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Author Topic: Solutions for GoTek as External drive (DF1)?  (Read 8172 times)

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Offline Ral-ClanTopic starter

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Solutions for GoTek as External drive (DF1)?
« on: May 07, 2020, 07:20:40 PM »
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.
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Offline Ral-ClanTopic starter

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Re: Solutions for GoTek as External drive (DF1)?
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2020, 03:08:37 AM »
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).
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Offline Ral-ClanTopic starter

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Re: Solutions for GoTek as External drive (DF1)?
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2020, 01:53:39 PM »
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?
« Last Edit: May 08, 2020, 02:54:57 PM by Ral-Clan »
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Offline Ral-ClanTopic starter

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Re: Solutions for GoTek as External drive (DF1)?
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2020, 05:01:25 PM »
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?

Quote
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

Quote
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]
« Last Edit: May 19, 2020, 05:20:34 PM by Ral-Clan »
Music I've made using Amigas and other retro-instruments: http://theovoids.bandcamp.com