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Tutorial: How to build an internal 3 inch SDCard HxC drive for your Amstrad

Started by Pentagon, 11:56, 07 July 10

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Bryce

@Gryzor: Link done. And that's why I don't like the "Contributors" part of the wiki pages, it unfairly shows me as the soul contributor although it's actually all Pentagons work. This is why I made sure he was named as the author at the bottom of the article.

Bryce.

Gryzor

Well, we do know that 'issue', that's why, as I had said, it's not 100% indicative. Also, nobody said "contributor" and "creator" are the same people. There's a lot of material in here that comes from elsewhere. Proper attribution is key, but has no relevance to contribution...

TFM

Quote from: Gryzor on 07:56, 09 July 10
Well, we do know that 'issue', that's why, as I had said, it's not 100% indicative. Also, nobody said "contributor" and "creator" are the same people. There's a lot of material in here that comes from elsewhere. Proper attribution is key, but has no relevance to contribution...

Well... it somebody tries to delete a page (for example) (like Kangaroo did), then this person is also named. It's a bit puzzling that you can do something bad to site and that will become famous for it  ::)  It would be good if (at least the Admins) can change the contributors list... But that's probably rather a technical issues. And it's maybe not needed to waste that much time for it.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Bryce

That's why I suggested just turning it off completely. It's not like this information is of any value.

Bryce.

Gryzor

Given that the wiki is sailing pretty much trouble-free I consider the odd problem or two of no consequence. How many instances are there where someone is credited when they should not be?

TFM

Quote from: Gryzor on 08:51, 12 July 10
Given that the wiki is sailing pretty much trouble-free I consider the odd problem or two of no consequence. How many instances are there where someone is credited when they should not be?

Boiled down it's ending with a philosophical question. What is our aim?

- To make it better.

- To make it perfect.

Usually I'm very fine with the first aim! Because the latter aim is in reality only very hard to accomplish (managed it only once in a live ;-).
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

OCT

...is what I was thinking all along since I first saw that floppy emulator.
Offering a 5.25" faceplate (or even a black/"computer grey" pair of them) prepared with appropriate notches to (literally) break it down to 3.5" or 3" (if need be) would surely enable many buyers more to use these units as a drop-in replacement for drives on a wide variety of systems (probably justifying larger-scale production runs) even without TFM's "l33t Dr3m3l & s0lder1ng sk1llz". ;-)

Jeff_HxC2001

All you need is a front panel... and the HxC Floppy Emulator already offer a connector for it:

Pinout page 17:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/SDCard_HxC_Floppy_Emulator_User_Manual.pdf


There are also another approach :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnyC5te6Mn0

;)

OCT

Quote from: Jeff_HxC2001 on 13:39, 18 July 10
All you need is a front panel... and the HxC Floppy Emulator already offer a connector for it
Oh I do very much appreciate your accomplishments (and lotharek's in selling, soldering and shipping the units one by one), and wouldn't have expected to see a CPC menu system announced mere days after the ST one, and on par with the latter.
All I'm saying is that prefabricated front panels/cases (adaptable to various form factors as has been the case e.g. for streamers through the years) and an emulator adapted to their dimensions would make your impressive device easily usable to a much wider user base (e.g. musicians and industrial machinery techs who have been hunting for the very same replacement drives as the 8-bit crowd for the past decade or so).
Bringing everything (LEDs, LCD, buttons and the SD slot) to the front plate seems like a logical choice as this area is kept fully accessible for mounted drives on the majority of computers.
Certainly your design is ready for giving the likes of http://www.seeedstudio.com (and molders) a call to discuss ramping up production like http://hackaday.com and http://dangerousprototypes.com have done. :)

khisanth

This is soooo cool. I might have to find a 6128 to crack open and do this hack

Badders

I have this device too... My problem is, I have games and programs I cannot find on the internet, and need to copy from cpc to a card or PC first... before I can do the converstion

If I do find a tape game on ebay not seen any were, would copy it with the bonzo and supper medler hacking disks. I wonder if they would work with the Hxc Floppy emulator. I not have the the leads to try it yet. Can any one advice me..

TFM

Well, probably this is not new for you...

However, I would search the CPC Games CD first:

http://webs.ono.com/cpcgamescd/

Else, you have to use CPCDiscXP to create a DSK for PC first then convert it to the HxC format. However you do it once a live ;-)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Jeff_HxC2001

Quote from: TFM/FS on 23:57, 06 January 11
Well, probably this is not new for you...

However, I would search the CPC Games CD first:

http://webs.ono.com/cpcgamescd/

Else, you have to use CPCDiscXP to create a DSK for PC first then convert it to the HxC format. However you do it once a live ;-)

You can also simply use the new read/dump tool of the hxc floppy emulator software ;-).
   

Badders

thank you jeff, will try it when I get the leads.. Hope you not mind there probly be more questions.. All this is new to me, on the cpc 6128... Thanks again

khisanth

i think next payday i might buy one of these beauties, then find a 6128 on ebay i wont mind opening up. Cant harm my original one  :-\

TFM

Quote from: khisanth on 21:08, 08 February 11
i think next payday i might buy one of these beauties, then find a 6128 on ebay i wont mind opening up. Cant harm my original one  :-\

Meanwhile you can add the HxC as B-drive ;-)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Garrettimus

Dear friends, how are you? I´m a newbie here. Got myself a 6128 off of eBay UK and am waiting for it to arrive here in my country.

So, I'd like to use it (externally) with Lotharek's disk drive emulator, this one: http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=18

I understand I'll have to buy this special cable as well, right?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amstrad-CPC-Spectrum-3-ribbon-cable-SD-floppy-emulator-/230714699869

Other than those, do I need any other thing? I mean, I'll need to convert the game files to the HxC format and put them on the SD card alright. Will the HxC immediately work as drive 1 if I type CAT?

Sorry for these dumb questions, I'm a total newbie in terms of the CPC. In my country the ZX Spectrum is way more popular and common.

Thanks in advance!

Bryce

Hi Garrett,
       yes, generally, that's all you'll need, but you'll also need to supply it with 5V, so you'll need to take a splice of the CPCs 5V supply somewhere.
       However, there are a few details you should know. If you are using it externally, the Drive will be Drive B: not A: unless you make an ABBA switch. Alternatively you can configure the HxC so that it is also A: but the internal Drive will not be B:  The reason why this is important, is that the majority of games will only load from Drive A:, starting a game from Drive B: only works in some very rare cases.

Bryce.



Garrettimus

Quote from: Bryce on 13:21, 05 January 12
Hi Garrett,
       yes, generally, that's all you'll need, but you'll also need to supply it with 5V, so you'll need to take a splice of the CPCs 5V supply somewhere.
       However, there are a few details you should know. If you are using it externally, the Drive will be Drive B: not A: unless you make an ABBA switch. Alternatively you can configure the HxC so that it is also A: but the internal Drive will not be B:  The reason why this is important, is that the majority of games will only load from Drive A:, starting a game from Drive B: only works in some very rare cases.

Bryce.

Dear Bryce, thanks for your reply!

Since I haven't got the Amstrad monitor, I'm buying this power supply (two in fact) to use with both my 6128 and the HxC emulator:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250891878747&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:GB:1123

PS: I won't be powering the original 3" disk drive, it will be inactive.

By changing the configuration of HxC to drive A, wouldn't a conflict exist between the original drive and the HxC?

Bryce

Yes, it would cause a conflict, you need to disconnect the internal drive for this to work. There is more information about this in Jeffs user Manual on page 11: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/SDCard_HxC_Floppy_Emulator_User_Manual.pdf
Also, one of those supplies would have been enough to power both the CPC and the HxC at the same time.

Bryce.

Garrettimus

Quote from: Bryce on 14:11, 05 January 12
Yes, it would cause a conflict, you need to disconnect the internal drive for this to work. There is more information about this in Jeffs user Manual on page 11: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/SDCard_HxC_Floppy_Emulator_User_Manual.pdf
Also, one of those supplies would have been enough to power both the CPC and the HxC at the same time.

Bryce.

Thank you very much.

I´ve heard about a different solution for loading games, the Symbiface II. Do you guys know that?

Bryce

There are many methods. The SF2 is just one, but very rare and hard to find these days. The HxC has the advatage of being able to convert and transfer any disk image in minutes to your CPC.

Bryce.

Pentagon

All pictures are uploaded again and the thread is reconstructed.

Have fun
Tom / Pentagon


TFM

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Boomow

Really Awesome work it looks amazing!! this is something i will be doing IF/When i get an HXC




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