As already mentioned, there are some types of CF adapters that do not drive the Amiga 1200’s HDD LED properly. So far I’ve used several adapters labeled V.H2, which all work well.
This really nice purple Amiga 1200 already had a compact flash drive installed. I noticed that the HDD LED was always off. The installed CF adapter has the label V.B1.
Checking the Amiga 1200 schematics, we see that pin 39 of the IDE connector is driving the HDD LED. On the CF card the busy LED signal is coming from pin 45. And indeed, checking continuity on the V.H2, we see that IDE pin 39 is connected to CF card pin 45 DASP. But on the V.B1 they are not connected.
Oddly enough, there is a small LED on the CF adapter board that is already connected to pin 45 of the CF card. And there is a transistor whose pin is connected to IDE pin 39. If we connect those two points, the Amiga’s HDD LED works.
Sources / more infos:
If you check the continuity on the V.B1 adapter you’ll see that the connection you are making at the LED is actually going back to the transistor next to the one you are joining the wire to.
There is no need to run the long wire, just a short connection between the two transistors is needed.
Thanks for the info. Great tip.
As my CF2IDE adaptor just arrived and sure enough, it is V.B1 as I only learned about the versioning yesterday – does it mean it cannot be used at all and/or is unreliable or just that a LED is not working? Knowing hardly anything about the Amiga hardware I would like to try connecting a CF to my A1200 in a tower, but also not keep on spending a couple of frustrating hours of getting it to work when it is actually impossible.
Hi. As far as I know only the LED is not working. I used it quite a while (even before fixing the LED) and didn’t have any problems.
Thank you Norbert, that is good to hear! I read on some message boards that it can either prevent you from successfully detecting and using the CF or be unreliable. But if it works for you, it should work for me too 🙂 I have ordered another one to be safe, hopefully the H2 version, but until it arrives (4-6weeks), I can get down to business with what I have.
And you were right, the adapter really seem to work fine! I had some trouble with crashes, but it turned out you need to limit the maximum transfer speed of the CF card – since I set that, all games I have tried have been working.
I am thinking about adding the wire to fix the HDD LED indicator. Any idea about which of the legs of the two transistors to connect? I can solder, but I don’t understand electronics. Doubt Ross would reply here if I message him, so maybe you have tried the hack..?