Floppy drive emulator for Amiga (HxC) compatibilty?
category: offtopic [glöplog]
The new Lemon release has finally pushed me over the edge - I have to get something for my Amiga 500 so I can transfer and watch new demos!
I am primarily looking at buying a SD-based drive emulator (from Lotharek.pl)
Anyone used any of these? How is the compatibility with all kinds of strange trackloaders that demos use?
I am primarily looking at buying a SD-based drive emulator (from Lotharek.pl)
Anyone used any of these? How is the compatibility with all kinds of strange trackloaders that demos use?
Bought mine late last year and l'm very happy with it.
I've had some issues here and there but I suspect some of those are due to compatibility problems with A600, not hxc. I haven't bothered enough to investigate closer though, overall it's been excellent. :)
Also worth noting that ordering from Lotharek was a very nice experience; fast & professional.
I've had some issues here and there but I suspect some of those are due to compatibility problems with A600, not hxc. I haven't bothered enough to investigate closer though, overall it's been excellent. :)
Also worth noting that ordering from Lotharek was a very nice experience; fast & professional.
I own both an USB & SD card version of the HxC emulator and I never ran into any issue using these with an A500+ and a A1200, provided you have correct image dumps of your floppy disks.
In any case Jeff Del Nero (the dev) takes any feedback and work hard to resolve any compatibility issue - which I never saw myself.
HxC works at a very low level (magnetic impulses simulation), that's why it works so well with dumps of protected disks or exotic formats. And that you have to convert your disk images using the provided tool for the SD card version.
Basically once he hardware-implemented the two major types of disk controllers existing in the world back in 2006, nearly all he did after that was develop the SD card version, fixing bugs in the firmware and some exotic pinout connections with some hardware, and adding extra features like the image selector directly from the host. I even think the only difference between RevB and RevC to allow writing back on an image dump from an Amiga was soldering two pins on the PCB.
Compatibility list :
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
It is actually used on industry tools with awkward formats (see this Youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/JeffHxC2001) and Jeff is a member of the French hardware & software preservation association mo5.com so he has a lot of hardware available to test it on. I think the lastest firmware added compatibility with the Apple II disk controller.
In any case Jeff Del Nero (the dev) takes any feedback and work hard to resolve any compatibility issue - which I never saw myself.
HxC works at a very low level (magnetic impulses simulation), that's why it works so well with dumps of protected disks or exotic formats. And that you have to convert your disk images using the provided tool for the SD card version.
Basically once he hardware-implemented the two major types of disk controllers existing in the world back in 2006, nearly all he did after that was develop the SD card version, fixing bugs in the firmware and some exotic pinout connections with some hardware, and adding extra features like the image selector directly from the host. I even think the only difference between RevB and RevC to allow writing back on an image dump from an Amiga was soldering two pins on the PCB.
Compatibility list :
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
It is actually used on industry tools with awkward formats (see this Youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/JeffHxC2001) and Jeff is a member of the French hardware & software preservation association mo5.com so he has a lot of hardware available to test it on. I think the lastest firmware added compatibility with the Apple II disk controller.
Thank you both for the info, looks like I will place my order soon then! :D
I just spent last night trying to get a cased RevC HxC to work with an Amiga 500. The important findings were
- The floppy cable on the Amiga's motherboard had to be the other way around compated to the original one: the red line (meaning pin 1) on the RIGHT side. With the original floppy drive the red wire was on the left. If the cable is the wrong way, the Amiga's floppy drive activity led will be lit constantly, and the caps-lock led blinks (three times).
- My Amiga's floppy drive power cable had a bit different coloring: brown and red, brown meaning 5V when it's usually red=5V.
- When setting the jumpers, you must hold the cased HxC upside down, and then the jumper block will be in the correct orientation.
- What comes to the contents of the SD card, just follow the guideline, it does work (with the Amiga autoboot.hfe and everything)
Eventually, after discovering the right combination of everything, I was able to get Workbench and Rink a Dink running. Now I have some catching-up to do, because I sold away my all of my Amiga stuff in 1989 (just before the demoscene really took off), and have only seen some of the most important OCS demos after that. There's a lot of the lesser known stuff to watch. :) And it needs to be seen on a CRT monitor!
- The floppy cable on the Amiga's motherboard had to be the other way around compated to the original one: the red line (meaning pin 1) on the RIGHT side. With the original floppy drive the red wire was on the left. If the cable is the wrong way, the Amiga's floppy drive activity led will be lit constantly, and the caps-lock led blinks (three times).
- My Amiga's floppy drive power cable had a bit different coloring: brown and red, brown meaning 5V when it's usually red=5V.
- When setting the jumpers, you must hold the cased HxC upside down, and then the jumper block will be in the correct orientation.
- What comes to the contents of the SD card, just follow the guideline, it does work (with the Amiga autoboot.hfe and everything)
Eventually, after discovering the right combination of everything, I was able to get Workbench and Rink a Dink running. Now I have some catching-up to do, because I sold away my all of my Amiga stuff in 1989 (just before the demoscene really took off), and have only seen some of the most important OCS demos after that. There's a lot of the lesser known stuff to watch. :) And it needs to be seen on a CRT monitor!
Thanks for your findings yzi, will probably save me lots of trial-and-error!
I use for years. Mostly the SD version (with my 520ST).
But have also the USB versions.
The SD is better.
Good stuff, in my opinion.
But have also the USB versions.
The SD is better.
Good stuff, in my opinion.
Small correction to my post. Actually the caps lock led blinking three times is supposed to mean that the keyboard's watchdog timer failed, and I'm getting that every now and then, even though I am able to load stuff from the HxC. So maybe there's something wrong with the keyboard.
Further correction... it's not the watchdog timer that failed but the watchdog timer test, meaning that the keyboard's processor had jammed or something and had to be reset. So far I don't know if this could have something to do with the HxC.
The only limitation of the SD-Card floppy emulator is you can't format floppy images with it. That's not a problem when just watching demos, however.
You can now get the "slim" version, which removes the LCD display and most of the buttons (2 out of 3). They are not really needed on Atari / Amiga / Amstrad CPC since there is a manager software for these, so you can use your computer keyboard and screen to select a disk image. The slim version is also a bit cheaper.
The external version is nice, but on Atari ST you can't boot from it as it's drive B: (unless you hack the computer motherboard). Not sure if it's the same on Amiga. Removing the internal drive and replacing it with the emulator is the simplest solution then.
You can now get the "slim" version, which removes the LCD display and most of the buttons (2 out of 3). They are not really needed on Atari / Amiga / Amstrad CPC since there is a manager software for these, so you can use your computer keyboard and screen to select a disk image. The slim version is also a bit cheaper.
The external version is nice, but on Atari ST you can't boot from it as it's drive B: (unless you hack the computer motherboard). Not sure if it's the same on Amiga. Removing the internal drive and replacing it with the emulator is the simplest solution then.
