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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: Dr_Righteous on March 10, 2010, 06:53:09 PM

Title: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Dr_Righteous on March 10, 2010, 06:53:09 PM
The newly redesigned and smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Drive Emulator is up for pre-order. Lotharek is producing the boards and has the pre-order up on eBay for £60.

Pre-Order:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180479359777&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

More Info:
http://www.torlus.com/floppy/forum/index.php
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: kolla on March 10, 2010, 11:37:21 PM
Yay, been waiting for this - ordered two :)
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: spihunter on March 11, 2010, 12:54:37 AM
Looks pretty cool you guys!!
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Gulliver on March 11, 2010, 01:27:37 AM
Please dont missunderstand me, every new hardware gadget i see released for the Amiga is a really great thing. But i simply dont see the point of paying 60 UKP for this new sd interface, when you can get an ide to sd interface for less than 10 UKP. I know it is not the same because it connects as a floppy drive, but then ide interfaces on any amiga, are cheaper and more versatile.
Perhaps i am not getting it. Could someone please explain the great benefit for the Amiga, other than a cool gadget? :)
Please be kind, as i am genuinely intrigued.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Darrin on March 11, 2010, 03:19:05 AM
Quote from: Gulliver;547106
Please dont missunderstand me, every new hardware gadget i see released for the Amiga is a really great thing. But i simply dont see the point of paying 60 UKP for this new sd interface, when you can get an ide to sd interface for less than 10 UKP. I know it is not the same because it connects as a floppy drive, but then ide interfaces on any amiga, are cheaper and more versatile.
Perhaps i am not getting it. Could someone please explain the great benefit for the Amiga, other than a cool gadget? :)
Please be kind, as i am genuinely intrigued.


Because as you mention, this isn't designed to use a SD card as a hard drive, but to do away with the need for old 3.5" floppy disks and use ADF images as if they were floppy disks instead.

This is why I'm such a big fan of the Minimig, because I can use ADF copies of my old, degrading floppy disks or look online for an ADF for a floppy that has already failed.

Anyone who owns a real Amiga and has faced repeated read errors from floppy disks will appreciate this little gadget.

I'm very tempted to order a couple for my "real" Amigas.

Those $10 SD card IDE devices can't do what this does and never will.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Gulliver on March 11, 2010, 06:07:11 AM
Okay thanks, i get it. But i only think it is good for real floppy tinkerers then, not casual users.
Let me tell you, i literally converted all my floppy disks to adf and i simply use VirtualFloppy program to mount them, and in the case of demos and games i use whdload. So floppies are only left for once in a while, installing workbench, but then nothing else. And even in that special case, i prefer doing it with WinUAE.
So at the end i still think it is only good for floppy tinkerers.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: kolla on March 11, 2010, 10:03:39 AM
Quote from: Gulliver;547135
So at the end i still think it is only good for floppy tinkerers.
Well, with this there is no need to tinker with floppies anymore, that's the point. ;)

Notice that this device is not just for amiga, it can be used with plenty of machines, machines that may or may not have used weird floppy drives that are hopeless to find in working condition today. It is a great thing to have around when you need to bootstrap a system, be it amiga or atari or whatever. A bonus for us minimig tinkerers is that we can test adfs on minimig and real hardware from the same SD card :)
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Gulliver on March 11, 2010, 10:08:50 AM
Then, that way it sounds more reasonable! :)
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: tonyyeb on March 11, 2010, 11:29:12 AM
Only problem I see is that this listing is for a pre-order item that isn't yet built. I thought ebay didn't like that.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: polardark on March 11, 2010, 04:16:36 PM
According to the specification sheet the HxC Floppy Emulator doesn't support writing for Amiga disks. With this in mind I could see a use for this for my other computers and maybe for installing things from floppy images onto hard drive on Amiga. Other than that...
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Darrin on March 11, 2010, 04:28:53 PM
Quote from: polardark;547198
According to the specification sheet the HxC Floppy Emulator doesn't support writing for Amiga disks. With this in mind I could see a use for this for my other computers and maybe for installing things from floppy images onto hard drive on Amiga. Other than that...


I thought it was the USB one that connects to a PC that doesn't allow the write function...

From the spec sheet:

Here are the main features of the SDCard HxC Floppy Emulator:

Hardware/software specifications:

- 40Mhz PIC18F4525/PIC18F4620 based.

- Read/Write support:
Track mode based floppy emulator (Full track pre-encoded in the image file)
>Read support: Most of existing formats (FM/MFM/Amiga track...) supported. Custom tracks supported.
>Write support: ISO MFM 256/512/1024Bytes sector write supported.


Whereas this is the USB one which is NOT the device being offered on eBay:

Here are the main features of the USB HxC Floppy Emulator:

Hardware specification:

- Read only Floppy emulator (SD,DD,HD & ED mode)
- USB 1.1 device interface (based on the FTDI FT245.).
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: trekiej on March 11, 2010, 07:09:21 PM
I was hoping someone would make one of these.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: raketa on March 11, 2010, 07:09:30 PM
some time ago I bought the usb version - the main problem was inability of writing (game save positions etc.).
so I asked Peter S. if this function will be implemented in sd version. Here is his reply:

"HxC USB is read only by design - so no writing.. writing will be just ignored.. In the sd version, that is coming up in the next weeks/month,
write support is implemented.. only on Amiga, I am not sure at the moment,
because of memory contrains.. will have to wait until Jeff the developer
will release it with final specs..".

so I asked the seller - "lotharek1977" if writing to sd card is available -> no reply from him.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Dr_Righteous on March 11, 2010, 07:30:18 PM
This has actually been available for quite some time as a DIY project. Jeff recently redesigned it with a smaller footprint and fewer chips. As I understand it, this version is not going to be released for DIY. Lotharek has been given the design to produce and is producing completed boards. The preorder is so he knows how many to make.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: raketa on March 12, 2010, 08:49:52 AM
now as updated description says: Write support not available on Amiga computers!
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Darrin on March 12, 2010, 03:32:56 PM
Quote from: raketa;547309
now as updated description says: Write support not available on Amiga computers!


Doh!  Well that stops me odering then.

Cheers.
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: sbeehre on March 13, 2010, 01:56:46 AM
just ordered mine! this will be excellent on my A500 :) Im also really hoping write support for Amiga's will be implemented in future firmware updates!
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: ipod_sock on March 15, 2010, 12:47:52 AM
Nice, might bag me one of these babies...
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Jeff_HxC on August 27, 2010, 12:22:49 PM
Important update of the SD HxC Floppy Emulator for Amiga users:

-> Write support added for Amiga !

Quote:
22/08/2010: Firmware SD HxCFloppyEmulator v1.3.0.0
- Amiga Write support added :

Note to the Revision B PCB owners :

To activate this new features you need to add a Microchip 23K256 SPI SRAM chip and 4 resistors.
The connection to do is :

23K256 pin 1 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 22
23K256 pin 5 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 27
23K256 pin 6 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 28
23K256 pin 2 -> 220ohms resistor -> PIC18F4620 pin 29
23K256 pin 8 & 7 -> VCC3.3V (this voltage can be found at the capacitor under the sdcard connector or at the output of the regulator)
23K256 pin 4 -> GND
23K256 pin 3 -> Not connected.

(a 100nF capacitor is also recommended at the pin 8 of the 23K256)

After this modification you should see the message "SRAM OK" at power up.


More infos here:

http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html#SDCARDFloppyemulator
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Jeff_HxC on October 09, 2010, 05:45:12 PM
Hi,

Finally i managed to port the file selector software to Amiga:

(http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/vrac/amiga_hxcfemng.jpg)


Rev B & C Hardware are supported. You have just to get the lastest firmware update and file selector software on the project website:

http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html#download

:)
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Jeff_HxC on October 13, 2010, 07:52:47 PM
Hi,

A small video demo of SD Card HxC Floppy Emulator used with the file selector software:


(http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/vrac/sdhxcfe_insidea500.jpg)
 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zP6p9SBLw)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zP6p9SBLw

Project webpage:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/

Producer webpage:
http://www.lotharek.pl/
Title: Re: New Smaller HxC SD Card Floppy Emulator Preorder
Post by: Jeff_HxC on November 29, 2010, 10:22:45 AM
Hi

New Rev C SD HxC Floppy Emulator Preorder :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180592972686

and a new webstore is now open :

http://www.lotharek.pl/

http://lotharek.pl/null/product/info/3


Project webpage :

http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator