FlashFloppy - new firmware for Gotek drives, open source

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Jeff_HxC2001

Picky about what exactly ? incompatibility with this firmware ?

It was not a complaint about the HxC Selector. I shouldn't have been running it with this firmware as instructed, it was a mistake. I was surprised it ran at all!

Discussion on this thread is about FlashFloppy and the FlashFloppy Selector forked out of the HxC Selector, only.

[Jeff_HxC2001]

Originally Posted by Akira

It was not a complaint about the HxC Selector. I shouldn't have been running it with this firmware as instructed, it was a mistake. I was surprised it ran at all!

Discussion on this thread is about FlashFloppy and the FlashFloppy Selector forked out of the HxC Selector, only.

Yes, but since most of the code come from the HxC project, this interest me. So the issue may or may not directly related to this firmware. If yes, i can ignore this, if not, i should fix something into the selector. That's why i am asking, nothing more.

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Jeff_HxC2001

Yes, but since most of the code come from the HxC project, this interest me. So the issue may or may not directly related to this firmware. If yes, i can ignore this, if not, i should fix something into the selector. That's why i am asking, nothing more.

The only functional change I made to the selector is replacing test_drive(). Once the selector is started up it ought to function the same as the HxC original software (except I rewrote the Amiga parts to take over the system, but semantically equivalent to what I replaced).

I have pulled down all latest changes from HxC upstream for my next build, but I don't think there's anything there to affect the Amiga build, it was all import/export stuff which is Windows/Linux only atm.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by kaffer

The only functional change I made to the selector is replacing test_drive(). Once the selector is started up it ought to function the same as the HxC original software

And I think maybe that is what was failing.
With Jeff's new version of the loader, it would not always recognize the "HxC" drive. It would work if AUTOBOOT.HFE was slot 001. It would not work if I set the drive to 000. It would not work if I assign the Selector to anything other slot.

If you F7 a game, it would replace #001 so then you wouldn't be able to run the HxC selector, it would just be stuck in "HxC not found"

If this is relevant to your selector, Jeff, then I am glad I could be of help. But I just didn't think of it as any problem with your loader, rather, just an incompatibility I had been warned about beforehand and a mistake I made.

[Jeff_HxC2001]

Originally Posted by Akira

And I think maybe that is what was failing.
With Jeff's new version of the loader, it would not always recognize the "HxC" drive. It would work if AUTOBOOT.HFE was slot 001. It would not work if I set the drive to 000. It would not work if I assign the Selector to anything other slot.

If you F7 a game, it would replace #001 so then you wouldn't be able to run the HxC selector, it would just be stuck in "HxC not found"

If this is relevant to your selector, Jeff, then I am glad I could be of help. But I just didn't think of it as any problem with your loader, rather, just an incompatibility I had been warned about beforehand and a mistake I made.

Now i know that this not related to the selector itself . Thanks for the details !

[Keir]

I have just made a new pre-release, v0.2a. Please find the release notes and ZIP file here: https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/releases

* 1602 LCD support
* Multi-drive friendly

[Amiga1992]

Excellent news!

I decided not to make a quick-ass tutorial and will spend some more time nailing the instructions and adding subtitles. I guess I can add some usage footage in the end too, like a little hands-on test.

Will have to get one of those 1602 LCDs!
Does multi-drive friendly mean it doesn't show empty "broken" extra drives anymore?

[Jackoland]

Great work, gonna flash my gotek. I don't know if my gotek is faulty. I have tried a few different USB sticks now. I used it tonight for 3hrs perfectly, then adf images started becoming corrupt with checksum errors. I need to copy all adf back over. This happens all the time. I'm hoping this firmware might solve this. (I haven't flashed it yet, these corrupt problems are with the current cortex firmware 1.5a)

Cheers
Rich

[ch40s_engineer]

OT: the reason the files on the USB stick get corrupted is probably turning off your device in the wrong moment (while it reads or writes) or unstable voltages from the Amiga/PSU. had this problem as well and I guess it can't be fixed by the firmware...

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Akira

Does multi-drive friendly mean it doesn't show empty "broken" extra drives anymore?

That's right

[Higgy]

Here is a picture of the LCD wiring: http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/downl...718afe621771fb

Taken from this forum:

http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewt...hp?f=33&t=1782


kaffer - I don't know if my post got missed. But does the firmware look for a 1602 LCD on both of these addresses: 0x27 & 0x3f ?

Thanks

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Higgy

kaffer - I don't know if my post got missed. But does the firmware look for a 1602 LCD on both of these addresses: 0x27 & 0x3f ?

Thanks

My test I2C boards respond on 0x27. I scan 0x20-0x27 as this is configurable on those boards.

If someone sends me or points me at a board that responds on 0x3f, I will test it. I believe there are some I2C boards which have different wiring to the main LCD and I would want to test whether the 0x3f boards have that property before enabling them.

Or... if someone has a 0x3f board I can send them a patched firmware to try. If it works, I will enable 0x38-0x3f scan.

[Higgy]

Ok cheers. I think the only spare LCD I have is one from the official Arduino Starter Kit so most likely a 0x27, which I will initially test your Firmware with. I don't want to pull my other project apart to get the 0x3F board out.

I guess it is something for people to note if their LCD does not work. I have a cheap Chinese order on the way, so I will test that in September.

I found a build pic of the 0x3F LCD:

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Higgy

I found a build pic of the 0x3F LCD:

Yeah they have the PCF8574A part instead of PCF8574. If that is the only functional board difference, it is trivial to support (the chip itself only differs in i2c address).

[Jackoland]

Well flashed gotek with flashfloppy using USB to USB cable. It went really smoothly. Impressed so far. Will keep using it and feedback!

Cheers
Rich!

[idrougge]

So, what formats does it support?

[bebek]

Originally Posted by Higgy

Here is a picture of the LCD wiring: http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/downl...718afe621771fb

Taken from this forum:

http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewt...hp?f=33&t=1782


kaffer - I don't know if my post got missed. But does the firmware look for a 1602 LCD on both of these addresses: 0x27 & 0x3f ?

Thanks

Is there is a need for extra 4.7k resistors? They are already on LCD board.

[Keir]

bebek: None of the I2C boards I've seen have pullups on the SCL/SDA lines. That makes sense as they are just slave boards, it would make sense to leave pullups to bus master.

idrougge: Supports ADF and HFE, read and write.

[Keir]

Originally Posted by kaffer

Yeah they have the PCF8574A part instead of PCF8574. If that is the only functional board difference, it is trivial to support (the chip itself only differs in i2c address).

Someone confirmed that it just a different address and so I have released v0.2.1a to support the wider range of I2C modules. It also includes a lot of I2C performance improvements and bug fixes (only affects LCD users).

Grab it here: https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/releases

[bebek]

Originally Posted by kaffer

bebek: None of the I2C boards I've seen have pullups on the SCL/SDA lines. That makes sense as they are just slave boards, it would make sense to leave pullups to bus master.

idrougge: Supports ADF and HFE, read and write.

You can see 2 4.7k resistors close to 16 pin of IC. These are pull ups for SDA/scl lines.