FlashFloppy - new firmware for Gotek drives, open source

[fragedthewife]

Love this

Just flashed over my cortex firmware and I am delighted.

This all started with me fitting an OLDE display to my gotek running cortex which did not support the display.

Being directed to this thread and sitting with a few tins soldering up a male to male USB cable and following the instructions.

Works perfect so far.

I am sure a few questions will pop up but for me my OLED display works as does the various demos I have put at it.

Awesome

Cost me 2 tins of strongbow and a few old USB cables.

Well done !

[TjLaZer]

Originally Posted by cbrunschen

I've updated my 3D model a bit more:

The Bezel now just specifies extra space to add to the faceplate in each direction; the bevelling of the edge of the faceplate is now specified separately – so you can now bevel the edge of the faceplate without extending it, and vice versa.

I've also added support for adding a rotary encoder - both with 2 and with 3 buttons: the hole is 7mm in diameter, and an 11mm-sized rotary encoder without the KY-040 PCB - something like the ALPS EC11E15244G1) - will actually fit even with 3 buttons in place already.

Best wishes,

// Christian

Cool site, but why is screen white and very faint pink 3-D model? Cannot see it very well.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Cool site, but why is screen white and very faint pink 3-D model? Cannot see it very well.

It is not faint for me at all.. Perhaps try another browser?
This is how it looks for me. If this also looks faint to you, perhaps your monitor/video settings needs some adjustment.

[ch40s_engineer]

hey guys, I just discovered this by accident and wanted to share it with you:

http://arananet-net.kinja.com/adapta...=1507715961901

Seems like a pretty good idea. The PCB is not very complex, but this is a beautiful solution

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by ch40s_engineer

Seems like a pretty good idea. The PCB is not very complex, but this is a beautiful solution

Cool, but doesn't have a rotary encoder (much better than push buttons IMO) and by doing this you are locked to whatever feature set was available at the time the board was made (I am guessing Edu made the PCB before rotary encoder was an option).

Originally Posted by cbrunschen

I've updated my 3D model a bit more:

The Bezel now just specifies extra space to add to the faceplate in each direction; the bevelling of the edge of the faceplate is now specified separately – so you can now bevel the edge of the faceplate without extending it, and vice versa.

This is great!

How does one go about printing that model though? I couldn't find an option to save or anything.

[cbrunschen]

Originally Posted by Akira

How does one go about printing that model though? I couldn't find an option to save or anything.

At the bottom-left of the window there's a button to 'Generate STL', right next to a drop-down that allows you to choose a different file format.

Click 'Generate STL'.

After a moment, the button changes to 'Download STL'.

That STL file can then be sliced and printed as any other STL file.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by ch40s_engineer

hey guys, I just discovered this by accident and wanted to share it with you:

http://arananet-net.kinja.com/adapta...=1507715961901

Seems like a pretty good idea. The PCB is not very complex, but this is a beautiful solution

Nice idea .
I don't like how it sticks out of the Amiga, though...

[Keir]

I've just set up a Facebook group for FlashFloppy announcements and support:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/820618618098373/

[Mq]

Hi Kaffer. I don't use facebook, I don't have account there, and I don't want to have it. Is it the end of knowing anything about new versions etc for me and all the people like me? Where can I read informations about FlashFloppy, new ideas, bugs, versions etc? Is it a way to share that infos for everyone independent of facebooks and others? Eventually, is any way for reading Your facebook group without facebook account?

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Mq666

Hi Kaffer. I don't use facebook, I don't have account there, and I don't want to have it. Is it the end of knowing anything about new versions etc for me and all the people like me? Where can I read informations about FlashFloppy, new ideas, bugs, versions etc? Is it a way to share that infos for everyone independent of facebooks and others? Eventually, is any way for reading Your facebook group without facebook account?

I will still post here. Facebook is just another alternative.

[Mq]

Ok, thanks, I thought this thread is dead, because there were no posts since few days. And today I just open github site, and I see there were two new versions of FlashFloppy I didn't know about...

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Mq666

Ok, thanks, I thought this thread is dead, because there were no posts since few days. And today I just open github site, and I see there were two new versions of FlashFloppy I didn't know about...

Ah true. The last couple have been pretty minor though, just cleaning up the config file support really.

I hope to have a bigger 0.9.0 release to announce soon

[Mq]

Saving values from FF config file into flash of device is very important and awesome for me:-) I was thinking about it too, because I love config-less mode in FF, and I use few pendrives, so it's very usefull that I don't need to copy config files between pendrives each time. I don't tested this version yet, but can You confirm I understood it right: now we can set config parameters in config file one time only, and then can we delete config file at all, and will device store last settings until we change them or we reset them, right? If answer is "yes", then I can use any empty pendrive and Gotek will work with my previously setted parameters, right?

And second: what main changes will arrive with 0.9 version?

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Mq666

Saving values from FF config file into flash of device is very important and awesome for me:-) I was thinking about it too, because I love config-less mode in FF, and I use few pendrives, so it's very usefull that I don't need to copy config files between pendrives each time. I don't tested this version yet, but can You confirm I understood it right: now we can set config parameters in config file one time only, and then can we delete config file at all, and will device store last settings until we change them or we reset them, right? If answer is "yes", then I can use any empty pendrive and Gotek will work with my previously setted parameters, right?

Exactly right, and as described here: https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy...ation#defaults

So yes the benefits are two-fold:
1. You don't need a FF.CFG on every pen drive when you swap pen drives.
2. Config values are available to FlashFloppy immediately at power on, rather than waiting for the USB filesystem to initialise. So banner text can be in correct font on OLED display; PC vs Shugart interface is immediately correct; etc.

One thing to note is that with old versions of the upgrade bootloader, the Flash config will be erased when the main firmware is updated. You need to upgrade the bootloader to latest version to avoid that (see https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy...the-bootloader).

And second: what main changes will arrive with 0.9 version?

Amstrad DSK/EDSK support. That's the last major feature tickbox before v1.0. Feature parity is important

[Mq]

Thanks for explanation. I understand everything.

[Higgy]

Kaffer - HxC CPC .dsk support is working well. I noticed whatever .dsk format the Batman Group use for their 'single disk' version of the demo Batman Forever does not work:

https://files.scene.org/view/parties...an_forever.zip

[Keir]

Originally Posted by Higgy

Kaffer - HxC CPC .dsk support is working well. I noticed whatever .dsk format the Batman Group use for their 'single disk' version of the demo Batman Forever does not work:

https://files.scene.org/view/parties...an_forever.zip

DSK/EDSK is a relatively complex format to support in firmware, so it's no surprise there are some issues. Jeff did an update with more extensive support just a couple of days ago and when I announce support I'm sure I'll also have a bug tail still to chase.

[Keir]

v0.8.7a - Config-in-Flash and Eject-Status Improvements

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

- Divide the configuration flash page into multiple slots to reduce the number of erase cycles when FF.CFG is repeatedly modified
- Start in ejected state if button pressed or image previously ejected (when "image-on-startup = last")

[fragedthewife]

Im using the HxC cfg file do you have a specific one to use with flash floppy ?

[Keir]

Originally Posted by fragedthewife

Im using the HxC cfg file do you have a specific one to use with flash floppy ?

That is separate from the new FF.CFG text file you can use for configuring FlashFloppy's setup. You can have both the HXCSDFE.CFG and FF.CFG on the USB stick no problem.