Hi there,
This product is *exactly* what I have been waiting for, for a long time. A big thank you to the creator of this. The SVD comes close but it is no longer being produced so my hope likes in the HxC. The single computer solutions are great, but when you have a lot of old computers, a generic, modular device is much more desirable. Also some systems I own do not have a solution yet.
What I'm wondering is...
- Is this available for purchase or is this a download the plans and build it yourself (I don't mind that but am just curious)?
- Is it open such that I could add software support for a new disk format/disk drive such as Coco disk images, TI99/4a, Coleco Adam, Apple ][, or some other retro computer etc?
- I noticed there is a memory card version, is this an either/or type of thing or can it be used w/ a memory card and also be hooked up to a PC? I like memory cards for their immediacy, but when the particular type goes obsolete a way to connect to a computer would be desirable (USB/serial/etc).
- Is this read only currently? If so, is write support possible in the future?
Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I appreciate the effort involved in making this product. I only wish I had the skills to do something as this.
thanks for any info!
~telengard
New forum member, a few questions
Re: New forum member, a few questions
>- Is this available for purchase or is this a download the plans and build it yourself (I don't mind that but am just curious)?
The final board is not yet ready and is not available until we solve the production problem.
>- Is it open such that I could add software support for a new disk format/disk drive such as Coco disk images, TI99/4a, Coleco Adam, Apple ][, or some other retro computer etc?
Yes. Currently the software uses external libraries to load images and encodes tracks. You can easily add new images/system support by adding your library in the "Plugins" directory of the application.
>- I noticed there is a memory card version, is this an either/or type of thing or can it be used w/ a memory card and also be hooked up to a PC? I like memory cards for their immediacy, but when the particular type goes obsolete a way to connect to a computer would be desirable (USB/serial/etc).
The board will probably support both sdcard and usb connection. When the usb is used, the sdcard is useless for the emulation.
>- Is this read only currently? If so, is write support possible in the future?
Yes it is read-only but the write support is in the road map .
The final board is not yet ready and is not available until we solve the production problem.
>- Is it open such that I could add software support for a new disk format/disk drive such as Coco disk images, TI99/4a, Coleco Adam, Apple ][, or some other retro computer etc?
Yes. Currently the software uses external libraries to load images and encodes tracks. You can easily add new images/system support by adding your library in the "Plugins" directory of the application.
>- I noticed there is a memory card version, is this an either/or type of thing or can it be used w/ a memory card and also be hooked up to a PC? I like memory cards for their immediacy, but when the particular type goes obsolete a way to connect to a computer would be desirable (USB/serial/etc).
The board will probably support both sdcard and usb connection. When the usb is used, the sdcard is useless for the emulation.
>- Is this read only currently? If so, is write support possible in the future?
Yes it is read-only but the write support is in the road map .
Re: New forum member, a few questions
Hi Jeff,Jeff wrote:>- Is this available for purchase or is this a download the plans and build it yourself (I don't mind that but am just curious)?
The final board is not yet ready and is not available until we solve the production problem.
>- Is it open such that I could add software support for a new disk format/disk drive such as Coco disk images, TI99/4a, Coleco Adam, Apple ][, or some other retro computer etc?
Yes. Currently the software uses external libraries to load images and encodes tracks. You can easily add new images/system support by adding your library in the "Plugins" directory of the application.
>- I noticed there is a memory card version, is this an either/or type of thing or can it be used w/ a memory card and also be hooked up to a PC? I like memory cards for their immediacy, but when the particular type goes obsolete a way to connect to a computer would be desirable (USB/serial/etc).
The board will probably support both sdcard and usb connection. When the usb is used, the sdcard is useless for the emulation.
>- Is this read only currently? If so, is write support possible in the future?
Yes it is read-only but the write support is in the road map .
Thanks for all the answers. Now I'm even more excited about this. One system I failed to mention was the C64. I was starting to look into porting something like 1541emu or vc1541 but I'm wondering if HxC could fit the bill. The 1541 used the 6502 and other chips if I remember correctly on board. Can a software DLL running on the PC somehow address that? The encoding tracks you mentioned probably has something to do with this. But does it assume a dumb disk drive?
~telengard
Re: New forum member, a few questions
C1541 is not a floppy drive like the others : it has a firmware and his i/o is a serial link with an communication protocol.
To replace it, i see two methods :
-> Replace the whole unit :
In this case we need to emulate the behaviour of the 1541 firmware.
The HxCFloppyEmulator was not designed to emulate "intelligent" drive. To make an "1541 compatible" drive we need to add an uC + our own firmware to the actual design. With an FPGA it's possible but this need some work to be done.
Additionally this is a specific development for C64.
In others words, there is no plan to replace the whole 1541 unit in this project.
Hopefully there are some others project which do the same thing
:
http://jderogee.tripod.com/project1541.htm
http://www.hobby.nl/~commodore-gg/innov ... 1kaart.htm
-> Replace the physical drive inside the 1541 box.
This is possible to replace the internal drive by the HxCFloppyEmulator. This is the best method if you want something 100% compatible with the original 1541, because in this case you keep the 1541 controller board and its firmware.
But to do this we need to add GCR encoding support to the floppy emulator.
To replace it, i see two methods :
-> Replace the whole unit :
In this case we need to emulate the behaviour of the 1541 firmware.
The HxCFloppyEmulator was not designed to emulate "intelligent" drive. To make an "1541 compatible" drive we need to add an uC + our own firmware to the actual design. With an FPGA it's possible but this need some work to be done.
Additionally this is a specific development for C64.
In others words, there is no plan to replace the whole 1541 unit in this project.
Hopefully there are some others project which do the same thing
:http://jderogee.tripod.com/project1541.htm
http://www.hobby.nl/~commodore-gg/innov ... 1kaart.htm
-> Replace the physical drive inside the 1541 box.
This is possible to replace the internal drive by the HxCFloppyEmulator. This is the best method if you want something 100% compatible with the original 1541, because in this case you keep the 1541 controller board and its firmware.
But to do this we need to add GCR encoding support to the floppy emulator.
Re: New forum member, a few questions
Hi Jeff,Jeff wrote:C1541 is not a floppy drive like the others : it has a firmware and his i/o is a serial link with an communication protocol.
To replace it, i see two methods :
-> Replace the whole unit :
In this case we need to emulate the behaviour of the 1541 firmware.
The HxCFloppyEmulator was not designed to emulate "intelligent" drive. To make an "1541 compatible" drive we need to add an uC + our own firmware to the actual design. With an FPGA it's possible but this need some work to be done.
Additionally this is a specific development for C64.
In others words, there is no plan to replace the whole 1541 unit in this project.
Hopefully there are some others project which do the same thing
http://jderogee.tripod.com/project1541.htm
http://www.hobby.nl/~commodore-gg/innov ... 1kaart.htm
-> Replace the physical drive inside the 1541 box.
This is possible to replace the internal drive by the HxCFloppyEmulator. This is the best method if you want something 100% compatible with the original 1541, because in this case you keep the 1541 controller board and its firmware.
But to do this we need to add GCR encoding support to the floppy emulator.
Yep, that's what I figured given all the extra "intelligence" on the drive. That "Ultimate" one looks like it will fit the bill. So now I have 2 devices I really want to buy!
I'm actually about 75% of the way porting vc1541 to be a linux kernel driver. Won't be as nice as a dedicated HW driver but I'm just curious to see how it will work.
IIRC GCR is also what the apple computers would use (IIGS, //c, ][+, etc).
thanks,
~telengard