Amiga 4000 - boots but won't read in Workbench?

[Jeff]

I have not tried with installed OS3.1, OS3.9 or OS4.1 Classic yet so I could comment troubles of mdbenson and before I even try, I would like to hear you (both) comment if it is possible to use HxC Floppy Drive Emulator Rev F with real floppy drive connected to the same cable?

Yes! With the right switch setting according to the cable used (twisted or not).
Please have a look to the user manual for more details.

[Hanzu]

I have not tried with installed OS3.1, OS3.9 or OS4.1 Classic yet so I could comment troubles of mdbenson and before I even try, I would like to hear you (both) comment if it is possible to use HxC Floppy Drive Emulator Rev F with real floppy drive connected to the same cable?

Yes! With the right switch setting according to the cable used (twisted or not).
Please have a look to the user manual for more details.

No! Not true.

Using DCard HxC Floppy Emulator User Manual page 9 and doing tests:

1) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first disk drive (A: / DF0) ID0A ON - works, but does not work if in A4000 real floppy drive is connected to other (twisted) connector of the cable..
2) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first and second disk drive (A: / DF0, B: / DF1) ID0A & ID1B ON - works, but you lack internal real floppy drive.
3) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first disk drive (A: / DF0) with a twisted floppy cable! ID3A ON - does not work, will load for awhile, but then stop and say "System Request Please replace volume xxxxxxx in any drive". Same happens if connected to the connector without twist.
4) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first and second disk drive (A: / DF0, B: / DF1) with a twisted floppy cable! ID3A & ID2B ON - does not work, will load for awhile, but then stop and say "System Request Please replace volume xxxxxxx in any drive". Same happens if connected to the connector without twist.

1) and 2) will work with Amiga 4000 J351 & J352 in any position which is pretty Amazing since no real floppy drive would do that.

3) and 4) do not work at all. No matter what I try.

I believe Amiga 4000 has something different in its floppy logic than other Amiga models. Last year I bought Floppy Drive Adaptors V2 from Ian Stedman and he spent

[Jeff]

1) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first disk drive (A: / DF0) ID0A ON - works, but does not work if in A4000 real floppy drive is connected to other (twisted) connector of the cable.

What about the floppy drive jumper setting ? You probably made a bus conflict here...

3) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first disk drive (A: / DF0) with a twisted floppy cable! ID3A ON -does not work, will load for awhile, but then stop and say "System Request Please replace volume xxxxxxx in any drive". Same happens if connected to the connector without twist.

How it is possible : the 1) works and not the 3) ?!?
Something wrong here...
Can you show me how did you connect the floppy cable ?
In normal posistion the twist only invert the DS lines (DS0<>MTON(DS3) and DS1<>DS2)

4) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first and second disk drive (A: / DF0, B: / DF1) with a twisted floppy cable! ID3A & ID2B ON - does not work, will load for awhile, but then stop and say "System Request Please replace volume xxxxxxx in any drive". Same happens if connected to the connector without twist.

Same remark here

1) & 2) will work with Amiga 4000 J351 & J352 in any position which is pretty Amazing since no real floppy drive would do that.

Sorry i don't understand...

[Hanzu]

1) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first disk drive (A: / DF0) ID0A ON - works, but does not work if in A4000 real floppy drive is connected to other (twisted) connector of the cable.

What about the floppy drive jumper setting ? You probably made a bus conflict here...

3) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first disk drive (A: / DF0) with a twisted floppy cable! ID3A ON -does not work, will load for awhile, but then stop and say "System Request Please replace volume xxxxxxx in any drive". Same happens if connected to the connector without twist.

How it is possible : the 1) works and not the 3) ?!?
Something wrong here...
Can you show me how did you connect the floppy cable ?
In normal posistion the twist only invert the DS lines (DS0<>MTON(DS3) and DS1<>DS2)

4) Amiga 4000 + Emulator as the first and second disk drive (A: / DF0, B: / DF1) with a twisted floppy cable! ID3A & ID2B ON - does not work, will load for awhile, but then stop and say "System Request Please replace volume xxxxxxx in any drive". Same happens if connected to the connector without twist.

Same remark here

1) & 2) will work with Amiga 4000 J351 & J352 in any position which is pretty Amazing since no real floppy drive would do that.

Sorry i don't understand...

1) I tried both DS0 and DS1 jumper settings. I have two floppy drives where I can change DS0 and DS1 without soldering anything. How should a real drive be jumpered for it to work?

3) and 4) both will not show classic Amiga "Insert disk" -image, HxC does something like tries to rotate drive every half a second and led blinks, but it still needs me to press middle key of HxC to load the image which then fails like loosing contact with the disk image and requesting to insert disk. Retry will not work. Nor will HxC middle key, to make it continue.

My cable twists pins 4 & 6 and looks like this http://relay.pp.fi/Amiga/A4000/A4000Flo ... index.html and it is connected the right way the twist closer to pin 1 of HxC. There are A4000 cables with wrong twist and PC cables with whole different twist, but clearly these are not for HxC.

This pinout says pin 4 is MTR0D* (led) and pin 6 is 6 N.C. (not connected). The error twist in some original Amiga 4000 cables with 3 & 5 will just twist 2 grounds.
http://www.l8r.net/technical/t-diskdrive.shtml

Amiga 4000 J351 needs to be enabled if internal 880k DF1: is used and removed if there is no DF1:, if external DF1: is used or if internal DF1: is 1760k (Amiga high density drive).
Amiga 4000 J352 changes if DF0: is internal or external.
HxC seems to overrun these jumpers, since 1) and 2) worked with those jumpers set to any position.

[Jeff]

My cable twists pins 4 & 6 and looks like this http://relay.pp.fi/Amiga/A4000/A4000Flo ... index.html and it is connected the right way the twist closer to pin 1 of HxC. There are A4000 cables with wrong twist and PC cables with whole different twist, but clearly these are not for HxC.

THis is not what i call a "twisted cable"

Here it is one twisted cable :
http://www.computershopper.com/images/tips08/65.jpg

[Hanzu]

My cable twists pins 4 & 6 and looks like this http://relay.pp.fi/Amiga/A4000/A4000Flo ... index.html and it is connected the right way the twist closer to pin 1 of HxC. There are A4000 cables with wrong twist and PC cables with whole different twist, but clearly these are not for HxC.

THis is not what i call a "twisted cable"

Here it is one twisted cable :
http://www.computershopper.com/images/tips08/65.jpg

That cable is a PC floppy cable and yes it is a little more twisted than Amiga twisted floppy cables.

I now tested with that too and now setups 2), 3 and 4) works too!! Please update SDCard HxC Floppy Emulator User Manual page 9

from with a twisted floppy cable!
to with a twisted PC floppy cable!

What is pretty amazing and cool is that in setup 3) I can either insert DF0: (HxC) image or DF1: (real Amiga floppy drive) floppy and both will boot. With real Amiga it is not possible to boot from DF1: without going first to Amiga Early Startup Control of kickstart 3.0/3.1.

However number 1) is sill not working with that PC cable either to include real Amiga floppy drive as the second drive (DF1:). It shows "DF1:????" even without floppy inside the drive right after HxC has done its booting and loading Workbench image. Do I need to use PC floppy drive for this too or what?!

If I put Rev F inside external floppy case it only works as one drive (as DF2: in my case and as DF1: in single floppy Amigas) no matter how I set the IDs, is this correct?