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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Coolhand on April 18, 2013, 03:39:17 PM
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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/720Kb-DD-Double-Density-Floppy-Disk-Drive-to-USB-Converter-Emulator-/181120966004?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Automation_Control_ET
I think the price is a bit of a rip, and there are specific custom devices that do this but does anyone own one of these? They seem to be quite cheap from Kong Hong.
It's clearly not designed for it, but is there any way this might work in Amiga?
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heres one in slightly bromine-y off white... and cheaper than a replacement floppy even. I guess its bound to not work or everyone would be doing it, but at the very least you'd have to remove the front or something to make it fit wedge cases.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5-720K-USB-SSD-FLOPPY-DRIVE-EMULATOR-E100S-720k-Milky-Yellow-Color-Version-/230919705269?pt=UK_Computing_FloppyDiskDrives_SM
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If you've seen the 1541 Ultimate project that uses an SD card to imitate a floppy disk
from an image on the card with hardware that pretends to be a 1541 floppy drive for the C64,
I'm sure something like that should be possible for the AMIGA as well:
A real piece of hardware that replaces the floppy drive on new tech.
Unfortunately I'm not that far into hardware and stick to software myself.
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These things are Amiga compatible.
http://www.lotharek.pl/category.php?kid=7
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HxC Floppy emulator works for the AMIGA and does a similar thing:
http://lotharek.pl/category.php?kid=7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zP6p9SBLw
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You beat me to it :)
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I know about those, and while i'm not putting that down, it always seemed a lot for the job they do - they're 4 times the cost of the device I linked to and tbh, I don't really *need* one;). I haven't seen anyone trying them out so I guess there's a good reason why the more massively produced alternative isn't used.
I also wonder though (and i'm sure there's a good answer along the lines of 'no'), is it possible to do more with such a device, by putting *something* between the floppy connector and a large storage device and doing more general types of file access via the floppy connector?
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I know about those, and while i'm not putting that down, it always seemed a lot for the job they do - they're 4 times the cost of the device I linked to and tbh, I don't really *need* one;). I haven't seen anyone trying them out so I guess there's a good reason why the more massively produced alternative isn't used.
I also wonder though (and i'm sure there's a good answer along the lines of 'no'), is it possible to do more with such a device, by putting *something* between the floppy connector and a large storage device and doing more general types of file access via the floppy connector?
4 times the price, but 10 times the quality and features!
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....Though you perhaps don't need many of those features for just accessing a few amiga disks.;)
I cant comment on the quality of either, I've had some cheap crap off ebay thats been great, and some that is just crap... do you own either one of them?
Anyway they're well covered already, I'm not putting anyones product down or judging it based on a price but obviously the cheaper device is more accessible to more people...
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....Though you perhaps don't need many of those features for just accessing a few amiga disks.;)
I cant comment on the quality of either, I've had some cheap crap off ebay thats been great, and some that is just crap... do you own either one of them?
Anyway they're well covered already, I'm not putting anyones product down or judging it based on a price but obviously the cheaper device is more accessible to more people...
Well the eBay listing you gave is 50 quid and the HxC floppy emulator is 69 Euros which is roughly 50 quid too.
http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13
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...
heres one in slightly bromine-y off white... and cheaper than a replacement floppy even. I guess its bound to not work or everyone would be doing it, but at the very least you'd have to remove the front or something to make it fit wedge cases.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5-720K-USB-SSD-FLOPPY-DRIVE-EMULATOR-E100S-720k-Milky-Yellow-Color-Version-/230919705269?pt=UK_Computing_FloppyDiskDrives_SM
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Well the eBay listing you gave is 50 quid and the HxC floppy emulator is 69 Euros which is roughly 50 quid too.
http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13
69 eur is nearly 60 quid today, and more like 65-70 delivered... (to the UK, presumably) the one from hong kong is just shy of 20 delivered to the UK.
tbh i'm more interested in whether it works at all or learning why it wouldn't.
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69 eur is nearly 60 quid today, and more like 65-70 delivered... (to the UK, presumably) the one from hong kong is just shy of 20 delivered to the UK.
tbh i'm more interested in whether it works at all or learning why it wouldn't.
Because these emulators are just USB key sectors to Floppy sectors bridge and there are only support IBM type sectors (and only in 9*80*2*512 or 18*80*2*512 format). Additionnaly the amiga read & write need a full track access. A last note : No image support.
But you should buy it to try it, this is only 20 ;)
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joke if you will but even £20 is still a lot of money to some people...! I have spent enough on amiga stuff this month anyway;) Thankyou for that info, so its not simply a matter of a modification or a converter or something - it would be asking more than the el cheapo floppy emulator is capable of... in that case would it even work with a dos emulator or crossdos to read pc disk?
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4 times the price, but 10 times the quality and features!
Indeed, worth every cent, I have one in my a500. :cool:
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Indeed, worth every cent, I have one in my a500. :cool:
The HxC or the Chinese USB device for industrial machines (looms and tool & die)?
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HxC, those Chinese things are unlikely to work very well in an Amiga IMO!
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Personally, and yes I know I've posted this before, but I like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-500-1000-2000-3000-Floppy-Simulator-w-MPDOS-Pro-/321096932559?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=pc2nIpO7tYFg8ECsklzbxndzDd8%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Amiga-500-1000-2000-3000-Floppy-Simulator-w-MPDOS-Pro-/00/s/Mzg4WDQ3Ng==/z/~mUAAMXQAx9RUlyg/$T2eC16J,!w0E9szN(W+hBRUlyg2Ib!~~60_12.JPG)
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Indeed, worth every cent, I have one in my a500. :cool:
The HxC or the Chinese USB device for industrial machines (looms and tool & die)?
HxC, those Chinese things are unlikely to work very well in an Amiga IMO!
But the HxC is not only Amiga ! :
http://hxc2001.com/showroom/index.html#IndusRetroFit
;)
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I'm well aware of that. :)
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http://coolhandtech.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/cheapo-amiga-floppy-emulator-inbound.html
Despite the nay-saying, A guy in France named "HM" has made this work and shared the solution, great stuff!
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I ordered one of the Gotek USB floppy emulators from china and it should arrive in a few days. It doesn't work out of the box, but you can flash it with new software to make it work with the Amiga. Everyone is using USB adapters to do the flashing and sometimes having problems.
Can I use the COM ports that are on the MB to do the flashing or does it have to be a USB adapter? I think it would work because the USB is just emulating a COM port right?
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Can I use the COM ports that are on the MB to do the flashing or does it have to be a USB adapter? I think it would work because the USB is just emulating a COM port right?
Nope, you need the adapter because these devices aren't RS232 serial, they are TTL serial.
The big difference I believe is voltage..
Good thing is that the TTL USB adapters are so inexpensive.
Mine was $2 shipped from China. Yeah, it took a few weeks, but got it yesterday.
Got my Gotek 2 days ago.
You do have to attach the TTL device to the GOTEK for programming.
I did this by soldering in 4 header pins (2 for a jumper for "programming mode" and 2 for send receive.
The USB/TTL adapter I got had header plugs already on it, so I didn't have to crimp them or anything.
(Some people just soldered the cable to the Gotek and then removed it after, but it's really not hard to solder header pins. Even I can do it. ;-) And they are cheap..)
Once i did that (I did have to disconnect/reconnect power to the GOTEK to get my PC to see it), it was just running a program to FLASH the image to it.
Then I took a USB drive I had lying around, copied the "selector.adf" that is provided to it, and then a few ADFs.
When I hooked it up to my Amiga last night, I just swapped my floppy drive for this device, powered on, and the selector.adf ran and let me select which ADF I wanted in which "slot" for the GOTEK. When I selected save and reset, the Amiga restarted and the GOTEK went to slot 1.
Booted up and there was Tetris..
Then I hit the button on the Gotek to select slot 2, restarted the Amiga and Workbench loaded.
Slowly mind you. This is Amiga floppy speeds only. ;-)
Fun little device..
Yeah, it's nowhere near as nice as an HxC, but it was $20 and I got to use a soldering iron for something easy. ;-) Right in my wheelhouse..
It will be interesting to see how the firmware develops... What features are possible (DF0 AND DF1 would be nice.. ;-), etc...
But for the money, this is a fun little project.
Also, now that some of us have the TTL devices, if someone doesn't want to hassle with the flashing, I'm sure we could help out.
Of course, it's better to have the flash ability yourself, for firmware updates (there has already been 1 of those).
desiv
FYI, I got this adapter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-USB-to-TTL-Serial-Cable-Adapter-Chipset-PL2303HX-Cable-Computer-Cable-/121278772203?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3cc733eb
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That's no fun. I was looking forward to resurrecting one of my old computers to use the serial port. I was going to see if Win 7 would run on it. Oh well... I guess I will go and check the bay for one of those USB cables.
I am also impressed with those HXC floppy devices. The only thing that I didn't like was they can't use ADF files. That is why I am going for the Gotek .
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At this time, I'm still recommending the HxC for end users..
It's much more complete...
That said, I am having a lot of fun with the GOTEK solution.
I get to do just a tiny bit of soldering. (4 header pins to the board)
Some firmware flashing.. It's fun..
I got it working, but it's only the 2nd firmware release..
It apparently can't do kickstart images (so no A1000's) yet..
I haven't even tried to see if it supports saving...
(I didn't really think of it till now)....
My plan is to eventually hook it up to my Amiga 1000, but I want to put in a switch that toggles between it in the internal floppy, so I can use either (not on the fly, but if i want to boot from real floppies).
Should be fun.. ;-)
Good luck..
desiv
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They can read and write from what I have read. In my opinion it seems like a simpler solution than the Hxc. A USB stick is better than an Sd card and no need to run a program to make the Amiga software compatible with it. I just ordered the USB TTL serial cable today so I can flash it. Just my luck that it arrived this afternoon. Two or three more weeks to wait.
I agree that the Hxc is a more polished solution but in my case the inability of it to use ADF's was a deal breaker. If it could do that I would be using one already.
It will be interesting to see how far they can push these Gotek units.
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I agree that the Hxc is a more polished solution but in my case the inability of it to use ADF's was a deal breaker. If it could do that I would be using one already.
Not sure where you saw that they don't use ADF's. According to:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
It handles that fine. The usb version has no write support but the SD card does..SDHC Card supported up to 32GB. I don't think I have that many floppies in the bigass totes I have.
I dropped the other link as it seems that whole page is just trolling.
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Definitely a case of rubbishing other products to push their own wheelbarrow!
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Not sure where you saw that they don't use ADF's. According to:
I think what they were talking about is the ability to just put ADFs on the SD Card and read them, which I don't believe the HxC does..
I believe (I don't own one) that you have to convert the ADFs (or IPFs and some other formats) to the HxC format.
Although I hear there is a batch conversion type of tool to make it easier...
desiv
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http://cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com/
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Is it really that simple? A 20 buck Gotek USB device off ichyBay plus a $4 buck USB-to-UART device, solder a few pins, download a couple of things, and then in 30 minutes, boom a replacement drive that holds a ton of ADF's?
I am afraid to say that to settle my interest in the topic, I did just that. But now the case is being painted to a nice Amiga beige and drying.
P.S., it may have been less than 30 minutes
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Is it really that simple? A 20 buck Gotek USB device off ichyBay plus a $4 buck USB-to-UART device, solder a few pins, download a couple
More or less. I believe I paid barely over $20 US shipped for the Gotek, and maybe 2 bucks for the programmer, maybe a tad bit more? I'd have to rechek my Ebay, but ya it was cheap cheap cheap and it was easy to reprogram once I found the drivers that worked with my set up.
I did a quick and dirty solder job as I did not feel like waiting for my pins to come in, though I have even seen a video on Youtube where a guy flashed his drive using my Paper clips to make the connections with the cables, so there really isn't much to it. Four connections, plug into PC, load driver, load software, flash and done. Worst case scenario you might have to use the Gotek Reset Jumper, but I didn't need to.
On a side note, I am a crapy electrician and not advanced by any means of the word. In fact I can barely manage to wipe my own butt correctly. So again, if I can do it, ANYONE can do it!
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Well, butts aside, I didn't use 0.1" pins, but bits of stiff wire and it worked perfectly the first time. The device is 10 times easier to use than an HxC and way cheaper. I just wish the box came in proper Amiga colors. Maybe that is why some folks are charging $67+ for them on eeuhBay? Perhaps they should offer them in the colors of the rainbow, or pink for girls, blue for boys, yellow for...
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Well, butts aside, I didn't use 0.1" pins, but bits of stiff wire and it worked perfectly the first time. The device is 10 times easier to use than an HxC and way cheaper. I just wish the box came in proper Amiga colors. Maybe that is why some folks are charging $67+ for them on eeuhBay? Perhaps they should offer them in the colors of the rainbow, or pink for girls, blue for boys, yellow for...
How about Red or any other color in the world aside of pink for girls, cause I'm so SICK of seeing PINK everywhere!!!! :)
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...The device is 10 times easier to use than an HxC and way cheaper....
ohh 10 times ? seriously ? Does it support DMS files,extended ADF files, IPF,... ?
Does the write support working correctly ?
;)
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ohh 10 times ? seriously ? Does it support DMS files,extended ADF files, IPF,... ?
Does the write support working correctly ?
;)
Yes, my calculations put it at 10.168 times easier to USE. No bloody conversions on a PC to get it to work and other crap. And $20 USD with free shipping. And how many years did it take for the HxC write support? Do I give a flip about DMS or IPF? No.
:'(
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When I can get a full (uncracked) copy of the ever elusive Citadel in IPF format, then I'll be a happy camper. In the mean time, if I would need that to work on my Gotek, I simply convert it to ADF on my Amiga, MorphOS machine, or what ever. :)
In the mean time, I was trying to contact a dude who was selling Citadel for $50, but he never wrote back...
...I don't even know why I'm so hard pressed to get a copy of that game. Perhaps because I've NEVER been able to get it to run fully via Whdload? Or because it was one of the first FPS' I ever played on my old Amiga 500. Not sure, but I want it!!! :)
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Whispering... I did invest in a Kryoflux and set it up in a drive case with drive and PSU for conversions, so I can archive or make images as needed, but on the Amiga the software really needs a GUI. And for me it is way more useful than a HxC.
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....And for me it is way more useful than a HxC.
Exactly - it is clear that you don't need it.
:)
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Vide Supra.
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Owning both a HxC and a Gotek I'm using the Gotek more. I like the LCD on he HxC though, just didn't like converting ADFs all the time.
Although at the time the HxC was the only real option that I could find.
Use to have the HxC installed in my A1200 case and it looked really good. But my A1200 is in a tower now so don't use the floppy that much anymore.
The A500 plus has the Gotek, but it also has an A590 with a SCSI card reader which gets used more as CFCard/HDDs are more useful :-)
Might sell the HxC, tempted to look at the Mist though :-)
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The only thing about the HXC floppy emulator is the .adf files need be converted to other format and thats process increase the the file size from 880kb to 2.2MB, or exist any way to convert the files without
Make big the file?
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"Convert all the time" ? I don't understand. Is your SDCard too small ?
Are you aware that you can drag&drop your adf/eadf/dms files on the batch convert window to make to "conversion" as simple as a file copy past on the SD ?
Maybe that the GUI need to be improved... Someone want to help me ? :
http://sourceforge.net/p/hxcfloppyemu/code/HEAD/tree/HxCFloppyEmulator/
The HxC and its HFE format is a true floppy emulator. The HFE file format have all pulses present on the magnetic support.
By this way this make the device very versatile and able to work on any kind of system and format without the need to reprogramming the firmware and pass the tests & validation stage again and again and again with all the possible introduced bugs...
This is exactly this point that make the huge success of this product :). (http://hxc2001.com/showroom/index.html)
Be sure that we will not do something specific into the firmware (ex: direct ADF support) not because this is impossible,
but because this will make the thing specific to one format on one kind of machine.
This is an "Universal Floppy Disk Drive Emulator", not only an ADF player.
No interest at all to transform it to one very specific kind of .ADF player...
And anyway since the very first argument to buy this kind of thing is the price, i thing that i have already lose too much time by writing this post ;).
We don't plan to sell it to 20$, so no need to lose time on a specific firmware for the few units to sell to the amiga community...
Any new marvellous features will not change this fact.
(Note: Don't worry for us -> Thing are going very well in your side, thanks to the versatility of the HxC. We are on lot of kind markets since 1/2 years :) )
BTW : About these 20$, how much goes to the developer ?
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Looking at your user name, you would not have any reason to validate your existence by defending the aforementioned device, would you?
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Looking at your user name, you would not have any reason to validate your existence by defending the aforementioned device, would you?
Think I'll change my name to Gotek Jones.
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Well got my USB RS232-TTL in the mail on Friday.!!!
Today got some time to soldered jumper pins onto my GOTEK. Being extra careful. I'm an average solderer.
I chose the solder option vs wire because I was afraid of shorting something out.
Tested my solder job with the continuity checker on my multi-meter. All good. Also checked for shorts between neighbouring pins. All good.
Hooked it up the USB RS232-TTL to the GOTEK and plugged in the USB. After a little Windows driver auto installing I now have a COM port 3.
Fired up the Flash Loader software, Selected COM 3, Next, it saw the GOTEK..Yippee. Nuked that nasty PC firmware. Then loaded the CortexAmigaFloppyEmulator_1.05a.hex firmware successfully. Remember to select the "Hex" file type to load first.(Not in the instructions)
Unplugged the USB RS232 TTL from my PC. Removed the wires and "Program" jumper from the GOTEK.
Moved the Jumper on the drive to S0 (Drive 0)
Tested it on my A500. Took a sec to figure out you have to stage the ADFs in slots before you can select them with the buttons on the drive. But the menu is simple and usable from the cursor keys.
So now have 4GB USB waiting for 999 Games. With Cannon Fodder playing softly in the background on my A500.
Time to buy some more... :)
For anyone that wants to know, this is the GOTEK drive I got :http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/191014653063?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
And this is the USB RS232 TTL : http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400356015296?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
FYI I noted down the Wire colours to GOTEK pin for the USB RS232 TTL
Wire Colour : GOTEK Pin. (As shown in the picture on the website)
Red wire： 5V goes to 5V on drive power plug.
Black wire： GND goes to VSS on drive power plug.
White wire： RXD goes to TX (Top middle pin) on Drive
Green wire： TXD goes to RX (Top forth pin from left) on Drive
Yellow wire： RTS (Not required)
Blue wire： CTS (Not required)
Reminder of the website to get the Firmware and instructions: http://cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/transform-the-gotek-floppy-emulator-into-an-amiga-floppy-emulator/
Cool