Solo761 wrote on 2022-05-17, 05:47:

eightbit wrote on 2022-05-17, 02:14:

The FF.CFG has to be present on the USB for the latest Gotek models that do not have the JC jumper as well, and there's a portion in that config file where you have to specify this is for "ibmpc".

But only once, if it remains it will reflash configuration each time it powers on. Just to mention this to be sure 😀.

I had no idea that the config was actually flashed when powered on! Thanks for that info!

I've noticed that when I accidentally left it on USB stick and it looked like there was some delay between power on and it mounting the image. Without the file on USB stick it was instant.
And it definitely uses ibmpc, shugart or other settings that were set via FF.CFG without it being present on USB stick, I've tested a bit to make sure 😀.

Add me also to the list of people who didn't realise it reflashed ff.cfg every single time.

This might explain the delay on power up of the Gotek on my Atari ST after I changed to a slower USB stick!

I'll have to remove it from all of my devices.

Yeah, it's in the wiki but I must have looked over it as others have done:

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/FF. … figuration-File

Removed from all of my devices as well 😉

Here comes another digger, and right on Christmas day!

I just modded my Gotek, it's one of the older models with SFRC922D board and STM32F105 chip. I successfully flashed it with FlashLoader Demonstrator 2.8.0 and FlashFloppy 3.38, added the LCD display and rotary encoder.

Now I have 2 problems:
- if I boot with a USB flash drive inserted AND an image loaded, it gives me "Floppy disk(s) fail (40)", but it boots fine without an USB flash drive OR with an USB flash drive and no image loaded.
- it doesn't recognize the floppy images (seems related to the 1st problem), but it does try to read them because the green led lights up and the T:xx tracks on the display jump around. The images where saved by WinImage with .IMA extension (no compression) and are bootable on VirtualBox, tried renaming the extensions to .IMG and .DSK but the result is the same. I tried formatting an image in Windows explorer, I see the tracks in the display jumping between T:66 and T:70ish (to fast to read) but it fails to format. I tried with a 2GB USB flash drive (that worked with the original Gotek firmware) in FAT and FAT32, and with a 8GB USB flash drive in FAT32, same problem on both.

I have a jumper on S0 (won't work on S1). I used this FF.CFG to setup FlashFloppy:
interface = ibmpc
ejected-on-startup = yes
oled-font = 8x16
display-off-secs = 255

Not sure if it might make a difference, but when connecting the USB programmer, i accidentally connected the 5v and GND jumper wires in reverse and the board got very hot on a component close to the power plug, but after reversing them it no longer heated up, the flash worked correctly and the Gotek seems to be working fine, minus the problems above that I'm not sure if they are related, since there's no way to reverse back to the original Gotek firmware.

EDIT: ok, some progress... I might have messed up some configuration, so I reset FF through the menu, and removed "interface = ibmpc" from the FF.CFG. Now it successfully reads AND formats images, it no longer throws an error with an image loaded on boot, but it still doesn't boot, even from an image formatted by the OS itself. now I'm suspecting the boot problem is either cable related or computer related, probably the latter since I'm having no luck with old hardware lately...

EDIT2: tested on a 2nd computer and I had the same boot failure, so definitely not a cable/computer problem. It's basically either the Gotek/FlashFloppy or the USB flash drive, but since it does read the floppy contents of images on both flash drives, I'm leaning towards the first, so I'm out of ideas.

Thought I share my experience as well. My aliexpress unit turned out to be AT32F415 version. Added/soldered header for convenient jumper usage.
Flashing went smoothly although it looks like latest Artery ISP Programmer have changed layout and some wordings so Flashfloppy wiki screens are outdated.
Kept only S1 jumper ON/shortened.

One weird thing however happened. With fresh default firmware setup (flashfloppy-at415-st105-3.38.hex) I added DSKA0000.img and DSKA0001.img to USB root. No FF.CFG. BIOS detected drive correctly, but DOS 7.1 command line mode was not able to read images. However in full Win98 mode I was able to access disks. Hm..

After a lot of experimentation I settled with short FF.CFG conf below. Now DOS access is working

1## FF.CFG: FlashFloppy Configuration File
2interface = ibmpc
3nav-mode = native
4indexed-prefix = "DSKA"

Well, almost a year later, I'm rebuilding my RETRO-W98 machine (sunbrighting, new board/CPU/GPU/HDD, etc) and decided to try to make the Gotek work once again. As before, everything I tried with FlashFloppy failed. I was starting to think it was because I mistakenly switched 2 wires when reprogramming the Gotek the first time which could have damaged something, but it did reprogram correctly, yet the boot problem and working under DOS was still an issue.

I decided to give HxC a try, even if I had to pay for it: lucky me, IT'S CURRENTLY FREE! I registered my email twice by mistake, and now I can reprogram a 2nd Gotek if I ever need to 😀

After reprogramming the HxC Loader into the Gotek, and updating the HxC firmware with a .UPD file, it finally booted a floppy image, right off the bat! So finally, the problem is solved!

Surrat wrote on 2021-09-22, 02:19:

Everywhere I look it says I need to use .img files, but nobody says how to create them.
I installed an old version of WinImage on a win2000 rig, and it creates .imz or .ima files.

IMG files are just IMA files with a different extension. There is no difference between them. I always choose IMA but provide an IMG file extension manually.

IMZ are compressed, so the finished file size is usually smaller, whereas IMA and IMG are usually the same size as the original media.

I don't know if the "OLED mod" mentioned earlier is what I'm about to describe but if it isn't here you go:

It's possible to install a 0,96" OLED (easily found from the usual outlets) in a Gotek without any case alterations, however it's necessary to separate the OLED proper from the PCB so the former can be positioned in front of the existing window in the case.
To do so drip isopropyl alcohol in between the two to soften the adhesive and use a plastic implement to gently slice through and again gently pry them apart (then remove the adhesive residue with more IPA, the easiest technique is to "roll it away" while it's soft).

The display can be anchored by its sides with some hot glue while the pcb can be laid down on the case and secured in place again with hot glue and can be connected to the main PCB with the existing cable but switching one side from a 2x2 to a 1x4 dupont connector (basically just transfer the pins to another case).

It's also possible, with some rearrangement, to install an original full size Gotek 7 segment display to a slim one because the display itself is essentially the same height.
In this case however some dremeling and cutting are necessary to make room for it and especially the small PCB.

Logically it should be possible to also install an OLED in a slim Gotek but i haven't personally tried it