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Do you want to have a Vortex F1-D / M1-D compatible Floppy Controller (4 Drives)

Started by GUNHED, 22:35, 06 December 22

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Do you like to have a floppy controller for up to four additional drives more?

Yes, a complete and fully working board
Yes, the PCB without chips
Maybe...
No

GUNHED

Thank you very much! Yes, you got the point.  :) :) :) Just no need to switch disc drives at cables any more and access to all physical formats.  :) :) :)

One example from my life... "Hey Stefan, you have the 25 ZSUS Discs on 5,25" format on 700 KB discs. Can you copy them to me, but on 3,5?". Right in this moment I'm very glad not be forced to dis-/reconnect floppy drives 50-times.  :laugh:
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

Audronic

@GUNHED 

Ok I will need a schematic and a list of components.
and some OS that will handle A - B - C - D - Drives  ?

Keep Safe

Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

hans


Hi,

here's the state of affairs regarding the Vortex F1-D controller clone that I made:

I started by depopulating the original controller that I have and capturing the schematic from the PCB layout.  I then rearranged the schematic, threw out the ROM decoding logic and updated the address decoder.  The resulting design is a little wasteful in terms of the number of TTL chips that it uses for address decoding, but given that a limited number of these boards will be built, I think it is OK.  The first version of my PCB required a couple of bodge wires, but it does work - @GUNHED now has it for testing.

I've produced another set of boards, but unfortunately this version uses the DD-1/F1-D addresses (&FB7E/F) where @GUNHED tells me that most people will want to use the F1-X addresses (&FBF6/7).  Once I have these new boards in my hands, I will test them.  If they're good, I'll make another version that has the I/O address switchable between the two alternative I/O address ranges.

The design will be open source, but I'm not going to point you to the design files before we have finalized testing to save you from ordering PCBs that might not work.  I have a couple of chips that I'm going to use for testing the layouts and that I'll eventually pass on to interested people.  The board is not difficult to assemble, but the passives, voltage regulators and the oscillator are SMD parts.  I understand that some people still don't like SMD and I will be willing to build some boards with those parts soldered on for those.  A couple of DD-1/F1-D PCBs will be available in early January, the version with address select jumpers will take until February.

If you're interested in this project, you can fill out my Google form and I'll reach out to you once the designs and boards are available.

Cheers,
Hans

GUNHED

Quote from: Audronic on 05:19, 10 December 22@GUNHED

Ok I will need a schematic and a list of components.
and some OS that will handle A - B - C - D - Drives  ?

Keep Safe

Ray
Regarding the software at present time you can use VDOS 2.11 which supports three drives, but it's two at a time. The !S command can switch between the drives. So you can use all 3, but 2 at a time. One of them is the internal 3" drive.

Furthermore I do intend to patch ParaDOS to support The Vortex controller. Also like all CPC DOS it supports 2 drives at a time.

Since you ask for all drives support, at the moment that's only FutureOS (maximum of 8 drives).

However, maybe there could be a Unidos node, but that's probably the realm of Unidos coders.
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

zhulien

I think this is sort of interesting but as cool as it would be to have 4 drives - at least here in Australia, it is hard to get the actual drives at a sane price.  Yet... for some reasons USB floppy drives are really really cheap - maybe there could be a way to make a USB drive work on such a card instead, or 2 of them perhaps?  Using a microcontroller or an FPGA to map FDC commands to USB?  or even at a high level protocol-type access?  If done somewhat right, we could also plugin USB DVD and CDROM drives too?  So perhaps put 4 USB ports on it.

GUNHED

Using USB ports for floppies is an interesting idea, but a completely own (and complex) project.

Well, sind I'm here already I can give you an update about this project: Eventually there was no help from the hardware people in this forum here, but Thanks to LambdaMikel I got in contact with Hans from good old Germany. And he did it!  :) :) :)

Since a couple of weeks I do test the Vortex Controller clone for four drives. What are the specs?
- You can use up to four drives with DS0 to DS3, the port on the controller fits the current floppy cables (from older PCs). So the plug is space saving
- The connection to the CPC is made by using the MX4 plug. So you put it on your Mother X4 expansion back plane
- After intensive (but not fully completed) testing it seems to work 100% perfect.

Probably in a month there could be a first run of 10 units, but I can't promise that yet. If you're interested in the project you can PM me and I will give you a link to continue. Or even better directly contact Hans (see his post before).
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

eto

Quote from: zhulien on 01:59, 11 January 23USB floppy drives are really really cheap - maybe there could be a way to make a USB drive work on such a card instead, or 2 of them perhaps
USB floppy drive controllers almost always only support HD floppies and you won't be able to access your vintage floppies. Of course you probably could somehow make it work, but then there is no real point to use a USB floppy and not a USB stick. 

eto

Quote from: hans on 07:18, 10 December 22If you're interested in this project, you can fill out my Google form and I'll reach out to you once the designs and boards are available.
I had a look at the Google form and saw that you are using the FDC9229. Is that a better option than the other data separators that have been in use with the Amstrad? Do you have a good source to get that IC? I can only find few offers on Ebay and all of them quite expensive.

hans

Quote from: eto on 12:57, 11 January 23
Quote from: hans on 07:18, 10 December 22If you're interested in this project, you can fill out my Google form and I'll reach out to you once the designs and boards are available.
I had a look at the Google form and saw that you are using the FDC9229. Is that a better option than the other data separators that have been in use with the Amstrad? Do you have a good source to get that IC? I can only find few offers on Ebay and all of them quite expensive.
I don't know of compatible data separators that could replace the FDC9229.  I did think about making another version of the controller using the AIC37C65CL, which integrates both the data separator and the open collector drivers and is very cheap, but I'm not sure if there is enough demand and I'm a bit fed up with floppies myself.  I had not used them in many years but now I remember how glad I was when they vanished from the market :D

eto

Quote from: hans on 13:03, 11 January 23I'm a bit fed up with floppies myself
I can relate ;-) 

Quote from: hans on 13:03, 11 January 23I don't know of compatible data separators that could replace the FDC9229.

In the CPC 6128 they have been using the SED9420C but according to the schematics they have also been using the FDC9216. But I have no idea if they would be an option.


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