CPC unable to communicate with Gotek

[jjne]

I have a Gotek with AT32F15 controller, and FlashFloppy loaded. Gotek is known-good as it works with an Atari ST.

It's set to S0 and FF.CFG is present with the type set to shugart. This configuration is the working setup for the ST.

I have both a 34-26 adaptor (for internal connection) and a floppy cable with both edge and 2.54 pin connectors for external. I have tried the external with and without the pin 34-33 shorted.

Have also checked with both a CPC6128, and a Spectrum +3.

I have disconnected the internal drives on both machines.

A small collection of CPC and ZX images are loaded onto the USB drive

Both machines behave as if they do not recognise a drive is present; the CPC reports disk missing, the ZX that the drive is not ready. This is exactly the same as if all drives are removed.

I'm obviously missing something really daft here, but I cannot for the life of me work out what it is.

Help please? Anyone have any ideas?

[McArti0]

Do you see on the display that the Gotek is moving the head? Does the Gotek flash LED which means it is reporting a dsk error?

[jjne]

Do you see on the display that the Gotek is moving the head? Does the Gotek flash LED which means it is reporting a dsk error?

No, the Gotek does nothing. I can select an image in the normal way (I have not yet done the OLED/rotary encoder install) but it does not give any indication that a sector is being accessed. 

[McArti0]

And the cable is not upside down?

Dsk starts with DSKA

[jjne]

And the cable is not upside down?

Dsk starts with DSKA

When the cable is upside down "rib" appears so it's not that. I have also tried to switch to both drive a and b. 

[McArti0]

Are you sure Gotek is 250kbps. I don't know what is in ST.

[jjne]

I have no idea to be honest. How would I find out? 

I'd have expected a data error if it was the wrong speed? 

[jjne]

Right there seems to be a "rate = 250" option on ff.cfg - I'll give that a go later, thanks! 

[McArti0]

[eto]

Did you only set S0 or also anything else? Remove any other jumper. 

How are the files organised on your stick?

If you are still using the LED number display, I would recommend to switch to the HXC Floppy emulator manager. Imho much more convenient to select files than to navigate with the rotary encoder, especially if you have lots of DSK files. 

• Get it here http://norecess.cpcscene.net/hxc-floppy-emulator-manager.html
• format your USB stick Fat32 (also make sure it's not too slow)
• put the contents of HXC Floppy emulator manager into the root folder of your USB drive
• put your DSK files (not zipped) from a known good source (cpc power or cpc rulez) into a subfolder on the USB drive

As a side effect it would also make sure you know your USB file structure is working

[jjne]

Only S0 is set. The other jumper on there is a placeholder which is horizontally set across two commoned (presumably grounds - the lower ones) between JA and JB IIRC. This is the default out-the-box position for that jumper.

Images are just copied into root (there are only four of them, acquired from reputable sources), along with ff.cfg which is default other than shugart set. This works with the ST (same USB drive, a small 16GB FAT32-formatted USB2 drive which is fast enough for the ST) so I don't think there's an issue with that side of things - the ST images just work. TBH I just want it to pick up a single image at this point, I'll deal with everyday optimisation once I have a baseline.

[jjne]

Also tried removing the jumper across JA and JB ground (not that that would make a difference), and also moved jumper S1. No dice. Tried hard-setting the rate as well but this did not work, and I don't think it should make a difference as the ST drive is also 250Kbps.

Watched Arctic Retro's video and confirmed he is doing no different to me.

I refuse to believe that four image files from two different sources are all so b0rked that they fail in the same way (machine not even recognising a disk is present), and I would expect the Gotek to ignore any images it doesn't recognise (it counts up to the number of images on the USB drive).

I tried to connect the ST's 3.5 inch drive and am getting similar issues (it spins the disk but doesn't pick anything up) so I'm starting to question the cable. I am only using the non twisted part of it so I don't think it's that. Problem is, the adaptor is also doing the same thing. It's all very strange.

[eto]

can you take pictures of your set-up including cables and Gotek PCB?

[jjne]

I am getting closer.

The problem is certainly related to the cabling from the back of the CPC or +3.

If I place the 26 to 34 pin adapter upside down into the back of the Gotek, and the 26 pin plug part into the machine's internal floppy connector, it all works fine, on both the CPC and the +3. I can load up images and play them just fine.

I'm pretty sure now that there's some pin on the external cable that must be set to get the Amstrad machines to recognise the presence of a drive connected externally (over and above 33-to-34 which I think just performs the same task as S0/S1 doesn't it?) . Connecting internally is not ideal, I'd like to be able to transfer the Gotek between machines.

It's possible that there are tarnished pins on the edge connector but I wouldn't have thought that both machines would error in basically the same way if that were the case.

I'll map out on a piece of paper all the connectivity and get some photos later. Thanks for help so far.

I should point out that my floppy cable is keyed - I don't think this should cause a problem (unless someone can say otherwise - I don't think that would alter the ordering of the pins on the drive end would it?) but I'd have thought reversing the other end would take care of that.

[McArti0]

S1 as drive B.

[jjne]

S1 as drive B.

Doesn't make a difference. I simply cannot get the external connector to correctly communicate with the Gotek. Internal is fine so it isn't anything on the Gotek itself. 

I think I'm just going to have to accept that I need more Gotek, permanently installed in the CPC and ZX. It's a right nuisance but it is what it is. 

[McArti0]

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/4/45/CPC6128_Disk_Interface_Schematic.png

The only difference is that the ext drive connector does not have select drive 0. Tell me, do you want gotek on ext connector as A or B?

[jjne]

It shouldn't make any difference at this point as I have the internal drive physically removed and am trying a and b when testing. If I can get it working at all then I'll worry about drive selection. 

[eto]

I should point out that my floppy cable is keyed

Not sure what you mean by that. But once you uplaod your pictures it might become clear.

In my experience it's best to use simple flat 34 pin cables with no alterations. I once tried round floppy cables which I thought would be 1:1 but they did not work at all. Never figured out what the exact problem was.

[McArti0]

It shouldn't make any difference at this point 

But it does because the ext CPC connector is factory-defective.

[jjne]

Hmmm.

Well this is a resolution I wasn't expecting.

I went to take some photos of the Gotek board, and noticed that there was *no solder whatsoever* present on the jumper pin cluster!

It was being held in only by friction and somehow didn't pop out even when I was changing jumper settings....

Soldering the stupid thing to the board, and setting S1, the thing fires into life on the external connector.

This probably explains why I couldn't get this to work on a PC either. I can only assume that it defaults to S0 if none of the pins are grounded, and also why I was utterly convinced the S0/S1 setting made no difference - because it literally didn't on this Gotek...

So one working device... thanks for helping me get to the answer, in a round about way!

I don't know how this could have happened in the factory in all honesty - the rest of the underside looks wave-soldered to me...

[Bryce]

Hmmm.

Well this is a resolution I wasn't expecting.

I went to take some photos of the Gotek board, and noticed that there was *no solder whatsoever* present on the jumper pin cluster!

It was being held in only by friction and somehow didn't pop out even when I was changing jumper settings....

Soldering the stupid thing to the board, and setting S1, the thing fires into life on the external connector.

This probably explains why I couldn't get this to work on a PC either. I can only assume that it defaults to S0 if none of the pins are grounded, and also why I was utterly convinced the S0/S1 setting made no difference - because it literally didn't on this Gotek...

So one working device... thanks for helping me get to the answer, in a round about way!

I don't know how this could have happened in the factory in all honesty - the rest of the underside looks wave-soldered to me...

There is a process in PCB manufacturing called "Press fit" where the hole in the PCB is smaller than the pin and the pin gets forced in under pressure. It's used to reduce cost when there are components that can't be soldered with the process used for the rest of the board and you want to save on employing people to hand solder it. It's actually more reliable than you would think, but I'm not a fan of it and using it on pins that are regularly accessed by the end-user is a really bad idea as it's the most likely scenario where this method would fail, but obviously the profit margin was prioritised over long term reliability by the manufacturer in this case.

Bryce.

[McArti0]

noticed that there was *no solder whatsoever* present on the jumper pin cluster!

 unthinkable via chat.