ToToTEK.COM

[gogo]

I had built in 2009 the hxc floppy emulator prototype for using with my smd

and had buy duplicate components to build another one , after two years under dust
i decide to use it and build the second one in optimized / cased version for the smd
with a lcd backlight and db25 port included


i'm always surprised to see how it is fast and reliable ,
so i've done some chrono and compared the loading time between hxc ,
the original floppy drive and sending roms via parallel port with ucon64

i have not tested all configurations with real floppy drive (splitting sucks ) and ucon

- 2 mega roms : (hxc 6sec)
- 4 mega roms : (hxc 12sec) (ucon64 16sec) (real floppy 19sec)
- 8 mega roms : (hxc 25sec) (ucon64 32sec) (real floppy 38sec)
- 12 mega roms : (hxc 38sec)
- 16 mega roms : (hxc 52sec) (ucon64 1min05)
- 24 mega roms : (hxc 2min07 complete file or 1min24 splitted if you change floppy quickly!) (ucon64 1min37)


in most of case hxc beat parallel transfer , except for 24mega roms ,
in fact the hxc should be under 1min24 (i do 1min24 with 24mb splitted and i lost time to change/select the 2nd floppy)
so the 3.38mb floppy format is certainly bugged : it run fine but slower than the other sizes
(i haven't reported the problem to Jeff in 2009)

since the prototype (Rev A) is no more supported (don't ask them about the proto !) ,
all schematics firmware and components list had disappear

you can buy the new revision at http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13

(Jeff is very kind and is a fellow citizen , I do a little publicity to his product )

The last revision had a lot of improvement since the prototype ,
but honestly no significant for using with copiers , and the proto is build around 9vdc psu
exactly like original ccl/ffe floppy drive .
i still have the "do it yourself" proto pack (need pic programmer) if someone is interested ..

It should run perfectly too with Super magicom and Super Griffin.

[Mystic_Merlin]

Nice! It looks really good and professional, congrats

Actually I just finished a custom FDD interface for my SMD. It has no issue loading / writing / formatting on the Supercom but on the SMD it can only format.
Any other option will throw a "unknown disk" error. I tried with different floppy drives same error.
Not sure if my bios (v-3) is the issue, it's being reported as "buggy" on http://gendev.spritesmind.net/

Is it a known error on the SMD? Do you get it with the HxC?

Also, regarding loading times, depending on the machine you formatted your floppy on you can get very different results.

[gogo]

I never had a such problem with my original drive and HxC
Here is a typon that i've done some year ago, floppy connector to db 25 it was for my first hxc floppy emulator but it should work with real floppy drive

you can compare your schematics with it , it was working fine with my two smd (bios 4.1-A & 3.3-C) .

I realize that my second smd has an undumped/unknow bios 3.3C , i'll try to dump it if someone is interested ...


If your interface is still not working correctly , i think you should update your bios with the last 3.3 version , if you have a 16Mega ram board i suppose it should work

Edit : i see now the difference between 3.3 & 3.3c : in the menu "load file , save file " is back again like in 3.1g version , it had disappeared in the 3.3 version !
Bios is now dumped with my double pro fighter :
https://rapidshare.com/files/458231229/bios3.3c.rar

[Mystic_Merlin]

Thanks! I'll tell Kaneda about it, I'm sure he'll be pleased to add this one to his site

[KanedaFr]

cool cool! another one !


I hope Koji will be able to dump the V1 one day