Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: freqmax on October 03, 2013, 12:33:02 AM
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How is the availability of hardware to read physical floppy disks? ie like Catweasel etc.
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I think the Zorro II Catweasel is still available, but the PCI versions are not. There's also the Kyroflux, which I believe is still available as well.
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Also, as was mentioned recently on here somewhere, Jim Drew is releasing (has released?) a new card that is apparently similar to the Kryoflux...
desiv
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Seems floppy on a USB cable is all the rage these days?
I hope the kryoflux.com is as programmable and capable as the Catweasel?
The main reason was to figure out if it would be worthwhile to make ones own or just do COTS.
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How is the availability of hardware to read physical floppy disks? ie like Catweasel etc.
Catweasel mk2 is cheap, basic and versatile solution.
I have one and I am most pleased.
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=567
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Also, as was mentioned recently on here somewhere...
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=66023
...Jim Drew is releasing (has released?) a new card...
The SuperCard Pro has not been released yet.
But near release,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org
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Catweasel mk2 is cheap, basic and versatile solution.
I have one and I am most pleased.
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=567
And (with a trivial cable mod) it will work on any Linux machine with a motherboard IDE port:
http://www.evillabs.net/wiki/index.php/Project_catweasel
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Catch, any development board with a GPIO connection can solve this too ;)
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As soon as the ecommerce integration into http://www.cbmstuff.com is finished, SuperCard Pro will be available.
More info is here: http://www.cbmstuff.com/news.htm
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So, Jim, this thingy goes on USB (via USB>mini USB cable), and then a PC floppy drive & cable connect to it, right ? Power must be added via floppy power connector. Can we write ADFs directly from PC ? What's the micro SD for ?
Cheers :)
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The device doesn't actually need a USB cable. You could power it via the 3.5" floppy power connector. Yes, it uses any 3.5" or 5.25" PC drive.
There will also be a firmware upgrade where you can replace your Amiga floppy drive with the SCP and use it as the floppy drive, pulling the flux level images from the SD card. Control for the board can be done through the USB port, or through either of the two serial ports. One port could be for a LCD display and the other could be for communications. Or in the case of the Amiga, some simple program to get the directory info from the SD card and be able to mount a flux image. So, SCP doesn't need a PC to actually work. However, all of the software I have currently for it is PC based. I still have all of my original SuperCard Ami source code, so I can alter that to support the packet based messages that control the SCP board to give us some Amiga software.
There are already low-level drivers for the FTDI USB chip I am using for PC, Mac, and Linux. So, if someone wants to make some Mac or Linux software, please let me know and I can provide all of the details. I am making the control information public, and the image format already is. We are using that format for the FPGA Arcade so the cores can have flux-level images, insuring that we have 100% compatibility for loading original copy protected software in image format.
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Hi Jim,
Can you connect a 3.5" and 5.25" at the same time (assuming I still find a suitable ribbon cable after all these years)?
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There will also be a firmware upgrade where you can replace your Amiga floppy drive with the SCP and use it as the floppy drive, pulling the flux level images from the SD card. .
Oh, nice!!!!!
So kind of a KryoFlux + HxC + (other kual stuff)
:-)
desiv
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The device doesn't actually need a USB cable. You could power it via the 3.5" floppy power connector. Yes, it uses any 3.5" or 5.25" PC drive.
There will also be a firmware upgrade where you can replace your Amiga floppy drive with the SCP and use it as the floppy drive, pulling the flux level images from the SD card. Control for the board can be done through the USB port, or through either of the two serial ports. One port could be for a LCD display and the other could be for communications. Or in the case of the Amiga, some simple program to get the directory info from the SD card and be able to mount a flux image. So, SCP doesn't need a PC to actually work. However, all of the software I have currently for it is PC based. I still have all of my original SuperCard Ami source code, so I can alter that to support the packet based messages that control the SCP board to give us some Amiga software.
There are already low-level drivers for the FTDI USB chip I am using for PC, Mac, and Linux. So, if someone wants to make some Mac or Linux software, please let me know and I can provide all of the details. I am making the control information public, and the image format already is. We are using that format for the FPGA Arcade so the cores can have flux-level images, insuring that we have 100% compatibility for loading original copy protected software in image format.
Thanks a lot Jim :) I will follow your development with much joy :)
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Hi Jim,
Can you connect a 3.5" and 5.25" at the same time (assuming I still find a suitable ribbon cable after all these years)?
Yes, and you can even use a 3.5"/5.25" combo drive.
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Guess drive select A/B and motor enable A/B is implemented then.
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Yes, along with step, step dir, read track, write track, decode track, etc.
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Otoh, that functionality can be empiricaly deduced because otherwise it wouldn't work at all .. ;)
But you can get away with wiring select and motor signals to a set level.
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Here is the list of packet IDs. I can easily add anything to this list. Currently, there is only 4.3% of the code space being used in the PIC.
CMD_SELA = 0x80 ; command - select drive A
CMD_SELB = 0x81 ; command - select drive B
CMD_DSELA = 0x82 ; command - deselect drive A
CMD_DSELB = 0x83 ; command - deselect drive B
CMD_MTRAON = 0x84 ; command - turn motor A on
CMD_MTRBON = 0x85 ; command - turn motor B on
CMD_MTRAOFF = 0x86 ; command - turn motor A off
CMD_MTRBOFF = 0x87 ; command - turn motor B off
CMD_SEEK0 = 0x88 ; command - seek track 0
CMD_STEPTO = 0x89 ; command - step to specified track
CMD_STEPIN = 0x8A ; command - step towards inner (higher) track
CMD_STEPOUT = 0x8B ; command - step towards outer (lower) track
CMD_SELDENS = 0x8C ; command - select density
CMD_SIDE = 0x8D ; command - set side
CMD_STATUS = 0x8E ; command - get drive status
CMD_GETPARAMS = 0x90 ; command - get parameters
CMD_SETPARAMS = 0x91 ; command - set parameters
CMD_RAMTEST = 0x92 ; command - do RAM test
CMD_READFLUX = 0xA0 ; command - read flux level
CMD_GETREADINFO = 0xA1 ; command - get info from last flux read
CMD_WRITEFLUX = 0xA2 ; command - write flux level
CMD_READMFM = 0xA3 ; command - read MFM level
CMD_WRITEMFM = 0xA4 ; command - write MFM level
CMD_READGCR = 0xA5 ; command - read GCR level
CMD_WRITEGCR = 0xA6 ; command - write GCR level
CMD_SENDRAM_USB = 0xA7 ; command - send data from RAM to USB
CMD_LOADRAM_USB = 0xA8 ; command - get data from USB and store in RAM
CMD_SENDRAM_232 = 0xA9 ; command - send data from RAM to the serial port
CMD_LOADRAM_232 = 0xAA ; command - get data from serial port and store in RAM
CMD_DCODEGCRCBM = 0xB0 ; command - decode buffer to CBM GCR
CMD_DCODESECCBM = 0xB1 ; command - decode CBM GCR to sectors
CMD_CBMTOD64 = 0xB2 ; command - read CBM disk and decode to D64 format
CMD_READCBMDISK = 0xB3 ; command - read CBM disk, decode sectors and store in RAM
CMD_WRITECBMDISK = 0xB4 ; command - write CBM disk, encoded from sector data stored in RAM
CMD_OPENFILE = 0xC0 ; command - open FAT16/32 file
CMD_CLOSEFILE = 0xC1 ; command - close FAT16/32 file
CMD_READFILE = 0xC2 ; command - read from open file
CMD_WRITEFILE = 0xC3 ; command - write to open file
CMD_SEEKFILE = 0xC4 ; command - seek to position in file
CMD_DELETEFILE = 0xC5 ; command - delete file
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CMD_READFLUX = 0xA0 ; command - read flux level
CMD_GETREADINFO = 0xA1 ; command - get info from last flux read
CMD_WRITEFLUX = 0xA2 ; command - write flux level
What does these commands do really?
Esp since flux levels (can) change every 1/500000 s.
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ReadFlux reads flux transitions and stores them in the internal RAM, or streams it via USB. GetFluxInfo gets information about the flux data read, including the number of flux transitions and the index pulse duration. WriteFlux writes flux transitions either from the internal RAM or streamed via USB. Mos everything is geared towards using the internal 512K RAM.