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FDX68 - Video Overview (Installation, Configuration, and Usage)

Started by ateam, August 03, 2024, 03:47:22 AM

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ateam

Hi everyone,

Recently, the developer Gimons (X / Homepage) opened up overseas orders for several of his devices, like the PhantomX, FDX68, and FDD ID Switcher. I was fortunate enough to procure both an FDX68 and FDD switch kit, and decided to put together a little video showing how the devices work.

Note that I wasn't aware of any of the "menu" projects at the time of recording the video, so all that you see is using the standard CLI utilities to convert and mount disk images. Additionally, I do not cover any of the other features, such as disk dumping.

All of that said, the production quality of this video isn't anything stellar, but nonetheless I wanted to share it with the community in the event it proves helpful. Also, all relevant links are in the video description itself.


ateam

For those interested in leveraging zatto's fdx68-php webapp front-end, I made some tweaks that should prove helpful!

Click here to see a preview clip of it in action: https://i.imgur.com/l8FRdlD.mp4

List of changes...
  • Added logo to UI.
  • Translated all UI elements to English.
  • Re-arranged UI elements so that file browser is now at the bottom.
  • Added color-coded process status.
  • Enabled auto-refresh mode by default.
  • Added support for mounting floppy disk images with spaces and special characters in their file name.
  • Added <pre> tag to the status output at the top of the page (for cleaner formatting).

index.php (place in /var/www/html)
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1TboX-WdycINhjwH-_RqGq4ldhSwMRliz

logo.png (place in /var/www/html)
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=12obUwpcP1ZIuqGRZzil4IlB2K2b83Wth


rezb1t

Excellent! Can confirm that it works perfectly with my FDX68. Thanks for sharing!


aotta

I installed the ztto tools and the updated php pages, i got it working after changin site.conf in nginx (i have 8.2 cgi instead of the 7.4).
But, i don't see the floppy images, even if i changed the default image_path (/home/ateam/images/).
What could I missed?

edit:
solved myself, using "/home/www-data/images/" as floppies folder and changing the image_path in php accordly.

But, is possible to add a button to insert also D88, DIM. etc images instead of only being able to "convert" them?
I use in most cases original format instead of DXF, because it save space and usually floppy don't need to be wrote...

ateam

Quote from: aotta on February 07, 2025, 07:51:19 AMBut, is possible to add a button to insert also D88, DIM. etc images instead of only being able to "convert" them?
I use in most cases original format instead of DXF, because it save space and usually floppy don't need to be wrote...

The FDX68 only natively supports mounting its own FDX format. All other formats must be converted first.

aotta

Quote from: ateam on February 08, 2025, 03:56:12 AM
Quote from: aotta on February 07, 2025, 07:51:19 AMBut, is possible to add a button to insert also D88, DIM. etc images instead of only being able to "convert" them?
I use in most cases original format instead of DXF, because it save space and usually floppy don't need to be wrote...

The FDX68 only natively supports mounting its own FDX format. All other formats must be converted first.
no, you're wrong. I just added this line to your index.php and it works flawless:
      // Display file
                $path_data = pathinfo($file);
                $ext = strtoupper($path_data['extension']);
                if($ext === 'FDX') {
                    $array_file1[] = $file;
                } else if(in_array($ext, $fddType)) {
                    $array_file1[] = $file; // <-- added others filetype to insert list
                    $array_file2[] = $file;
                }

edit: note for this case from Gimons (http://retropc.net/gimons/fdx68/emu_x68k.html):
"Starting the FDD emulator (extra)
In the above example, the XDF image file was converted to FDX format, but fddemu can be launched without converting XDF, D68, and other image files (the conversion is done automatically internally). Please note that when launched in this mode, the specified disk image will not be updated. This is useful for launching apps that do not need to be saved."

ateam

Quote from: aotta on February 08, 2025, 04:10:33 AMno, you're wrong. I just added this line to your index.php and it works flawless:

edit: note for this case from Gimons (http://retropc.net/gimons/fdx68/emu_x68k.html):
"Starting the FDD emulator (extra)
In the above example, the XDF image file was converted to FDX format, but fddemu can be launched without converting XDF, D68, and other image files (the conversion is done automatically internally). Please note that when launched in this mode, the specified disk image will not be updated. This is useful for launching apps that do not need to be saved."

Holy shit! After reading through all of the Japanese documentation, I arrived at the conclusion that only the proprietary FDX format could be used!

Great find, and I feel very silly for overlooking something so obvious 😅

Thank you for sharing.