FlashFloppy - new firmware for Gotek drives, open source

[plasmab]

I installed flashfloppy on a gotek the other day. Nice work. love it.

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by kaffer

You have a short to ground at jumper position JA (which is used to implement the optional third button).

Check that the only jumper at the rear of your Gotek is at position S0. Remove any other jumpers. Then report back.

100% spot-on. Removed the jumper and everything worked properly. Thank you:

[desiv]

Just installed this the other day and seems to be working.
I wanted to try the direct USB programming method, so I bought a Male-to-Male usb cable and another Gotek.
The direct USB method is slick.
Just change some jumpers, plug one end of your USB cable into the Gotek, the other end into your PC and program. Since the Flash Floppy distribution already comes with a DFU file, I didn't even need to convert it. Awesome!
I did solder header pins onto my Gotek to make jumpering (and re-jumpering later if needed) easier. (Besides, I have to justify the purchase of my hot air solder station!!!)

I have already ordered a couple of IIC OLED panels to upgrade the display.
I also plan on "extending" (probably removing the existing?) buttons so I can make a panel that holds the display and buttons. I will probably place it in the floppy slot on my A1000 so it is easily accessible from the front of the machine. (I do have a 3D printer to try to come up with a semi-decent panel)

I do have a preference question.

On my other Gotek (Cortex firmware still), I put my images in order using the program. So all my kickstarts/workbench floppies are in slots 1-10. Then I have my games in blocks above that. So shooting games in 11-20, platformers in 21-30, puzzle games in 31-40... (Or something like that. I don't have it running in front of me so that might be off a bit).
It tends to work out OK.
It looks like I could do something similar if I switched to HxC compatible mode IIUC.
I was thinking of leaving it in Native mode tho. Looks like that would require me to use some type of FAT sorter tho, and I'm not sure how that might work..

Thoughts, preferences?

Thanx again!

desiv

[Mikerochip]

Desiv,

There's a few modes that the Gotek can operate in.
If you don't use a config file, it'll read off the USB stick in the order that they appear, so you would need a fat sorter etc, yes.

But, instead, you can create a HxC config file, and put your disks, in any order you want, into it, and FlashFloppy (and HxC too obviously) will read this file, and (only) show those disks in your list.

There's a few tools to do this, if you want to do that.
I wrote my own small program to populate such a list.

Though, there are others, probably (definitely!) better programs

[jurassicman]

Are there any programs to edit the HxC config file on Linux?

[Mikerochip]

Originally Posted by jurassicman

Are there any programs to edit the HxC config file on Linux?

I'm not exactly an authority!

The thing I wrote is for Jeffs HXCFEMNG program, and makes a text file, in the format:

00001:/Disk1.adf
00002:/Disk2.hfe

And then, I run the HXCFEMNG.exe by hand.

with the setslots command, as follows:

HXCFEMNG -verbose -disk:%drive% -setslots:MyTextFile.txt

This then opens the blank HXCSDFE.CFG on the root of %drive% and the textfile MyTextFile.txt


I do see the source for the HXCFEMNG is available on GitHub, so, I'm sure you could compile your own version.

https://github.com/jfdelnero/HXCFE_file_selector


The blank .cfg files are in SDCard_HxC_Floppy_Emulator_Manager.zip.
from
http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_d...or_Manager.zip

[desiv]

OK, as I mentioned, I flashed the Gotek with Flash Floppy.
Working great.
Waiting on my OLEDs and rotary encoders so playing with it.

In HXC mode and I decided to try some HFE files.
Converted an IPF to HFE using the HXC tool and it worked great.
(Can't remember which one. Just one I grabbed to test)

Then I wanted to test it with my Kryoflux (which I hadn't used in a while).
First of all, getting it to work with Windows 10 wasn't just plug and play, but there is a thread on the Kryoflux forum on do it. Once that was done, I was ready to test.

I grabbed my original AfterBurner (I wanted a single disk game to test) and created a CT RAW dump using my Kryoflux.

Initially I couldn't convert it with the HXC tools, till I found out it can't be named .raw (which is what the Kryoflux GUI names it). So I renamed the file to .ctr and then it loaded. Exported as an HFE.
Copied it to my USB stick, went to my Amiga, assigned it to a slot and fired it up.

There was Afterburner in all of its... er.. um.. glory??? uh..

Well, it worked! ;-)

Nice to know I can do that if/when needed.

[desiv]

OK, this might be a bit of a silly question, and not Amiga related, but...
I have converted 2 Gotek's to Flash Floppy. Love em.

Now I have 2 3 digit LCD displays that I am thinking might be fun for projects.

But I didn't pay any attention to them while unplugging and I don't see any marking on them for which pins are which. ;-)

I know they are I2C, so the 4 pins are:
GND, VCC, SCL, SDA

Anyone know or have a diagram for which pins are which so we can reuse those displays?

Looking at shots on google, I "think" it might be:
12
34
(looking at the LED board from the back where the pins are)
1=SDA
2=GND
3=SCL
4=VCC

If I can get my arduino stuff set up again, I think I'll try hooking it up to see, but if someone knows for sure, and I'm wrong, it might help others from letting out the magic smoke. ;-)

Thanx

[jedvard]

Originally Posted by desiv

OK, as I mentioned, I flashed the Gotek with Flash Floppy.
Working great.
Waiting on my OLEDs and rotary encoders so playing with it.

In HXC mode and I decided to try some HFE files.
Converted an IPF to HFE using the HXC tool and it worked great.
(Can't remember which one. Just one I grabbed to test)

Then I wanted to test it with my Kryoflux (which I hadn't used in a while).
First of all, getting it to work with Windows 10 wasn't just plug and play, but there is a thread on the Kryoflux forum on do it. Once that was done, I was ready to test.

I grabbed my original AfterBurner (I wanted a single disk game to test) and created a CT RAW dump using my Kryoflux.

Initially I couldn't convert it with the HXC tools, till I found out it can't be named .raw (which is what the Kryoflux GUI names it). So I renamed the file to .ctr and then it loaded. Exported as an HFE.
Copied it to my USB stick, went to my Amiga, assigned it to a slot and fired it up.

There was Afterburner in all of its... er.. um.. glory??? uh..

Well, it worked! ;-)

Nice to know I can do that if/when needed.

How do you convert IPF to HFE? i cant get it working with my gotek what settings do you use? and is HXCfloppyemulator HXC tool you use?

[Keir]

Originally Posted by desiv

OK, this might be a bit of a silly question, and not Amiga related, but...
I have converted 2 Gotek's to Flash Floppy. Love em.

Now I have 2 3 digit LCD displays that I am thinking might be fun for projects.

But I didn't pay any attention to them while unplugging and I don't see any marking on them for which pins are which. ;-)

I know they are I2C, so the 4 pins are:
GND, VCC, SCL, SDA

Anyone know or have a diagram for which pins are which so we can reuse those displays?

Looking at shots on google, I "think" it might be:
12
34
(looking at the LED board from the back where the pins are)
1=SDA
2=GND
3=SCL
4=VCC

If I can get my arduino stuff set up again, I think I'll try hooking it up to see, but if someone knows for sure, and I'm wrong, it might help others from letting out the magic smoke. ;-)

Thanx

The protocol is not quite I2C -- it's basically the same except no address bits are sent.

As for the pin out... the data sheet for the display controller ic is online so you could probably buzz the header pins back to the display controller ic and work it out that way.

[Keir]

Originally Posted by jedvard

How do you convert IPF to HFE? i cant get it working with my gotek what settings do you use? and is HXCfloppyemulator HXC tool you use?

How far did you get? If you got a non-working HFE, try converting to HFEv3.

If you failed to load an IPF into the HxC tools, you need to have the SPS/IPF library installed in the right place (this can be a bit of a pain and is platform dependent).

[desiv]

Originally Posted by jedvard

How do you convert IPF to HFE? i cant get it working with my gotek what settings do you use? and is HXCfloppyemulator HXC tool you use?

My bad..
In my case, I meant CTRaw, not IPF...

[desiv]

Originally Posted by kaffer

The protocol is not quite I2C -- it's basically the same except no address bits are sent.

As for the pin out... the data sheet for the display controller ic is online so you could probably buzz the header pins back to the display controller ic and work it out that way.

Thanx, think I'll try wiring it up and see. I think I saw an arduino library for the controller when I was browsing around..
My eyes aren't quite good enough to track anything to any pins on that tiny IC.
Worst case, I lose a 7 segment display I'm not using. ;-)

[desiv]

Originally Posted by kaffer

How far did you get? If you got a non-working HFE, try converting to HFEv3.
.

I was trying to convert a CTRaw (Kryoflux) to HFE. Game, Eliminator
I can't convert to HFEv3. It never saves it.
I was able to convert it to HFEv2, but when I try to load it, the OLED display says ERR3 (or something like that)

[Keir]

Originally Posted by desiv

I was trying to convert a CTRaw (Kryoflux) to HFE. Game, Eliminator
I can't convert to HFEv3. It never saves it.
I was able to convert it to HFEv2, but when I try to load it, the OLED display says ERR3 (or something like that)

Can you send me the HFEv2? In the zone or email, cloud, whatever.

[jedvard]

Originally Posted by kaffer

How far did you get? If you got a non-working HFE, try converting to HFEv3.

If you failed to load an IPF into the HxC tools, you need to have the SPS/IPF library installed in the right place (this can be a bit of a pain and is platform dependent).

Thanx for your answer i got it running late last night
But some games wont save as hfe rev3? Most games work but 2 of my favourites dont "Lost Patrol" and "Dogs of War" iv tried to convert them to all .hfe alternatives but no luck

[Keir]

Originally Posted by jedvard

Thanx for your answer i got it running late last night
But some games wont save as hfe rev3? Most games work but 2 of my favourites dont "Lost Patrol" and "Dogs of War" iv tried to convert them to all .hfe alternatives but no luck

How do those two titles fail? Does the tool fail to generate an HFEv3 image, or does it produce one but it's no good?

I believe the HFEv3 writer is less mature than the other HFE targets, and may not have been tested so much with raw dumps, but more with IPFs (whjich represent a "cleaner" image source).

I would like to add HFEv3 target support to my own Disk-Utilities...

EDIT: Also some earlier Amiga games had weak-bits protections which HFEv3 doesn't support at this time (or didn't when I added support to FF). I don't know if that applies to your two titles though.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by kaffer

Can you send me the HFEv2? In the zone or email, cloud, whatever.

I lied..
The error was *ERR*31
(I think I got the ERR 2 because I named my HFE file Eliminator_2. )

In the zone. If you'd like the CTR file (if it will help), I can do that too.

Update: I finally realized that I could test the CTR file in WinUAE if I copied the correct (i.e. 64-bit) DLL into the right spot.
I did that, and the game loads in WinUAE.
So I know my CTR file is good (at least for booting the game).
Just the conversion to HFE doesn't seem happy. HFE v1 the game never loads (on a machine where the original floppy loads), HFEv2 I get the ERR31 on the FlashFloppy display, and on HFEv3, it never saves the file to an HFE.

[jedvard]

Originally Posted by kaffer

How do those two titles fail? Does the tool fail to generate an HFEv3 image, or does it produce one but it's no good?

I believe the HFEv3 writer is less mature than the other HFE targets, and may not have been tested so much with raw dumps, but more with IPFs (whjich represent a "cleaner" image source).

I would like to add HFEv3 target support to my own Disk-Utilities...

EDIT: Also some earlier Amiga games had weak-bits protections which HFEv3 doesn't support at this time (or didn't when I added support to FF). I don't know if that applies to your two titles though.

Hi both produce the rev3 version and DOW starts but fails to continue load before the mainscreen (muscular guy with machinegun) appears.
LP loads but goes to black screen with no further loading 10 sec into loading.
i´v tried all other .hfe files and none work...
I know that both .ipf files work in winuae so next week when i get my kryoflux i will test them with that...

[desiv]

Originally Posted by desiv

In the zone. If you'd like the CTR file (if it will help), I can do that too.

I know, talking to myself...
Anyway, now that I know my CTR file is good (ran in WinUAE), I uploaded that to the zone as well.