First post, by bjt
- Rank
- Oldbie
Jeff (who's behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that's compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators. This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.
More info here:
http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emul … x.html#stm32hxc
I went through this process recently and thought I'd post a little howto in case anyone wants to try it.
Here's a humble Gotek. I believe any Gotek will work regardless of model or number of LCD digits.
The innards are quite minimal. It's easiest to remove the board from the case completely.
Firstly you need to enable programming mode by bridging two contacts as shown here. Apologies for my poor soldering, but it works 😎
The Gotek uses a LVTTL (3.3V) serial interface for programming. As oldskool PC serial interfaces can be anywhere between +-12V, the safest approach is to use a USB-LVTTL converter like this one. They only cost a few pounds.
The following connections are required between the converter and the Gotek:
Converter 5V -> Gotek 5V
Converter GND -> Gotek GND
Converter TXD -> Gotek RX
Converter RXD -> Gotek TX
I chose to just solder them to the pads provided but you can also use temporary patch wires with headers.
Don't forget to set the voltage jumper on the converter to 3.3V!
The first step is to program a bootloader onto the Gotek that will then allow the HxC firmware to be flashed from a USB stick.
Each Gotek device to be programmed with the bootloader requires a license from Jeff that costs 10 euro currently.
Once complete you'll see LDR on the Gotek's display, this means the bootloader is active and waiting to flash the new firmware.
Copy the new firmware onto a USB stick and insert it. The flash process only takes a few seconds and will display HXC when complete.
You can remove all the programming connections now and put the Gotek back in its case.
That's it! Will post my impressions of the new firmware once I've had a chance to play with it some more.
