ToToTEK.COM

[Mystic_Merlin]

Check this out:

http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/index.html

This guy made a floppy emulator.
One model is connected via USB + PC software and the other model is a standalone SD card reader.

It can create a virtual FAT12 floppy disk with SMC support

Here's a pic of the device connected to a UFO copier:


I wonder if access times are improved compared to a real FDD.
It would be nice to have a modded copier with an LCD and some roms on an SD card...sure it would not be very practical to load but still better than floppy!

[kyuusaku]

This is a pretty old project, since then there are commercial floppy emulators: http://www.tototek.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2106

[Mystic_Merlin]

Wow, looks like I missed a thread on tototek

Thanks for pointing to this one. I'd really be curious to test out one of these devices.

[RGB_Gamer]

Where can you but the SD version? (madman/kyuusaku, please, no bashing, I searched on google already) Is support limited to certain kinds of copiers or can it be utilized with anything that uses a floppy disk?

would be a great alternative for many copiers that don't have CD support

what about this thing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-Floppy-Drive-Emulator-Floppy-to-USB-Converter_W0QQitemZ170347024926QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item27a979521e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1205|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

[kyuusaku]

It should work with any copier using a PC floppy and FAT12. The one you linked looks to be from the same maker as the one in the other thread.

[RGB_Gamer]

Do floppy emulators (especially the ones with LCD screens) let you load multiple floppy images consecutively? Like say, you have a game that is split into 4 floppies...do you have keep selecting an image for each disk, or can you set it to load them one by one?

[Mystic_Merlin]

I'm not sure I understand your question but basically this device must have a memory with paging for each floppy image. You can probably load multiple images in one transfer but on the copier side you're limited by the BIOS settings so it probably works like this:

- transfer your images
- load the image of disk.1 on the copier
- page down/up on the device
- load the image of disk.2...

I believe there must be a limitation in data speed transfer to avoid desynchronization.
I never understood why some floppies were loading 3-4 times faster than some others so I'd be curious to see how this one works.

[MottZilla]

In the other thread someone mentioned that the GDSF series of copier devices don't work quite so well with this. Something about the way the drive stays active while waiting for you to eject and insert the next disk. However I was thinking you could manually load each file through the menu still.

I am curious though how much this thing costs as I never saw a clear answer.

[kazmat]

I have USB version and made stand-alone sd card version.

They are really good !!

I tested SMC, SMD , Griffin, PFX-T2, GDSF6.

I think any copier ok except Interceptor series

[Mystic_Merlin]

[kazmat]

Hi Mystic_Merlin , long time no see.

I post some pictures

[Mystic_Merlin]

Sweet!! I'd love to see the final boxed version

[schmake]

This looks like an awesome project. I just did a bit of looking at the HxC website and now I think that I may have to build a prototype also

[gogo]

Just a question kazmat ! :

Is the loading time faster than a floppy drive with the sd card version , i think i'll build one for my super magic drive !

[kazmat]

I think it is a sligthly faster than fdd, because sd-card version has no mechanical part.

By using this board , A big good point SMD can read 16Mbit game in one file !!!