Floppy replacement - USB to FDD?

[desiv]

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

[desiv]

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

[desiv]

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