Gotek Floppy Emulator Jumper Settings

This is a step by step guide how to install the cheap USB Floppy emulator GOTEK to ENSONIQ VFX SD. Its rather easy when you know how 🙂

Also, the Gotek drive MUST BE the SFRM72-FU-DL because is the only one which works at DD (720ks) and has READY signal (with a jumper setting) The DSKIMA (Alpha version, is a quick and dirty program) is the soft I used to convert DSKs to IMG and do first testings with USB floppy drives. I use the Gotek original firmware. There is little reason to buy overpriced 'pre-configured' floppy emulators for most studio gear. Aside from Lotharek HxC, most other floppy emulator units on eBay are simply inexpensive Gotek units flashed with a freely available operating system firmware known as FlashFloppy and configured with sound disks, and other content freely. C.)Plug in Tendak usb floppy drive on my computer the drive read was A, insert your boot floppy I have 1.72 and it will read it like any other hard drive open the drive folder and you should see three files for the OS boot up, highlight those files and drag them in the first folder in your ipcas program, unplug usb plug into gotek drive power.

We will flash 3rd party firmware into the Gotek drive and then we create a disk image for the USB stick. You should be able to solder a header into the PCB using soldering iron.

What you need:

I flashed my gotek sfrc922d with HxC bootloader and installed last firmware (HXCFEUSBV31231a), to use it on my Roland G-800. But unfortunately the Roland doesn't recognise it. Omnisphere challenge code keygen softonic. The gotek's LED's shows 'nor', see pic. I tried to play with the jumpers, S1,S0,MO also tried several System family and Interface mode but still not working. I've been using the GOTEK USB Floppy Emulator Simulator since the beginning of 2013 and they have never let me down. I haven't encountered a single glitch, b.

• Gotek USB Floppy emulator (ebay)
• Jumper and 3 & 5 pin headers
• PL2303HX USB To RS232 TTL Adapter with some wires (ebay)
• Pay the Frenchman a tenner here and get your programming password.
• Soldering iron

The link above points to the french guy Jean-François del Nero. He did a great programing job, but his blog is a mayhem. Some pages are French, some English. There are loads of duplicate files… To dig the info you need is a PITA. You need this ZIP only, it contains all necessary files.

Now, disassemble your GOTEK, and prepare your board. Solder the headers into programming port:

Like this:

Install your PL2303HX programmer. Plug it to your PC. It should download the drivers automatically (I use W7). Note the COM port number.

Once it is working, pull it out from USB and connect it to the GOTEK board like this:

• GND to GND
• 5V to 5V
• RX to TX
• TX to RX
• put jumper across BOOT0 and VCC3.3

You do not connect programmer's 3.3V anywhere. Just leave it. Now plug everything to USB port on your PC

Gotek Floppy Emulator Jumper Settings Ps4

Run the FLASHER, (file SecSerialBridge.exe) and try to open your COM port. Then enter your account info and click Connect. The program should say Device Detected:

As you can see I have zero units left as I paid only for one unit. If you have everything ready, make sure your SKYPE won't fuck up your programming process by ringing, close it down and press PROGRAM. The GOTEK should be programmed within few minutes.

At this point the hard bit is over. I should have menitoned that this was only a BOOT LOADER, and now we have to upload the FIRMWARE.

Note: Before you install GOTEK into the instrument, you should install jumpers to S0 and MO positions. I don't think it's necessary but It works for me and I haven't tried it without them. I'm too lazy to open the lid again…

Disconnect the programmer and install the GOTEK into your instrument. After power on, it should say Ldr (the instrument's display should stay dark). Format your USB stick (everything but NTFS I think) and unpack the file HXCFEUSB_V3_0_33_12a.UPD from that ZIP into the root of the USB stick. Then insert it into GOTEK – it shoud do nice sneak animation on display. Once it is finished it should say hXc and your Ensoniq should initialize. To manually flash another firmware, just press and hold both GOTEK buttons while power on. It should say Ldr and you're ready to flash.

Create your USB Floppy bank by unpacking content of this zip file to your USB. There is 100 images already formatted for instant use.

It seems like Ensoniq VFX SD uses the same format as COMODORE AMIGA, 820KB DS DD, which is the reason why it refuses every PC floppy. If you want to create your own images using the program from Jeff, here is a RAW IMAGE SETTINGS for the IPFConverter program, which is also part of the ZIP file:

This is working for me, hope it will work for you!

Peace.

2017/12/07 EDIT: I'm looking for the original disk images.

If you want to share them, please leave the comment.

Downloads:

Preamble or why GOTEK?

One can find a lot of stuff and rumors about the 'HxC floppy emulators' in relevant forums and also, that 'cheap' alternatives won't work with computers like Amiga or Atari. This article should prove the opposite, since I successfully exchanged my internal HD-drive for the floppy-emu 'SFR1M44-U100 updated version' from 'Gotek'.
I decided for this paticular drive, because it (theoretically) can deal with 1000 disks and supports HD. Also, I feel the price of the HxC-emus a bit overdrawn. On Amazon or ebay there are always a lot offers for about 20€ for the Gotek devices. Here's a product picture:

What means 'updated version'?

'updated version' refers to a schematic error, that could have lead to the computer failing to detect that the drive is ready (please insert a disk…). For the updated version certain chip-resistors have been reduced in their values, so that the detection runs reliable. One can distinguish the updated version by the values of 'RN4″ to 'RN6″ (red square in the picture). If the value is 102 (= 1 kOhms), it's already the updated version.
If one has the old version, it is recommended to replace the resistors by 1 kOhm-resistors. Regarding this I found a PDF document on the CD of my version with the name 'REPAIR SOLUTION – VB516.pdf'. If you're missing it, you can download it here.

Requirements for a successful operation

The following criteria have to be met if one want's to use the 1.44MB-model of the floppy-emu with an Atari:

• The floppy-controller already needs to be fitted for HD-operation. That mean, it should run at 16MHz und should be able to stand this clockspeed permanently. So this means either the Ajax-FDC or a WD1772-02–02.
• Mixed operation with an additional, external drive may be possible, but hasn't been tested so far.
• On the floppy-emu the jumpers 'MO' and 'S0″ need to be set (see picture). The Atari (in contrast to a PC) expects the first drive to be ID0.
• One needs an USB-key with enough space. Since the floppy-bus only runs with 500kb/s it doesn't need to be fast.
• For comfortable disk management on the key one needs a PC running Windows. Maybe there's also appropriate software for Mac OS or Linux, but I don't know.

What works, what doesn't work?

– What works:

Floppy Disk Emulator Software

• Using either DD or HD virtual disks. One can mix them in any order.
• Formatting virtual disks via software on the PC, writing and reading data, importing or exporting standard disk-images.
• Formatting DD-disks any arbitrary disk-format using the Atari, writing and reading, importing and exporting disk-images in any format(*).
• Formatting HD-disks using the Atari, writing and reading, importing and exporting images.
• Boot from the first disk (or the currently selected one if you do a warm boot).

– What doesn't work:

Gotek Usb Floppy Drive Emulator

• HD-disks with more than 18 sectors. 18 is the limit of the emu's firmware. If one tries more, one gets an 'illegal sector' error.
• Trying to write disk-images with 'strange' formats via the PC software. In that case the program refuses to work saying it's not a 'FAT-12″ image file.
• Since the disks are put sequentially as binary images on the key, it's not possible to access any other than the first disk directly via the Windows Explorer without additional software.

(*) Using JayMSA I was able to write *.ST-Images on the virtual disks. This, however, only worked running it on the Atari. So selecting the desired disk via the two buttons and then using the program to write the ST-image on the disk. More on that further down!

The sorry subject detecting media(disk) change

Unfortunately Atari saved a few pennies that days when designing the floppy-bus. So the disk change is not detected properly using the dedicated pin 2, but misusing the pin 28 (write protect) in that way, that this line is pulled to 0V (GND) for a short time when the user changes a disk. (Thanks to P. Putnik at this point for the analysis, further reading on this topic here.) A few older drives offered the option to get this demand by setting some jumper, but for modern drives or floppy-emus I'm quite sure there is no such option any more.

Hence I present a 'dead simple' solution for this that is easy to build and at least works like a charm for my Gotek floppy-emu:

My solution relies on the fact that pressing the buttons pulls a dedicated line to GND (0V). That's exactly what we need to simulate the media change. Using two schottky-diodes this 'pulling to ground' is fed to pin 28 of the floppy-bus. The diodes prevent that the buttons are short-cicuited and that signals on pin 28 coming from the bus can't trigger an unwanted counting-up of the selected image.
On the pictures one can see the wire connected to pin 28. The other end of the wire is connected via one diode to the 'free' pin of one button, respectively. In my case I just connected them to two through-holes of the traces to the buttons.
If one now presses one of the buttons the pin 28 is pulled to ground simultaneously. This is interpreted as a disk change by the Atari then.
Below you can find a schematic of the circuit with my modifications marked in red:

The floppy-emu in use

Here's a picture of the floppy-emu in use. The funny case is from an old Commodore-PC. Inside there's the mobo of an Atari 1040STF with lots of extensions (4MB RAM, SCSI-controller, 2 HDs, CDROM, real time clock, Lacescan, …). The bunch of wires crossing the case has nothing in common with the Atari, it's just from my musicial equipment. But that just as an aside. 😉

Sorry at this point for the mediocre picture quality. These are 'real' screen-shots and it seems my TFT and my digicam aren't best friends. 😉

Formatting of all available virtual disks at once / Initializing of the USB-key

If one wants to initialize or format all of the available virtual disks at once, one can simply use the inbuilt function of the emu's firmware. To do so, keep both buttons pressed while powering up the computer. Shortly after switching on the version of the installed firmware will be displayed on the seven-segment displays, then there's displayed 'F01'. If one now releases the button, the drive INSTANTLY starts formatting all of the disks. Caution, there is no further security query.
So why one should use that function at least once with a new USB-key is a short story: The controller checks how many virtual disks can be created on the key and formats them. That way one knows the excact number of available disks and additionally can be sure that the key is working correctly on the drive.
However, doing so will result in all disks formatted with 1.44MB. If one wants other formats, the following procedure may help:

Formatting of custom formats

Like I already mentioned at 'What works', one can format disks with customs formats using the Atari. The number of tracks doesn't seem to be limited, at least I was able to format a DD-disk with 85 tracks and 11 sectory/track using Kobold (thats the max Kobold can handle!). For testing I put as many files as possible on that 'disk' from the GEM-desktop to see if they can be opened correctly again afterwards. Indeed, that works without any problems!

Theoretically one could also format HD-disks that way, but like I already mentioned at 'What doen't work' 18 sectors is the maximum. So the only option that is left over is to increase the number of tracks. For me, it's no big deal since I hardly saw any up-formatted HD-disks anyway.

Writing back of disk-images using JayMSA

Like I mentioned above, one can write back disk-images using JayMSA. On the following screenshots you can see me using that procedure to write back an image of 'Zak MC Kracken'. When using that tool one should pay attention to two points: On the file selection dialog one has to change the extension to *.* manually (see red mark on the picture). If not, one can't select *.ST images there. The physical writing-back is labeled 'Extract' in the tool. For me, I'd suspect some other function behind that name. However, using that function the writing-back works perfectly like you can see on the additional screenshots.

Questions and answers

Gotek Usb Floppy Manual

Here I will collect and hopefully be able to answer questions I got via comments here or on the Atari forums

• Using either DD or HD virtual disks. One can mix them in any order.
• Formatting virtual disks via software on the PC, writing and reading data, importing or exporting standard disk-images.
• Formatting DD-disks any arbitrary disk-format using the Atari, writing and reading, importing and exporting disk-images in any format(*).
• Formatting HD-disks using the Atari, writing and reading, importing and exporting images.
• Boot from the first disk (or the currently selected one if you do a warm boot).

– What doesn't work:

Gotek Usb Floppy Drive Emulator

• HD-disks with more than 18 sectors. 18 is the limit of the emu's firmware. If one tries more, one gets an 'illegal sector' error.
• Trying to write disk-images with 'strange' formats via the PC software. In that case the program refuses to work saying it's not a 'FAT-12″ image file.
• Since the disks are put sequentially as binary images on the key, it's not possible to access any other than the first disk directly via the Windows Explorer without additional software.

(*) Using JayMSA I was able to write *.ST-Images on the virtual disks. This, however, only worked running it on the Atari. So selecting the desired disk via the two buttons and then using the program to write the ST-image on the disk. More on that further down!

The sorry subject detecting media(disk) change

Unfortunately Atari saved a few pennies that days when designing the floppy-bus. So the disk change is not detected properly using the dedicated pin 2, but misusing the pin 28 (write protect) in that way, that this line is pulled to 0V (GND) for a short time when the user changes a disk. (Thanks to P. Putnik at this point for the analysis, further reading on this topic here.) A few older drives offered the option to get this demand by setting some jumper, but for modern drives or floppy-emus I'm quite sure there is no such option any more.

Hence I present a 'dead simple' solution for this that is easy to build and at least works like a charm for my Gotek floppy-emu:

My solution relies on the fact that pressing the buttons pulls a dedicated line to GND (0V). That's exactly what we need to simulate the media change. Using two schottky-diodes this 'pulling to ground' is fed to pin 28 of the floppy-bus. The diodes prevent that the buttons are short-cicuited and that signals on pin 28 coming from the bus can't trigger an unwanted counting-up of the selected image.
On the pictures one can see the wire connected to pin 28. The other end of the wire is connected via one diode to the 'free' pin of one button, respectively. In my case I just connected them to two through-holes of the traces to the buttons.
If one now presses one of the buttons the pin 28 is pulled to ground simultaneously. This is interpreted as a disk change by the Atari then.
Below you can find a schematic of the circuit with my modifications marked in red:

The floppy-emu in use

Here's a picture of the floppy-emu in use. The funny case is from an old Commodore-PC. Inside there's the mobo of an Atari 1040STF with lots of extensions (4MB RAM, SCSI-controller, 2 HDs, CDROM, real time clock, Lacescan, …). The bunch of wires crossing the case has nothing in common with the Atari, it's just from my musicial equipment. But that just as an aside. 😉

Sorry at this point for the mediocre picture quality. These are 'real' screen-shots and it seems my TFT and my digicam aren't best friends. 😉

Formatting of all available virtual disks at once / Initializing of the USB-key

If one wants to initialize or format all of the available virtual disks at once, one can simply use the inbuilt function of the emu's firmware. To do so, keep both buttons pressed while powering up the computer. Shortly after switching on the version of the installed firmware will be displayed on the seven-segment displays, then there's displayed 'F01'. If one now releases the button, the drive INSTANTLY starts formatting all of the disks. Caution, there is no further security query.
So why one should use that function at least once with a new USB-key is a short story: The controller checks how many virtual disks can be created on the key and formats them. That way one knows the excact number of available disks and additionally can be sure that the key is working correctly on the drive.
However, doing so will result in all disks formatted with 1.44MB. If one wants other formats, the following procedure may help:

Formatting of custom formats

Like I already mentioned at 'What works', one can format disks with customs formats using the Atari. The number of tracks doesn't seem to be limited, at least I was able to format a DD-disk with 85 tracks and 11 sectory/track using Kobold (thats the max Kobold can handle!). For testing I put as many files as possible on that 'disk' from the GEM-desktop to see if they can be opened correctly again afterwards. Indeed, that works without any problems!

Theoretically one could also format HD-disks that way, but like I already mentioned at 'What doen't work' 18 sectors is the maximum. So the only option that is left over is to increase the number of tracks. For me, it's no big deal since I hardly saw any up-formatted HD-disks anyway.

Writing back of disk-images using JayMSA

Like I mentioned above, one can write back disk-images using JayMSA. On the following screenshots you can see me using that procedure to write back an image of 'Zak MC Kracken'. When using that tool one should pay attention to two points: On the file selection dialog one has to change the extension to *.* manually (see red mark on the picture). If not, one can't select *.ST images there. The physical writing-back is labeled 'Extract' in the tool. For me, I'd suspect some other function behind that name. However, using that function the writing-back works perfectly like you can see on the additional screenshots.

Questions and answers

Gotek Usb Floppy Manual

Here I will collect and hopefully be able to answer questions I got via comments here or on the Atari forums

Q: Do you connect the floppy cable just the same way as to a ST floppy drive or do you need to twist the cable?
A: No, like I wrote the Atari expects the first drive to be 'A' or ID0. So there is no need to twist the cable. Just plug the cable of the former disk drive on the emu's connector.

Q: Do you have a picture of where the diodes are soldered to the switches?
A: I've just updated the relevant paragraph with a schematics picture that reflects the changes.

Q: Once all the mods are done, is it possible to write the game .ST images to the usb pendrive on a PC or can it only be done from a ST? And how to do this?
A: This is only possible for the first virtual disk since the PC 'sees' only the first disk. The software supplied with the emu does not work with ST-images unfortunately. I'm planning to write an application that can access all virtual disks on the key and supports ST and STX images.

Q: With the program Winimage it is possible to make .img files from real Atari ST disks, this is the file format the gotek uses to put files on the usbstick in Windows, would these images work in the ST?
A: I can't answer that since I haven't tried it yet.

Q: Do the games boot from the floppy emulator and can disks be swapped for multidisk games? Can games be saved on the emulated disks?
A: Yes and yes if you have modified the media change circuit so that the game can detect the disk change correctly.

Q: What about images of copy-protected (original) disks? Any chance to get them running on the Gotek?
A: Sorry, but no chance. The Gotek only supports 'cooked' images, no raw trackdata. Thus all copy-protected disks relying on 'weak' sectors and stuff will certainly fail.

To be continued…