[Coco] Gotek floppy emulator

Sun Feb 14 19:21:41 EST 2016

On Sunday 14 February 2016 11:32:03 Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:

> Frank, I see a problem right off with this unit...
> It uses 1.44meg HD, 512 byte sectors at 500kbps...
> The Coco uses 720k DD, 256 byte sectors...
> There's no mention of being able to set the unit for the older 720k
> drives. IIRC, even on the real drives of that type, you had to modify
> them physically to make them work if they did not have jumpers. I
> doubt this usit could be modified in that way. It's the very reason we
> can't use the real drives on the "newer" computers to read/write coco
> disks. The controller chipset was different for those drives and no
> longer supported 720k or 256 byte sectors. If there's a 720k version
> of this, then GREAT!
>
> Looking a little further on that site, I found this:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3XT1DB1480&cm_re=u
>sb_floppy_drive_emulator-_-9SIA3XT1DB1480-_-Product
>
> It says "72k" but reading the specs, it says "720k" (typo?). This
> seems to be more what's needed :-)
>
> All the rest on NewEgg seem to be 1.44 meg units.
>
It also says this, so it remains to be tested as to its ability to 
write/read a coco/os9 format disk, which is 18 sectors per track, with 
256 byte sectors.  FDC's have seemed to have lost that ability, even 
this now 8 year old Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe mobo's fdc cannot, locking up 
the whole machine if a disk access is attempted after applying the 
correct setfdparm command to set it for such a disk. 3.5 or 5.25 drive 
on the end of the cable makes no diff, the FDChip is kaput.  Before 
drivewire, I was forced to sz a .dsk file to the coco at 4800 baud.

Capacity:720KB 2DD Cylinders:80 Tracks:160 Sectors/Track:9 
Bytes/Sector:512 Data
transfer rate:500 kbps Encoding method:MFM.>

The bare DD drive, attached to the coco with a cable adapter CAN do this, 
IF you can make the format command work. But format even in the 
nitros9-v3.3.0 release, has been a 100% crash and burn for me for 
several years.  So my mb scripts have been re-written to clean up an 
already formatted DD disk before os9gen is invoked.  This includes 
making a directory entry for track 34, and deleting it to clear the FAT, 
thereby allowing os9gen to rewrite track 34, otherwise it silently fails 
to do so.

Hell of a way to run a train, and one of the reasons I am losing interest 
in the coco.
>
>
>
> Bill Pierce
> "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way
> to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
>
>
>
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Francis Swygert <farna at att.net>
> To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Sun, Feb 14, 2016 10:37 am
> Subject: [Coco] Gotek floppy emulator
>
> Someone mentioned more info on this product. Here is a great article!
> Not computer related, used on some sort of copier that used a 3/5"
> floppy, but the Gotek is designed to directly replace any 3.5" floppy
> drive -- physically and electronically. It has that USB stick sticking
> out the end or it would be perfect! An SD card would be less intrusive
> (extrusive in this case?), but the USB is probably cheaper to
> implement. The thing sells for as little as $15, but with shipping
> from China. NewEgg sells it for $24.19 plus shipping
> (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1B0-001Y-00007).Revie
>ws are mixed. The software sucks, and it's not easy to switch between
> floppy images. It seems to work a lot like HDBDOS under DECB. 100
> floppy images are created on the USB stick. The USB stick has to be
> set up on a Windows computer. You don't have to install the drive, but
> you can't just pull it from the box and set it up on an old computer.
> The docs say it emulates a 720K floppy. It's a near perfect floppy
> emulator though. On a CoCo it would act just like plugging in a 720K
> floppy -- DECB would only use 35 or 40 tracks (or use 35/40 on both
> "sides" in a single image with something like ADOS). While that leaves
> a lot of wasted space on the USB stick, who cares? USB sticks are
> cheap, and your data is safe! Everyone says the software is anything
> but intuitive, but with a little work it's not terribly difficult to
> get set up... if you have a little technical experience. Most CoCo
> people do, at least if they've been using the CoCo for a while. If
> not, there are plenty on here to help. Sounds like someone needs to
> re-write the Windows software for it, or write some Linux
> programming/setup software. Has to be for a computer with USB memory
> stick accessibility. Should be possible to write something for the
> CoCo with something like the Cloud 9 SuperIDE and a CF card USB host
> adapter. I couldn't find any new, but only spent a little time
> searching. Something like this: Add a USB port to your
> handheld--SolarExpress Single Port USB Host! | Smartphone & Pocket PC
> magazine.  It would work, but finding one might be a bit of a
> challenge. Found a couple used ones though. Searching for "CF to USB"
> or "USB to CF" gets the same results -- card readers that plus into a
> USB port, not the other way around! I found a site with the CFU2
> (http://www.ratocsystems.com/english/products/CFU2U.html), but it has
> been discontinued. The review above was in 2010... six years ago is a
> long time in computer technology!|   ||   |  |   |   |   |   |   ||
> Add a USB port to your handheld--SolarExpress Single Por...There are a
> few truly amazing "gadgets for your gadgets", but finding one that is
> actually useful is another matter. The SolarExpress single port USB
> host card is o... ||  || View on www.smartphonema... | Preview by
> Yahoo ||  ||   | Frank Swygert Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
> 803-604-6548-- Coco mailing
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>co

Cheers, Gene Heskett
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