ryansupak wrote on 2020-08-21, 01:11:

Hi I'm looking into emulating the ZIP drive on a vintage sampler called a Roland SP-808. It came out around 1998. It originally […]
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Hi I'm looking into emulating the ZIP drive on a vintage sampler called a Roland SP-808. It came out around 1998. It originally used a stock ATAPI ZIP 100 (and later a ZIP 250) drive, but in the way the unit used them (it kept the disk rotating all the time) they were prone to ZIP Drive failure even then.

1) Is the Gotek physically capable (in terms of throughput, etc) of performing this job? (Just want to rule out any deal-breaking hardware limitations first.)
2) Is there any similar FlashFloppy software project already underway?
3) Is there a way to get "eject button" functionality via software customization, maybe by pressing both buttons at once?

About Point 3): It looks like the Gotek hardware is pretty flexible in the ways that it can be expanded/customized/etc via custom software. I would want to offer any solution I found back to the SP-808 community, and while I think the TTL re-programming would be palatable, having to drill into a Gotek to add a physical button, as a mandatory step, would be less-so.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or help!
rs

a) An ATAPI ZIP drive (whether 100MB or 250MB) does ATAPI over an ATA (IDE) interface which uses a 40-pin connector and is essentially an extension of the AT-bus .

b) A Gotek floppy emulator connects to a floppy controller that uses a 34-pin interface to a floppy disk controller .

Getting a Gotek floppy emulator to interface with an ATA (IDE) interface would be akin to getting a PC floppy drive to work on ATA (IDE) port in a PC .

I do not know enough about the Gotek's inner workings to categorically say it is impossible to reprogram it to work on an (ATA) IDE interface, but it seems extremely unlikely to be feasible to me .

Tells me what I suspected (not because I'd know the difference between the pins, but because I noticed nobody had done anything similar yet.)

Thanks! rs

ryansupak wrote on 2020-08-21, 01:39:

Tells me what I suspected (not because I'd know the difference between the pins, but because I noticed nobody had done anything similar yet.)

Thanks! rs

SCSI2SD apparently offers ZIP drive emulation, so if your Roland device has what I believe is an optional SCSI interface installed, SCSI2SD might be an option (depending on if the Roland device's OS supports SCSI ZIP drives)

https://store.inertialcomputing.com/SCSI2SD-V … acket-black.htm

What about something like the Addonics ATAPI CF card readers? Could they be re-flashed with custom firmware to divide cards into 100/250 MB 'pages' and emulate button presses?

darry wrote on 2020-08-21, 01:37:

Getting a Gotek floppy emulator to interface with an ATA (IDE) interface would be akin to getting a PC floppy drive to work on ATA (IDE) port in a PC .

This should theoretically be possible using a hardware converter. ATA can run the ATAPI protocol. And the ATAPI protocol can (according to ATA/ATAPI-4 and it's MMC extensions afaik) be used to communicate with a floppy drive instead of a HDD/CD-ROM.

The same for SCSI (which is what ATAPI CD-ROM drives do using the MMC specification).

Quick google found a similar discussion from few years ago, sadly it died out before an alternative was created but gives you an idea of what your up against.
https://sp-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=22455&start=45

Long of the short is you need an IDE device that emulates removable media device (CD/Zip/etc) but also bootable.
Problem is IDE 2 CF adapters on ebay and the like emulate fixed disks.
You could always attach a CD-ROM to check if this is actually the case and that the cable is a standard pin out

If a SCSI add-on exists then you may have more luck with darry's comment above with off the shelf parts.

If it is FlashFloppy related I think you might be better off asking at Keir Fraser's FlashFloppy facebook group. Besides the author (who is extremely helpful) there are also lots of other users who use anything from PC to Hifi to musical instruments who are willing to help you.