Greaseweazle

[sb1903]

Hi,

I wonder if I am the only one in this forum using a Greaseweazle (in my case a V4) to connect an FD-1 to a modern PC and restore/mirror old 3" disks into an image. I can say that for me, this works quite well. The explanations on Muckypaws' website actually helped a lot. I thought it's maybe a good idea to document here how this works. Comments, thoughts, own experience with Greaseweazle and discussion about this solution is welcome in this thread

In short what I found out via that website and partially also myself:
- Aside from making sure a new belt is installed in the drive, it's important to also disconnect the 5V power plug *in* the drive. Otherwise the FD-1 may burn your Greaseweazle.
- The connection works well via a 1:1 34-pin cable without any twists or so. It can happen that this cable gets connected to the FD-1 in the wrong way, then you should hear the motor all the time (make sure no disk is in the drive!). I was lucky and directly connected it right. For me, the cable goes up-side when looking at the drive.
- First time I connected the Greaseweazle and installed its host software, I was asked to do a firmware update and directly did that.
- I found that for me the best way to use the Greaseweazle is to store the raw stream from the drive in various files (one file per track on disk). The advantage is that when a track hasn't been correctly red (one or more sectors missing or with wrong CRC), then I can just re-read this track (sometimes need to do that several times, if the disk is stubborn) instead of the entire disk.
- I read in the disks via

Code Select Expand

gw read --revs=5 --track="c=0-39:h=0" --drive B ResultFile99.0.rawThis creates files ResultFile00.0.raw, ResultFile01.0.raw, ..., ResultFile39.0.raw (each track of the disk in the appropriate file)
- HxCFloppyEmulator is the right tool to analyze the result of the command below. I use "Load", then "Track Analyzer" and select there the "Dummy disk". On top, it luckily shows you how many sectors are bad. I identify these (just by looking at the visualization - didn't find a better/easier way by now), and re-read the affected tracks with the same command as above by just changing the tracks after the "c=" accordingly.
- I use the Export functionality of the HxCFloppyEmulator to export into Amstrad DSK format.
- I enjoy the created disk images in any emulator (usually I use cpcec).

[Devlin]

I have a greaseweazle, and the necessary attachment for imaging CPC disks but I never got to use it.

The CPC attachment was intended for a future acquisition that due to life/money problems never happened, so it did its job as amiga imaging device and went in a box until needed again. They're wonderful little devices, though. I use a nice little gui to do my imaging to spare me headaches of command line stuff - https://github.com/M1kerochip/LaunchGreaseWeazle

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

I have a GW (I owe Keir some beers next time we go on a pub crawl) but haven't wired it up to the FD1 yet because there's never enough time. Thanks for the UI link Devlin.

[Smanux]

Is it possible to connect the internal floppy drive from the CPC 6128 to the Greaseweazle?

[TotO]

Is it possible to connect the internal floppy drive from the CPC 6128 to the Greaseweazle?

Probably the Amstrad Plus drive (+5V only). Now, take care to the pinout in case something is inverted.

[Smanux]

I was thinking maybe, keep the drive powered up by the CPC 6128, but plug the data cable to the Greaseweazle. I don't know it that would work.

[BSC]

This sounds really interesting! Am I correct to understand that I could connect my 5,25" disk drive to the Greaseweazle and turn the contents of my old disks into DSK images without the need to connect the disk drive to anything else but the GW? 

[tjohnson]

I have one and used it to connect my drive from the 6128 to a computer.  I had to make an adapter cable for both the drive and power.  Works well but I haven't used it in over 1 year in cnce I imagined the disks I wanted.

[kailokyra]

- I use the Export functionality of the HxCFloppyEmulator to export into Amstrad DSK format.

The HxCFloppyEmulator DSK export is not quite perfect yet it seems, but you can export them to Kyroflux format, then use Samdisk to export it to a dsk.

[sb1903]

The HxCFloppyEmulator DSK export is not quite perfect yet it seems, but you can export them to Kyroflux format, then use Samdisk to export it to a dsk.

Can you be more precise about what "not quite perfect" means? Is there anywhere a description of the issues available? At least for my 3" disks, I didn't experience any issues with the HxCFloppyEmulator DSK export. Even the few copy protected commercial disks that I had (with the very strange Speedlok format that I was never able to copy on the CPC hardware back in the days) were correctly dumped into DSK and run in the emulator flawlessly.

[kailokyra]

It couldn't properly export a dsk from a flux dump of Albertville 92 with sectors of type 6. Some issue with a missing byte in the export for the XOR checksum at &1801, an issue with a gap too big and an overdump that shouldn't be here. I didn't grasp all the details of what I was explained by Kukulkan thought, so sorry if it's hazy. 

[BSC]

What would be the best (as in reasonable price for a delivery to Germany and not having to wait for months) option to order a Greaseweazle?

[SkulleateR]

What would be the best (as in reasonable price for a delivery to Germany and not having to wait for months) option to order a Greaseweazle?

https://amigastore.eu/894-greaseweazle-v4.html got some in stock 

[BSC]

https://amigastore.eu/894-greaseweazle-v4.html got some in stock 

And for reasonable costs as well. I have ordered one today

[sb1903]

It couldn't properly export a dsk from a flux dump of Albertville 92 with sectors of type 6. Some issue with a missing byte in the export for the XOR checksum at &1801, an issue with a gap too big and an overdump that shouldn't be here. I didn't grasp all the details of what I was explained by Kukulkan thought, so sorry if it's hazy.

Thanks @kailokyra , that's helpful information. I think none of the 3" disks I have here is using such sectors. So I was not affected by this flaw then

What would be the best (as in reasonable price for a delivery to Germany and not having to wait for months) option to order a Greaseweazle?

I got mine from Sordan who ship from Ireland. If I remember right, the delivery took ~2 week and there were no issues with it. I purchased the version that includes a case.

[BSC]

So I got all parts now to connect my 5.25 drive, but am a bit shy to connect everything because of what the GreaseWeazle documentation says about drive termination (see here), I'll cite some of it:

"If using a 5.25- or 8-inch drive on its own, make sure that the termination resistors are present and enabled."

"if termination is missing entirely then the drive input signals will float (usually at around 2 volts) with unpredictable results!"

So it seems like I need to add some resistors?! But where? And how?! I don't want to break anything.

[SkulleateR]

https://retrocmp.de/fdd/general/resistor.htm 

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

The GW group on FB is also useful https://www.facebook.com/groups/2537777852974487 

[BSC]

I quit Facebook some years ago and won't go back, but thanks.

What makes me wonder: Why was termination of drives never an issue back in the days?
I can't remember a single instance where anyone ever mentioned having to deal with that,
regardless of the format and number of additional drives connected to a CPC

Is this somehow a relic of more ancient times than when the CPCs were current tech?

[pelrun]

The reason is simply that the later drives have adequate termination built in by default.

[sb1903]

Interesting, I was not aware of this issue for 5.25" drives. I wonder if this also will apply for the 5.25" stations that were sold specially for the CPC (like the Vortex stations or the FSE 5.25" drive that I still have here). I didn't try to connect that FSE drive yet because I currently cannot find the respective discs anymore - they must be SOMEWHERE in the attic 

[Outsoft]

I got a totally different problem: I've tried to clone some DSK and I got a strange error on CPCRULEZ dumps: Track 39 is too long (102640 bits, Gap3=82, 102640 bits, Gap3=0).

Never got it with my Spectrum +3 disks.

Someone knows what's the problem?

Thanks.