Gotek UFA1M44

Post Reply
franky52
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:29 pm

Gotek UFA1M44

Post by franky52 »

Hi!

Is this kind of Gotek supported by the HxC2001 firmware? This type doesn’t come with the 34 pin fdd header but an USB plug.

Thank you

Jeff
Site Admin
Posts: 8092
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:12 am
Location: Paris
Contact:

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by Jeff »

franky52 wrote:
Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:59 pm
Hi!

Is this kind of Gotek supported by the HxC2001 firmware? This type doesn’t come with the 34 pin fdd header but an USB plug.

Thank you
No it is not.

franky52
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:29 pm

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by franky52 »

Thank you.

And is there any remote possibility that it will ever be? The chipset seems the same.

Anyway, thanks for your great product!

Jeff
Site Admin
Posts: 8092
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:12 am
Location: Paris
Contact:

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by Jeff »

franky52 wrote:
Tue Feb 05, 2019 11:59 am
Thank you.

And is there any remote possibility that it will ever be? The chipset seems the same.

Anyway, thanks for your great product!
Sure ? Which "chipset" is it ?

Why do you need this usb version ?

franky52
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:29 pm

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by franky52 »

Look at the pictures. there are 2 "chipsets". I need the USB version for an HP Thin Client that I use as a retro-computer with MSDOS 6.22 and it lacks the FDD port.
The J3,J4, etc is exactly the same. In fact, I was able to "communicate" with the "Flash Loader Demostrator" from ST

Image
Image
Image

Jeff
Site Admin
Posts: 8092
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:12 am
Location: Paris
Contact:

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by Jeff »

Ok dual MCU. interesting beast !
But no the hxc firmware definitively don't support this.
But anyway are you sure that MSDOS can work with these USB drives ? This is emulated by the machine bios ?

franky52
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:29 pm

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by franky52 »

What a pitty. Should be a perfect candidate for your firmware. Nothing can be done?

Check this video : https://youtu.be/GmtNeYpbGzI

Jeff
Site Admin
Posts: 8092
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:12 am
Location: Paris
Contact:

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by Jeff »

franky52 wrote:
Thu Feb 07, 2019 12:24 am
What a pitty. Should be a perfect candidate for your firmware. Nothing can be done?
Lot of things can be done, but if this need some hundred of hours of work for just ~10 users ( 100 euros :D ), i think i prefer to do something else.
Here 2 firmwares are needed :
- One on the main MCU to handle the USB stick, which is more or less what is done on the current firmware.
- One on the secondary MCU to emulate the USB Floppy drive.
i bet that both MCUs are interconnected with an SPI link.

I have a question : Why do you want to change the original firmwares ?
If the answer is "to support special floppy formats", this is anyway not supported by the USB specification nor the machine BIOS so...
I am not sure about the "added value" of a custom firmware(s) here.
franky52 wrote:
Thu Feb 07, 2019 12:24 am
Check this video : https://youtu.be/GmtNeYpbGzI
Yes. But the BIOS need to support the floppy drive over USB for this.
And when it does, you can generally just format an usb stick and install MSDOS 6.22 on it with all your software and boot from the stick. (see https://rufus.ie/)
That's why i am not sure that these floppy emulators are really needed here.

franky52
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:29 pm

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by franky52 »

I see your point and if there’s a lot of work to do I wouldn’t do it either.

With your firmware I would be able to throw the disk images directly to the usb pendrive, organise the in folders, not to mention the easy of use with an oled screen... :D

Anyway, thank you for your helpful explanation and we can close this thread

tzok
Posts: 79
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2018 2:52 pm

Re: Gotek UFA1M44

Post by tzok »

If it has an USB support what is the point of using a hardware floppy drive emulator? If, for whatever reason, you want to use a floppy image on a USB stick, you can just mount it in the OS. There is a Virtual Floppy Drive software for Windows, and under Linux, you can do this just "out of the box".

Post Reply