Firmware updates for the STM32/Gotek HxC floppy emulators !

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Jeff
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

Vaklin wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 10:14 pm
I'm asking is software, which makes images, wants "ready" signal. I hope Jeff answered me about that.
Which software ?

Vaklin
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Vaklin »

Your software for PC.

Jeff
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

Vaklin wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:16 am
Your software for PC.
so i don't understand at all the question. there is no point between the emulator ready signal and the hxc pc software. Unless you are using the old usb hxc floppy emulator based on a CPLD ?

Vaklin
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Vaklin »

No, no, no...
I'll try step by step.
1. I have an old 8' floppy.
2. This device hasn't native ready signal.
3. I'm planning to attach it to PC with idea to get images from some old disks.
4. Software which read images are named by you "HxC Floppy Emulator".

So, should I prepare some circuit to make a ready signal from the drive (not emulator!) to work with your software?

Jeff
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

Some updates ! :
1 April 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.22.1a

- TI99/4A : Direct support of *.DSK/*.PC99/*.V9T9 sectors dump images
SD/DD/HD density support (Read & Write).

- New embedded menu entry : You can now force the user interface mode
(Normal/Indexed or selector mode selection).

3 April 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.22.2a

- TI99/4A : V9T9/DSK Loader -> Better disk layout detection.

19 April 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.22.3a

- OLED screen setting sanity check : Do not allow more than 21 characters per line.

26 April 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.22.4a

- 2 Digits screen Gotek : Fix embedded config menu.

28 April 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.22.6a

- HFE files : Fix MPC60 MkII formatted images write support regression.
May also fix possible write issues on HFE files with some others machines/disk formats.
Update recommended.
https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... rmware.zip

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... _notes.txt

mondo1976
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by mondo1976 »

A couple things:

"- New embedded menu entry : You can now force the user interface mode
(Normal/Indexed or selector mode selection)."

I didn't see anything in the documentation about what menu option this is. It appears there are multiple new options in the config menu, but I can't tell which one is the correct option to force indexed mode on a Gotek with 7-segment display.

Also, I like the display-blink feature on newer firmware which signals when the disk change has actually taken place. However, it seems as if the time for disk changes to become ready has increased on the newer firmware compared to the older firmware. At least on certain machines, this can take twice as long as before, or even a little longer.

There are no moving parts, so it seems as if disk changes should be ready almost immediately. Is there any way to shorten the latency?

Jeff
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

mondo1976 wrote:
Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:22 pm
There are no moving parts, so it seems as if disk changes should be ready almost immediately. Is there any way to shorten the latency?
yes but some machines are polling the drive 1 time per second to detect the disk change. this is why this may appears long. if i make an immediate ready signal, disk change detection may fail.
which delay have you exactly ?

mondo1976
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by mondo1976 »

Jeff wrote:
Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:04 pm
yes but some machines are polling the drive 1 time per second to detect the disk change. this is why this may appears long. if i make an immediate ready signal, disk change detection may fail.
which delay have you exactly ?
Akai S900 is taking about 5 seconds with newest firmware. The older firmware just before the freshly added NVRAM menu for 7-segment only Goteks was about 2.5s. It's hard to time exactly because it's lacking the diskchange "flash" that the very newest firmware does.

Also, I believe the MO jumper is supposed to do nothing on the HxC firmware because the interface type handles this, correct? But yet it does appear to do something, at least on older firmware. Is this good, bad, or indifferent?

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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

Ok will add an new meny entry to set this delay ;)

(btw i have updated the documentation)

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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

Jeff wrote:
Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:29 pm
Ok will add an new meny entry to set this delay ;)

(btw i have updated the documentation)
Done ! :
2 May 2018: Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.1.23.1a

- 7 segments Gotek : New menu entry : 5 -> Auto select delay setting.
- Floppy Interface initialized before the screen. (Fix Emu Emulator second drive detection issue).
- Amiga ID support enabled by default (HD ADF support).
https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... rmware.zip

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... _notes.txt

Use the menu 5 to reduce the delay.

mondo1976
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by mondo1976 »

Jeff wrote:
Thu May 03, 2018 12:16 am
Use the menu 5 to reduce the delay.
Excellent and lightning quick work, sir!
Dropped it down to 1 and it's working beautifully. :D

Would it be greedy to see if a parameter of '0' could be added which corresponds to 0.5s (or something to that effect)? I am assuming the parameter 1 is about 1 second long.

Jeff
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

mondo1976 wrote:
Thu May 03, 2018 2:51 pm
Jeff wrote:
Thu May 03, 2018 12:16 am
Use the menu 5 to reduce the delay.
Excellent and lightning quick work, sir!
Dropped it down to 1 and it's working beautifully. :D

Would it be greedy to see if a parameter of '0' could be added which corresponds to 0.5s (or something to that effect)? I am assuming the parameter 1 is about 1 second long.
yes. will add this in a next release.

peter
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by peter »

Hello Jeff!
It is nice to me that you keep up improving the already great firmware for gotek usb stick.
I once sugested you one modification on EAB forum, it was about time of cycle through slots to increase speed of it and you did it well in the first approach stepping the speed.
Once it was okay , now it is worse. You modified key repeat-delay for to slow first stage of repeating and it is going to ultra speed later, so unable to easly walk through the slots.

I am writing because the option to auto select slot after change is a must, but the current beta gives it impossible to cycle through the slots as before with Option 5 and parameter 1 second as for delay. Please restore this back , I mean leave this concept with click filtering if it makes the delay. Now unable to cycle through slots with 1 second. I checked , 2 seconds are okay.
I mean, you should reduce initial slot change delay under 0.5 sec, then after 3 seconds I can't even notice the current slot number, because it goes too fast. Please reduce the last speed or make another speed setting, much lower, and put it after 3 seconds for another step of speed, leave the last speed the fastest after 10 second, not after 4 seconds just after clicking first time.

another option is to give us another settings of the delay time for cycling through slots.
I know you make your firmware as most universal for platforms as possible, but maybe there is a need for releasing the firmware for each platform separately?

thanks and regards.
peter :?

Jeff
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by Jeff »

peter wrote:
Thu May 03, 2018 9:55 pm
Hello Jeff!
It is nice to me that you keep up improving the already great firmware for gotek usb stick.
I once sugested you one modification on EAB forum, it was about time of cycle through slots to increase speed of it and you did it well in the first approach stepping the speed.
Once it was okay , now it is worse. You modified key repeat-delay for to slow first stage of repeating and it is going to ultra speed later, so unable to easly walk through the slots.

I am writing because the option to auto select slot after change is a must, but the current beta gives it impossible to cycle through the slots as before with Option 5 and parameter 1 second as for delay. Please restore this back , I mean leave this concept with click filtering if it makes the delay. Now unable to cycle through slots with 1 second. I checked , 2 seconds are okay.
I mean, you should reduce initial slot change delay under 0.5 sec, then after 3 seconds I can't even notice the current slot number, because it goes too fast. Please reduce the last speed or make another speed setting, much lower, and put it after 3 seconds for another step of speed, leave the last speed the fastest after 10 second, not after 4 seconds just after clicking first time.

another option is to give us another settings of the delay time for cycling through slots.
I know you make your firmware as most universal for platforms as possible, but maybe there is a need for releasing the firmware for each platform separately?

thanks and regards.
peter :?
Ok, acknowledged ! :wink: But stay tuned to make some tests of the next alpha/beta version.

tzok
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Re: New Alpha version Firmware - Volunteer Testers needed !

Post by tzok »

I came back to the issue with a rotary encoder. This time with Keir ;) Now in FF my encoder works as desired - one step every encoder "click". As you probably know, in the FF there were 2 supported encoder patterns: simple (as in HxC) and Gray. Now there is one between called half. On my encoder simple (as well as HxC) moves one position every two encoder "clicks", on Gray it move 2 positions every "click". Can you add encoder type configuration to menu?

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