Gotek 'floppy emulator' inside an AMIGA 600

[VingtTrois]

Gotek inside an AMIGA 600 - by Thunder of Scoopex.

















Firmware by Hervé Messinger
http://cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com/

Gotek amiga floppy emulator (for use in real Amigas)
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?p=759301

[zombi]

Nice and clean work. This Gotek thingy is real savior. How do you cut the USB opening?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Nice work, very clean!  Just need to Retr0brite those keys a little bit, lol.  

[desiv]

Nice!

I built a split floppy power and floppy cable for mine.  (OK, that's 2 separate cables)
I run power to both the floppy and the GOTEK.
I run the floppy cable to both, but I route wire 10 (DS0) to a DPST switch.
That way, I can run either the GOTEK or the internal floppy as DF0, if I ever want to use real disks..

Pretty messy tho still.  I separated my floppy cable wires (was going to bundle them), but then realized that for my A1000, I can just slide a flat ribbon cable thru the expansion slot.  So I should have left it flat.  I don't want to cut the case on my A1000, so going to place my GOTEK external.

(Waiting for kickstart floppy support tho.  Although with the switch, I can boot off of my kickstart floppy, then flip the switch for a disk image. )

Nicely done!!

desiv

[Ral-Clan]

AmigaKit should really pick up on this and offer pre-flashed GoTek floppy emulators already updated with the Amiga-compatible firmware.  I could do the re-flashing myself, but if AmigaKit already sold GoTek's emulator re-flashed and tested, I would pay a few bucks to save myself the hassle.

[cunnpole]

You can buy them pre flashed on ebay (£40 vs £20), but there are legal issues with selling them this way

[XDelusion]

Can this be used within Workbench? And how many floppy drives can it emulate at one time?

[VingtTrois]

I run the floppy cable to both, but I route wire 10 (DS0) to a DPST switch.
That way, I can run either the GOTEK or the internal floppy as DF0, if I ever want to use real disks..

wire 10 (DS0) to a DPST switch => good idea!!!!!!

You can buy them pre flashed on ebay (£40 vs £20), but there are legal issues with selling them this way

Hervé Messinger don't want to see his firmware sold by any company (or any AMIGA user on Amibay!)

Can this be used within Workbench? And how many floppy drives can it emulate at one time?

S0 = DF0 / S1 = DF1 => so, I suppose only 2 GOTEK

[VingtTrois]

Nice and clean work. This Gotek thingy is real savior. How do you cut the USB opening?

He drilled a few small holes and then expanded with the tool DREMEL.

[desiv]

wire 10 (DS0) to a DPST switch => good idea!!!!!!

Works slick too..
And like most good ideas I work on, it wasn't mine.. ;-)  Came from someone at EAB.  I was thinking of toggling the power when it was suggested that toggling DS0 would be better..

Also, apparently multiple drives thru 1 GOTEK is possible in firmware, but it will require some soldering (I'm assuming something about the DS0 and DS1 lines).  HM isn't doing it yet.
But it is on the radar.

desiv

[VingtTrois]

Also, apparently multiple drives thru 1 GOTEK is possible in firmware, but it will require some soldering (I'm assuming something about the DS0 and DS1 lines).

desiv

I've ordered my second unit!
A friend of mine reported to me that there is a little problem: the original floppy disk drive (DF1) with a Gotek (DF0) = you can't format a disk on DF1!
I must check!

[XDelusion]

How does this compare to Lotharek's offerings?

http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13

[desiv]

How does this compare to Lotharek's offerings?

It doesn't really.  ;-)

OK...
The HxC is MUCH nicer.
Much more polished.  Easier to use.  Easier to set up.  More options.  Better display.  More compatible.

However, if all you are looking for a basic "reading standard ADFs off of a USB device" and you are OK with maybe a little bit of soldering (to add some header pins, not technically required, but a good idea) and flashing firmware via a USB to serial adapter, then these are really cheap and work..  ;-)
As much as I like the HxC, I don't mind floppies (I actually like them sometimes) and I just can't justify the expense of the HxC.
But this is pretty cheap and requires a bit or tweaking to get to work, which I enjoy.

Just got the Linux firmware flashing program working yesterday (as I burned down my XP laptop for MINT).

There are things it doesn't support (IPF, extanded ADF, compressed ADFs, kickstart images, etc) yet, but it's still a work in progress..

desiv

[XDelusion]

I'm thinking that if this device can only support one ADF file at a time, then the only use it would have for me is booting single floppy games.
 Though on the other hand, if it could support multiple virtual floppy drives, or ADF files of 1.44Mb in size or larger, then I could create a custom boot disk to install Workbench with via the primary boot ADF and then a series of ADF files mounted in RAM.

 That's my main beef with floppy drives, aside of the fact that they all die eventually (as do floppies), they are also slow, and become unreliable at reading disks at times. With a virtual disk, I could easily prepare a hard drive and install Workbenchw with next to no hassel. So in that regard, I'm thinking I'll be opting for the alternative personally, though I do admire the work done here in this project, it is very cool, just not practical for my needs.

[magnetic]

Xdelusion

IIRC the guy who hacked the original firmware is working on a new firmware with multiple disk support. See thread on EAB


@ Thread

Is there anyone in USA that would be willing to flash one of these for me and sell it?