VOGONS


Reply 60 of 123, by hyoenmadan

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
carlostex wrote:

Great but what about the numbers? Do the numbers still stay relevant? Or instead you can only have one position? I saw different videos where people have different numbers selected.

In HxC firmware these "numbers" are called slots, a sort of "frequently used" index list. You can assign via config file an specific number position to an image file, and then select and load it via frontal buttons for easy and fast manipulation, just like you do with normal firmware.

Ofc HxC firmware is pretty flexible and you aren't limited to that. You also can navigate via firmware menu and load any file directly to emulated drive at any time. But for that functionality, you would like to add an extra I2C LCD display kit to your Gotek, so you can navigate a complete menu, and not just numbers and beep codes.

All this is in the manual dude.

Reply 62 of 123, by Jepael

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
teevee wrote:

where is the firmware saved?

Cortex-m3 stm32f105RBT6?

Yes, it is uploaded to the flash memory inside the STM32 microcontroller. But why do you ask?

Reply 63 of 123, by teevee

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Jepael wrote:
teevee wrote:

where is the firmware saved?

Cortex-m3 stm32f105RBT6?

Yes, it is uploaded to the flash memory inside the STM32 microcontroller. But why do you ask?

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I was asking because I was curious and would like to understand/know the Gotek device better. 😀

Reply 64 of 123, by mmmark84

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I bought a amiga flashed gotek emulator by mistake... Am I to understand that if I flash this HxC firmware, I can use it in my PC again with the default tools found on http://www.ipcas.com/support/usb-floppy-emula … n-download.html ?
I can't seem to find the normal gotek firmware anywhere...

Reply 65 of 123, by hyoenmadan

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
mmmark84 wrote:

I bought a amiga flashed gotek emulator by mistake... Am I to understand that if I flash this HxC firmware, I can use it in my PC again with the default tools found on http://www.ipcas.com/support/usb-floppy-emula … n-download.html ?
I can't seem to find the normal gotek firmware anywhere...

Nope. HxC firmware will convert your board in an HxC floppy emulator unit... Which isn't bad at all, because you will access to many nice features not available with the normal Gotek/IPCAS firmware, like using a normal USB flash volume and standard image files instead a non-standard USB pendrive drive with 999 partitions on it, one for each virtual floppy.

Ofc, you will have to buy it, since HxC firmware is actually a software product.

Reply 66 of 123, by mmmark84

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

As I understand it, I need to get a account for 10 euro's to flash the bootloader. I contacted the guy, because I dont have many options left I guess... I can't find the original firmware anywhere.

Seems HxC supports allot more advanced features anyway, so hopefully its not all a loss 😀

Reply 67 of 123, by mmmark84

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

So...

I added some pin headers to the program port of the PCB of the Gotek.
Got a USB TTL-232R-3V3 and rearanged the pins to fit the new pins.
Got the account created and flashed the drive with HxC bootloader firmware.
Updated the firmware with a usb stick.
Put the mode in "indexed" mode by placing the HXCSDFE.CFG file in the root of the stick.
Created a few floppy images with the HxCFloppyEmulator V.2.1.5.0 firmware.
put them on the usb stick with DSKA0000.HFE and DSKA0001.HFE and so on.
Put the gotek in my SS7 machine and crossed my fingers while powering it on.

And it works!

Floppy drive gets detected and I can select which image I want to use.
I tried a few bootable floppies, and they al worked.

Reply 69 of 123, by IRJustman

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi, all.

I just ordered one of these Gotek devices and am about to grab a license for the firmware to make the HxC firmware work with it once it arrives. Only this time, this is going into a relative no-name CP/M box with two DSDD 96tpi 5 1/4" floppy drives, a Multitech MIC-504. Only thing is, you DO know this company by its newer name, Acer.

If this works like I hope it does, I want to see about getting an actual HxC so I can replace both drives with just one device. Would be nice to have "disks" from the same virtual flip file on the same storage device to grab from without swapping devices.

Will have more info as I get it!

--IJ.

Reply 70 of 123, by IRJustman

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello again.

I got my device after a few weeks' worth of waiting. It flashed easily, but the initial issue is that the machine wouldn't start, as in it wouldn't get into POST. However, other things in my life were ganging up on me, so I had to table it until yesterday or so.

Got the machine to the point where it would power up. About the only issue I ran into was due to the fact I created images on a PC with a 1.2MB floppy (the 96tpi DSDD diskettes the old machine created and used only spin at 300RPM as opposed to 360RPM). As such, it recorded the bitrate in the image file as 300kbps as opposed to the actual 250kbps that the MIC-504's uDP765 wanted from its slower-spinning drives. I hex-edited the value in the file to reflect this, and it worked!

The Gotek images apparently have an option whereby you can also put an I2C LCD panel on it along with an additional button much like the normal HxC devices have, leaving only the ability to emulate two devices in the same bay rather than just one as the remaining thing that the device cannot support.

Hope people find this helpful!

--IJ.

Reply 71 of 123, by matze79

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

You can use Flash Floppy Firmware, no need for HxC Firmware unless you really need it and use Flash Floppy Firmware.
Its Free, its Good and also Supports LCD/OLED via I2C.

Directly supports a wide range of image formats: HFE, HFEv3 (Universal) ADF (Commodore Amiga) DSK (Amstr […]
Show full quote

Directly supports a wide range of image formats:
HFE, HFEv3 (Universal)
ADF (Commodore Amiga)
DSK (Amstrad CPC, Spectrum +3)
IMG/IMA (IBM MFM Raw Sector)
ST (Atari ST)
ADM, ADL (Acorn ADFS)
No configuration required! Just dump images into the root of an empty USB stick.
Compatible with the HxC ecosystem: Autoboot and Indexed modes supported, and HFE image files.

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy

Last edited by matze79 on 2017-12-11, 12:11. Edited 1 time in total.

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 72 of 123, by Jeff_HxC2001

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I don't know if every HxC Firmware users have seen the recent updates, but here it is the very last one :

03 December 2017: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.0.4a […]
Show full quote

03 December 2017: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.0.4a

Major update !

- New direct file formats support (Read & Write !) :
- Acorn machines : *.ADL,*.ADM,*.SSD,*.DSD and *.ADF file support
- Camputer Lynx : *.LDF
- Commodore C64 : *.D81
- Thomson machines : *.FD
- Sam Coupé : *.SAD, *.MGT
- MSX Machines : *.IMG, *.DSK
- Spectrum : *.TRD, *.SDD

- New menu entry : Target system family selection.
This reduce a lot the risk of erronous raw file identification.

- Lots of RAW file support improvements :
All sector sizes supported, advanced track skew and interleaving support.
FM & MFM support.

- Amstrad CPC DSK support : Fix for the One Disk/double sided Batman demo.

- Fix attempt of the "diymore.cc" OLED screens : OLED init screen delay
menu option added.
(Note : Please avoid these "diymore.cc" screens until i got an idea
what is the root cause of the issue.)

- Internal improvement : Track cache layer improved, RAW files support/identification improved.

Please report any issue to hxc2001 <at> hxc2001.com
Thanks ! 😀

The firmwares package (all versions) :
http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emul … ta_firmware.zip

For the present and past release notes :
http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emul … lease_notes.txt

To get the HxC bootloader : http://hxc2001.com/store
All updates are of courses FREE, available in the firmwares package and can be done with a simple USB stick.
😀

Reply 74 of 123, by Jeff_HxC2001

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
keropi wrote:

time to upgrade my cpc HcX drive then 😁

Yes sure ! Direct CPC/Spectrum DSK file support was added some weeks ago ! The HxC CPC manager was updated too.
Have fun 😉 😀

Reply 75 of 123, by TheGouldFish

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I installed HxC on my Gotek over the weekend as the default firmware didn't like the PPC640, but HxC worked first great. It just took about 4 attempts to flash the box as I had to hold the Usb serial device at an odd angle to get it to work.

Reply 76 of 123, by Jeff_HxC2001

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

btw i have compiled all the instructions on this :

http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php? … &p=11486#p11486

with usages instructions, hardware mods (I2C OLED / LCD, sound,...) and all related download stuffs.

Reply 77 of 123, by Jeff_HxC2001

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Firmware update ! :

17 December 2017: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.1.0a […]
Show full quote

17 December 2017: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.1.0a

More direct raw formats support :

- Akai formats (*.IMG)
- Casio FZ1 (*.FZ1)
- Emax machines formats (*.IMG)
- Ensoniq EPS & Mirage series formats (*.IMG)
- General Music formats (*.IMG)
- Korg formats (*.IMG)
- X68000 (*.HDM,*.XDF)

- Internal optimizations.

Please report any issue to hxc2001 <at> hxc2001.com
And if you want a specific file/disk format supported by the HxC firmware, send me an email too !

Thanks ! :)

http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emul … ta_firmware.zip

http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emul … lease_notes.txt

Reply 79 of 123, by Jeff_HxC2001

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Lots of firmware updates :

15 January 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.1.1a

- Fix broken Rotary support in normal mode.
(Connection points reminder : Clock -> J7 pin 2,Direction -> J7 pin 1)

29 January 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.2.0a […]
Show full quote

29 January 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.2.0a

- *.ST 720KB Files : Switch to the TOS 1.62 Disk Layout.
- RAW files loader : Internal enhancement.

27 January 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.1.4a

- Config file "Load last loaded floppy" flag is now supported in indexed and file selector mode.

27 January 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.1.3a

- Normal mode Fix : ST files are visible again !

21 January 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.1.2a

- "Load Last selected image" : Save & Restore previous folder position.

02 February 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.5.0a […]
Show full quote

02 February 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.5.0a

- Cache flush fix :
Do you not reorder the cache when not needed ( e.g when the track fit the cache size )

- CFG File V1 fix (Autoboot mode) :
slots support now file images with 2 characters filename extension...

- More code Speed optimizations. (again ! 😀 )

01 February 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.4.0a

- More Code Speed optimizations.
- RAW MFM & FM Images (IMG/ST/...) :
- More Write speed improvement : Sector Data cache prefetch.

31 January 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.3.0a

- RAW MFM & FM Images (IMG/ST/...) :
- Write speed improvement :
- Track cache workflow improvement.
- Code optimization (CRC16, MFM 2 BIN...).

04 February 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.5.1a

- Raw *.IMG PC Files : Use the DOS 6.22 disk layouts.
- And as always some code optimizations.

05 February 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.6.0a

- Low level Floppy IO optimizations.

06 February 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.8.1a

- Raw files : Write sector performance increased.
Near Real time sectors write !

http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emul … ta_firmware.zip

http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emul … lease_notes.txt

😊