HxC Floppy Drive Emulator

Hi, my name is 12bitski and I´m a addicted SP1200 user.

I just ordered a cased version of the FD Emulator at lotharek1977´s ebay shop.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SD-Floppy-Emu ... 27bd5c04e9

My plan is to run both, the internal Diskdrive and the external FD Emulator (cased). (EDIT: this changed, as they sent me an uncased model instead of the cased one. so I´ll build it into the SP 1200)

Anyone has tried that before?

I´m not willing to rip out my Floppy Drive from the SP. Also, I don´t have the chance to convert SP1200 Disks with a PC (Mac User).

My goal: Loading up a original SP1200 Disk to the SP via internal Floppy Drive and save it to the SD Card via HxC FDE.

I will try to build in a split cable for the Diskdrives into the SP to connect both .

My guess, you can´t really use both Drives the same time, but maybe a Switch will help (switch ID of the drives)

Anyone has experience with this?

I will report how it went, when I received the HxC unit.

Switching the power supply will likely not work. I had all kind of weird problems by keeping a drive plugged at the same time as the HxC on my Thomson MO5. Your hardware may be different.

I think it would be safer to add switches to the drive select lines (that's what the jumpers/dipswitches on the HxC already do).

* Make your internal drive answer to DS0, and make the HxC never answer or answer to DS1 to read/write floppies ;
* And the other way for reading/writing the HxC.

Thanks for the tip. That really makes more sense, than to switch the floppy´s powersupply.

OK, got the Emulator now.
But I can´t find a preset file for the SP1200 inside the software or in a folder. Nor I could find helpful instructions to make it run for the SP.
I thought, as it is in the list of possible machines, that I can choose SP1200 format from a menue.

Where can i get a empty SP1200 diskimage or do I just need to adjust the "creating a diskimage" settings in the software for the SP Disks?

Thanks for any help.

Disks attached !

Hey Jeff, thanks a lot. What an adventure. Your files made my day.

Now I´m able to use the SP1200 image (Copy and rename)

With the help of user "sounddefects", I was able to create the right CFG file in the emulator´s settings.

Generic Shugart
Auto unchecked
Device standby 153s
Load last loaded floppy unchecked
Disable disk drive selector checked
everything else unchecked

Set Jumpers on the HxC to ID0 (ID0 is the one, the SP1200 calls)

As they sent me a non cased version of the Emulator instead of a cased one now, I decided to implement the uncased emulator version into the SP1200. I found a good spot to place the display (you can unplug the display). there´s also a good space for the mainpart of the floppy emulatorhardware.

I will build in a switch to select the floppydrive or the emulator, so that you can save disks loaded from the "real" drive to the "virtual" one.

keep you posted with pics, when everything runs fine.

thanks again to jeff for the support with the files (nice drums ),

12bitski

BTW: if you´re a mac user and copy ".HFE" files to the SD cards, there will be a second file sometimes, that reads nearly identical. if you select that file, there will be an error message "Bad File". eg: "SPDisk1.HFE" will be "_SPDisk1.HFE" . Bad thing is, that these files are hidden, when you look for them on a Mac or PC. There´s a trick to make them visible. but I don´t know, how. So they stay on your SD card.

It´s recommended to copy the HFE files via PC or PC Emulation (Mac) .

OK, here we go.

I built a split/parallel floppydrive cable.

I bought a pair of floppy cables (1euro/piece). I took off one of the plugs and installed it on the other cable.

as I will place the HxC on top of the floppydrive, the plug is just a few cm away from the plug, that leads into the HxC.

I installed a switch, that adresses the floppydrive to ID0, while the HxC is addressed to ID1. when switched on, the HxC is answering to the SP1200, while the floppydrive doesn´t react.

as long, the switch is off, you can load floppys from the drive. as soon, they are loaded up, you can switch to "on" position and the HxC is selected.

then you can save your sounds, loaded from the floppydisk, to the selected .hfe-file on the HxC.

The new floppydrivecable


Cable installed


Powersupply for both drives

I put the HxC on top of the Floppydrive, as there is enough space inside the machine to do that.

I will find a way to mount the HxC to the FD. At the moment for testing, there´s just a layer of rubber to isolate the contacts from the metal of the FD case.

For the wireing of the addressbutton, I used the cable i had left from the two cables i bough. Also the plug can be used where the jumpers were. They fit. They just need to be cut off.

By the way. This is not the endversion of the build of course. Just the testphase.

I really found a good place for the display just above the SP1200 display. I will also install some extra select buttons for the HxC and the Switch for the selection of the drives.

This will be the new gereration of SP1200

To be continued.


HxC on top of the FD


The adress switch to change the IDs of the FloppyDrive and the Emulator.

Here´s a video of the setup.

The next days, I´ll start to build it into the machine.

To be continued


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRedfoBSkTg

Ok, all cables lead to external control now.

BTW: you don´t need to unsolder the buttons on the HxC hardware. there´s J2 on the hardware, where you can connect buttons. (you need to check the schmatics)

now I´m able to use the machine, till I got the next and last step finished.

you can see the positions now, where I will place the parts into the SP body.

next step will be, to cut the body and build everything inside.

By the way. If someone need to know, how to address the SP 1200 FD, what is a Sony MPF420-2,
I found a page with the jumper´s settings. The page´s about the MPF420-1, but the settings are the same:

http://insight.actapricot.org/insight/c ... 420-1f.htm

The SD slot.




Here the Body prepared for the display and the switches.




Here you can see the pins for the control buttons (J2)

Nice !

Just one thing : Be careful with the lcd's wires length.
Once connected try some write process on the HxC (some lcd signals are shared with the hxc sram chip...)

Thanks for the advice.

To connect the display, I used another of these 1Euro floppycables (just used one of the row of the plug), what works pretty good as they fit. It has the right lenght to still open and close the top of the SP1200. That way, there´s no need to solder something or extra create a cable. Cheap and fast solution.

As far as I tried, everything works ok. (I copied about 10 disks to the SD card).

Here you can see the mounted unit on top of the drive again (a rubberlayer isolates the board from shorts). I used plastic rings on the screws to avoid shorts)
Also you can see the Plug on the LCD con, the plug for external control and the one, that addresses the HxC.

Here it is. Sp1200 with both. Internal Drive and the HxC Floppydrive Emulator.

Video will follow.



Here you can see the parts I built in, carring the display, the control and the switch to change die IDs.



Here the other side:



Everything works fine. End of adventure!