I decided to start a new thread for my new open source project, that i just uploaded to github:
https://github.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO
I didn't make yet a lot of tests, but till now most games work fine!
It doesn't work T&T (no blink neither eject signal seems sent by the PC!!), and for Dracula you need to eject/insert the floppy via the push button in the board when blinking.
I wrote the code in a few days e without a real background about how /insert, /eject, /blink etc. signals works, so anyone could improve and correct my source.
Here's some of the floppy i played with my adapter and my HxC:
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO/main/board.jpg)
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO/main/example1.jpg)
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO/main/example2.jpg)
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO/main/example3.jpg)
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO/main/example4.jpg)
Looks cool!
I added the model for a 3d printed case:
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO/main/case0.jpg)
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDUINO/main/case2.jpg)
so far, i still can't Tunnels&Trolls, could someone with FDX68 confirm TnT works with it?
Hi,
although I haven't a clue what I'm doing in the game, it boots just fine with the FDX68
Quote from: X-Col on June 05, 2023, 08:50:17 PMHi,
although I haven't a clue what I'm doing in the game, it boots just fine with the FDX68
Thank you, so i must review or speed in some way my code, since i lost quite always the eject signal with this game!
I made new version of the adapter based on the faster (and even cheaper!) Raspberry PICO:
https://github.com/aotta/X68KFDPi
It works fine with every games i tested so far, with "blinking" leds and "lock red leds" working too!
And finally i can play to Tunnel & Trolls! ;)
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDPi/main/doc/x68kfdpi03.jpg)
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aotta/X68KFDPi/main/doc/x68kfdpi10.jpg)
I have a few questions:
1) What's the state of your internal drives on your X68000? Are they working, are they 0 and 1?
2) In case the answer to #1 is yes, the drives are working, what's the number/letter of the Gotek drives on your card? Or they can "overpower" somehow the internal interface and become 0 and 1?
Thanks
Right, i forget mentioning i changed internal drives to 2 and 3 and set hxc to 0 and 1, since some games look for disk in these slot to work.
Very cool project! If someone started making and selling these, I would buy one.
Can you please, add to the github project a list with the manufacturer part number or LibRef for each product?
I don't know which exact connector or components to use.
If it is possible to have a Digikey or mouser part list it would be a great help.
Thank you so much.
I added the BOM list generated by Kicad here:
https://github.com/aotta/X68KFDPi/blob/main/KiCAD/X68KFDPI.csv
If i found time, i'll fill more info for each product, but i bought most from ebay or aliexpress, since they are all "generic" components that you could find everywhere
OK. Thanks.
Wow, great..
I am building one according to Github, but can you share more info about Gotek side configuration?
I am using FlashFloppy 3.41.
What is the best value for interface?
# jc: Specified by jumper JC (open: shugart, closed: ibmpc)
# shugart: P2=DSKCHG, P34=RDY (Amiga, Atari ST, many others)
# ibmpc: P2=unused, P34=DSKCHG (IBM PC interface)
# ibmpc-hdout: P2=HD_OUT, P34=DSKCHG (not generally needed: prefer 'ibmpc')
# jppc: P2=unused, P34=RDY (Japanese PC standard)
# jppc-hdout: P2=HD_OUT, P34=RDY (Japanese PC alternate: prefer 'jppc')
# akai-s950: Legacy alias of 'jppc-hdout', previously used for Akai S950
# amiga: P2=DSKCHG, P34=DRIVE_ID (not generally needed: prefer 'shugart')
interface =
i used no particular configuration for gotek.. flashed with Flashfloppy firmware and used both shugart and jppc interface successfully. The X68k use more his signals than ready and other standard ones, i think!
Quote from: aotta on August 10, 2023, 02:25:07 AMi used no particular configuration for gotek.. flashed with Flashfloppy firmware and used both shugart and jppc interface successfully. The X68k use more his signals than ready and other standard ones, i think!
Thank you so much!
Let me continue its build up!
Great ! thanks Aotta for sharing.
I got the parts and built up some of
@aotta X68KFDPi boards. - thanks for designing and releasing these to the community.
I run two Gotek drives stacked-up, so I wanted to integrate the X68KFDPi board and have a nice neat setup with minimal cables coming off at different directions. After about 10 revisions of the Lower case and 3 on the Upper case I came up with my solution. I had to utilise some intricate folding of the cables inside the case to enable them to all come out the back (there might have been a simplier way, but I could not see it :) )
I made a little mod to the PCB. Because I have 2 Gotek drives I needed 2 'Power Out' so on the Floppy Power header I linked the 5V to the normally 12V (but on the PCB it is not connected), and because there is already a spare Ground now I had 5V-GND-GND-5V so I made up a cable and I can now power my 2 Goteks (I will revise the cable lengths and make them shorter).
X68000_Floppy1.jpg
X68000_Floppy2.jpg
Very nice setup, i only suggest you a light grey PLA for printing the lighter case, i found one matching very closely the x68000 case! 😜
And, i massively use gotek for my retro collection, but for x68k i bought an HxC, it's better IMHO
Quote from: HIggy on February 02, 2024, 07:01:06 AMAfter about 10 revisions of the Lower case and 3 on the Upper case I came up with my solution.
I'm building one of these PCBs myself, I don't suppose you'd be willing to publish the stl files for your case? Thanks.
If anyone builds more of these let me know, I would like one.
Quote from: kanjiology on March 26, 2024, 02:13:20 AMIf anyone builds more of these let me know, I would like one.
I ordered 3 PCBs so if everything goes well with my build I might be willing to sell the other two for what it costs to build them + shipping.
Quote from: tskaf on March 26, 2024, 02:46:31 AMQuote from: kanjiology on March 26, 2024, 02:13:20 AMIf anyone builds more of these let me know, I would like one.
I ordered 3 PCBs so if everything goes well with my build I might be willing to sell the other two for what it costs to build them + shipping.
Sounds great, I'd be down for one. Thank you.
Quote from: tskaf on March 26, 2024, 02:46:31 AMQuote from: kanjiology on March 26, 2024, 02:13:20 AMIf anyone builds more of these let me know, I would like one.
I ordered 3 PCBs so if everything goes well with my build I might be willing to sell the other two for what it costs to build them + shipping.
I would be interested in one too please!
Same here, would be interested in one if you have any left!
EDIT: Realized the 2 were already claimed.
Here you are:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6552134
Quote from: tskaf on March 25, 2024, 04:38:11 PMQuote from: HIggy on February 02, 2024, 07:01:06 AMAfter about 10 revisions of the Lower case and 3 on the Upper case I came up with my solution.
I'm building one of these PCBs myself, I don't suppose you'd be willing to publish the stl files for your case? Thanks.
Quote from: HIggy on March 28, 2024, 02:36:36 AMHere you are:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6552134
Thanks, appreciated.
I'm still waiting for the PCBs to be delivered but I'm not going to have more than max two to spare, I'll contact people in the order of posting if I do end up having any left over. Either way, I'll make a post again when I have mine built.
Guys, I had taken Higgy's offer and I got a X68FDPico. I have assembled it, all good, checked for bridges, shorts, all good.
The X68000 won't get to the boot screen (asking for a floppy) when it's connected to the FDpico.
I have done the following steps in an attempt to understand where and what is the issue:
1) Disconnected both internal drives, both power cables, both ID selection cables, removed the drives from the computer (yes I did that). Still the same issue.
2) Bothered Higgy and he told me to try using 2 drives, as I was using a single Gotek. Since I don't have a second Gotek, I connected a regular 3.5" floppy, Gotek set to drive 0, 3.5" Drive to 1. Still the same problem.
3) Tried inverting the flat cable between the computer and the interface. Same.
4) Tried inverting the flat cable between the drive(s) and the interface. Same (but worst, the interface won't even turn on the LEDs).
5) Tried to connect the interface directly to the FDD connector on my Ace's motherboard (to bypass the external FDD connector). Same result.
6) Tried another X68000 altogether (a Pro this time). Same result.
So that's it.
I tried uploading the firmware (X68kfdPico.ino) via USB by two different methods:
1) holding the 'bootset' switch down, and connecting to the computer, which opens the Pi as a flash drive. So I put the file there, then the Pi restarted and the file was gone, so I assume it was properly flashed.
2) Then thinking about the .ino extension, I assumed that
@aotta used the Arduino IDE to write the code, so I followed a guide on how to set it up for using the Raspberry Pi Pico as a target, and it worked fine, compiled and uploaded to the Pico just fine.
Log:
Sketch uses 53108 bytes (2%) of program storage space. Maximum is 2093056 bytes.
Global variables use 10240 bytes (3%) of dynamic memory, leaving 251904 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 262144 bytes.
Resetting COM10
Converting to uf2, output size: 141824, start address: 0x2000
Scanning for RP2040 devices
Flashing I: (RPI-RP2)
Wrote 141824 bytes to I:/NEW.UF2So at this point I'm completely puzzled. I've reflowed all the solder joints under the microscope, measured the voltages on all ICs, apparently it's all fine.
Adding a few photos below of how the assembly turned out:
photo_2024-08-17_22-31-48.jpg
photo_2024-08-17_22-31-48 (2).jpg
And here a quick video of just the interface plugged on to +5V power, nothing connected to it.
Any ideas are welcome.
Thanks in advance
Did you check if pico has correct voltage on power pins (5v / 3v3)?
And why did you shorted 5v and 12v lines on floppy connector??
And, where did you buy the lvc245 level shifters? i had many feedback from users about bad or fake 74lvc245, specially if bought on alixpress....
Quote from: aotta on August 18, 2024, 06:43:29 PMDid you check if pico has correct voltage on power pins (5v / 3v3)?
I have the following:
pin 36 (3v3 Out) = 3.2V
pin 37 (3v3_EN) = 4.7V
pin 39 (VSYS) = 4.8V
pin 40 (VBUS) = 0.7VQuote from: aotta on August 18, 2024, 06:43:29 PMAnd why did you shorted 5v and 12v lines on floppy connector??
That's Higgy's mod for powering two goteks at once, there is no 12V there, on your design, it's nc.
Quote from: aotta on August 18, 2024, 06:43:29 PMAnd, where did you buy the lvc245 level shifters? i had many feedback from users about bad or fake 74lvc245, specially if bought on alixpress....
Erm, I got them from Higgy... I'll try to replace them with ones bought at Digi-Key.
But could this be enough to prevent the X68000 from displaying the Diskette screen just by having the board connected to the computer, with no power?
Cheers!
Quote from: amazin on August 18, 2024, 07:14:06 PMQuote from: aotta on August 18, 2024, 06:43:29 PMDid you check if pico has correct voltage on power pins (5v / 3v3)?
I have the following:
pin 36 (3v3 Out) = 3.2V
pin 37 (3v3_EN) = 4.7V
pin 39 (VSYS) = 4.8V
pin 40 (VBUS) = 0.7V
Quote from: aotta on August 18, 2024, 06:43:29 PMAnd why did you shorted 5v and 12v lines on floppy connector??
That's Higgy's mod for powering two goteks at once, there is no 12V there, on your design, it's nc.
Quote from: aotta on August 18, 2024, 06:43:29 PMAnd, where did you buy the lvc245 level shifters? i had many feedback from users about bad or fake 74lvc245, specially if bought on alixpress....
Erm, I got them from Higgy... I'll try to replace them with ones bought at Digi-Key.
But could this be enough to prevent the X68000 from displaying the Diskette screen just by having the board connected to the computer, with no power?
Cheers!
So, pico seems getting right voltage, and from your previous screenshot, firmware seems correctly loaded too.
The x68k diskette screen is showed until the pc doesn't read a valid and good floppy, so there are many steps to check (and many things possibly not correct in your setup).
What's on your gotek side? which firmware/ config are you using? does the gotek try to read the .img file? maybe a video of your gotek display could help in troubleshooting.
And, for starting reading floppy image, led drive has to turn on green, push buttons in trying to set the drive as ready
lvc245 level shifters - these were difficult to find, I bought nearly all stock from a UK Raspberry Pi parts seller.
I have built 2 floppy devices myself, so I really doubt they are the issue.
Quote from: HIggy on August 19, 2024, 07:18:59 PMlvc245 level shifters - these were difficult to find, I bought nearly all stock from a UK Raspberry Pi parts seller.
I have built 2 floppy devices myself, so I really doubt they are the issue.
I agree, but I confirm that some sellers on AliExpress used to "remark" 74ls245 as 74lvc245 that, as you said, are becoming quite rare
@aotta: I'm using an old Gotek (2, 3 years old I think) with the latest stable FlashFloppy firmware (version 3.42). Here's a video of it detecting a valid disk image (001) and being ready to be read.
As I had mentioned before, I got this as a kit from
@HIggy and all the parts came from the same batch he bought to build his adapters. I would be the unluckiest person in the world if, out of 3 batches of parts, 1 was defective, and it would be the parts he sent to me.
But improbable is different from impossible! That's why I'm ordering some SN74LVC245AN from Digi-Key, to put this to rest :-) I double, triple-checked EVERYTHING for shorts, I couldn't find anything.
Using a simple logic, I'm assuming the Pico is okay because I can get it recognized via USB just fine. LEDs, resistors, capacitors, they all measure fine, and the LEDs are working, so it cannot be the passives. I've tested for power yesterday and everything measures ok.
And also, from a connection flow point of view, the first thing the X68000 interacts with are the 74LVC245s. So MAYBE they are indeed defective to a point where the X68000 "hangs".
I should have socketed them, argh... now it's twice the work to desolder them, LOL :-)
Alright guys, I'll keep you posted.
Cheers
Quote from: amazin on August 20, 2024, 01:36:54 AMUsing a simple logic, I'm assuming the Pico is okay because I can get it recognized via USB just fine.
This is not so logic, since if any of the gpio used for emulation is not working, you don't know.
Your FF.cfg is checked? i presume you use the same used by
@HIggy , but is another usual suspect (i didn't found anymore mine, but i remember i had to made several try before having one config working).
And, as i said, the best indicator is the green flash for floppy 0 in the X68KFDPi, if you can't get it green by pressing push buttons, the X68K don't see the floppy as ready.
Remember that I said that with the board powered, the X68000 wouldn't get to the floppy screen?
That meant only the board, connected to power and to the X68000, no Gotek/FlashFloppy.
So what I did was to socket both 74LVC245.
And here's what happens:
1) if I swap them around, same issue happens.
2) if I **remove** U3, the computer starts fine
So whenever I have the two 74LVCs, the computer won't get to the insert floppy screen. If I remove U3, it starts fine.
U3 send to X68K, with others, the "Floppy Inserted" signals, so without it the PC reads that there's no disk and ask for it. Simple.
But that signals depends from interrupt read strobe and from pushing the buttons on the card. If nothing happens when you press buttons (change in leds / X68K / Gotek) then probably Pico is not working.
Can anyone explain what that Pico even does? As far as I can tell HXC can just be connected directly to X68000 but there are some additional lines to handle like LEDs and insert/eject signals. Is this necessary to use something as complicated as Raspberry Pico/Arduino for this? Also what is that "circuit.gif" in the github repo??
@BlackVega the thing is Pico's are cheap and easy to program/reprogram with a home PC and USB cable.
5v logic chips are getting rarer and the prices are going up, so if using modern chips to do the logic then you need level shifters to work with the X68k signals, and these extra chips increases the price.
@amazin is it worth reflowing the Pico's solder joints? They all arrived sealed and I've not heard reports of Pico's being fragile. Maybe upload one of the LED blink test programs and see how the Pico behaves? Also do you have the diode the correct way around, I see you fitted it on the other side of the PCB but could not see the coloured band on the diode.
Hey
@HIggy !
Yep, I've removed both SN74LVCs and the Pico and socketed them all. Even bought a new PiPico, nothing changed.
Only thing remaining to replace are the SN74LVC245A chips, which I'm placing an order later today at Digi-Key.
Let's see if anything changes...
Cheerio!
Hey, how is this thing even supposed to be powered?? Is this supposed to be powered from USB or those 2 floppy connectors on the side or what?? This is completely undocumented anywhere...
Quote from: aotta on August 19, 2024, 09:04:04 PMQuote from: HIggy on August 19, 2024, 07:18:59 PMlvc245 level shifters - these were difficult to find, I bought nearly all stock from a UK Raspberry Pi parts seller.
I have built 2 floppy devices myself, so I really doubt they are the issue.
I agree, but I confirm that some sellers on AliExpress used to "remark" 74ls245 as 74lvc245 that, as you said, are becoming quite rare
These things are not "rare" by any means. You can buy them new on mouser or digikey in any form of package, technology or configuration you ever want...
I guess the board is supposed to be powered from the 4 pin header on the right side and gotek/hxc is also supposed to be powered from another 4 pin pass through header, although it wasn't completely specified.
Hey, please tell me how I'm supposed to configure software. I flashed the Raspberry Pico using Arduino IDE and I think it was successful but I still need to test it. However I'm completely confused on what I'm supposed to do to configure HXC itself. I don't have a Gotek but what I have is exactly the thing on the right:
(https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/sdhxc_ban2.png)
What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to flash it with Flashfloppy, proprietary software, configure it or use it as is??? I'm totally new to this idea and all of these websites are so confusing and I have absolutely no idea what to do here. Please help
In few words, the x68fduino goes between x68k via a 34 idc floppy cable (esternal with adapter or internal with modded cable), powered by a standard atx 4 pin floppy connector (even if 12v is not used/connected). On the other side of the x68kfduino, another cable idc 34 pin is connected to your hxc, and another idc 4pin f/f cable powers the HXC from the x68kfduino (that's why it has 2 power connectors and they're linked togheter). I usually disconnect or select as 2/3 the internal drive, because most of disks boot only from drive 0 or 1.
Then use HXC as usual configuring it for both drives, but use buttons on x68kfduino to turn led on green if they're off or blinking.
That's all.
I tested my HXC hardware and thankfully it works on a real X68000. However how in the world do you emulate both floppy drives using HXC?? I figured out how to load an image into a single drive 0 but I can't figure out for the life of me how to load another disk into drive 1 so both images can be accessed by X68000 and that was pretty much my entire purpose for using this device (albeit an SSD solution even for 1 drive is still excellent). You know, you insert both disks into drive 0 and drive 1 at the same time to load games on X68000. How do you do that?
Quote from: BlackVega on September 20, 2024, 02:19:25 AMI tested my HXC hardware and thankfully it works on a real X68000. However how in the world do you emulate both floppy drives using HXC?? I figured out how to load an image into a single drive 0 but I can't figure out for the life of me how to load another disk into drive 1 so both images can be accessed by X68000 and that was pretty much my entire purpose for using this device (albeit an SSD solution even for 1 drive is still excellent). You know, you insert both disks into drive 0 and drive 1 at the same time to load games on X68000. How do you do that?
Pressing the middle button for 2 seconds you got a menu with the option "select drive a/b".. just select the other and assign it the second floppy's image.
It's all on HXC manual, of course... ;)
Ah right, forgive me this is my 1st time using anything like this and I just didn't have energy to read tons of pages of that manual and I thought maybe that board was not functioning properly. Also that HXC website is no offense very confusing and so awful looking and super disorienting and it is very hard to read anything useful. Well, after all of that it looks like this board is working fine or at least I think it is. Both drives load fine but these buttons and flashes on the board are inconsistent. Many times both of them blink (even though only drive 0 should blink on the start) and many times I need to press both buttons to load single disk games for some reason and soft eject doesn't work, it should "eject the virtual disk automatically" but it just waits with black screen until I press on board buttons again and then it continues. What is up with all of that? Is this intentional? I still haven't figured out how to use it properly but even at this time it loads stuff successfully which is awesome. Hoping it will be improved later with perfect functionality. Great device for users with broken floppy drives!
I still have some more questions however- red LEDs never work for me and they only light up when X68000 is powered off. Also is LED_blink pin (internal pin 13-external pin 26) supposed to be connected or not? Because I can see a trace on the board but it's not there on the FDD adapter. Is this intentional or is it a mistake? And, after everything I've described, is my FDD board working correctly or it is pretty wonky sometimes at this stage? Aha and also if anyone wants I still have some extra boards so I can sell some boards and test them on real hardware if anyone is in the need
Yes sometimes leds seems crazy.. but it's becouse X68k sends ejects commands in strange ways, and i can't simply ignore them or games with more than 2 disks won't work. So, the game is to keep the green led on pushing button when the PC eject the disk when not needed!
Anyway, i did some minor changes and uploaded a version 1.0a on the repo, it seems a little more stable especially in my X68K with no floppies, that is the one in which X68KFDPico works worst.
I checked the new version and wow it definitely works better. Soft eject finally works and it's automatic! My X68000 no longer starts up with black screen and now it displays "please insert floppy" screen as it was before. However I'm still not sure why you almost always need to press "HD1" button whenever you load anything from drive 0. Is this a bug? Oh well, it still definitely works way better compared to before as it used to be glitchy as hell sometimes. I think it's almost perfect now. However I have a question- is 2x Gotek or 2x HXC more recommended than 1x HXC? Is this going to help or potentially bring it to 100% perfect functionality 1 day? I think this setup is good enough for me but I wonder whether I can benefit from using 2x Gotek devices. Thanks for creating this device, definitely unlocked full potential of my machine
My gadget handles X68k signals but sincerly i don't know their logic.. and i can't predict if you're using a single floppy or some sw that needs two, that's why i have to suppose that both floppy are ready at startup.
And, probably 2x gotek it's different from HxC solution, so it's not easy to improve further the SW.
I don't understand what you mean with 2x HxC, but i suppose you mean one HxC used for both floppies. That's with no doubt the better (even if not the cheapest) solution compared to two goteks, with less cables, a single psu connection and a single display to look into.
Yes, it's a pity that the switching from floppy A to B is not so smart in HxC, but it remains a great solution IMHO.
One last thing... since i use the great HDD image v.2.2 from
@incrediblehark, I use floppy only to launch bootsec.x once on my X68Ks!
Some games can only be run from floppies tho. Or is there a way to get around that?
I'm working to a new project for emulating X68K floppys based on my previous X68KFDPi and a further PicoW for the floppy emulator part.
X68KFDPico2.jpg
I just start it, but since i've not yet connected the floppies buttons nor the floppies leds, i had to change a little the X68KFDPi code to improve the signals detections.
So i updated the code to v.1.1, it works better for me but it's not yet fully tested, if anyone that built a X68KFDPi want to play with it, it's on my Github repo:
https://github.com/aotta/X68KFDPi
Has anyone had a chance to read through Leo Oliveira's recent work around trying to get standard SHUGART floppy drives to work on the X68000? He discovered that they can work and X68K has support for them, you just have to modify the signals going to the computer. The technical details were lost on me but maybe
@aotta you can understand what this means.
The thread with the details starts here: https://x.com/leo__oliveira/status/1871178650738925657
Quote from: leonk on January 13, 2025, 02:15:26 AMHas anyone had a chance to read through Leo Oliveira's recent work around trying to get standard SHUGART floppy drives to work on the X68000? He discovered that they can work and X68K has support for them, you just have to modify the signals going to the computer. The technical details were lost on me but maybe @aotta you can understand what this means.
The thread with the details starts here: https://x.com/leo__oliveira/status/1871178650738925657
I think that Leo Oliverira should read this thread, we already use gotek and HXC in Shugart mode since years with X68K!
Quote from: aotta on January 13, 2025, 07:47:19 AMI think that Leo Oliverira should read this thread, we already use gotek and HXC in Shugart mode since years with X68K!
If I understand correctly what he did, he replaced the 2 internal 5.25" FDDs with 2 external 3.5" FDDs. He's not using any logic (no Pi, CPLD, or FPGA) he just figured out how to modify the floppy cable so the X68000 BIOS switches to SHUGART mode and works with regular PC floppy drives (Code has always been there, but not used by default) He can boot and even play 2 disk games perfectly fine and the X68000 has no issues with that.
He will publish his findings shortly according to his posts.
This means instead of using Pi to make Gotek and HXC pretend to be regular X68000 floppy drives; you can force the computer to support regular floppy drives with a simple wire cable modification.
I hope I understand his findings correctly and wanted to see if you might know more to validate this.
I quote:
Tie the pin "DISK_IN" (15 on internal flat cable, 27 on external connector) to ground prevents the computer from detecting it's proprietary drives, this forces the IPL and Human68K to fall back to a standard SHUGART protocol where RDY is used to sense disk presence and caching of FAT/Directory is disabled.
This means any 5.1/4 HD PC drive and 3.1/2 HD PC with 3 mode (RDY required) can be used on the X68000 as a boot drive.
Drive MUST have RDY on pin 34, not DC and need to be capable of mode 3 (360RPM on HD mode)
Human68K requires at least TWO DRIVES to boot, by the way.
That's it.
Here's a picture of the cable mod: https://x.com/leo__oliveira/status/1871220026893631913
Simply grounding "Disk Insert" doesn't work from my test. X68K needs more complex logic that is handled by my X68KFDUINO, FDX68 and other adapters. And not only for booting (that's the easies part) but in particolar for ejecting and change floppies.
But I'll wait until someone could confirm that Leo's trick works.
"FLIP-FLOP" rules them all!Launch date set tomorrow, stay tuned! ;)
Is there any possibility to improve the functionality so this device works on X68000 with no internal FDD drives? When my X68000 first model has internal FDDs installed inside and they are configured to ID 2-3, X68Kduino works perfectly fine (or, it works as good as it can) but when internal drives are removed completely, the buttons on X68Kduino no longer work unfortunately, this means you can't load master disk/system disk images which is a huge problem. That improvement would benefit X68000 users with no FDD drives tremendously
@BlackVega: i don't use X68kduino since i upgraded the project to x68kfdpico, and it works fine on my X68K ACE with no internal FDDs.
The code should be easily portable from fdpico to duino, but now i'm into the new X68Kfdpico2 project, maybe in future i could add that on my todo list.
Ah, I wasn't aware there was an update on it. Yes I meant to say X68Kfdpico, I referred to this device as the title says. I updated it and now all disks load successfully on a X68000 first model with no internal FDDs, including the master disk! Great stuff. Good luck on your sequel and I'm looking up to it
First boots from my new X68KFDPi2:
work in progress...