Will there be another Catweasel product

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hi Jens and icomp.


    I just got me a shiny new Buddha to replace my old oktagon 2008 (SCSI disks are harder to source than PATA) - but my decision was primarily because of the clock port.


    I'm about to remove my "clock port" Catweasel from my A1200 to use in my A2000 (EATX) but I would really much prefer to buy a new one. I also have the old "ISA" catweasel but a bridgeboard would be a bit of overkill ;) (and impossible to source)


    Are there any plans to produce a similar catweasel product again? Maybe as a part of the upcoming ACA2000? Maybe as an Add-On? Maybe a Zorro-Catweasel?


    So many questions - but thank you for your work.

    Quote from jcanodk

    I'm about to remove my "clock port" Catweasel from my A1200 to use in my A2000 (EATX) but I would really much prefer to buy a new one.

    Sorry, the whole Catweasel line of products is sold out. It wouldn't be too hard to make a new version, although I have my doubts that a lot of them would be sold for the Amiga. After all, floppy disks are not really used any more these days.

    Quote from jcanodk

    I also have the old "ISA" catweasel but a bridgeboard would be a bit of overkill ;) (and impossible to source)

    We've developed the special driver for ISA Catweasel under emulation using a bridge board based on the first X-Surf design. However, the ISA Catweasel is the MK1 design, considerably slower than the MK2 for MFM disks (MK2 has MFM decoding built in, while the MK1 design needs to convert magnetic transitions to MFM data first).


    Quote from jcanodk

    Are there any plans to produce a similar catweasel product again?

    Silimar in terms of "floppy functionality": Yes. Similar in terms of "Amiga product": No, not really. I don't think that there are so many customers who would be interested in the MK2 Catweasel. Happy to be proven wrong - I'd have parts in stock and could build a new version that works with the old software (so no new drivers would have to be written), but that would require hundreds of paid pre-orders.

    Quote from jcanodk

    Maybe as a part of the upcoming ACA2000?

    No, the ACA2000 won't have any means of mass-storage, let alone something special like a universal floppy controller.


    Quote from jcanodk

    Maybe as an Add-On?

    That's the most likely thing: For the clock port, but it would have to be "without cable" in order to keep people from connecting it the wrong way round (too many returns because of fried units where customers "never made a mistake"). The MK2 design also works on IDE, and with a special cable even in a PC, so that's the most likely route.

    Quote from jcanodk

    Maybe a Zorro-Catweasel?

    Unlikely. The Catweasel Z-II was successful back in the day, but again, I would not like to limit the market to a niche within a niche (bigbox-Amiga is a very small subset of Amiga).

    Thank you for taking the time to clear that out. I will guard my existing Catweasel with my life :D


    Quote from Jens

    After all, floppy disks are not really used any more these days.

    Thanks for reminding me of what an old fart I am ;)

    A real mechanical floppy drive that can read/write real Amiga and PC formatted ao. disks would have sat nicely beside the Gotek.


    Quote from Jens

    but that would require hundreds of paid pre-orders.

    Makes sense.

  • The last reply was more than 365 days ago, this thread is most likely obsolete.

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