A1200 + GOTEK

I made a GOTEK-mod for a friend of mine with his Amiga 1200. Before I got my GOTEK so I could measure and plan the modification I was quite horrified from all the pictures that flows around on different forums.

My main goal was from the beginning to make a nice and as “invisible” mod as possible that would blend in to the main look of the Amiga 1200. After after about 30 hours of hard work, alot of investing in tools for the mod, this was the result.

Enough with the jokes… My plan is to put the LED-display of the GOTEK just above the PWR/HDD/Floppy-LED by making a rectangular hole and put the USB-connector and buttons on the left side seen from the above of the Amiga 1200.

Mounting the GOTEK

The first challange was to find a good way to fix the GOTEK PCB inside the upper housing of my Amiga. Usually this was mostly done with glue and other sticky obstacles, but I wanted it to be easily removable. The picture below shows how the PCB will be fitted when it’s done.

An idea popped up and due to the fact that I was not going to use the GOTEK housing at all I could use the bottom plate and it’s mounting holes. After some measuring I found that it would work I started to make guide-lines and cut up as planned. Since I only have use for the elevated parts and the front panel, those are the parts I will save.

The end result was better than expected and with this solution I could easily remove the GOTEK later if needed and also keep almost the same airflow as before, which is very important to my other project with cooling.

Using the original housing as template

Since it is almost impossible to mark the holes by just measuring on the housing of the Amiga. This might be a good-enough solution for most of the people but why not do it the best way possible while you’r at it.

By using the original housing of the GOTEK drive, we can easily have a goof fixation and pretty good accuracy when we make the holes. The down side is that we have to work from the inside and out.

First we mount the previously modified and removed mounts from the GOTEK drive to our GOTEK PCB as the picture below shows. Please note that the screws cannot be fixaded perfectly without making them shorter.

The next step was to make the part of the USB and buttons panel attachable to the inside of the Amiga. Simple solution, use double grip tejp as the picture below.

After that, gently position the panel to the GOTEK PCB and put it in place on the inside of the Amiga. Then slide it carefully until it get stuck inside of the house as the picture below.

Gently press the front panel to the inside of the Amiga but avoid putting any preassure on the GOTEK PCB. If it doesn’t stuck at all, a cleaning with for example isopropyl alcohol.

When the PCB are removed the result should be that the front panel is set inside the Amiga like the picture below.

The holes for the up/down buttons and LED was made by drilling, no need to do it harder. The USB-hole is harder to get right, of course it is much easier to do with the template in plastic.

Start with drilling a few holes in the area that will be removed. A good advice is to keep away from the edges because margins is your very best friend. After that, do some fine work with the crafting files and fain grained sand paper.

When this is done, the job of putting the GOTEK-mounts pads into place started. Remember to cut the original screws else they will be too long. A smaller issue is that one of the mounting pads ended up outside the Amiga 1200 housing so I had to turn it 90 degrees and cut away the small top (you can see it on the closest pad in the picture below).

When the pads were mounted on the GOTEK PCB, I put glue on the bottom and gently placed the PCB in place. Remember to put it down in an angle, else it will get stuck in wrong position!

Finally, when the glue has hardened I decided to be extra safe and put melted glue as well. I rather have some nasty boogers inside my Amiga 1200 then a loose GOTEK PCB 🙂

The LED-display

Now to the perhaps hardest part. Why so?

Well, this is the most visible part of the GOTEK installation and it will be in your sight each and every time I sit with my Amiga. If the hole is too small it will be no problem, the problem is if the hole is too big, the shadings etc will occur and it will look bad.

I used the same technique as I did with the USB-connector. Double grip tejp and then I put the panel-template where I wanted it. Drilled “a few” holes in with some margin inside of the template.

After that, there must have been at least 40-45 minutes with filing. One common mistake when it is nearly finished is to not to try the LED-display in the hole. The closer to finish you get, the often you should test.

When it fits like a glove, round the sharp corners with a fine grained sand paper. BUT NOT TOO MUCH!

And the final result with both Amiga 1200 housing and the LED-display…

The switch hole!

Ok, that sounded kinda dirty! But I did need to do a smaller hole for the switch that I will use to switch between the internal floppy and GOTEK. I used a pretty standard one that I found on electrokit and then a template was created fast in a standard drawing application.

The actual hole from the switch was also cutout since this was not in the GOTEK panel. When the template was applied, an ordinary non-removable pen was used to mark the position and where to cut.

A few holes later and some work with the tools the result was satisfying enough to assemble the switch. In this modification I use a 2 way 3 pole switch, but a 1 way 3 way pole would be enough.

Hot glue is your best friend, or what is your opinion?

As many other projects that I have made, the hot glue is a important tool and component that is a part of the success. The switch has 3 connected cables and those are.

Fixed some labels that clearly showed what is active at what direction of the switch. I would have preferred a transparent background but it was not available at the moment.

Cable time

Alright! It is time for some soldering and cable workshop. I need to fix a Y-cable for the floppy and a dual floppy-cable where I cut-out cable 10 (Disk Select) and re-route to the switch. The Y-cable is not hard at all, just split it and keep it to the colors and choose the correct length so it will reach the GOTEK that is located on the other end from the floppy.

The floppy cable isn’t hard to make when you have a IDC crimp tool. I chosed to split the cable in group of 5 wires so it would not block any airflow. It does not matter on what side you set the 34 pin floppy connector, as long as pin 1 is pin 1.

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Putting it all together

It is time, the switch, GOTEK is in their place and the cables are ready. Putting it together is the easy part and also the most thrilling one.

Will it work?

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Conclusion

Well, I can say that it is worth it to put the extra time so it will be a nice and clean installation. You do not have to go crazy on you’r Amiga to install a GOTEK. Totally I spent about 3½-4hrs on my project and it turned out great.

Thanks for taking you’r time to read this blog through. If you like it, please leave a comment 🙂