Cyclone 20 - idea for homemade USB-based floppy controller (Catweasel-ish)

[gizmomelb]

thanks for the admin work crackersixx!

[mr.vince]

Originally Posted by Crackersixx

Working on adding a plugin interface.
Rich's zip file of the source will remain the most functional code for now.

Latest exe: http://www.reversers.net/Cyclone20.rar

If anyone else is interested in helping work on the source, please PM or email me and I will add you to SF.

Thanks,
-C6

Cheers,

I also had some thoughts on what functions to implement, adding a raw mode etc. etc.

Just to make sure no one is reinventing the wheel here... where would you suggest discussing this? On SF, here, or via email?

Best,
Chris

[Crackersixx]

I'd think that here would be the best place for the conversations.

I've recieved the pin headers i was waiting for, so now my board has a floppy connector!








Just 12 little wires left....

Thats when something went wrong...



I lost patience and realized I suck at soldering.
I need someone to solder me a board, I'll buy you one to keep for yourself as payment.

-C6

[kolla]

Nice project!

Personally I only need to read/write regular amiga system floppies to create boot disks and transfer files to/from stripped systems without jumping through all kinds of hoops. I currently have CW-mk3 and mk4 that lets me do that (just fine btw), but a "mobile" solution has been missed.

I really dont care whether the emulation is perfect enough so that every oddball copy protection is taken care of, and I also dont care about support in WinUAE. All I need is to read and write ADFs from Linux

As for floppy emulator for classic amigas, yes please - I've been eager to replace all my floppy drives for years already. Just something to stuff into the external floppy port to have the amiga boot from DF1: would be great! Sadly none of the projects so far materialized into buyable products.

Apropos external floppy drive - just a whacky idea I have:
If something emulates DF1: just enough to fool the amiga to boot from it... is there anything preventing the boot sector on the emulated floppy to contain code to load device drivers, filesystem handlers etc. and hence allowing boot strapping from whatever? My idea many years ago was to have a CD drive attached to the floppy port, to boot off from CDs, currently I think of usb storage.

A simpler question, what is the size limitations of a virtual amiga floppy drive? What would the amiga think of a DF1: with 16000 cylinders (176MB) or more? Hm, I should play with e-uae a bit to find out I think

Anyways, cool project!

[mr.vince]

Originally Posted by Crackersixx

I'd think that here would be the best place for the conversations.

I've recieved the pin headers i was waiting for, so now my board has a floppy connector!








Just 12 little wires left....

Thats when something went wrong...



I lost patience and realized I suck at soldering.
I need someone to solder me a board, I'll buy you one to keep for yourself as payment.

-C6

Phew, that looks sad! You got PM.

Chris

[musashi5150]

What happened to your board? Did you drop something on it?

[vk4akp]

Hi Guys, This is a fantastic project. I'll be interested to see how it goes and will be keen to get one myself.

I currently have a Catweasel MK4 Plus but I find it has very limited and slow software development. Not to mention the terribly excesive price tag (Some AUD$265 currently, landed in .AU).

I saw mention in this thread that applications would most likely be written in such a manner as to be cross hardware compatible, IE work with Catweasel and Cyclone 20. I would really welcome this.

Also a problem that we are starting to see is the loss of any sort of floppy controller on modern PC motherboards.

Most current motherboards only supporting an A: drive if you are lucky and lacking the extra hardware lines for the B: drive.

I currently have this problem and it is stopping me from archiving some Microbee 5.25" disks as Catweasel currently does not support Microbee.

A fix would be for someone to write a small windows driver to use the Catweasel as a floppy controller under windows. But I have had no joy in finding anyone interested in doing this.

My interest is mainly in recovering old software for future generations to enjoy. I have started to set up a server and web site http://shazam.zapto.org which also incorporates a PBX and Ham Radio system.

If anyone is interested check out the contact info for our Retro Party line which can be accessed throughout most of the world for a local call if not for free via VoIP.

My background and interest came mainly from my School days of enjoying the Apple IIe, Vic-20, C64, & TI-99/4A then later 10 ish years working for a CBM .AU outlet where I got into the Amiga.

I look forward to reading future posts in this thread.

~Ken~
.-.-.

[mr.vince]

Hi,

you must be mistaken... Our software is not intended to be Catweasel compatible. I also assume it never will be as the Catweasel lacks the firmware to do so. Also Catweasel's firmware is not open source, so there is nothing we can do about this. Furthermore it seems like Jens (the inventor) is not interested in cooperating with us. But you might want to wait and see what we can do and sell your expensive toy once we can do what Catweasel does (and much more).

Best,
Chris

[whiteb]

Originally Posted by mr.vince

Hi,

you must be mistaken... Our software is not intended to be Catweasel compatible. I also assume it never will be as the Catweasel lacks the firmware to do so. Also Catweasel's firmware is not open source, so there is nothing we can do about this. Furthermore it seems like Jens (the inventor) is not interested in cooperating with us. But you might want to wait and see what we can do and sell your expensive toy once we can do what Catweasel does (and much more).

Best,
Chris

I was looking to get a catweasel IV, but I sat back and let others buy it first. Then came all the software issues

The A1200 Catweasel was really good.

[mr.vince]

I see, yes. So why can't Catweasel be used to write e.g. .IPF files back to disk then?

Anyway, I assume we should concentrate on Cyclone20 which is already kicking...

Best,
Chris

[vk4akp]

Mistaken ? No, I don't believe so.

I hope this isn't going to be another us and them thing because in the end it's the end user that matters. All we want to do is help preserve software and enjoy the retro computer scene.

If the end result of the Cyclone 20 is a product that can work even half as good as the Catweasel or possibly offer some different solutions well you can count me in on having one. It will be a valuable tool.

As for selling my Catweasel, I think I will be holding on to it. It was extreamly hard to get over the years and now that i finally have one I won't be getting rid of it in a hurry.

I was in fact working towards getting another. But if / when Cyclone 20 comes up trumps I'll be more then happy to go that way instead.

I'm a big believer in the open source movement. I really hope this project goes places.

I think the biggest limitation for growth is the user base. Catweasel has open source applications also. But in the end we are talking about a minority group. Often most of the work is done by only a handful of very brilliant people who them selves have to find time away from more important things.

Anyhow, you are off to a great start. I wait with baited breath to see how things progress. I may even get a development board myself and have a go.

~Ken~

Originally Posted by mr.vince

Hi,

you must be mistaken... Our software is not intended to be Catweasel compatible. I also assume it never will be as the Catweasel lacks the firmware to do so. Also Catweasel's firmware is not open source, so there is nothing we can do about this. Furthermore it seems like Jens (the inventor) is not interested in cooperating with us. But you might want to wait and see what we can do and sell your expensive toy once we can do what Catweasel does (and much more).

Best,
Chris

Originally Posted by RichAplin

Nice! Yes I see a number of people have done work on home-made disk controllers over the years; it's basically just a high-speed 1-bit sampler as you point out.
.
.
Other controllers
What's nice is that with all of these parallel solutions (yours, mine, catweasel, etc), they basically all do the same thing, so the majority of the work (the PC software) can be made compatible with a variety of controller designs.
.
.
Various designs can meet that requirement, so to make them all work from one PC app is probably not rocket science. Clearly we'll have all designed different protocols for talking to our controller boards, but life would be no fun otherwise.
.
.

.-.-.

[mr.vince]

As Rich wrote: Porting the software is not rocket science. BUT: (to repeat myself here) Catweasel's software (as supplied by the vendor) is NOT open source (not the image tool, nor the firmware).

To do what we do with Cyclone20 we'd need low level access to the devices hardware (via the firmware). While we can load whatever low level program we want onto Cyclone20 (as it is a small independent computer, running it's own program), Catweasel has an FPGA. This is a (in easy words) a "chip architecture constructable with a software process similar to flashing". We however do not have access to this.

So let's concentrate on Cyclone20 first. It is lightweight, cute and will support frickin' laserbeams, sooo... it's definitely what we want to work on.

Chris

[kolla]

Originally Posted by mr.vince

As Rich wrote: Porting the software is not rocket science. BUT: (to repeat myself here) Catweasel's software (as supplied by the vendor) is NOT open source (not the image tool, nor the firmware).

Funny, I never used the software supplied, I cant even recall if there was CD or floppy coming along with the cards - I only used opensource software, that I find when sarching for "catweasel linux" with google

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by kolla

Funny, I never used the software supplied, I cant even recall if there was CD or floppy coming along with the cards - I only used opensource software, that I find when sarching for "catweasel linux" with google

MK4 won't work without "firmware" uploaded to FPGA and it is 100% closed source. Linux won't help.

[mr.vince]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

MK4 won't work without "firmware" uploaded to FPGA and it is 100% closed source. Linux won't help.

Thanks Toni for backing this.

I would not be involved in making Cyclone20 if Catweasel would be able to do what we want to do - right?

Best,
Chris

[kolla]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

MK4 won't work without "firmware" uploaded to FPGA and it is 100% closed source. Linux won't help.

Right, I just use the firmware they shipped with.

[Crackersixx]

Originally Posted by musashi5150

What happened to your board? Did you drop something on it?

My foot... But that was after I had messed it up pretty badly with my bad soldering skills.

I'll give it another attempt, with a new board, unless someone close (USA) would like to do the soldering in exchange for a board for themselves

[mr.vince]

Originally Posted by kolla

Right, I just use the firmware they shipped with.

And that's where the magic happens.

Best,
Chris

[kolla]

Originally Posted by mr.vince

And that's where the magic happens.

But appearantly, not enough magic?
Oh well, works for my simple needs.

[mr.vince]

Well, you might want to check this:

[ Show youtube player ]

;-)