When the Gotek emulation needs to change logical sides or tracks, is there any interruption to timing of either transition data or index pulse? The Heath machine cannot successfully low-level format an emulation image. After writing several tracks it gets a "Controller not ready" error. Is it possible that the firmware is off doing a USB write and not responding in the manner that a physical drive would during that period of time?
More symptoms suggestive of a pause: When bulk copying files (wildcard) from a given emulation image I see consistent errors at about the same point in the copy. However, if I hit Enter to retry OR subsequently copy the troublesome files individually everything works fine. It seems state-dependent, in other words.
Question on Gotek timing
Re: Question on Gotek timing
Sure ! You are trying to write small amount of data so flash memories designed to be write with huge data quantity (>>1MB). The emulator is waiting the usb stick. That's why i asked you several times what usb stick you use.snhirsch wrote: Is it possible that the firmware is off doing a USB write and not responding in the manner that a physical drive would during that period of time?
So the problem is maybe around the usb stick used ?snhirsch wrote: More symptoms suggestive of a pause: When bulk copying files (wildcard) from a given emulation image I see consistent errors at about the same point in the copy. However, if I hit Enter to retry OR subsequently copy the troublesome files individually everything works fine. It seems state-dependent, in other words.
Re: Question on Gotek timing
I will try a faster USB stick, but it's incredibly difficult to find such information on retail packaged devices. Hopefully a USB 3.0 rated unit will work.
Re: Question on Gotek timing
not sure : more the flash drive is big, slower it is with small write packet.snhirsch wrote:I will try a faster USB stick, but it's incredibly difficult to find such information on retail packaged devices. Hopefully a USB 3.0 rated unit will work.
VERY dependent on USB device
After a week or two of fighting read and write errors when using the Gotek HxC unit with my CP/M systems, I decided to try a USB connected hard disk instead of a memory stick (after going through just about every one I had). The good news is that I can now format the emulated diskette from my Heath H89. This never worked with a memory stick and resulted in a "controller timeout" error after one or two tracks were written.
The bad news is that even with the hard disk I continue to see random read and write errors operating on the image. I've ordered a SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 stick, which has been measured at > 10x the typical small-block RW throughput according to many tests. Perhaps this will cooperate better.
I'm still open to the idea of purchasing one of the Lotharek units, but would like to first understand why their architecture would not tend to show the same sensitivity to USB small I/O behavior? Do they do more aggressive buffering? Faster CPU? Something else?
The bad news is that even with the hard disk I continue to see random read and write errors operating on the image. I've ordered a SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 stick, which has been measured at > 10x the typical small-block RW throughput according to many tests. Perhaps this will cooperate better.
I'm still open to the idea of purchasing one of the Lotharek units, but would like to first understand why their architecture would not tend to show the same sensitivity to USB small I/O behavior? Do they do more aggressive buffering? Faster CPU? Something else?
Re: VERY dependent on USB device
Not a surprise. Anyway, please don't think that a "write" and a "format" is the same process. Regarding the timing and the FDC behaviour these are totally different.
For sure the read/write errors have nothing to do with the drive speed. Please make the read line waveforms...
For the SD HxC : The sdcard are better and don't rely on a usb stack
For sure the read/write errors have nothing to do with the drive speed. Please make the read line waveforms...
For the SD HxC : The sdcard are better and don't rely on a usb stack