FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

HxC Floppy emulator support for all others computers...
bbuchholtz
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:45 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by bbuchholtz »

caius wrote:
Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:07 pm
bbuchholtz wrote:
Wed Jan 24, 2018 10:43 pm
I'm basing my PCB on your research :D
I had not doubts.Nowadays most of people take advantage of public/shared info and use it to make profit, I kindly ask you to not do the same with mine.Thanks.
No, it's just a hobby. Have no intent of selling. I plan on donating the extra PCBs. Just trying to help.

-Brian

bbuchholtz
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:45 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by bbuchholtz »

I started on PCB today. It's still rough. Plan to do clean-up tomorrow.

I'm adding jumpers to make it easy to test with or without pull-up resistors...

Top:

https://ibb.co/dudkjG

Bottom:

https://ibb.co/f4MGrw

I welcome any input...

-Brian

caius
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by caius »

Jeff wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:07 am


Last time i said something similar, i got the answer : "Then why did you have put all your formats documentation on your website and the software in open source ?" :|
Yes, very smart answer from a very smart guy :lol:
These people must understand that the fact that we share our information does not give them the right to use it to make money.

bbuchholtz
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:45 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by bbuchholtz »

Anyways, I think we're having a misunderstanding. I think this discussion has fallen victim to a language barrier.

I used ExpressPCB for creating this PCB. It's free for anyone to use. Please note that I have NOT tested this board. I cannot take any responsibility for any damage it may cause.

I'm going to focus on another project. I wish you all the best on getting the HxC FDD emulator working with the Marty :)

Take care,

Brian
Attachments
Marty_HxC_1.00.zip
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caius
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by caius »

Yes, I see you used ExpressPCB, I used it me too in my early days of designing, now I'm very happy with Kicad.Anyway, first we have to figure out why the HxC emulator doesn't work in a Marty console, very kindly Jeff has offered to help us with his huge skills.

Jeff
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Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by Jeff »

caius wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:47 pm
Yes, I see you used ExpressPCB, I used it me too in my early days of designing, now I'm very happy with Kicad.Anyway, first we have to figure out why the HxC emulator doesn't work in a Marty console, very kindly Jeff has offered to help us with his huge skills.
i suspect that this already work :D. (btw i didn't receive your email)

caius
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by caius »

Jeff wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:51 pm

i suspect that this already work :D
.

Yes, pardon, I didn't want to say your device doesn't work with Marty, probably something must be chnaged in firmware.
(btw i didn't receive your email)
I still have to send it, I'm very busy in this damned real life... :D

Jeff
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Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by Jeff »

On your pinout i see 3 interesting signals : Disk Change, Ready and HD Out.
Also : with the latest firmwares you can emulate the motor-on input by connecting the MTRON signal to the HxC drive B selection input (ID0-B...) . This allows a proper emulation of the Ready signal. Some rare machine need this. The Marty is maybe one of them.

caius
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by caius »

If you mean the latest firmwares the v1.8.2.40 and beta ones, I already tried them and also connected the MTORN signal to drive B of the HxC without success.
About the three signals, I'm assuming the one I posted is the pinout of Marty FDD since here are no info available and I simply take the pinout of a generic 26pin FDD.But for sure it worked with a Samsung SFD-321B FDD set in 3-mode (so with READY signal instead on DISK CHANGE.HD-OUT signal can also e omitted and FDD will stil work)

Jeff
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Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by Jeff »

caius wrote:
Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:53 am
If you mean the latest firmwares the v1.8.2.40 and beta ones, I already tried them and also connected the MTORN signal to drive B of the HxC without success.
the option also need to be turned on.

caius
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by caius »

Yes, I meant both in hardware and software.I will try again anyway.Thanks.

caius
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am

Re: FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator close to success

Post by caius »

Jeff, you have new mail :)

caius
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am

FM-TOWNS Marty and SD HxC Floppy Emulator ***S-U-C-C-E-S-S***

Post by caius »

I'm pleased to announce that, thanks to the remote support of Jeff, I succeeded in using an HxC SD floppy emulator in my FM-TOWNS Marty 2.
Here are video (sorry for black&white screen but my TV doesn't accept NTSC signal) I made during a reading and fomatting of a disk image :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVRwLRp2b2I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgGk3n0Cy9o

Actually the HC was already 100% compatible with the FM-TOWNS Marty, techncally speaking the problem was that the READ DATA output signal from HxC was slightly off what the Marty expected.Jeff suggested me to install a 220 Ohm pull-up resistor between the READ DATA line and 5V, this did the job so now we can enjoy his wonderful device in out Marty console.

Attached is the connection diagram between the HxC (or real FDD like a modified Samsung SFD-321B) and Marty, remember only to put a resistor (220 Ohm but other values up to 1K are fine) between pin 30 (READ DATA) on the HxC header and +5V.Later revision (Rev F and slim) of HxC have footprints to accomodate pull-up resistors.Mine was a Rev.C so I put the resistor on solderside of HxC but you can install it also on your custom adatper.About that I remember that Marty use a 26pin FFC connector with 1.25mm of pitch so you have to build an adapter to 34 pin IDC.I'm working on designing an adapter.
As for HxC you can set the interface on "AUTO" or "SHUGART" and all other settings "FROM HFE"
Many thanks again to Jeff for his support (and patience too...)
MARTY_to_HxC.jpg
MARTY_to_HxC.jpg (49.36 KiB) Viewed 7518 times

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