#2nd external disk drive
9 messages in this thread
Does anybody know of an legitimate way to connect a 2nd external 3.5" disk
drive to Amiga?
James,
Plug it in…seriously, the new Amiga External drives carry the power
lines thru and work fine. If you get ahold of an older Amiga External drive,
you have to jumper 2 wires to carry the +12 and +5 volt lines thru, and then
they work fine also.
Don
According to horses' mouth, Amiga, in Los Gatos, the "new" externam disk drives
are/were not designed to carry thru the 12v power.
If you get one that does, it's a fluke. Besides, the power supply in thw Amiga
cpu is not desigened to support 2 external drives: if it blows up, its your
little red Amiga. So, that's their story. Commodore in Pa. "knows noothing"
abouthing, and I mean no thing.
In practical terms, two external drives work out just fine, and even three if
you don't have any other peripherals.
I have been running 2 external drives since early December and an additional 1
meg of RAM since mid January with no problems at all.
Regards, Larry.
How do you supply power to 2nd external drive? Commodore Amiga says even new
external drives not designed to supply power for next drive in daisey chain.
The Amiga cpu power supply is not designed to support 2nd external drive says
Commodore. Commodore seen Commodore seems to say that if the 2nd external disk
blows the cpu, its your problem. Commodore does not seem to want to help me
nor to give a direct answer to this or to most any other question I ask. Amiga
in Los Gatos is most helpful and nice, but they have been told by Commodore in
Pa not to answer and more customer's questions. Maybe Commodore is trying to
bankrupt themselves again. They act like the Republican party whenever they
get into office: they immediately see what they can to to commit suicide. I
may try 2nd drive anyway. Would it be DF2:? Thanks for any help.
James,
Commodore does indeed say that the second external drive is not supported or
recommended, but the practical reality is that many people are doing it, and so
far there have been few reported problems. I can only remember one, and that
was someone who had a memory (2 megs), something (A-Time?) in the user port,
had trouble when he attached his third external drive.
As for blowing your power supply, that is highly unlikely, as it is well
protected. If it works at all, it will be OK.
Now, here's the disclaimer, and it is a reality too. If you do damage your
system, it will be up to you to pay for repairs, whether it is still in
warranty or not. Though the possibilty is there, it is remote, but nonetheless
you will have to make the decision yourself.
The alternative is to buy a cheap 12V power supply from Radio Shack and
supply your own 12V to the extra drive. This too has its hazards, though again,
anyone who is comfortable around electronics could do the job safely.
Yes, it will be called DF2:
Regards, Larry.
What voltages at what levels does the Amiga power supply provide? I wonder if
there's a market for beefier power supplies for Amigas. Alternatively, I
wonder if something like a 3rd-party AT-clone supply would do the job (most of
them are 230 watts or so — should be more than enough for an Amiga with 4 or 5
side-bus cards, 3 external drives, an Omega-80 modem, etc!) >Bela<
James, I bought an external drive in July 86. It has the passthrough of power.
Joergen
James,
The power supply is fine for a 2nd external drive and a bit of RAM also
and the new external drives do carry the power thru…this is from the East
Coast horses' mouth (West Chester).
The power supply can be overdrawn, but it takes more than 1 additional
drive to do it….lots of folks have done it with no problems what-so-ever.
Don