Is there a technical reason a Gotek device can't emulate both A: and B: drives simultaneously?

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keenerb
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Is there a technical reason a Gotek device can't emulate both A: and B: drives simultaneously?

Post by keenerb »

Subject says it all, really. I assume the drive select pins are possibly the hurdle, maybe it's hard-wired at a point you can't easily address with software.

Jeff
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Re: Is there a technical reason a Gotek device can't emulate both A: and B: drives simultaneously?

Post by Jeff »

keenerb wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:44 am
Subject says it all, really. I assume the drive select pins are possibly the hurdle, maybe it's hard-wired at a point you can't easily address with software.
- No second drive select line.
- All bus gating is software done -> Must be fast as possible.
- Drive/image switching reliability/timing concern.
- User interface in question : Sound to be a pain to change the image in drive B or A with only these two buttons... In fact this is the most serious issue.
- This feature is already on the normal SD HxC Floppy Emulators : I am really wondering how many use this feature :?

There is no impossibility (the second select line can be wired), but the interest is questionable, especially when you can get another Gotek for a couple of $.

keenerb
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:19 pm

Re: Is there a technical reason a Gotek device can't emulate both A: and B: drives simultaneously?

Post by keenerb »

Yeah I can see the interface issues being the primary concern, I was wondering about that last night.

I could only think that the third button/rotary encoder button could swap between A and B drives for interface rather than insert/eject disk...

I don't really think it's a feature I'd even use, other than possibly to have a permanent boot A: drive and then swap floppies in B:...

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