Amiga 500 Rev 6a Gotek issue

Pledg · 03 April 2020, 19:39

Hi, Firstly hello, this is my first post in Amiga world!
I hope somebody can help me with a gotek drive issue. Firstly a little background I'm gradually repairing and fixing up machines from my distant youth. I've finished restoring an Amstrad CPC464 and an Atari 520 STFM so I have had a reasonable run so far but have hit problems with the Amiga 500. I flashed and installed a gotek in the Atari 520STFM with no problems at all but I'm having issues with the Amiga 500. I stripped and repaired the existing internal floppy in the Amiga and on booting I get the workbench 3.1 screen and I can hear the drive clicking to access so I'm assuming it's communicating with the drive correctly. I don't have any original game discs to test. I've flashed a gotek with the latest flashfloppy firmware and copied some adf's and the other 2 Amiga specific boot and config files to the root of the gotek. On booting the Amiga I get no access of the gotek and it does not enter F-F mode? I've swapped the CIA chips but that has had no effect. Is there another chip somewhere that could have a bearing on disc access/control.
Hope someone can help me.
Cheeers
Pledg

solarmon · 03 April 2020, 20:13

Welcome to the forum! Glad to have another Amiga user on board!

What screen do you have on the Gotek - LED or OLED? What do you see on the screen?

Make sure you have connected the floppy power and data cable correctly. The data cable must be the correct orientation and offset - pin 1 on the motherboard to pin 1 on the Gotek. This is a common mistake when servicing the internal floppy drive.

When you boot up the Amiga, what is the behaviour of the POWER and DRIVE LEDs?

What version of FlashFloppy do you have - there is the stable 2.x and experimental, but robust' 3.x release.

solarmon · 03 April 2020, 20:16

I would also suggest that the first ADF you try to load is the Amiga Test Kit one:

https://github.com/keirf/Amiga-Stuff

Pledg · 03 April 2020, 22:00

Thanks your reply...

Floppy power and data are fitted correctly and I have checked continuity of the cables with a meter. As I say the original internal floppy seems to running ok when connected as far as I can tell ie. click noises and drive spinning up etc. I'm using the latest stable release of flashfloppy which is 2.14. I'm now actually getting the orange light on the keyboard and the gotek drive access light is flickering then both lights go out and it returns to the workbench ROM screen. I'm not getting any action at all from the LED screen? As I say I'm familiar with the process having done this for the ST. I'm at a loss really. I'm thinking about trying an older version of flashfloppy or at least getting hold of some old discs to at least get the machine up and running from the old original floppy?
Thanks again...
PS. The Amiga is running workbench 2.1 not 3.1 as stated in my last post.

Pledg · 03 April 2020, 22:01

Sorry and yes I have the Amiga test kit adf on the USB drive...

solarmon · 03 April 2020, 22:46

What do you mean by:

"I'm not getting any action at all from the LED screen? "

What do you see on the LED screen if you power up without a USB drive inserted. And what do you get when you insert the USB drive?

Is the USB drive formatted in FAT16/FAT32.

These are all basic stuff if you are already familiar with Goteks and FlashFloppy.

Maybe post some pictures or videos of your setup and issue - they are always if great help to pin point the issue.

Pledg · 04 April 2020, 12:39

Update!

Thanks for all the responses.

It seems there's an issue with flashfloppy v2.14 (stable) and my Amiga 500 rev 6a board!

I re-flashed the gotek drive with the latest flashfloppy experimental build v3.13a and it sprang to life and worked first time!

Interesting!

solarmon · 04 April 2020, 17:50

Glad you got it working!

I wouldn't have thought that a stable v2.4 release would have any fundamental issue like that.

Maybe it was just the re-flashing that resolved the issue?

If you really want to find out, then flashed it back on to v2.4 and see if you have the issue again. If so, I would raise a ticket on the FlashFloppy Github page. Or raise the issue on the FlashFloppy group on Facebook.

Pledg · 07 April 2020, 00:54

Well I did re-flash the v2.4 a number of times with no effect before almost giving up and trying the v3.13a out of desperation. I don't use facebook but should raise something on GitHub I suppose although I'm not that familiar with it. I like using these boards because it does put the error and record and it may help others out of a similar problem.

03 April 2020, 19:39	#1
Pledg Registered User Join Date: Mar 2020 Location: Tonbridge, UK Posts: 7	Amiga 500 Rev 6a Gotek issue Hi, Firstly hello, this is my first post in Amiga world! I hope somebody can help me with a gotek drive issue. Firstly a little background I'm gradually repairing and fixing up machines from my distant youth. I've finished restoring an Amstrad CPC464 and an Atari 520 STFM so I have had a reasonable run so far but have hit problems with the Amiga 500. I flashed and installed a gotek in the Atari 520STFM with no problems at all but I'm having issues with the Amiga 500. I stripped and repaired the existing internal floppy in the Amiga and on booting I get the workbench 3.1 screen and I can hear the drive clicking to access so I'm assuming it's communicating with the drive correctly. I don't have any original game discs to test. I've flashed a gotek with the latest flashfloppy firmware and copied some adf's and the other 2 Amiga specific boot and config files to the root of the gotek. On booting the Amiga I get no access of the gotek and it does not enter F-F mode? I've swapped the CIA chips but that has had no effect. Is there another chip somewhere that could have a bearing on disc access/control. Hope someone can help me. Cheeers Pledg

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03 April 2020, 20:13	#2
solarmon Registered User Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: UK Posts: 1,715	Welcome to the forum! Glad to have another Amiga user on board! What screen do you have on the Gotek - LED or OLED? What do you see on the screen? Make sure you have connected the floppy power and data cable correctly. The data cable must be the correct orientation and offset - pin 1 on the motherboard to pin 1 on the Gotek. This is a common mistake when servicing the internal floppy drive. When you boot up the Amiga, what is the behaviour of the POWER and DRIVE LEDs? What version of FlashFloppy do you have - there is the stable 2.x and experimental, but robust' 3.x release.

03 April 2020, 20:16	#3
solarmon Registered User Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: UK Posts: 1,715	I would also suggest that the first ADF you try to load is the Amiga Test Kit one: https://github.com/keirf/Amiga-Stuff

03 April 2020, 22:00	#4
Pledg Registered User Join Date: Mar 2020 Location: Tonbridge, UK Posts: 7	Thanks your reply... Floppy power and data are fitted correctly and I have checked continuity of the cables with a meter. As I say the original internal floppy seems to running ok when connected as far as I can tell ie. click noises and drive spinning up etc. I'm using the latest stable release of flashfloppy which is 2.14. I'm now actually getting the orange light on the keyboard and the gotek drive access light is flickering then both lights go out and it returns to the workbench ROM screen. I'm not getting any action at all from the LED screen? As I say I'm familiar with the process having done this for the ST. I'm at a loss really. I'm thinking about trying an older version of flashfloppy or at least getting hold of some old discs to at least get the machine up and running from the old original floppy? Thanks again... PS. The Amiga is running workbench 2.1 not 3.1 as stated in my last post.

03 April 2020, 22:01	#5
Pledg Registered User Join Date: Mar 2020 Location: Tonbridge, UK Posts: 7	Sorry and yes I have the Amiga test kit adf on the USB drive...

03 April 2020, 22:46	#6
solarmon Registered User Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: UK Posts: 1,715	What do you mean by: "I'm not getting any action at all from the LED screen? " What do you see on the LED screen if you power up without a USB drive inserted. And what do you get when you insert the USB drive? Is the USB drive formatted in FAT16/FAT32. These are all basic stuff if you are already familiar with Goteks and FlashFloppy. Maybe post some pictures or videos of your setup and issue - they are always if great help to pin point the issue.

04 April 2020, 12:39	#7
Pledg Registered User Join Date: Mar 2020 Location: Tonbridge, UK Posts: 7	Update! Thanks for all the responses. It seems there's an issue with flashfloppy v2.14 (stable) and my Amiga 500 rev 6a board! I re-flashed the gotek drive with the latest flashfloppy experimental build v3.13a and it sprang to life and worked first time! Interesting!

04 April 2020, 17:50	#8
solarmon Registered User Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: UK Posts: 1,715	Glad you got it working! I wouldn't have thought that a stable v2.4 release would have any fundamental issue like that. Maybe it was just the re-flashing that resolved the issue? If you really want to find out, then flashed it back on to v2.4 and see if you have the issue again. If so, I would raise a ticket on the FlashFloppy Github page. Or raise the issue on the FlashFloppy group on Facebook.

07 April 2020, 00:54	#9
Pledg Registered User Join Date: Mar 2020 Location: Tonbridge, UK Posts: 7	Well I did re-flash the v2.4 a number of times with no effect before almost giving up and trying the v3.13a out of desperation. I don't use facebook but should raise something on GitHub I suppose although I'm not that familiar with it. I like using these boards because it does put the error and record and it may help others out of a similar problem.

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