FlashFloppy - new firmware for Gotek drives, open source

[Keir]

Originally Posted by ross

EDIT: 33ms was an arbitrary decision, but I had made calculations similar to yours and I had abounded considering also
the possibility of hacked floppies for long track writing or "naturally" very slow.
So yes, is really plenty of time and if a device (drive or floppy) do not sync-respond after this time is sure bad.
Anyway I was really generous in terms of the number of retry attempts (see my code)


For all timing in loader you can check:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1183710

Ziriax loader is a modified and adapted version, but technically it's the same.

Thanks, the source code link is helpful, especially for the 4-byte data area it clarifies what each byte is supposed to mean, especially the first one!

Anyway, only way this one will get fixed is to set up the test rig, probably with Action Replay attached

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

Ziriax and flashfloppy - I'm not going to pretend I know how these thigns work, I don't. However, just a quick check and Ziria (the adf in questions) - boots to WinUAE fine, when I'm in workbench and insert the floppy it comes up as NDOS but when I boot with it it works (WinUAE).

With flashfloppy GoTek, on boot up - the music starts then Amiga crashes. If I boot to Workbench and insert the ADF, workbench reports it as DF0:Uninitialized as opposed to DF0:NDOS like in WinUAE.

EDIT: I originally wanted to see if it booted on a real Amiga by copying Ziriax (duplicate adf) to a real floppy. But I can't when it's uninitialized.

I'm not familiar with DF0:Uninitialized, I usually see messages such as DF0:BAD and DF0:NDOS.... perhaps this is Kickstart/WB dependent?

Is the Kickstart/WB setup under WinUAE *the same* as your real Amiga? If they differ, that can explain the different message I'm sure.

Does anyone know if there is documentation exactly what the DF0:<fucked> messages precisely mean in terms of what part of AmigaDOS disk access failed? They always puzzle me and to my knowledge my only recourse would be to reverse-engineer Kickstart.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by kaffer

I'm not familiar with DF0:Uninitialized, I usually see messages such as DF0:BAD and DF0:NDOS.... perhaps this is Kickstart/WB dependent?

Is the Kickstart/WB setup under WinUAE *the same* as your real Amiga? If they differ, that can explain the different message I'm sure.

Does anyone know if there is documentation exactly what the DF0:<fucked> messages precisely mean in terms of what part of AmigaDOS disk access failed? They always puzzle me and to my knowledge my only recourse would be to reverse-engineer Kickstart.

No, my real Amiga: Kickstart 44.73, Workbench 45.5 And ClassicWB in winUAE: Kickstart 40.63, Workbench 40.42

[Superman]

The Ziriax ADF file shows up as DF0:NDOS on my gotek via workbench as I would expect it to. It just won’t boot as you can see from the links Ross posted earlier.

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Superman

The Ziriax ADF file shows up as DF0:NDOS on my gotek via workbench as I would expect it to. It just won’t boot as you can see from the links Ross posted earlier.

Thanks for confirming.

[mpattonm]

Bug report here:
With large number of files in a single directory, scrolling between files becomes slower and slower, as you advance listing through files.
Steps to reproduce:
Create a folder on your USB and put some 500+ ADF images into it. Plug it to Gotek and navigate to that new directory. Press and hold "right" button, so that Gotek starts srolling filenames on display at full speed. After a while, you will notice that scrolling speed drops down. Its becomming very apparent after some 300 files.

If you (like me in this case) have a single directory with all 5000 games sorted by name from A to Z and you somehow manago to navigate to files at the end of alphabet, Gotek becomes so irresponsive, that it takes him about 10 seconds just to change the filename on screen after you click left or right button once.
This behavior is the same with 0.9.7a and 0.9.11a firmware. Also no FF.CFG seems to affect this in a positive manner, it can even be reproduced on newly formated pendrive without FF.CFG on it.
Is this something you could possibly fix, please?

[Keir]

Originally Posted by mpattonm

Bug report here:
With large number of files in a single directory, scrolling between files becomes slower and slower, as you advance listing through files.
Steps to reproduce:
Create a folder on your USB and put some 500+ ADF images into it. Plug it to Gotek and navigate to that new directory. Press and hold "right" button, so that Gotek starts srolling filenames on display at full speed. After a while, you will notice that scrolling speed drops down. Its becomming very apparent after some 300 files.

If you (like me in this case) have a single directory with all 5000 games sorted by name from A to Z and you somehow manago to navigate to files at the end of alphabet, Gotek becomes so irresponsive, that it takes him about 10 seconds just to change the filename on screen after you click left or right button once.
This behavior is the same with 0.9.7a and 0.9.11a firmware. Also no FF.CFG seems to affect this in a positive manner, it can even be reproduced on newly formated pendrive without FF.CFG on it.
Is this something you could possibly fix, please?

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/issues/60

In short, yes, but won't be fixed immediately so limit files per folder for now.

[Keir]

New release v0.9.12a
https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Downloads

* LCD/OLED: Long filenames scroll during navigation

* LCD/OLED: Make filename scrolling more configurable
--- FF.CFG: {nav,display}-scroll-{rate,pause}

* Direct navigation: ".." returns to subfolder position within parent

* Fix head-seek settle time emulation

* ADF: Generate longer tracks, like a real Amiga would

[Sinphaltimus]

^^^NICE!^^^ - Thank you!

[BarryB]

Looks like there is a new Flash Floppy released, v0.9.14a:

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Downloads

* Fix write pipeline: record track number for delayed write processing

* General Music (GEM): New host option "host=gem" for direct IMG support

* Direct support for Spectrum Opus Discovery (OPD) image files

* HFE, ADF: Batch writeback to the USB drive where possible

* FF.CFG: Replace "index-during-seek" with "index-suppression"

* Direct Access: Restart read at correct track position after a write

[Keir]

New release v0.9.15a
https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Downloads

* UI: Fix subfolder navigation when returning to parent folder (#66)

* OLED: Auto-detect OLED displays at I2C address 0x3d

* ST: Mimic TOS by applying track skew to ST image files (#44)

* 7-Seg LED: Allow write protection to be toggled as on LCD/OLED

* Support Ensoniq DD/HD custom IMG formats (host=ensoniq)

* Support IBM PC interface with density select (interface=ibmpc-hdout)

* Direct Access: Support track with fewer than 8 data sectors (#62)

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by kaffer

* Support Ensoniq DD/HD custom IMG formats (host=ensoniq)

Hells yeah, been waiting for this! I might try to put a Gotek on my Mirage and see what happens.

Thanks kaffer!

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Akira

Hells yeah, been waiting for this! I might try to put a Gotek on my Mirage and see what happens.

Thanks kaffer!

Please message/email me to get it working with IMG files. I believe the Mirage will have single-sided disk images (400kB IMG files).

May also need to work out the correct hardware setup as the efforts so far have been for ASR and TS series. Others series may differ

[Amiga1992]

I was under the impression that if you put a double sided disk there it would only read one side. But I dunno if the Mirage will work with a double-sided -drive-

In any case I have a Mirage and an SQ-80, use me for any testing you may need. Opening them up is not really fun so first I have to be sure I am willing to keep them open for some time, and also, to do one at a time (too complicated/heavy/lots of screws to have both open at the same time). Other than that, will do any test you may want! My disk drives still work so it's not like I -need- this but it would be good for future=-proofing, and in the case of the Mirage, transfer tools are meant for old PCs with real disk drives and I have none, so if I want to take advantage of all the disks available online,m i better use a Gotek.

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Akira

I was under the impression that if you put a double sided disk there it would only read one side. But I dunno if the Mirage will work with a double-sided -drive-

In any case I have a Mirage and an SQ-80, use me for any testing you may need. Opening them up is not really fun so first I have to be sure I am willing to keep them open for some time, and also, to do one at a time (too complicated/heavy/lots of screws to have both open at the same time). Other than that, will do any test you may want! My disk drives still work so it's not like I -need- this but it would be good for future=-proofing, and in the case of the Mirage, transfer tools are meant for old PCs with real disk drives and I have none, so if I want to take advantage of all the disks available online,m i better use a Gotek.

Yes I believe Mirage can support a DS drive, it just didn't ship with one. Anyway I'm highly confident FF will work with your synths out of the box or else with very minor patching for IMG file compatibility. So feel free to get started on one when you have the time.

[Amiga1992]

I will probably do the Mirage first as file transfer on that is a lot more important than on the SQ-80 which also has internal memory, and to which I can transfer patches via SysEx easily!
The Mirage has things like alternate operating systems and stuff, and that's interesting to try and for that I would really need a Gotek.
I'm just gonna miss the sound, buzzer noise is just not the same
I'll let you know how I get on! Should open the MIrage anyway, I have one faulty filter chip I should replace.

[SunSpire]

Hey hey, my two OLED screens have finally arrived. I implemented one in my A500 and the other one in the A1200 - and upgraded to the latest FF firmware. It works! Yay! No rotary encoder just yet, but repositioned buttons instead. (No Amiga case was harmed in the process )

On my A500, the Gotek behaves very differently from the A1200. I tried putting approx. ~4000 .adf disk images ordered A-Z in the USB stick's root dir and navigate through them in config-less mode. What I noticed is that within the first three hundred or so images, the navigation slows down to a crawl with heavy response delay, making it near impossible to reach any .adf past the 1000 mark. On the A1200, the same happens but much sooner, I can barely navigate past 100 files without waiting forever. Is it the USB stick or something else causing this?

I vaguely remember someone else on here mentioned this before, but I can't seem to find the exact page and whether there is a fix for it yet.

Apart from that, I'm super happy to have the OLEDS now, it makes the FF Gotek experience so much better

[Sinphaltimus]

I think if you separate these out into folders you'll have a much better time of it. All the ADFs starting with the letter A in an A folder, B in a B folder Numbers in their own folder etc...

No reason to torture yourself.

[SunSpire]

Yeah, good point! Going to try this right away ..

[SunSpire]

Tinkered around a bit. It seems to work best with around 300-500 files inside one folder, more than that and the slowdown becomes too obvious and makes accurate file selection rather difficult. The folder navigation is easy enough and the number of files per folder should be sufficient in most cases once I've separated all the bad games from the good ones. No point in playing the 11-disk version of Monkey Island 2, for instance, when there is whdload for that :P

I noticed that when navigating through disk images quickly, the autoscroll on the OLED display does not reset from its previous scroll position and so the beginning of the next floppy image's description is positioned in the middle rather than at the beginning of the text). Can this be fixed / prevented with the config file?

I'm still considering getting a rotary encoder or alternative piece of control button / device that does not stick out of the case so much, but right now I'm pretty happy with how my setup looks and feels. Some pics and description will follow at a later time