ACA1234 - Can the Activity LED be routed to the HDD LED?

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    Hi There,


    Is there a way to get the CF-Card Activity LED signal to the Amiga 1200 HDD LED? I could not see an activity LED pad to tap into or perhaps there is another solution? My internal HDD would have used the A1200 HDD, but I've turned that off as the ACA1234 is 4 x faster.


    Thanks,

    We've had this topic here before - it's a soldering job where you'll have to tap the signal from the CF card on the SMT LED itself. I haven't thought of that during the design, and it's probably the only shortcoming of this board that you'll find.


    Jens

    Hi,


    Have almost decided to add an LED now. I looked at the other post, and it talks about taking the signal from R12 and pin 39 - is that what I need to follow, or can I just solder 2 wires to either side of D1 and add my own LED (seperate to the A1200 LED)?

    Thanks!

    Well I went ahead anyway, and yes it does work if you want to use your own LED in addition to the HDD LED. I put a sexy blue LED right next to the other LEDs using an existing little notch in the keyboard chassis just to the right of the Amiga LEDs, and which was otherwise unused in my A1200 case.

    Lessons learned: Soldering just wires makes for a very weak mechanical connection, which easily comes away - I don't recommend it. But using a 2.54" 2 pin (Locking) header fits perfectly and far superior mechanical connection - this is what I used -https://www.jaycar.com.au/2-pi…4mm-pitch-single/p/HM3422)


    In the pics below, the little blue LED on the right is my new LED - just for my ACA1234, and the HDD LED still works for the internal A1200 HDD. In real life, the light diffusion is much nicer and it looks great - especially copying between drives!


    I'd add some glue between the white insulator of the header and the circuit board, so any force you apply to these rather solid pins it not absorbed by the solder spots, but by the board, which is designed to do that.


    Jens

    Well, you told me so, and you were right. I have lifted the LED off the board, I think the pin-header was mechanically too heavy, even with a drop of hot-snot to reduce stress.


    Can I please ask which side is +ve and which is -ve.


    I will solder some very thin and light-weight wires to the SMD components (resisitors?) the LED was connecting to, and hot-snot the wires to the board so there is zero tension, then use a light-weight connector to connect to my BiFrost. I actually only need the +ve side - so one wire (assuming the ACA1234 uses a shared GND with the A1200 mainboard) ?


    Thank you for the help here.

    This pic shows the polarity: Vcc is the +5V rail, and the side that goes through the resistor is "minus".


    Just in case it's necessary: The value of R12 is 220 ohms. The LED is controlled directly by the CF card - no ACA1234 circuit involved. The other side of the resistor goes directly to pin#45 of the CF card slot.


    Quote from dwight01

    I actually only need the +ve side - so one wire (assuming the ACA1234 uses a shared GND with the A1200 mainboard) ?

    While both the ACA1234 and the A1200 have the same GND, just using the "+" from the LED will result in an always-on LED, as the "switched" side is the negative one. If you want to take only one pin from the ACA1234, then it'll have to be the negative side. You can take the + side from any Vcc supply around the main board or power supply. Make sure to take it not directly from the power supply, but "from the main board", so it's really going through the input filter (the toroidal coil near the power input).


    Jens

    confirm a single wire from the LED negative switched signal is good. Works v well with this adapter.

    Edited once, last by Jens: No commercial links from this forum - I don't want to deal with the legal implications. ().