US$) |
Buddha Flash, Zorro board for the Amiga 1500, 2000, 3000
and 4000
with Clock Port, like A1200 (for connection of cheap A1200 hardware to the A2000) Flash-rom 32kB (for later updates) -- 2 LED connections -- New design (black PCB) |
(~85USD) |
Catweasel advanced Floppy Controller for the Amiga 1200 and 4000(similar to picture) connects to A1200 clock port or A4000 IDE port (A4000: supplies IDE-through-connector, A1200: IDE-through connector inactive). Supplies local expansion port ("Individual Computers" expansion port) for use with optional I/O module (only for A1200!, 2serial, 2parallel) |
|
|
IDEfix IDE Controller (4-drive adapter) for A1200:
plugs into A1200 IDE port ... supplies 2xIDE (for 4 IDE devices) with software |
|
|
IDEfix IDE Controller (4-drive adapter) for A
4000:
plugs into A4000 IDE port ... supplies 2xIDE (for 4 IDE devices) with software |
|
|
IDEfix IDE Controller EXPRESS UPGRADE for A1200 |
|
|
IDEfix EXPRESS IDE Controller (4-drive adapter):
(fast version 5-6mB/sec)
needs A1200 supplies 2xIDE (for 4 IDE devices). |
|
|
QUICK ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS:
|
Software Hut sells it for $99. |
|
MPG 1 Layer 1 and 2 and 3 (!) playback !!! This is an Announcement! This card is not yet available. Please email and register your interest My efforts in bringing out a 56K DSP soundcard have not been successful
so far, so I made a cooperation with Petsoff from Finland. Now I will produce
a Zorro board with similar specs to the Delfina PRO soundcard. It has a
56K operating system and it will be shipped with an MP3 player for the
Amiga, so the 56K does all the decoding (no accelerator needed!).
11may2001 SOUND CARD ANNOUNCEMENT
It will not be an add-on for the Catweasel, it's a separate Zorro-card. Production is scheduled to start this summer, it will be announced in a few days on my website. The board can: - playback AHI (standard 16-bit and 24-bit HiFi)
OLD INFO: The MPG & AHI SOUND CARD for the AMIGA can be connected
to either
Its housed in a metal case, as big as a 3 1/2 inch floppy
drive and has a LCD display for arbitrary short information, such has artist
and title of the currently playing song.
Ready to use for:
Since the DSP is freely programmable, you can think of thousands of sound formats like MP1, MP2, MP3, Real Audio, toolvox and more. The software shipped with it is only MP1-2-3 and a DSP assembler, so if you want to implement Real Audio, go ahead! The card is not shipping yet, had lots of other things to do. |
Catweasel is a new floppycontroller that works with standard PC-diskdrives. The controller handles MS-Dos and Amiga-disks, no matter if they're DD or HD formatted. A strength of the Catweasel controller is reading and writing extraneous formats: Macintosh, Atari 10/11 sector disks and commodore 1581 disks can be used in a standard 3,5" low-cost drive (*).
The controller is a standard 8-bit ISA card that fits into any PC you like: It has been successfully tested in old XT computers as well as in double-pentium pro boards. The BeBox and the Dec Alpha AXP 064 board with EISA bridge also work fine.
Here's two people who are working on _very_ interesting catweasel software:
Christian Bauer - frodo (64 emulator on Linux/BeBox)
Stephan Kanthak - UAE (Amiga emulator on Linux/Dos, he's also using
the Alpha AXP)
Catweasel is a new floppycontroller that works with standard PC-diskdrives. The controller handles Amiga and MS-Dos disks, no matter if they're DD or HD formatted. The HD formats are even handeled in higher speeds: PC-HD disks are 2.15 times faster, and Amiga HD-disks are speeded up 1.3 times. This can be achieved, because the Amiga-HD drives spin at 150 RPM as soon as you put a HD-Disk into the drive. The PC-drive on the other hand spins at 300 RPM, no matter what kind of disk you insert.
Additionally, a strength of the Catweasel controller is reading and writing extraneous formats: Macintosh, Atari 10/11 sector disks and commodore 1581 disks can be used in a standard 3,5" low-cost drive (*).
If you're connecting a 5,25" drive, even more formats can be handled: MS-Dos disks with 360K and 1200K open up to the Amiga-world, and the good old '64 disk is honoured in a special way: A filesystem for the Amiga OS is shipped with the catweasel, so you can copy the files from a 1541-disk using the shell or Directory Opus. Copying files for Emulators is no longer a problem, because a full disk is read within 12 seconds. A virtual file "disk.info" shows an icon on the workbench, and another virtual file holds the .d64 image of the disk, as as it's a standard in '64 emulators.
With a software update that's available in early '97, you can use floppystreamers with the Catweasel controller. With this sequential device you'll be able to backup your harddisks with AmiBack, Quarterback or Diavolo Backup. The speed will be about 2MB/minute. Naturally, this softwareupdate is free!
The controller is connected to the IDE port of the Amiga 1200/Amiga 4000. You can still connect 2 harddisks or 1 harddisk and 1 CD-Rom. To be compatible to the common 4-drive adaptors, a special adaptor is available for the clock-connector port in the Amiga 1200, and it's fully compatible to all known turboboards and harddisks. No problems with the clock on the accelerator cards occur.
We're already working on a Zorro-II version of the card. It will include some additional features, as there are: 3 (three!) IDE-Ports for cheap CD-Roms and harddisks, a bootrom for booting from Catweasel drives or a harddrive, and a local expansion port. This expansion port can carry an optional I/O module with 2 serial and 1 parallel interface. A special sysop's I/O module will carry 8 (eight!) serial ports. Each port has a 16-byte fifo to keep the interrupt-load low.
(*): Due to the bad quality of the drives, we don't guarantee the function
with Mitsumi D359Tx drives.
BUDDHA IDE CONTROLLER for Zorro-II Amigas
Let me tell you about my new IDE controller for Zorro-II Amigas:
The controller is called "Buddha", but I don't want to tell the story for this name by now. the technical data is more interesting: It's got two IDE-ports, a bootrom, and Software by Elaborate Bytes (Oliver Kastl). The whole Elabporate bytes' IDE package is shipped with the controller: Atapi drivers, the CacheCDFilesystem, CD-Changer software, Autopark commands for the newer harddisks, and a configuration utility for the controller itself, because the controller has got some special capabilities: The IDE timing can be programmed by software, so even the eldest harddisks can be run on the controller. It is also compatible with every known Atapi-CD Rom drive, and even the NEC CD-changer is supported. For the Amigas with AA-Chipset, a CD-32 Emulator is shipped with the card!
Hey! Don't mess around with the name of the controller. Everybody knows that there's a guru working in each Amiga. Time to employ a Buddha!
I had the idea for this controller in summer '96, so I started to build a prototype. 6 weeks later, the prototype worked in my 486/66 computer, so I started the version for the Amiga 1200, Amiga 4000 and finally the Zorro-II version. One Friday night when I was hand-routing the A1200 PCB (no money for a Specctra at that time!), I just forgot time. When the sun rose, and the birds began to sing, it was definately too late (or too early?) to go to bed. I switched on the TV, and went on working. Some hours later, children's program began on the German TV station "SAT 1". They were showing the XXth repitition of "Catweazle" (the guy with the electric-trick!), and I thought "cool name". COOL NAME! That's it, I finally had a name for my project. I decided to change the spelling a little bit, so nobody's copyrights are touched. I saved the file under "catwsl.brd" and went to bed. I thought about a name for the product the following weeks, and we have spent hours and hours to find a name. Suggestions were "Vario con", or "Flexicon", sub-titles like "the last word spoken for floppy controllers", but nothing sounded as cool as "Catweasel". The "sub-titles" are different for the PC and the Amiga versions. For the Amiga, this controller is "only" an enhancement, because the only difference is, that the bit-rate can be software-configured. Therefore, the Amiga versions are sold as "advanced floppy controller". The PC-version is useless to people only using their diskdrives for installing some drivers, it's only interesting if you want to exchange data with professional systems (Mac and Amiga), or if you're into nostalgia and love your 8-Bit machines to death. I think the PC-version should be labeled with a sticker, something like
Technical description Buddha IDE controller
Technical description of the Catweasel controller
Uses standard PC-diskdrives for every format:
* All Buddha functions PLUS one IDE-port for up to six IDE-devices! * All Catweasel functions PLUS bootrom * same local expansion connector as Buddha * same software package as Buddha * same Catweasel software package including EEC * fits next to a scandoubler in the A4000 * one IDE-cable included! * floppy cable included! *+ free power connector adaptor for 3,5" diskdrives for all Z-II controllers sold after 1-aug-97 until Xmas!
FAQ: Is the Catweasel Z-II really a combination of the
Buddha and the Catweasel? A: Yes, it is! It has even got one more IDE-port,
and each of the three IDE-ports is individually buffered, so you don't
have to worry about the length of the cables.
If you need the latest drivers for the ISA PC Catweasel... email norbert
dec1997:
version 3.25 of amiga software: WRITING to CBM 1541 and 1571 works again.. sorry folks.
PC software version 1.10 now has FAQ. CatCopy can now handle virtual floppies.
ESC now stops execution of commands. The Hardware version of catweasel is now displayed correctly. The Catimage command now also shows the media-format even if the filesystem wasn't recognised. This is nice for floppies whichs file-system is not yet (not for long) supported, such as MAC 1581 and so forth.
Amiga: I/O module for Catweasel Zorro II is not yet available.HyperCom3Z
will be slower.
All commands:
If there's no disk in drive, correct error messages are displayed.
Catbase-driver:
The commands MoveHead and Calibrate as well as the functions HasdiskChanged
and IsDiskInDrive are executed correctly now.
The Apple IIe docs have arrived today. They also contain some missing parts of the Mac 800K docs - I have spent the last seven hours writing an Apple IIe decoder in Pascal on my PC, and that decoder has read an Apple IIe disk some minutes ago - without any checksum errors! The Apple II docs seem to be errorfree then. Looking at the Mac 800K disks I can tell that we're *very* close on decoding them!
Finally, here's the new version of the multidisk.device.
changes:
New format: Flags = 22 reads Apple IIe disks and other Apple- disks
from Apple DOS 3.3 and up. The only test-disk I have is about ten years
old, contains programs from school
and is only single-sided (16 sectors with 256 bytes each). If anybody
out there has got double-sided Apple-disks, send them to me, it'll be easy
to implement them double-sided.
Support of the Catweael MK2: The formats 0-3 (Amiga and pC DD; HD formats) are speeded up again. A complete Amiga HD disk is read in less than 50 seconds, so the MK2 Catweasel is 26% faster than the "old" Catweasel. Using the device on the old catweasel won't change anything on the speed. Writing to disks is also the same speed.
Some minor bugs removed that stopped the computer completely under certain test-conditions. These test-conditions were simulated defects of the hardware, so no customer or betatester could recover these bugs.
There are no news on the Mac 800K disks until now, we still don't know how to calculate the sector checksums. But we already have the sector headers...
topic : Multidisk V3.1
date : 17.10.1997
time : 22:58:35
Two updates on one day, that's what we like!
Changes:
060 CPU support. Well, not really support, only non-usage of the unimplemented assembler commands, which always caused mouse-pointer hickups.
The device's date is today's :-)
Hello again!
This device is only meant for beta-purposes. It supports two new
formats:
Flags = 23 reads Atari 800 XL disks with 130Kbyte (26 sectors with
128 Bytes each). Flags = 24 reads Atari 800 XL disks with 180 Kbyte (18
sectors with 256 bytes each).
There's a small bug that keeps the device from reading the last
track, will be removed in V3.3.
We have put together all the docs that we have on Mac 800K disks,
and finally, we discovered how to read & write them. Hopefully, the
new device that will support the "variable speed" disks will be available
by the end of next week, Christian Bauer has also promised support for
his Mac-Emulator "Shapeshifter".
Don't panic! Everything will be done with standard PC-diskdrives. You won't have to buy these expensive "auto-eject, variable-speed" drives by Sony.
Some words on the length of the multidisk V3.2:
Almost the whole decoder has been doubled with cut&paste -
this can be done much shorter, but today we've hacked out the Atari disks
in order to be fast. I know this is Windose-like, won't do this again :-)
Now that the 128-Byte and 256-Byte sectors of the old NEC/WD chips are decoded we expect more 8-bit formats to be easily decoded. Does anyone have disks from his spectrum? Or any MSX system? Didn't Sony also try to make home-computers in the 80's or were they MSX systems? Again: We need more disks!
If anyone happens to have docs for the Atari 800XL single-density disks (FM style storage), please forward them to me. These disks don't seem to be any standard, and we don´t even know where to start decoding. We don't even know the bitrate or the size, so any basic help is appreciated.
What about double-sided Atari 800XL disks? Are there any? If so, send them to me for decoding, your disks will be definately returned!
Hello!
There are some major updates for the DOS-commands in V1.07:
A bug in V1.06 that kept the second drive from working is removed. Furthermore, the rotation speed of the drives is not measured any more. You can issue the speed of the drive in the command line now, and even read disks that have been formatted using the wrong speed (old drives weren't quarz-oscillator stabilized!).
The number of retries can also be set in the command line, so anything that's readable on the disk will be recovered.
>FIREBALL 8GB HARD DISK to ide connector of catweasel but results are:
>
>1) Sometimes the computer don't boot
>2) If the computer boots no one device is available on the 2nd.scsi.device
>(that is the device where i see HD connected to catweasel)
>
>3) Replacing the HD with a 2GB Western Digital all seems OK.
>
>4) Adding a second HD with the 8GB QUANTUM FIREBALL, the quantum is
now
>working...but when i format it i have the message "Can't format cylinder
0"
>for every partition that i try to format.
Argh! Formatting the partitions without the "quick" option of the format
command may destroy other partitions, since no "format" command uses TD64
commands. Check if a) your ROM version has got TD64, b) if your FastFileSystem
is patched to TD64 (patch available on www.elaborate-bytes.com) and last
not least if the jumpers on the Quantum are set correctly. Sometimes it's
even necessary to remove all jumpers, although it's not a documented setting
(reported by a customer, I haven't been able to check it here). Also, check
the Quantum web page for jumper settings.
If you want areally fast and low-noise harddrive, buy the IBM 8.4 gig.
One last thing regarding Amiga DOS: Partitions mustn't be bigger than
2GB, that's a DOS limit. If a partition is bigger, data may be bestroyed
if something is written to that drive. Always remember to use the "quick"
option when formatting the drive!
CatCopy, V1.1. ...
CBM 1541, 170 KB, DOS 2A SS
0:01-21-96.PRG > A:01-21-96.PRG
1 Datei(en) kopiert
(Datei means file ... kopiert means copied)Using *.seq does not work, although the files are actually Sequential files.
>I have Amiga 4000 060 50mhz, 2 x HDD and 1x CDrom all IDE
>I have IDE-fix97 software disk.
If that one is licensed (registered), you can also buy the hardware only.
Please notice your name, so we can cross-check with the author Oliver Kastl.
>What do I need for best possible system to run all 3 IDE units:-
>1.Hardware ?
The IDE-fix 4-drive adapter. This connects to the internal IDE of your 4000 and gives you two instead of one IDE ports.
>2.Software -upgrade ??
If your software is registered, it'll work with the 4-drive adapter. No update necessary.
>3.Cable/s? I have one cable for the two HDD.
Just one additional IDE cable, as you can buy it in every PC shop. You can still use your existing cable and keep the master/slave config as it is. The second port is a fully-featured IDE port, without limitations.
>Please advise cost.
40us$ with software ... 15us$ for hardware only. plus shipping. (email Norbert for latest prices)
>I will probably wait for the 'Extra' model.
I suppose you mean the "express" model, but this one is still under developement. It'll take another 8 weeks until it's out, and you will also have to buy a new software version in order to utilize the higher speed. This will be much more expensive for you ... around 100 US$
I'd suggest to take the standard version now, and buy the express version
later on if you want to speed up your system. We won't have an "upgrade"
possibility, because the express version is a completely new product. And:
It looks like the Express version will only be available for the
desktop 4000's. Amiga International still didn't manage to send
me the Tower Schematics, so if you have a tower, you'll be tied to the
standard version.
> well if you include some type of digital access port (hell make it
a USB
>interface all you need is 1 with all these USB hubs out there!!) i
was
>planning on releasing the following software (freeware)
It won't be a USB (due to no final USB specs available), but the serial port of the 56K will be on an expansion port. The specs have slightly changed: The base version will only have a D/A converter (18 bit), and the 20-bit CODEC will be available as a add-on for the serial expansion port.
> also $300 is a great price, for the tech specs ive seen so far! if
you
>can leave it open/general based alittle more for programmers/coders
im
>sure it will catch on like wildfire!! ( a PeeCee card based with a
general
>based motorola 56002 at 80mhz runs $700 easy glad my miggy has something
>nice PeeCee's cant touch!)
The DSP code shipped with it (like the MPG decoders) won't be free (only shipped as a binary). If you want to do your own code, go ahead, all the programming specs are free, and even a small DSP assembler is shipped with it.
> also will there be a way to run two cards in tandem (lets say two
>Catweasels with two DSP cards attached) guess it could be left up
>to software but if a daisy type chaining cable can be built =)
Yes, you can connect as many cards to your computer as you have 26-pin
expansion ports. I addition, you can connect one card to the floppy port
(with limited bandwidth, about 48K per sec from computer to DSP and some
bytes per sec from DSP to computer, half-duplex). I'm working on it...
>I've seen your great site about CatWeasel...
>Apparently, you have some knowledge in Amiga Hardware..
>Here is my question : I would like to have, if possible, the hardware
specification of the standard good old A500' floppy drive (880Kb)
> By specifications, I mean the equivalent physical drive parameters
we could find on PC drives (sectors,tracks,heads,sides,stretch,step1,fmt
gap, etc...)
>This way, I could try those parameters on a PC floppy drive controller
in order to read raw sectors of my old A500 floppies...
The catweasel team answers:
I have tried this over and over again and I can tell you: save your
time!
The Amiga uses MFM, but that's the only thing PC and Amiga disks have
in common.
There is no gap between sector header and sector. The sector header
starts with only two sync words ($4489, same sync as the PC uses). Since
there's no gap between header and sector, there's no additional sync for
the sector itself. There is no CRC-16 checksum, neither in the header,
nor in the sector itself. The checksum is just a logic XOR of the data
being checked, so if you really manage to get the data from the PC floppy
controller, it'll always tell you it's faulty.
The basic data is: 80 tracks, two sides, 11 sectors per side, every
sector is 512bytes, and there's additional 16 bytes of data in the sector
header.
The bitrate is 505KBits/second. No problem for a 500KBits controller.
The Amiga floppy controller works track-wise, not sector-wise, that's
why there's only one gap per track. I don't know any PC floppy controller
(except the Catweasel) that can handle this. If you know one, tell me!
>Can I use the Catweasel ISA card with the Amiga Forever emulator?
Yes, the Catweasel will make ADF files that can be used with Amiga forever.
>Do I connect an external Amiga floppy drive to the Catweasel?
No! Don't buy the expensive Amiga drives, the Catweasel only works with PC floppy drives. Save that money!
>Will Catweasel allow me to run my old copy protected Amiga floppy
>disk games with the Amiga Forever emulator?
This depends on the copy protection. If you can copy the game with XCOPY, you'll also be able to make an ADF file, and that will work with the Amiga forever.
>If Catweasel is used with the Amiga Forever emulator, can floppy games autoboot?
Since you have to start the Amiga forever manually and tell it which
ADF file to boot from, it'll not be "auto" boot, but yes, it'll boot off
the ADF files.
>Does the current version support (reading and writing images):
>Amstrad 3"
>Apple IIc/e
>Atari XL
Amstrad 3": No support (yet, see forther below)
Apple IIe: reading, not writing. Apple IIc: No sample disk here, so
support
yet. Please send a sample disk plus all the information you have.
Atari XL: 800XL 130K and 140K disks (mid- and high density. No FM disks
yet). All formats read-only.
> I bought an (old style, non flash) Buddha. It worked fine,
thanks.
>
> My question is does the IDEfix IDE Controller for the 4000 provide
> a similar fix to the incompatabilities of this port in the Tower?
>
> I'd like to free up a Z III slot in my tower and move my Buddha
card to
> an old 2000 I have.
>
> Will this controller do the trick. I've been toying with
using the
> software IDE fix but I still won't be able to boot the machine
if
> the drive hangs the bus, right?
If the IDE-fix software (demo available on aminet) doesn't help, the IDE-fix adapter won't either. If it does, the IDE.fix adapter will only give you the opportunity to connect more than just two IDE devices: It'll double the port, so you can connect up to four devices: Two masters and two slaves.
Maybe you can free up a port by using the Hypercom3 card. This thing
can be connected to the 26-pin local expansion port of any Buddha or Catweasel
version, and gives you 2 highspeed serial ports, and one parallel port.
This way you can get rid of an interface board that may occupy one of your
Zorros.
>> this: what exactly do I need (equipment) to save downloaded Amiga
>> program files on my PC and read them on my Amiga? Do I need
to have
>> a controller for both machines? Any assistance would be
beneficial.
First of all, you'll need at least Kickstart V2.0 or higher. If you have Kick 1.3 or 1.2, you'll have to upgrade to ROM chip. Call Software Hut, they have roms in stock.
Since your downloaded files are about 900.000 bytes, they do not fit on a PC DD disk (it only takes 720K), so you'll have to use 1.44M disks. The standard Amiga floppy controller cannot read these disks, but you already found the solution: The Catweasel. With this controller, you can connect a PC diskdrive, and read the 1.44M disks that have been written by the PC. You do not need a controller for the PC, only for the Amiga.
If you have transferred the file (presumably an adf file) to the Amiga,
use the internal diskdrive of the Amiga to write the disk image to a DD
disk, then you can enjoy the program. Usually, the old programs do not
need a harddrive or the workbench disk, they simply start by inserting
the disk at cold start, and the computer will recognize it automatically.
>> Does this controller also allow reading
>> Tandy Color Computer disks better?
>> The emulator is supposed to allow it but I get read
>> errors. Maybe this
>> controller would correct the problems...
The read errors may have several reasons:
1.) misaligned read head
2.) misaligned disk rotation speed
3.) old disks have lost data
case 1: The Catweasel won't help. If your Tandy drive was misaligned when writing the disks, you won't have a chance other than buying expensive equipment and find the correct alignment for reading the disks.
case 2: The Catweasel can adapt it's bitrate, so you won't even notice that the software is correcting errors.
case 3: The Catweasel drivers can find places where bits are missing and can interpolate them. This has helped me reading some C64-disks that even the old 1541 drive itself could not read any more. Same with some of my eldest Amiga disks.
The Catweasel software does not support Tandy disks directly, but if
their physical layout is comparable to a special PC disk drive format,
you'll be able to read the disk image. If you want us to implement them
in the drivers, please send us a sample disk of each possible format (single-sided
or double-sided, single/double/enhanced density).
Your question is somehow incomplete, I don't know what you want to buy (disks, a drive or a controller), and I don't know what computer you have, so if this answer doesn't cover what you want to know, please ask more precise.
Yes, an Amiga 3,5" disk with 1760K is a standard Amiga HD disk. Initially, only A3000's had drives that could use HD disks, but then, 2nd source vendors made HD drives. They all have one thing in common: They're slow and they're unsafe. The higher capacity is reached by spinning down to half of the standard rotation speed. This makes it more difficult for the drive electronics to locate the bits properly, and since the disk spins at half speed, you can't expect very much from transfer speed and access times.
If you're looking for a fast and safe solution for your Amiga, the Catweasel is your choice. It uses standard PC diskdrives, so you can choose the vendor of your diskdrive - use the cheapest if you only want to read disks, use the one with the best reputation if you want to store data securely. The Catweasel utilizes the standard rotation speed of the drives. Together with it's highly optimized software, the speedup compared to a regular Amiga HD drive is 2.6 (this applies to reading a PC HD disk). Speedup factor for Amiga HD 1760K disks is 1.8 - eighty percent faster than the regular Amiga HD drives.
If you already have the Amiga 1760K disks and want to transfer the data
over to the PC, the ISA Catweasel (PC version of the controller) is your
choice. The controller core is the same as the one for the Amiga, so you
can use standard PC diskdrives for the Amiga disks. Copying the data is
as easy as unsing the copy command in the DOS box of the PC. The files
you read can be used in an emulator without any problems, no further converter
programs necessary. If you have more questions, feel free to ask
Although I'm talking "against money in my pocket", your solution is to do a network or nullmodem connection between the Amiga and the PC. The A1200 has got a PCMCIA port, so you can use a PCMCIA network card to transfer the ADF files to the Amiga.
To write the files back to a disk, use the tool "trackdos", available on the fred fish public domain disks.
If you don't have a possibility to transfer files between PC and Amiga,
disks may be a solution: The Catweasel for the Amiga can handle 1,44M PC
disks, enough space to transfer an ADF image. With the supplied "image"
tool from the Amiga Catweasel, you can write the images back to a disk
that
can directly be used in the Amiga floppy.
>Should
>I also have the drive connected to my onboard controller?
No, Just connect it to the Catweasel. Make sure the drive is jumpered
for use in a PC, that means, it uses "Select 1" line, and it spins at 360
RPM.
Now just insert a formatted disk, and enter this command (first start
the drivers in the DOS box):
CATIMAGE test.dat
the controller will start to identify the disk, and then read it into an image. Depending on what type of disk it was, the test.dat file now contains a standardized archive of the disk:
.d64 archive for C-64 disks, .adf archive for Amiga disks, and so on.
If you want some translation for the messages you get from CATIMAGE, just
mail
again.
> Could you tell me if floppydisks, formatted with New-Dos80 are "readable"
New-DOS80 is a different file system. Since no TRS-80 filesystem is
supported, you also have to read the images (.dsk files) and use them with
emulators.
It must be a small thing that you might have missed in the manual, but did you start the driver? Befor you can use the CatImage program, start the driver by issuing the command
CATBASE /p320
This will start the base driver for the Catweasel and tell you if the
controller was found. After you have done this, the CATCOPY, CATIMAGE and
other commands are available in the DOS box of your Windows 95/98 until
you close it. By closing the DOS box, the driver is also deleted from the
system, so if you want to use the commands again later, you'll have to
start the base driver again.
Do not start the CATBASE driver in two DOS boxes at a time, this will
not work (maybe even crash).
This is everything I can tell you from this point. I can help better
if you give us the full error message, maybe some info gets lost in your
translation.
I expect the Siemens PBX system to use a standard NEC765 compatible controller, meaning we can backup the images of the disk to a harddrive, and write it back to disk with the Amiga versions of the controller. The PC version would also be able to write to disks, but the software does not exist. If you are willing to pay for the developement of that software, I can start looking for a programmer who writes a quick-and-dirty solution for you.
I cannot say what the developement of the software will cost. This will be much easier if we have a sample disk. Even the "questionable" disks will help, because they will be good enough to take a look at the low-level layout of the disk. The Catweasel may even read those flaky disks without any problems, because it's totally digital (no analog PLLs that may be confused by several wrong bits).
Send the disk!
Make sure that your address is written TO THE DISK, not the envelope
of the 5,25" disk. The disk will move several times between laboratory
and software developement department, and envelopes may be exchanged.
Try to protect the disk against magnetic fields: Cheap steel plates
(1/5" thin plates) will do the job. They will also protect the disk from
being bent.
If just a couple of copies of the disk will do, we can see if this is
already possible with the Amiga versions of the Catweasel. Maybe the cheapest
solution for you.
Glad to hear it -- I was worried about the age of the media and the
age of the drives (and the Model 12) that wrote them. The drive that
wrote
them, in fact, has a heat problem -- I made several copies of my boot
disk, and the fourth or fifth copy wouldn't take due to write errors.
>Some minor issues...
>I'm trying to read an Apple2E disk using IBM 1.22 drive. With no success.
>Can you please email me the latest drivers and some hints on hot to
get it going for Apple2E.
The driver on the disk is the latest one. it has not been updated since
1997. If your Apple 2e disks are not readable, check if they are DOS 3.3
or higher, because that is the only format the Catweasel can read. The
DOS3.2 and earlier formats are not supported, because we don't have any
documents about that format.
>Everytime I try to do a "catimage file/xyz.adf: 0:" I get the message
<Zieldate
>Is this expected?
>I use standard PC HD-formatted disks.
You have messed up the order of the parameters. The correct command
must
be:
catimage 0: xyz.adf
WITHOUT a colon after the filename. This works with all supported formats,
including PC and Amiga formats.
>is this to do with catweasel? if so, can you supply specs?
If you supply specs for TI99/4A disks, we can implement it in the drivers.
Any hint and sample disks are welcome, as the TI was not very popular in
Germany (although I remember the name, so it has sold some units here).
The board can read _any_ data. We just have to implement it in the drivers.
Many formats are similar or even the same regarding the sector format.
For example, an Atari 180K disk has the same sector layout as some other
computers from that era, for example the MSX systems. The difference is
mostly "only" the filesystem, but that will be handled by your emulator.
>Can you please tell me more about what is avail. for a A4000
>IDE interface/splitter (Zorro card?)
All the boards that have been developed for the 4000 are in stock, that is:
- Catweasel Z-II S-Class (6xIDE, 2xFloppy)
- Buddha Flash (4xIDE)
- X-Surf Ethernet (plus 4xIDE and expansions)
- 4-drive interface for internal IDE
- Catweasel for IDE (not compatible with 4-drive interface)
- ISDN Surfer Zorro (for digital telephone lines)
All the Zorro boards let you connect additional interfaces like serial
and parallel ports, and they are also in stock.
>Which catweasel do you recommend I buy?
Go for the Amiga version, as the PC version can only write to disks
under Linux. It can read and write Amiga ADF's and C-64 .d64 files.
>Hi i hav an old wifac 8 inch floppydrive and some old floppies that
>needs to rescue the data on. Is that something that can be done with
>your cards??
If that drive has a 34-pin shugart interface, it'll work. Otherwise,
Norbert is working on a machine with an 8" drive that will provide the
service.
Yes, the hardware of the Catweasel can do the hard-sectored disks. As
you already guessed, it's a matter of software to make the Catweasel read
the
floppies. If you can supply sample disks, that would be great. I cannot
promise anything about the drivers being finished any time, because I only
have limited time for this project. I hope I can finish the DOS-based reader/writer
soon, and that thing will also be able to read a disk-image without knowing
the format. It's like scanning a piece of paper with chinese letters and
show it to somebody who can decode it later. The important thing (restore
the data to a medium that does not fade away that fast) can be done without
waiting for the programmer!
I've received the catweasel and will try it out this afternoon. My
credit card has been
charged the correct amount. So far, everything is great.
I'll email you once I make a few adf files.
And the next day:
It works great! I could have used a few command line examples, but
after
connecting it and loading the drivers, I typed:
catimage 0: c:\hdboot.adf
and it worked! I was amazed that it detected the Amiga format automatically.
I was looking for a command to tell the Catweasel that it was an
Amiga 880
disk, but couldn't find one. When I saw that it didn't need one,
I thought
"Wow! This is super!"
You've made an amazing product. Thank you so much.
The CacheCDFS that comes with the Buddha/Catweasel is limited to that
controller only. If you have OS3.9, you should use the file that came
with
it.
The LS120 drive does not need installation procedures. It is mounted
automatically on bootup as df4: or pc4: respectively.
It'll be using the DSP56002, clocked at 73,728Mhz. Memory is 96Kbyte.
>also any thought into have a IO passthru (something like the atari
falcon
>has with it's DSP serial port connection (then the dsp could be loaded
up
>with modem software and used as a modem (phoneline interface has to
be
>added also (but thats 3rd party)))
There is a port that carries the 56K serial port. That serial is very
well
software-configurable, you can think of many things on this port. The
CODEC
is directly mapped into the 56K memory space, and has its own fifo,
this
simplifies programming.
>also will the card support multi-cards of the same make?
Yes - depending on the free Zorro space you have. The board occupies
192KBytes in the autoconfig space. That means a maximum of three boards
in
one computer.
The DSP has a small operating system, and development tools will be
included. The MP3 player is included with source (freeware).
Richard.
Norbert-
The Catweasel ISA card arrived yesterday. I installed it, and
it seemed to be
working but I couldn't read TRS-80 floppy disks. I started to
wonder if this
was going to work out. Finally I tried downloading a program
called cw2dmk
from Tim Mann's web page here
http://www.tim-mann.org/trs80resources.html
cw2dmk runs by itself, directly accessing the Catweasel card.
It worked, and I
was able to read all the old TRS-80 floppies in my 1.2MB floppy drive.
So the
experiment was a success!
I'm glad I found cw2dmk on the web. And glad the Catweasel card
is still
available!
-MW
> > > My Pet CBM 200 is out of order and I want to read its old disketts in > > my PC. > > > They are made in a PET floppy 8250 and there is files in ASCI-cod, > > > series of numbers I would like to reuse in statistics. > > The Catweasel can read and write any disk, if you ask for the > lowlevel-possibilities. What we need is a sample disk, and all the > documentation you can find. Especially compatibility of those disks with > other drives, the type of controller chip that's been used in the drive (if > any), capacity, number of tracks, number of sectors and so on. > This will hopefully be enough for us to generate an image file of the disk. > If you want to salvage files from the disk, you need additional information > about the filing system on it. Again, any information/documentation is > useful. We can't promise anything, but it's more likely to happen with > precise documentation at hand.