Internal Gotek in 6128 - Disc Missing

[Amagni]

Hi all, I just bought a 6128 on eBay and it seems to be working ok, although I don't have any 3 inch discs to test the OEM drive.
Sound and video are good, all the keys work and it will load tape programs I play on my phone.
I'm only using a 5v power supply, which is coming from a USB adaptor rated to 4 amps.  There's no 12v supply as I was planning to only use a Gotek drive as drive A.

I've connected the Gotek with this adaptor: https://sordan.ie/product/1502/gotek-interface-adapter-amstrad-cpc-6128-spectrum3-internal-fdd/




When I turn on the computer, the drive starts up and shows FlashFloppy+


It shows 384KB, is that right for the CPC or do I need to do something to make it 178KB?


I can browse the USB stick and select a DSK file:

If I click the wheel in, it shows T:00.0 and this doesn't change at all.

If I try CAT the green light gets brighter, but it shows "disc missing".  The same happens for drive A and B:


I have tried swapping the two jumpers on the adaptor between horizontal and vertical orientation.
I've tried setting the Gotek jumpers to S1, S0, M0 and M0R, as well as the current combination of S0 and M0 which seems to get the most activity from the drive light.

I put the attached CFG file on the USB drive and it corrected the upside-down display on the OLED, so it should be loading whatever's in that file.

Can anyone spot what I'm doing wrong?  Thanks!

[eto]

384KB:
The 288MHz and 384KB on the display are just "fyi" at what speed and with how much RAM the AT32F435 microcontroller on the Gotek is currently running. 

Gotek Jumpers:
For an internal replacement you have to set jumper S0 on the Gotek. I'm not sure if MO needs to be set, I think it's not needed. 

Adapter jumpers:
I haven't had such an adapter yet but I think the jumpers should be set to "S-0", "A-0" and "B-1" to make it work as an internal drive. 

[Rabs]

Don't know if it helps but this is my Gotek setup.

You cannot view this attachment.

Also I guess you don't know if the main board has a problem or not. I repaired one 6128, which like yours was working in every way, except it would not read disks (even with a known working disk drive). In the end I found that IC203 (74HC240) was faulty. I guess as this IC is edge connector facing it is susceptible to failure (but that is a guess).

[Amagni]

Also I guess you don't know if the main board has a problem or not. I repaired one 6128, which like yours was working in every way, except it would not read disks (even with a known working disk drive). In the end I found that IC203 (74HC240) was faulty. I guess as this IC is edge connector facing it is susceptible to failure (but that is a guess).

Ok, that's a pretty cheap chip so I guess I may as well replace it.  I've tried every combination of jumpers I could think of and nothing is working so far.

I'm just not German enough for this level of hardware diagnostics!

[Audronic]

@Amagni

If you put back the 3 Inch drive .

Can you Borrow a 3 Inch disk from somebody in Sydney to prove that the Floppy disk controller works ?

I am in Melbourne if that helps

Keep Safe

Ray

[Rabs]

Also I guess you don't know if the main board has a problem or not. I repaired one 6128, which like yours was working in every way, except it would not read disks (even with a known working disk drive). In the end I found that IC203 (74HC240) was faulty. I guess as this IC is edge connector facing it is susceptible to failure (but that is a guess).

Ok, that's a pretty cheap chip so I guess I may as well replace it.  I've tried every combination of jumpers I could think of and nothing is working so far.

I'm just not German enough for this level of hardware diagnostics!

What does INP(&FB7E) return? You should get &80 which is the FDC Status.

If you get &80 then probably not IC203,

[Rabs]

Actually looking back at my post the casette did not work either on my 6128. See Disc missing but drive is good

[Amagni]

What does INP(&FB7E) return? You should get &80 which is the FDC Status.
 
If you get &80 then probably not IC203,

I got 128, which I think is &80.  I guess it's good that it's working that much but now I don't know why else it isn't working!

If you put back the 3 Inch drive .

Can you Borrow a 3 Inch disk from somebody in Sydney to prove that the Floppy disk controller works ?

We have some 3 inch disks at the Museum that were used on an Oric, I'll see if it can at least detect the disk even if it can't read them.

[Audronic]

If you get a 12 Volt Power supply Please remember that the "TIP is  MINUS and the SLEEVE is POSITIVE"
We don't want the Smoke to escape

Keep Safe

Ray

[Amagni]

Ok, I tried it with the original drive, turns out the drive belt is completely gone, but the motor does spin up when I try to read the disc.
Still says "disc missing" whether or not a disc is in there.
If I keep pressing Ignore it reports some huge nonsense file (see pic)
 I'm going to replace that chip as I can't think of anything else to do at this point.

[Rabs]

Ok, I tried it with the original drive, turns out the drive belt is completely gone, but the motor does spin up when I try to read the disc.
Still says "disc missing" whether or not a disc is in there.
If I keep pressing Ignore it reports some huge nonsense file (see pic)
 I'm going to replace that chip as I can't think of anything else to do at this point.

Drive belts are relatively easy to source and replace.

The fact that INP(&FB7E) returns &80 would suggest that IC203 is working or at least the gates associated with chip select are.

[Amagni]

I've ordered a new drive belt, but I'm still not sure what to do about the gotek.
What are the odds it would work better if I used the external floppy connector on the back of the computer?

[Rabs]

I've ordered a new drive belt, but I'm still not sure what to do about the gotek.
What are the odds it would work better if I used the external floppy connector on the back of the computer?

Guess the problem is at the moment you have 3 unknowns, the gotek, the disk drive and the cpc main board. At least you know for sure the drive belt needs replacing.

[Amagni]

I installed the new drive belt, and it actually worked!

I was able to CAT a disc and even load programs.

Now I just have to work out what to do with the Gotek, I think I'll try getting an external drive cable and see if that works any better.

[eto]

Did you try to change the jumper orientation on the adapter?

[Amagni]

Did you try to change the jumper orientation on the adapter?

Yeah I've tried all the jumper changes I could think of, to no avail.
I even wondered if I'd put the ribbon cable the wrong way round so I flipped it over and the gotek actually said "ribbon cable is upside down" so I know it wasn't that!

[Rabs]

Have you read the Gotek settings page? I have not looked closely at this but may help.

[Rabs]

Again I have not looked at this but there is a Support Forum.

[eto]

Yeah I've tried all the jumper changes I could think of, to no avail.
I even wondered if I'd put the ribbon cable the wrong way round so I flipped it over and the gotek actually said "ribbon cable is upside down" so I know it wasn't that!

Did you test the Gotek with another computer? I never had an issue with a Gotek except for jumpers and cables. As this is pretty much(*) ruled out, there must be something else wrong. 

(*) theoretically also the adapter could have a problem.

I could also give you a copy of my USB stick content just so you can check if there is any problem with your USB content.

[eto]

Now I just have to work out what to do with the Gotek, I think I'll try getting an external drive cable and see if that works any better.

Find attached a ZIP. Format the USB stick as Fat32, copy everything in that ZIP into the root of the USB stick and put the USB Stick into the Gotek.
Now turn on the CPC. It will show an error as it won't find the files that have been assigned to the slots by me (as I had to throw almost everything out to upload it here), but that should not have an impact on this test.

Before doing anything else, navigate to DISK image 0 and type in cat. You should now see a program called HXC. (http://norecess.cpcscene.net/hxc-floppy-emulator-manager.html)

If you can see it, you can run it and assign disk images to 20 slots and easily navigate between them.

[SerErris]

I had some other thread here.

Flashfloppy requires specific settings and also depends on what Gotek you actually have.

The problem is that the "Ready" line needs to be correctly connected and old goteks do not have them. The newer ones, that are based on the Artery AT32F435 chip, can be programmed to fully correctly emulate the Ready line.
Also the Motor Line can be a problem, as it is not asserted correctly normally.

But you can define a workaround in FF.cfg as described here:
https://github.com/keirf/flashfloppy/wiki/Host-Platforms#amstrad-cpc

But that is not default and you need to setup your FF.cfg correctly to get it working.

https://github.com/keirf/flashfloppy/wiki/Gotek-Models#artery-at32f435

You can try my FF.cfg. Hopefully that helps.

For correct jumper settings on the Gotek, please refer to the flashfloppy site.

Also you will need at least firmware 3.38 (better use 3.41)

[pelrun]

> The problem is that the "Ready" line needs to be correctly connected and old goteks do not have them. The newer ones, that are based on the Artery AT32F435 chip, can be programmed to fully correctly emulate the Ready line.

As far as I'm aware, this is not true. It might be a limitation of FF specifically (I run HXC), but it's definitely not a hardware issue.

[Audronic]

Try this
Put just these Files on your USB Stick
The configuration is from MY WORKING Gotek

Good luck

Keep Safe

Ray

[SerErris]

> The problem is that the "Ready" line needs to be correctly connected and old goteks do not have them. The newer ones, that are based on the Artery AT32F435 chip, can be programmed to fully correctly emulate the Ready line.

As far as I'm aware, this is not true. It might be a limitation of FF specifically (I run HXC), but it's definitely not a hardware issue.

You are right, I mixed up the MOTOR line and the READY Line. 

However you need to configure FF correctly, and with the new Gotex it actually can react correctly to the MOTOR line. 

[pelrun]

You just have to be more specific than "old" or "new" gotek, as the vast majority of "old" gotek's have stm32 microcontrollers and are fine. Only boards manufactured from about 2021 onwards have the too-small Artery chip, so it's really the "new" goteks you have to watch out for!

From the photos, Armagni has the newest fully-functional revision, but Rabs has one of the constrained ones.