Solutions for GoTek as External drive (DF1)?

[Ral-Clan]

Hi, Just wondering what the best solution is for using a GoTek as an external Amiga drive?

I have a nice High Density floppy mounted in my A500 and don't want to remove it for the GoTek.  However I also have an empty Amiga external floppy drive case, and was thinking I could mount a GoTek in it.

I found this:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Gotek-Floppy-External-Drive-Adapter-for-Commodore-Amiga-Cables-included/233144988083?hash=item36488631b3:g:Kv4AAOSwsnNcctp8

Does anyone know what is the best solution, currently?  Thanks.

[giZmo350]

@Ral-Clan

I have that exact one too however, I've never tried it yet. GoTek and cable still sitting in the box for a couple of years. 
If there was an easy to understand way of even setting up a couple of games on it I would try it but I've not yet even checked out how to set up the GoTek. Sad, I know. Help a brutha out and I'll let you know.   

[giZmo350]

@Ral-Clan

Hey, if it’s any help, here’s a pic of the instructions that came with my cable made by KMTech in the UK.

Here’s their site.   http://www.kmtech.co.uk/

The site states “They Only Sell On eBay”. Not sure what their eBay site is.

I hope Kolla doesn’t report me to the CovidCops! 

[Ral-Clan]

Funny, but if you look in the auction listed on in my original post at top, the device doesn't even seem to be connected to a GoTek. It seems to be connected to a regular PC floppy drive.
So I guess it works as both an adapter for a PC drive and also a GoTek.

I would just like to put my GoTek in an Amiga 1010 external drive chassis (I have an empty one with cable).

[giZmo350]

So I guess it works as both an adapter for a PC drive and also a GoTek.

Well, if you read the last paragraph on the KMTech cable instructions, it states "This cable will NOT work with conventional diskette drives."

I would just like to put my GoTek in an Amiga 1010 external drive chassis (I have an empty one with cable).

IMHO, this cable would do just that.     However, I would NOT use the 1010's original cable.  The 1010's internal ribbon cable is cool though. You might have to mount a Sub-D-Connector an the back of the 1010. Actually, I have a 1011 and I've never taken it apart so I have no idea how it's external cable is connected to the drive inside.     Heck, maybe just connect it to the 1010's external cable.

[Ral-Clan]

Okay....I'm seeing posting online that say you can just put a GoTek in an external Amiga floppy drive chassis, and connect it to the controller board of that Chassis and it will work at DF1:

Most of these examples online use Amiga third-party external drives of the type that consist of a metal case, with a controller board inside connected to a bog standard PC 3.5" drive.

What I'd like to know is if the same is possible using an Amiga 1010 or 1011 drive by removing the drive mechanism, swapping in the Gotek and connecting it to the 1010/1011's controller board.

Can anyone confirm this?

[darksun9210]

yeah i saw the same sort of thing. buy Gotek, take old floppy drive out of external case, replace with Gotek. all happy.

so that's what i did. only it's not so.

my A4000 kept telling me DF2:? for the gotek - now DF0's a bit flakey anyway on my A4k, playing with the floppy jumpers didn't change anything for the better apart from change the eternal drive number. so i thought it might just be the machine.

when i saw this thread, i pulled an A1200 mobo out and fired it up off of a normal workbench floppy in DF0:, with the gotek in the drive case attached externally as DF1.
it showed up in early startup as DF1, but couldn't force a boot from DF1 with a workbench ADF (the only ADF) on the (FAT formatted) USB stick.

when it boots to workbench off of something else, it shows that:- nope, same deal pretty much:-  DF1:unreadable
my gotek is running flashfloppy version 2.13

so i dunno what i need to do to get it to work in an external case. everything i've read just seems to say unplug floppy drive, plug in gotek, all is wonderful. when it's not.

any pointers or advice most welcome

[Ral-Clan]

yeah i saw the same sort of thing. buy Gotek, take old floppy drive out of external case, replace with Gotek. all happy.
so that's what i did. only it's not so.

Thanks for the experiment. Did you try it with a stock Commodore made external drive, or a third party drive?

my A4000 kept telling me DF2:? for the gotek - now DF0's a bit flakey anyway on my A4k, playing with the floppy jumpers didn't change anything for the better apart from change the eternal drive number. so i thought it might just be the machine.

Maybe there are jumpers on the GOTEK or on the external drive's circuit board you are hooking the GOTEK into - I know when using some PC drives to replace the stock drive mechanisms in an A1010/1011 you have to move jumpers on them or use a twisted (or untwisted) cable to get them to work.

I'm guessing that might be the case if you are using a Commodore made A1010/A1011 shell and circuit board. Unless you change jumpers or use a twisted cable (or both) the drive's circuit board logic would see the GOTEK as a strange non-standard drive mechanism and not know what to do with it.  What makes me think this is happening in your case is that you're getting "DF0:?", which means AmigaOS is seeing your external drive's logic board, and recognizing something is there, but giving you the question marks because the drive's "brains" are telling the Amiga it doesn't know how to control the mechanism attached.

I remember years ago I modified some PC drives to work in my Amiga, and found other PC drives that could be easily modified. There were lists of PC compatible / adaptable drives online which told you what jumpers to move. Maybe there are similar jumpers on the Gotek.

https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/104/what-modification-is-required-from-a-pc-floppy-for-use-in-amiga
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30944

when i saw this thread, i pulled an A1200 mobo out and fired it up off of a normal workbench floppy in DF0:, with the gotek in the drive case attached externally as DF1.
it showed up in early startup as DF1, but couldn't force a boot from DF1 with a workbench ADF (the only ADF) on the (FAT formatted) USB stick.

when it boots to workbench off of something else, it shows that:- nope, same deal pretty much:-  DF1:unreadable
my gotek is running flashfloppy version 2.13[/quote]

Oh, okay, so you can't even access disk images in the external Gotek as DF1 when you book off a Workbench disk in DF0:. That's no good.

so i dunno what i need to do to get it to work in an external case. everything i've read just seems to say unplug floppy drive, plug in gotek, all is wonderful. when it's not.
any pointers or advice most welcome
[/quote]

[scuzzb494]

Didn't read the whole thread so sorry if I missed something.

The external floppy drive used in Amiga external drives is not a bog standard PC floppy. The interface used can be converted to use PC drives but the drive is not a PC floppy drive.

The internal floppy and Gotek thingy connect to the Amiga in a different way to the external floppy. They are very different. You cannot remove an internal floppy drive and simply stick in an external case so the same would apply for the Gotek. I am assuming that the interface sold on Ebay has been designed to work as a special interface between the two. That I assume is a tested product.

The external drive mod cannot accommodate the Power Computing XL drive.

The A1011 does not have a pass thro and is truly a strange beast.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_april20/scuzzblogdapril20_2001.htm

[slaapliedje]

From what I can see after taking apart my own 1010 drive, you'd have to take the cable that connects to the floppy port and desolder it from the control board that the 1010 comes with, then connect the cable to the external Gotek controller board mentioned after desoldering the floppy drive connector. 

Might be better to get a 3d printed case than sacrificing the case of a 1010.

Also here is some more information.
https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Host-Platforms#commodore-amiga

[darksun9210]

Perfect, many thanks for that! 
after a quick read it seems that a gotek jumpered with "S0" will work for both internal and should work for external drives. just depending on the board between the cable and the drive that's in the drive enclosure; you may need to do some futzing about with the FF.CFG file on the USB stick to tell the gotek how to identify itself to the machine.

i'm just using a normal Amiga external drive with the mechanical drive mechanism pulled out and the Gotek swapped in. Not a modded PC drive. I'll swap the old floppydrive back into the case later tonight to see if its the interface board that's generating my "DF1: ? ? ? ? " or "DF1:unreadable" errors. i have a couple of other drives i can try if it is this particular interface board not playing nice.

if that works ok with the old drive, then i'll start playing with the FF.CFG file on the gotek.
will also see if i can upgrade my 2.13 to 2.14 of flashfloppy.

while i've got the gotek out of the case, i'll try it as DF0 on a machine too - to double check i'm starting off from a known good position.

personally i'd be a bit reticent to mod an "original amiga" piece of hardware, and just see if anyones got anything A1010'ish on thingverse for someone to 3D print for me. but i'm a chicken when it comes to case mods these days, so... bok bok bokaaar!

[darksun9210]

ok, so, long story short. if you're using a gotek in an external drive case with the external floppy drive's original connector board, you'll have to change the jumper the gotek to S1 from S0 - which is the default.

S1 or DS1 (drive select 1?) my understanding basicly tells the amiga it's drive "2 of 2" - as per the old PC days of A: and B:. But the amiga goes "stuff that", I can "free map" the drive ID of an S1 (DS1) jumpered ID of a drive to whatever the next logical unit is in MY chain. "S0" is basicly saying "i'm the first drive in the chain" - or the default for the internal drive. so an S0 on the outside of the case conflicts with the internal expected/forced S0 drive that should be sat at DF0's position, unless you do some funky stuff to have the amiga expect DF0 on the outside, not the inside.

so i know i'm probably not telling a lot of people here anything they didn't already know, but as i have to deal with floppies so rarely, and the drives even less, this info isn't exactly at the forefront of the old cranial grey matter these days.

i'm just chuffed now i've got a gotek i can switch around between machines. I'm also chuffed that my old Roctek, Cumana, and some other slim external floppy drive; that i've had in a box for the last god knows how long, still work fine. even after my stripping them down to see what worked with what this evening.

the big hint was when none of my "internal" drives from my A500/600/1200, would work in either the Roctek or Cumana interface boards. and the same for the Roctek and cumana drives, not liking being placed as internal drives.

live and learn