HxC Rev C as both DF1 and DF2 with external drive adapter

HxC Floppy Emulator on Amiga support
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matburton
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:44 pm

HxC Rev C as both DF1 and DF2 with external drive adapter

Post by matburton »

Hey nice forum people,

I'm thinking about buying the following for my Amiga 500, but have a few questions:
- HxC Rev C
- External floppy drive adapter
- DF0 selector

Questions:
  1. Am I correct in thinking that the HxC would work fine as DF1 with the external drive adapter?
  2. Can the HxC be used as DF2 daisy chained from a real external floppy drive? (Manual mentions only DF1 in the jumper settings section)
  3. Can the HxC be used as both DF1 and DF2? (Manual mentions only DF0+DF1 in the jumper settings section)
  4. If I used the DF0 sector, could a HxC connected using the external drive adapter be used as both DF0 and DF1? (Bit of a long shot)
  5. Can the HxC read from and write to ADF files (or any format where I can go between both) (Sorry I found the manual a little unclear regarding file formats and write support)
Why?:
I want to try some retro programming for my A500 given it's now essentially 30 years old.
Having as many simultaneous reliable writable disk drives as possible would really help.
I want to keep my A500 as original as possible.

P.S.: Has anyone tried a laser upgrade for a tank mouse? Why is one of the requirements scissors? :|

matburton
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:44 pm

Re: HxC Rev C as both DF1 and DF2 with external drive adapte

Post by matburton »

I thought I'd reply to my post as I've bought the parts I mentioned.

Answers:
  1. Yes this works but I had to file the plastic notch off the external adapters ribbon cable to be able to force it into the HxC backwards. After that I had to jumper the HxC as DF0
  2. Yes this works, but the HxC still needs to be set as DF0 in terms of jumpers and then appears as DF2
  3. No, at least I don't think so, and I think that's maybe because the adapter makes the HxC always think it's DF0 which is sad.
    Shout if anyone knows better
  4. I haven't tried but I suspect the answer to this will also be no given the above
  5. No, I haven't had much luck with writing to the HxC, it writes for a few seconds and then says No SD card and I have to remove the SD card and re-insert it. I hope it's maybe it doesn't like the SD card I was using (which is of good quality, class etc, which is why I used it) but I think maybe write support isn't what it should be
I was using the latest firmware for all of the above and stock *.cfg settings

matburton
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:44 pm

Re: HxC Rev C as both DF1 and DF2 with external drive adapter

Post by matburton »

Thought I better reply to my own post now that my understanding is better.

1. Don't get that external adapter unless you only want to be stuck using the HxC as one drive, you want an adapter which also connects SEL2
2. Yes and if you have an adapter with SEL2 connected the HxC will give you DF2 and DF3!
3. Yes! See (1) above!
4. No but it can be DF0 and DF2 externally as long as you have an adapter with SEL2 connected! (DF1 gets skipped)
5. Looks like I just got unlucky with the write speed of an SD card, using a different one now and can write fine.

If anyone does get an adapter with SEL2 connected just remember that the HxC must always be jumpered as DS0 and DS1 because of the way the SEL lines are daisy chained. This applies even if a DF0 selector switch is used.

Next up if anyone is trying to copy any real disks to the HxC, D-Copy seems like the best options with the speed set down to 1 and verify on. Note that trying to copy copy-protected disks probably still won't work.

Lastly the laser tank mouse upgrade only needed scissors to cut the old ground wire away from the previous board :roll:

Jeff
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Re: HxC Rev C as both DF1 and DF2 with external drive adapter

Post by Jeff »

matburton wrote:
Mon Sep 11, 2017 10:23 pm
Next up if anyone is trying to copy any real disks to the HxC, D-Copy seems like the best options with the speed set down to 1 and verify on. Note that trying to copy copy-protected disks probably still won't work.
And will never since the Amiga is not able to generate variable bitrate mfm stream. The limitation here is the host machine.

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