Gotek floppy emulator

[curtis]

Okay, so I picked up one of these to play with.

Tried flashing the thing last night and couldn't get the software to recognizethe drive.

Yes, I had the connectors connected correctly:  TX->RX, RX->TX, power, and ground.

Had the Boot0 connected to 3.3V to enable programming.

Nada.

Tried without the Boot0 to 3.3V and the display would light up, but not recognized by the programmer/connecting USB cable thingy. (Thingy is a technical term for the uninitiated!)

Tried shorting the reset pins and still nothing.

I have soldered headers so I could connect the cabling easier and connect the Boot0 to 3.3V pins, but I inspected the solder job and it does not appear to be crossing over to any other pads.

I'm using a USB3 port and it recognizes the USB cable adapter and installs the COM: port.

I downloaded the latest driver software for the USB interface.

I'm using Win 7 Pro.


Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks,

Curtis

[curtis]

I had the same problem as you few days ago, it just would not connect.
finally the software was able to recognize the Gotec and let me reflash it.
I am not sure exactly how I got to work, but you can try few things.
I used WinXP.

Make sure your USB "thingy" has drivers installed.

1. My USB-TTL converter has 3.3v, TX, RX, GND, 5V pins, and it was recognized as COM5.

Did that.

2. Verify in the Device Manager what COM PORT it is.

Yep.

3. Connect the BOOT-3V with jumper

Got it.

4. Connect USB-TX to Gotec-RX, USB-RX to Gotec-TX

Ditto.

5. Connect USB-5v and USB-GND to the Gotec-Power Connector.

Did that.

6. Start the Flash software, select correct COM port.

Yep.  It starts up and sees the port.

7. Get another JUMPER and attach it to the RESET pins on Gotek.

!  Didn't try that!  Will give that a whirl when I get home.  Had been using a small screwdriver to short the leads momentarily.

8. click NEXT on Flash SW and then REMOVE the RESET Jumper.

See response to 7.

9. Try to do STEP 7-8 with JUMPER  on S0 or S1.

Kicked around trying that, but didn't.  Will give it a shot this evening.


In my case some how it worked.

One more thing, if you are able to reflash it, you may have another problem, not all USB sticks work. Out of 4 USB sticks onlyt one works, LEXAR. Some say HP and Kingston work too.

I'll remember that.  First step is obviously to get the danged emulator to work!

Thanks for the pointers.

Curtis

[curtis]

Well, I tried connecting the adapter cable with the reset jumper set and then starting the program.

Same results.

The error I'm getting is unrecognized device.  I'm also getting no response for device error.

I'm in the process of loading a laptop with XP Pro and will try that when I get that finished.

[curtis]

Forgot to mention, I'm not getting any sign of life from this bugger.

The power LED is not lit.

Ditto the 3 digit display.

At least not while the Boot0-3.3 jumper is in place.

If I pull the 3.3 jumper, the 3 digit display works, but still nothing on the green power LED.

[curtis]

@amiman99 - Okay, I feel better about the display not being on when the 3.3v jumper is connected.  Thought that might be the case, but still nice to have it confirmed.

@gertsy - No, just using the power and ground pins from the USB adapter.  Tried using a external floppy connector and got no where FAST!

@DutchinUSA - Guess I'll get out my magnifier and double check the solder job on the headers!  Really hate getting old...

Got XP Pro loaded up on an old laptop last night, but it was bed time so will try again tonight.

Hope everybody who is tracking this are learning from my woes!  At least then I'll feel somewhat gratified that I helped others along.

BTW, forgot to mention, my main computer is WIN 7 Pro.

[curtis]

Most of the time I take my glasses off, but for the really tiny stuff, I bought a illuminated magnifier on an articulated arm and I get right down there with it!

You're right it's really sad!  

This getting old thing is definitely NOT for wimps!

I wear my glasses plus a pair of reading glasses doubled up when I
solder.... Sad.

[curtis]

It may be bad.  Will know this evening when I get the larger sledge hammer!  

Following the instructions on Win 7 pro I programmed 4 with difficulty on only one that required a couple of resets. I've been soldering since I was a cub scout, so the headers were no biggie.  Maybe the drive you bought is defective?  They are only 20 bucks.

[curtis]

Well, looks like either the USB to serial adapter is bad or the gotek drive is bad.

Double checked my solder job.  It's good.

Tried the laptop, but that @#$%^@ thing died on me!

Tried the desktop again with same results.  Keep getting "No response from target."

Since the cable is cheaper will pick up another one of those and go from there.

Putting thread on snooze until new cable arrives.

[curtis]

Well, took amiman99's advice and fired up good ole hyperterm and set echo to on.

Got double characters.

Disabled the echo and only got 1 character of what I was typing.

Guess it's NOT the USB serial adapter!

That would seem to indicate the drive I got is bad.

Time to contact the seller and see if they'll make good on it and send another one.  Anyone holding their breath?  Not me!!!

[curtis]

Okay, got the new USB to 232 cable in.

Just for giggles decided to give it a whirl.

Had to pull the cables out of the 6 pin header and get them all set up.

Fire up the loader program and same danged thing!  RATS!!!!

Oh, wait a minute, this cable has CTS and RTS lines!  Jumpered them together and tried again.

Loader program found the emulator!  YAY!!!!!!!

Loaded up the software on the emulator.  Went smooth as silk.

Picked up a generic 1G USB drive and loaded a couple of .adf files.

Hook the emulator up to my A500 test bed, crossed my fingers and turned it on.

Right to the emulator menu.

Picked a file and let 'er rip.

Booted right up!

Tried a reset, but wouldn't find the other files.  Guess I need to play a bit more to figure out this thing better.

Anyway, IF anyone is having problems with their setup and you have CTS/RTS lines, try jumpering them together and see what happens.

BTW, for those unfamiliar with comms signals, CTS is Clear To Send and RTS is Ready To Send.  Amazing I would remember that from my Navy CTM basic electronics after over 27 years!  Guess I still have a couple of marbles floating around in my gray-headed noggin!

Curtis

[curtis]

Yeah, I thought it was kinda weird that I had to use the CTS/RTS lines and no else did.

Oh well, whatever works!

Who knows, this might help someone else out.