Jeff_HxC2001 Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 i already have a fix for the clash format detection, will test it on the real hardware in some hours and release it. Done : http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/HXCFEUSB_HFE_beta_firmware.zip http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/USB_HFE_hxc_floppy_emulator_firmware_release_notes.txt 3 April 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.22.2a - TI99/4A : V9T9/DSK Loader -> Better disk layout detection. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 wow cool, thanks ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted April 4, 2018 Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 Schmitzi - Please do test with existing dsk images and report back if you can be so kind. I'm kind of swamped this week and would really like to start testing a bunch myself but the first few I picked seemed to be bad picks for whatever reason. You definitely have a much better grasp on what should be working and can start from there.I'm looking at possibly Friday morning beig the soonest that I can dedicate any real time to do extensive testing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 Thanks Jeff, I will try some images on my goteks and 1 HxC and see how they fare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted April 4, 2018 Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 Well, it looks like things are ramping up - Options now available - I think we need teams. One to stay on HxC for testing those from Jeff and one to jump on flashfloppy and start testing that.Please see this github issue tracker for full details. Kaffer is asking if there is any interest in also supporting PC99 dsk images and has a question on how to detect track layout, based on file size vs sector 0 contents.https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/issues/88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted April 4, 2018 Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 (edited) Jeff, two big questions I have are....Once GoTek is registered with HxC, if another firmware is applied, can we go back to HxC without having to pay again?Two, does HxC support loading the bootloader again via USB male to USB male or would I still need to gain access to the PCB to connect the serial interface for reprogramming? Edited April 4, 2018 by Sinphaltimus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff_HxC2001 Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 (edited) Jeff, two big questions I have are.... Once GoTek is registered with HxC, if another firmware is applied, can we go back to HxC without having to pay again? Two, does HxC support loading the bootloader again via USB male to USB male or would I still need to gain access to the PCB to connect the serial interface for reprogramming? No and No ! There is anyway now an HxC bootloader installer from the usb stick (no cable needed!), but i reserve this for specials cases for the moment Edited April 4, 2018 by Jeff_HxC2001 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 Sinphaltimus, The best way to do this would be by using a new Gotek, pretty cheap anyhow. I have three, one that has had Jeff's bootloader installed, one that I was in the process of installing Jeff's bootloader, but had issue's with the Gotek, and one unmodified, the most likely candidate for the flashfloppy process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted April 4, 2018 Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 My issue is simple. I have one GoTek in my Modified PEB. It's a terrible ordeal to physically access it due to the modifications I made. I never intended to ever open my PEB again unless there was a catastrophic failure of something needing replacing.I have money I haven't earned yet allocated for other purchases so I won't be getting another GoTek anytime soon. However; that's a great idea. I do have another PEB packed away as a spare, unmodified. I should probably set that up and grab my other GoTek out of my Amiga tower for just these types of things. So this weekend I will test HxC further if we don't get more results from the rest of the community in time for Jeff to finalized the feature soon. Then I'll have to pull my GoTek out of the Amiga and setup another PEB console to test FF from if we don't get enough data back from other testers on that front. This whole GoTek to support TI's dsk images just took off a lot faster than I was prepared to help two different developers test their firmware. If it were easy to bounce back and forth from one FW to the other then that's a no brainer, but that's just not the case here from what I understand. I can understand Jeff holding his USB bootloader option as a closely guarded secret - I mean, if there was a way to serialize my FW install and an NDA to sign, I'd do that and never let it out of my possession. *hint*hint* - but no pressure there from me. It's a very risky thing to do in order to protect it from getting out in the wild and I respect and understand that for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 Assuming that/when the "standard" DSK support works, what might be the "special cases" for further tests ? Any names (or DSKs) you know ? Copy-Protection maybe ? Disks with bad blocks ? I am in on Saturday, when back at PEB aargh at home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keirf Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Assuming that/when the "standard" DSK support works, what might be the "special cases" for further tests ? Any names (or DSKs) you know ? Copy-Protection maybe ? Disks with bad blocks ? I am in on Saturday, when back at PEB aargh at home F-F is only supporting v9t9 sector images at the moment, so no copy protection is represented in those images anyway. I'm not sure how prevalent are pc99 track images? I'm also unclear on how much the track layout represented within pc99 images actually matters -- the layout seems prescribed and most parsers choke if they don't see the exact expected layout. Not much scope for handling copy protections there either, if that's the case. For current support, just try various sizes of v9t9/dsk image and see what works and what doesn't. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff_HxC2001 Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 (edited) So this weekend I will test HxC further if we don't get more results from the rest of the community in time for Jeff to finalized the feature soon. But the feature is already finalized ! Just waiting the community I have tested the feature with a Kryoflux. But in worst case i can get an TI99/4A and all the needed stuff this weekend if no one is interested to test it on the real machine. Here is the stuff to test : http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/HXCFEUSB_HFE_beta_firmware.zip http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/USB_HFE_hxc_floppy_emulator_firmware_release_notes.txt 3 April 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.22.2a - TI99/4A : V9T9/DSK Loader -> Better disk layout detection. I mean, if there was a way to serialize my FW install and an NDA to sign, I'd do that and never let it out of my possession. *hint*hint* - but no pressure there from me. It's a very risky thing to do in order to protect it from getting out in the wild and I respect and understand that for sure. I have just to secure it a little bit before releasing it. Edited April 5, 2018 by Jeff_HxC2001 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff_HxC2001 Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Assuming that/when the "standard" DSK support works, what might be the "special cases" for further tests ? Any names (or DSKs) you know ? Copy-Protection maybe ? Disks with bad blocks ? I am in on Saturday, when back at PEB aargh at home By design, V9T9/DSK files don't support copy protection (these files contains only sector data). HFE or even better, HFEv3 file format can store copy protections since all the full track is stored (data + clock !). the HFEv3 can also store bitrate change information. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keirf Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Another firmware supporting a few more formats (SSDD, DSSD80, and the 16-sector-per-track DD formats): https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/files/1880786/ff_88_2.zip Give it a test, it will be in the next release when I get back from holiday week after next. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 HFE or even better, HFEv3 file format can store copy protections since all the full track is stored (data + clock !). the HFEv3 can also store bitrate change information. Is track encoding 10 a new value supported by HFEv3? When I implemented the HFE support in MAME, there was no such encoding. We ran into that value when trying to read the Diskassembler image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 OK, need a bit of feedback before I start digging into any testing and updating firmware. Seems like there was some earlier testing and reports of issues, so I want to make sure there have been subsequent revisions based upon that earlier testing. I've got a Myarc FDC controller with 80 track eproms on a Geneve system. I can do 90K disks up to 720K disks. Are there issues with SS/SD, DS/SD, /DS/DD (40 tracks), and/or DS/DD (80 tracks) with existing DSK images? Beery 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 OK, need a bit of feedback before I start digging into any testing and updating firmware. Seems like there was some earlier testing and reports of issues, so I want to make sure there have been subsequent revisions based upon that earlier testing. I've got a Myarc FDC controller with 80 track eproms on a Geneve system. I can do 90K disks up to 720K disks. Are there issues with SS/SD, DS/SD, /DS/DD (40 tracks), and/or DS/DD (80 tracks) with existing DSK images? Beery I don't believe there are any "known" issues with those formats at the moment. There was with an earlier version of HxC but the most recent version fixes that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 I have a Gotek that I bought a while back and tried on one of my TI systems. It of course did not work. What exactly do I need to get it to work on a TI? Just the files above? It does NOT have a screen, just a couple buttons, power LED and 3 LED numerics. I'd like to see if it can handle DSQD .dsks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDOS Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 SSSD DSSD. I think that covers TI controllers.... would there be any real demand for DSDD capacity on a GoTek? Not making a statement, just curious. I retired all my TI FDC cards two or three decades ago. I do still have two with 80 track capability some where (over the rainbow). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDOS Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 From what I understood (I don't have such a floppy emulator), it pretents to the real controller to be a floppy drive. If you connect such a floppy emulator to a standard TI controller, it should only be possible to read up to 180K (DSSD), since the FD1771 is not capable of decoding MFM (360K if you modified the DSR to support 80 tracks). If you use a DDCC-1, Corcomp, BwG, or HFDC, you should be able to use MFM as well. So I would guess the disk formats you can use depend on the controller the GoTek/Lotharek is connected to. The HFE does not immediately define the capacity. It is a cell image of a floppy disk, so depending on the recording, it can contain from 90K to 360K, and even more for 80 tracks. The DSSD format would be safest for all users, since FM (=SD) can be read by all. The DSDD is for the people with advanced floppy controllers. Also include the Myarc FDC. I have two that include the 80 track upgrade. Neither are for sale. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 I have a Gotek that I bought a while back and tried on one of my TI systems. It of course did not work. What exactly do I need to get it to work on a TI? Just the files above? It does NOT have a screen, just a couple buttons, power LED and 3 LED numerics. I'd like to see if it can handle DSQD .dsks. Sparkdrummer, you can now supposedly go two ways- you can purchase Jeff's bootloader (cost) and reprogram your gotek for using his software, faking the gotek into thinking it's a HxC basically. Or use the Flashfloppy bootloader (free) and reprogram the same gotek, your choice. I know Jeff's works, but don't have any experience yet with FF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 I have a Gotek that I bought a while back and tried on one of my TI systems. It of course did not work. What exactly do I need to get it to work on a TI? Just the files above? It does NOT have a screen, just a couple buttons, power LED and 3 LED numerics. I'd like to see if it can handle DSQD .dsks. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to configure HxC without an LCD screen mod done. I can't seem to find any software that will open and allow editing of the cfg file directly. I know that the CFg needs to be changed and told that the host is a TI99/4a. I defer to Jeff for that answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klrw111-78 Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 I have downloaded the Hxc update and trying it out on a Gotek with an unmodified TI controller (DSSD). I set it up in Menu 0 as a TI (14). It seems to be working OK with dsk and hfe images on the respective thumb drives I've tried. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 I've got an SD card version verses the USB drive version. I am assuming this update is not for the SD card version??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 Beery, there is only one version of the Gotek, unless there is something out there, I haven't heard about.It's usb but I don't think that is how Jeff's bootloader see's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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