Goteks...

[Marchie]

(Sorry in advance for a common question!)

So how easy is it to set one of these up to work with an Amiga?

Can I just buy the cheapest one I can find on Ebay and flash the firmware? Or is it better to buy one already setup from an Amiga dealer?

Pros? Cons?

[dalek]

Everything you need to know is here: https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki

Any old 34pin china gotek will be fine to flash - the wiki has the models to avoid

[Marchie]

Thanks friend!

[bugsymalone666]

Depends on your skill levels really.

I in the first instance bought an Ebay Amiga one, £28 I think it was and it came with a small DVD that had the software on/instructions, even included tons of games! - Just add your own memory stick

The second one I bought I did a bit more of a DIY job:

Bought a universal Gotek for about £13 from China, turned it in to an HxC by getting a usb TTL programmer (about £3 on ebay) and following the instructions on the HxC stuff I found, you have to apply for a licence for that one and its about £8-10, its more involved but you can even include a small LCD of your choosing that shows file names.

So out the box £28 is the easiest plug in solution, ready coded, comes with instructions and games, DIY is much more involved, a little cheaper, but with more function!(well a full display)

[Daedalus]

The FlashFloppy software also supports OLED displays for image names, easy selection etc., and is free

[Marchie]

How many disks does FlashFloppy support? Cortex is a little twitchy, but it's rather nice having 50-100 disks on offer (HxC only offers about 10 right?)

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Marchie

How many disks does FlashFloppy support? Cortex is a little twitchy, but it's rather nice having 50-100 disks on offer (HxC only offers about 10 right?)

Do you mean how many disks you are able to have on the stick at the same time? With both FF and HxC, you can use 1000 slots with the normal 3x7-segment display (000-999). They can both use LCD or OLED displays as well as a rotary encoder for quicker selection.

I'm not sure what you mean with 10 for HxC? HxC can do everything FF can do, plus some extra. Cortex should never be considered any longer since FF is better in pretty much any meaningful comparison.

[alexh]

Ah, I notice you don't need a USB->TTL Serial link cable or solder Serial pin headers anymore!

All you need is a USB-A to USB-A cable.

Nice.

[Marchie]

Originally Posted by demolition

Do you mean how many disks you are able to have on the stick at the same time? With both FF and HxC, you can use 1000 slots with the normal 3x7-segment display (000-999). They can both use LCD or OLED displays as well as a rotary encoder for quicker selection.

I'm not sure what you mean with 10 for HxC? HxC can do everything FF can do, plus some extra. Cortex should never be considered any longer since FF is better in pretty much anymeaningful comparison.

I saw a Gotke in a 2000 with HxC and the guy told me he could only 'mount' 10 or so disks at a time. Maybe that was and old version or (more likely) I've just mis-understood, thanks for the info!

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Marchie

I saw a Gotke in a 2000 with HxC and the guy told me he could only 'mount' 10 or so disks at a time. Maybe that was and old version or (more likely) I've just mis-understood, thanks for the info!

Ah, that must have been using the file selector. In there you have a number of slots which you can assign which is meant as a per-game basis. You won't find many games spanning more than 10 disks though.
You can still fill up the USB stick with hundreds of disk images, and when you're changing the game, then you just select the 2-3 disks for this game and then they will be the only available disks until you reassign them. It makes it quicker to swap disks if you need to do it often since all irrelevant disks will be hidden.

[Jeff_HxC2001]

Originally Posted by Marchie

I saw a Gotke in a 2000 with HxC and the guy told me he could only 'mount' 10 or so disks at a time. Maybe that was and old version or (more likely) I've just mis-understood, thanks for the info!

The current HxC Selector slot limitation is 999 file images. And this can be pushed to 65535 images easily.

the 10 slots limitation is not right.

[Solderbro]

Payed 20€ for the latest gotek and modded it with speaker and oled display. This looks nice and sound like an old floppy drive, FF support 999 images including write for real copy to get adf from real floppies. Nice for xcopy

[nobody]

I am thinking to buy one for my other Amiga 500 and mod with flash floppy, maybe add some speaker and oled display. I read in the wiki that you need SFR prefix and U100. Is there a file selector when you start or you have to search in 100s of adfs?

[Solderbro]

There is a selector program in the FF image, it would be booted first if configured that way. FF is widely configurable through the ff.cfg on the usb key, you can have one for harddisk boot and another for floppy boot with games and demos on it.
The speaker mod sounds much better, if the speaker can sound out of the Gotek case.

[Marchie]

Worked! Cheap Goteks came from Hong Kong, easy to flash, working with LED screen perfectly. Cheap and a LOT better than cortex firmware. Saw all the adf's on my USB without any hassle.

Haven't tried the sound option yet, but I intend to give it a go sooner or later.

It was a real effort to mount in the A500 without cutting or damaging the case though - I had to use a bunch of motherboard risers I had sitting around.

Also there doesn't really seem to be a reliable way to mount the LED display. I had one of those little wedge-shaped OLED cases and had naively assumed I could run the wires through the air vents, but I couldn't see how there was room to do that, even if I removed the pins on the OLED and soldered the wires in super-neatly. I've ended up mounting it on the left side of the case with the wires running down the side and into the expansion port - contained, and non-destructive, but not as elegant as I had hoped.

Maybe the assumption is that you will just cut the case to accommodate the wires. Has anyone managed to mount the OLED on top of the case non-destructively?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Marchie

Maybe the assumption is that you will just cut the case to accommodate the wires. Has anyone managed to mount the OLED on top of the case non-destructively?

I prefer to put the Gotek in an external case and then use some kind of boot selector in the Amiga to make it DF0.
But if you want to install it internally, perhaps this is inspiration:
http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...IIC-Printed-3D

[Marchie]

That is almost the exact setup I have, but with the OLED on the other side of the machine, I cannot fathom how they get the wires to the OLED in that position without cutting the case - there is no gap under the OLED itself to fit the wires...

[demolition]

It looks to me like there should be room for some thin wires since the display is tilted a bit. It's not like it needs any significant power, so you can use some really thin wires like the ones used in small transducer coice coils or transformers/relays.

[Marchie]

Fair 'nuff...