HXC Slim drives A+B together on Amiga

[Jeff]

Firmware update failure. Please retry the update with another sd.

[seldon]

I reupdated the firmware (how should I know it has finished correctly BTW? should I do it with HxC emulator unplugged from host computer?) and I still have the same problem: 1.7a version of selector software starts, I insert Workbench disk into drive A, slot 1, Amiga restarts, Workbench starts loading and then stops with read error message and HxC hangs (red LED constantly lights and there's no beeping while pushing button).
Is it problem of firmware flashing? Then why file selector is working and displays firmware version 2.0.2.2?

[Jeff]

I reupdated the firmware (how should I know it has finished correctly BTW? should I do it with HxC emulator unplugged from host computer?) and I still have the same problem: 1.7a version of selector software starts, I insert Workbench disk into drive A, slot 1, Amiga restarts, Workbench starts loading and then stops with read error message and HxC hangs (red LED constantly lights and there's no beeping while pushing button).
Is it problem of firmware flashing? Then why file selector is working and displays firmware version 2.0.2.2?

Is your amiga modified (some accelerator board ?)

I reupdated the firmware (how should I know it has finished correctly BTW?

The hxc restart automatically. How blink the led at the end ?

Slim SD HxC Floppy Emulator Update procedure :

-> Copy the new firmware file (*.upd) to a freshly formated FAT32 SDCard.
-> Insert the SDCard into the emulator and press the button.
-> Power up the device and keep the button pressed during at least 2 seconds.
-> Wait one minute... its done !

Note 1:
The file must be unfragmented on the sdcard and must be in the first part of the root directory.
For these reasons it is recommended to use a freshly formatted FAT32 SDCard, otherwise you may get the error 4 or 6 (see note 2).

Note 2:
Bootstrap LED error messages:
Error 1 : (blink 1 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) No entry point (->no software flashed)
Error 2 : (blink 2 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) SDCard init error.
Error 3 : (blink 3 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) FAT error.
Error 4 : (blink 4 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) UPD File not found!
Error 5 : (blink 5 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) Bad UPD File header! (bad file)
Error 6 : (blink 6 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) Bad data crc! (file corrupt)
Error 7 : (blink 7 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) Bad data size!
Error 8 : (blink 8 time and 2 seconds pause cycle) Write error (PIC flash error)

[seldon]

Is your amiga modified (some accelerator board ?)

I do have 8MB FastRAM memory extension put on processor, but I had it before and everything worked fine. I removed it now, and nothing changed.

As for updating procedure I don't quite understand it. That's how it looked in my case:
0. HxC emulator is connected to Amiga (both data and power cable)
1. Amiga is turned off. I put the freshly formatted SD card with update file.
2. I press and hold the button and turn on the power.
3. The LED blinks fast for some 10-15 seconds, then lights for about a second constantly, then blinks slowly for a few seconds. During all this there are no sounds. In the meanwhile Amiga starts displaying disk insert prompt screen and now HxC emulator starts sounding regular sounds as usually when Amiga waits to insert disk.
So I don't know if flashing finished correctly or not. Maybe there should be some beep code, to mark start and ending of flashing?
Anyway - when I put my card with autoboot 1.7a and workbench image and put it into slot A, restart Amiga by pressing F10, workbench starts to load normally for some time, I hear drive sounds and suddenly there is a single high beep and then silence, and after half a second Amiga displays read error and emulator hangs.
I'm really desperate, because everything worked fine and now nothing works anymore. Can you send me previous versions of my firmware (V2.0.1.3a) and autoboot (1.6b) to check if everything goes back to normal?

EDIT: I made this experiment: when HxC emulator hanged during loading workbench I removed and reattached its power connector to restart it and clicked retry on Amiga and the process resumed and Workbench was loaded successfully. This hangs appear at random points so I measured voltages on HxC's power connector - usually it is 4,9V, but there were moments where it droped down. Probably this causes resets or hangups. It must be something with power supply in my Amiga and not HxC's fault. Or maybe just power cable I'm using to connect it. Anyway using this trick with reseting emulator I even managed to run both drives DF0 and DF1 so on HxC's side everything seems to work.

[Jeff]

a video please...

AND : Have you tried another SD Card ?

[seldon]

Look above - I edited my post.

[Jeff]

Look above - I edited my post.

Ok i see.

So the issue is solved ?

[seldon]

I'm not fully sure, because before firmware change there were no such problems. I connected multimeter again (but using crocodile clips now instead of manually holding probes) and observed voltage during whole process. There was 4,95V all the time, and even though emulator hanged up (shouldn't it just restart?). Maybe that previous voltage drop I wrote about was just caused by losing contact, because I held probes manually?
Also this time I couldn't see DF1, only DF0
Anyway, could you send me previous versions of firmware for testing? Is there any way to confirm that flashing of firmware has ended with success?

[Jeff]

To me this is just an power supply floppy connector contact problem.
Please check it again.

About DF1: What floppy cable are you using ? Twisted or not ?
Switchs settings ?
Have you ovewrite the cfg file with the one present into the file selector zip archive ? If not please do it.

[_Jackie]

Swap files AUTOBOOT.HFE I HXCSDFE.CFG makes no changes.
Still visible is the only drive DF0. DF1 none.
HXC nontwisted cable. Jumpers set to ON 1 and 6.
Firmware version V2.0.2.2

[Jeff]

Swap files AUTOBOOT.HFE I HXCSDFE.CFG makes no changes.
Still visible is the only drive DF0. DF1 none.
HXC nontwisted cable. Jumpers set to ON 1 and 6.
Firmware version V2.0.2.2

Which machine have you ? Have you an hard disk ?

[_Jackie]

A500, 1MB Ram, any additional devices.

[Jeff]

any additional devices.

What?

[_Jackie]

Typical Amiga 500. 1MB Ram, and HXC at DF0 of course

[Jeff]

Typical Amiga 500. 1MB Ram, and HXC at DF0 of course

Should works out the box (works very well here with the same setup)

Have you selected some images into the "Drive B" slots ?
Can you try to switch off and switch on the amiga power supply ? the drive B detection is done at cold start by the amiga.