Thanks for sharing! I've actually had all the parts to try this lying around for some time now but never got around to trying it. Seems to work nicely. I love the non-destructiveness of this. :)
I have installed over 100 of these, in many industrial machines, from the 90's. I also had to make a 26pin to 34 pin converter, because some machines used a 1/2 height laptop floppy drive. Good Stuff.
You Sir are a gentleman.I search long for a solution to write Disks on Pc. But Discs are a Dead Medium on Pc. You reanimated my Amiga 500. Back in the day when i was a teenager Amiga500 was my Favorite gamesystem to play. Cant wait for the Megablast. So many thanks to you :)
It's been that long since I touched an Amiga, probably 1995, that I've forgotten most the proprietary aspects it had but it's good that it's still being used and remembered today in hardware and even in emulated form. The fact that there are still Amiga's around and being enjoyed over 32 years later is great and these devices mean you can enjoy it exactly as you did all those years ago but with a bit more security of knowing disks aren't at risk of dying as you've got them on USB.
Saw parts of this clip some time ago, didn´t think much about it. Now I am sitting here with an Amiga 500 and a non-booting gotek and I am so glad you posted this! Ordering a boot selector!
That is a great little mod, and I like that it's easily reversible. That external enclosure is perfect for the Gotek, as well. Very nice. Thanks for the video.
Great tutorial! I've wanted to do exactly this (mount an external drive emulator as DF0) mod for my A500 but assumed I wouldn't be able to since I only have Kickstart 1.3 in my 500. Thanks so very much for providing this information :)
That actually looks really nice in the external enclosure. I have an external here that has no face plate, it works on my A500 but not my A600 or A1200. Looks like I just found a new use for it. Great video as usual.
I have almost identical external drive modified as yours, but in my case I've swapped original display with OLED one. Of course hole had to be modified also, to fit the screen perfectly, but now it looks amazing. I've also added piezo buzzer, set the drive to Normal mode and left as DF1 because I prefer using classic floppys. Gotek is only for simply transferring ADFs. Anyway nice video 👍
Thanks for the video. This is definitely the route I'll be going. I have an external drive and being able to use the GoTek to boot from as well as the original floppy drive and being able to copy from the GoTek to actual floppys for authenticity if I so want. That's perhaps the one thing you didn't mention in the video but if you disable the DF0-switch then the GoTek works as a regular external drive.
I wish this was around 10 years ago, when I still had an Amiga 500. Had to get rid of my A500 because I moved to a much smaller place and didn't have space for it :( Still miss that little wonderful machine and all the games I had for it.
Awesome stuff RetroMan! I love the CIA modification and the switch. That's hot! I was considering doing something like this, but my DF0: floppy drive on my main A500 died so I just replaced it with a GoTek. But I just got a new A500 with a working floppy drive, so this could be a great solution. Very cool project!
I most respectfully point out that when removing cables, it is a good idea to pull the plug rather than the wires. I had the wires come out of the socket on an Atari disk drive, and one of the wires subsequently came out of the connector, which was not a standard connector so it was too small for the crimper. I had to painstakingly solder the wire back onto the connector, and it kept on falling off and falling off until I finally got it.
Good point, caution should always be taken with these old cables. I replace them with new where possible as I've been on many wild goose chases thanks to perished cables which visibly look fine
Fancy meeting The Guru here. ;) I now have an extensive collection of Peter Molyneux insults, thanks to your vids. lol "The polo-necked effeminate vampire." is still a firm favourite. Did you ever notice btw that David Braben's head is shaped like the space ship from Elite?
The only disadvantage with this is that you miss out on the glorious sound the Amiga floppy drive played whenever it accessed an AmigaDOS disk. Oh the joyous music the drive played whenever you tried to load two files at the same time.
Good point... you'll be pleased to know there is a newer version of the device and firmware which plays floppy disk noises while reading. Not quite the same but a step closer :)
That's awesome. I didn't realise how much i missed the sound until i first heard it on UAE many moons ago, although it was a little too high pitched if I recall correctly. Been a while since I've used UAE though so that might have been addressed since.
There are such devices, but I'm not sure why you'd want to drop back to 1.2? You could also put a kickstart boot disk on the USB stick and boot to another version of Kickstart as a quick workaround if needed
I had something years ago I cant remember the name but I could go between Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0 maybe it was 2.04. come to think about it it was called Kickboard. and my machine was the Amiga 2000.
I have a board in my A500+ that switches between 1.3 and 3.1. You put your original ROM in a socket and you can use a bootable disk to flash any other ROM you want into the onboard flash chip. I prefer WB 3.1, but some games refuse to work with anything other than 1.3. It's switchless too - you just hold the reset shortcut for a few seconds to make the switch.
Interesting! Two questions, in case you might just know the answers :) In the meanwhile you're using external gotek as DF0:, is it the internal drive usable as DF1: or it's temporary "disabled"? and what about the external drive port, have you tested it? Cheers! M
+Mark D while the gotek is df0 the internal drive is disabled, it doesn't even do its little clicking noise or spin up if you put a disk in. If the internal drive is df0 then the external is df1 in the normal way.
I 3D printed a mounting for the gotek circuit board. display and gotek buttons are accessible through the floppy slot without modifying the case (the original drive went into another A500 that had a broken drive)
I had a fun evening with it last night. One point I noticed while playing Indiana Jones, this is read only. There is newer firmware which allows you to write also, which I'm looking into as that's quite important
I actually have a failed DF0 and my DF1 worked fine so I pulled it out and stuck it inside, worked perfectly (a touch ghetto I know) and I really should gotek i know but i have hundreds of working floppies!
So that's two examples I have seen where the PCB pin 1 is on the right hand side to match up with the floppy/Gotek side. Both of my similar-looking external drives have pin 1 on the left, making it necessary to twist the ribbon cable. Doing so makes it much harder to slide the cover on. Arrgh.
Really nice video! I've got an A1200 (which has a CF card with WHDLoad on it) and an A500: the trouble with the 500 is I've had to put it somewhere that makes it near-impossible to reach the floppy drive without becoming a contortionist: having an external Gotek as df0: would be very handy. Just one question: how easy is it to physically remove the CIA chip before you fit the drive selector? I can be a bit clumsy at times and fear doing damage to my 500 - is it a relatively simple job?
They pop out pretty easily but use caution especially if you don't have a chip remover. You can use a screwdriver but you do risk cracking the plastic on the socket if the old plastics are brittle or too much force is applied. Gently does it, and you'll be fine.
Is the shielding very low over that chip? I remember my old Amiga 500+ (before battery acid ate the board), had an OS selector board which was one chip height+dil socket height+board thickness, and that stuck onto an existing chip with double sided foam as far as I can remember, and it fit in the shielding fine.
There's not much in it, a bit of foam might be just what's needed. I'll have a proper play with it when I'm next working on the Amiga and find out. Space is limited here so I have to pack the Amiga away when I'm working on other computers one at a time! I need a workshop :)
Sinisteve it does not as they have the CIA chips soldered. It works with my CD32 with an SX1 or a Terrible Fire as it has no other floppy so it is naturally df0.
RetroManCave definitely a better solution of having 2 a600s like me one with gotek and one without and then just swapping when needed😂 I tried your idea with putting a gotek in a faulty floppy external drive I’ve got laying around but the floppy drive pretty much slots straight into the board without a ribbon cable and nothing lines up😥it does work though and was an easy way to copy adf files from the gotek onto floppies, something I’ve wanted to do for ages
Hello matey. I wondered if you can help me, I thought this was such a good idea I went out and ordered the boot selector but having fitted I’m having issues, the floppy drive works but the gotek isn’t booting...watching your video carefully I think my A500 is a different revision...the chip in my EVEN CIA (b) is 4589 24 I can see yours is different🤔🤔
RetroManCave I’ll have to dig a copy of workbench out, when I power on the internal drive is silent when switched and the boot up pauses for 3ish seconds before the boot screen appears, but when I flick the switch back and boot the internal floppy shows life straight away and boot screen is almost instant as normal🤔
The external drive you used was indeed an Amitek brand. They came with a funky old school PC dome badge as the logo that could easily be removed if needed. www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600/pict/122607121713_/Amiga-External-Floppy-Drive-Sony-Amitek-version-tested.jpg
Now that I have an external case coming :) Question, what would happen if you then added a second (normal) external drive? Would it work? Would it come up as DF1 or 2?
That's a question we need to answer! I don't have an additional drive so can't check for you but I'd expect it to work this way and would love to know the answer
I think a friend has a spare, so I'll report back :) on another note, doing some research it turns out that boot selector just switches a pair of pins (13 and 14) and you can make your own which is what I'm going to try.
It is indeed possible, newer kickstarts allow it and I think you can hold the mouse button down on some to boot from DF1. The problems come when software has been hard coded to look for DF0 specifically.
I've got the same setup, but with Flash Floppy firmware in the Gotek drive. Most disks work, but I can't find a working copy of Bubble Bobble. Has anyone had any luck with the boot selector and Bubble Bobble?
Great mod! However it’s driving me insane to figure out which external drives have the same configuration as yours shows in the video e.g. 34pin connector and separate power cables, mine had just the ribbon cable!?! Is there anyway way to tell e.g. brand name perhaps?
The thing I'm looking for is kind of the opposite of this. I have a huge collection of Amiga disks and my old Amiga is pretty much dead, so I really want a floppy drive that I can plug into my pc that can read the disks so I can convert them into ADFs via Winuae. Do you know of a device that can do this? Maybe an interface for the Amiga floppy drive itself?
I just got an A500 and purchased a Gotek. Problem is I do not have workbench in adf format. Where could I find it? Also how did you connect the external gotek to the A500. Last question, how many files/directories can you put on gotek before it starts getting slow?
G'day. I'm fairly new to Amiga's (was always jealous of them as a kid with my CGA 286). You mentioned issues with DF0 and 1. If this external SD drive was simply mounted as DF1 and you booted the computer from a regular Kickstart disk in DF0; would games not run correctly from the USB drive? They simply dont run from DF1?
Mr Lurch some would work with a newer kickstart but others would not. This is because many games are coded specifically to look for and use df0 and if it's hard coded then you can't really work around it
What exactly do you need to put on the usb key to make it work? I saw you stating the Gotek is looking for a file called selector.adf? Where can I find that file? Also, can you still use a DF2 and DF3 in this configuration, if you switch DF0 and DF1? It's because I want to do the same thing, I have 2 external 3.5" drives here, and 1 external 5,25 drive. I still want to be able to use them. Can I still hook these up to the 'modified' DF1 Gotek drive?
Nice video. I have an external drive like yours. It's a California Access CA-880. it has a Citizen OSDC-45C drive. It doesn't work. I think water got into the drive. I got the boot selector from kirsti_73 on ebay for my 500. I haven't been able to get my gotek to work with it yet but there's different jumper settings i didn't try yet and I was trying to get it to work with my 1200 which might be pointless.
@stude1965 have you had any luck with that drive in the past year by any chance? I ask because I just claimed the old family Amiga, and the external drive is in fact one of those CA-880 units. Hoping to do a mod like in @RMC - The Cave 's video here, but if this particular drive is a no-go I'll look into other options!
Greetings from Colombia. I really like your channel. I wonder: is there a drive emulator like this for the Atari XE65 computer? Thanks and keep the good videos.
Does the Gotek handle virtual disk swapping with software that uses more than one adf file? I use win uae which of course uses virtual floppy drives to add the adf's to, which takes care of disk swapping .Wing Commander for example which was split over three discs and uses three adf files. So how does the Gotek handle it?
ste309w it does. In the menu I show on the screen you assign adf files to slot numbers. When playing you then just press the buttons on the front to change the number and that disk is mounted
RetroManCave Now I see. So when you get the onscreen prompt for disk 2, you switch to that number. Great stuff. Thanks. Hoping to get my old Amiga back next week and see if it's all still working. Might invest in a Gotek.
I guess as that AMSTRAD ripoff one has DF0 DF1 on it but the original Gotec doesn't have the DF0 hard switch on it as the Gotec version is useale on the AMSTRAD that means the ripoff is usable on AMIGA probably but has the DF0 switch on the thing itself.
RetroManCave sorry, I should have been specific. I've got a HxC flashed drive that works if I hook it up inside. I meant to ask if the CIA mod board works with other models. I can't get it to work at all with my 500+
Yeah, unless I got a dud it looks like I've done something wrong. Gotek drives though - what an amazing thing they are. The HxC firmware is worth checking out for other machines. I've got them installed in my Atari ST, Archimedes A440, Amstrad CPC6128, my Pentium gaming PC and a homebrew Z80 system. The firmware is about £10 a pop from the developer and you can get the drives on Aliexpress for about £15 each.
I haven't used a real Amiga since the late 90's and I'm getting a 1200 soon, so I'm ramping up on modern modifications. Does this mod also applies to the 1200? In other words, does the 1200 as the same CSG module as the 500?
No you'll want a different solution for the A1200. The 1200 also lets you boot holding down the mouse button and select a drive to boot from (DF1 as an option). It won't always work but you may have more success. You may also want to use a hard disk or Compact Flash adapter and WHDLoad to get a better experience. This isn't an option on the A500 as it has no built in HD controller like the 600 or 1200
Right, thank you. I expected as much. I'm already planning to replace the 20-something years old internal harddrive by a CF adapter. Some Amiga mods are really expensive from what I've seen but this one is surprising cheap and is sure to make the user's life easier. I'm not really planning on using old demos or games, so I'm not sure I need a floppy emulator. WHDLoad, the CF adaptor and Win UAE will certainly serve my purpose. Well, unless some capacitor in the computer or the PSU blows up to my face.
This is a cool idea, however, it's very doable to fit a Gotek drive within the A500 without modifying the case. There are two ways to do it. The first way, which I did, was to modify the face plate of the Gotek drive. Here's an image of my A500 with the Gotek inside: i.imgur.com/5feeRXb.jpg . In short, you have to saw off the top of the Gotek's faceplate, and remove its top cover. Then you need a mount (which I bought 3D printed, but I can't find the mount right now!). Since the Gotek's buttons end up inside the A500, I wired two buttons to the Gotek, which I mounted on the cutout for the disk ejection button. I think it's a neat way - the only caveat is that you have to lean over to see which memory location you're on. The second way is to remove the Gotek enclosure altogether, and use a mount like this: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2745049. There are pros and cons with both methods - for the first one, you need the extra buttons, and the 8-segment LED display is a bit obstructed, but with the second option you also need a separate OLED screen. I actually like the buttons the way I did it, because they're very easy to use. I'd still want that display, though;)
Not with this solution no, I haven't looked into the mod on the 1200 because I tend to favour a compact flash HD using its built in IDE controller, then you get much faster loading times.
Thanks for reply RMC. Very true and I do have this setup but if you want to run ADF files such as PD games which don't have a WHDLoad file then you still need to run them via a floppy drive/gotek?
hi retroMan thanks for the reply, just getting back into the Amiga. Managed to fit a cf card to my newly purchased A1200 but there is still a lot of software out there that needs to be on floppies. Searched all day trying to figure out how to do this on an A1200 but no luck. Found one or to electronics diagrams but they were a bit too heavy for me. If your sure it can be done and you do come across any instruction or products on your travels drop us a reply. just found your channel by the way very good, gonna have a few cups of tea and a bit of binge-watching latter ;-[>
The Gotek will, you will need a different boot switcher for the A600. With an A600 you may want to go down the compact flash HD route however depending on your setup.
Hi I realise this is an old video but I wonder if you can help me. I'm trying this now on an Amiga 1200, but mounting the goTek in a broken 1011 drive. Should the goTek be jumpered as DF0 or DF1? If I jumper it as DF0, the drive just shows - - -. If I jumper it as DF1 it shows 000 and DF1 shows on the desktop as DF1:???? and double clicking does nothing. It was working when fitted internally as DF0: Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Geoffrey Armstrong unless you've performed a floppy hack to swap the drives around like I did in the A500 it will be DF1. The A1200 still has some success though working like this. If you set the gotek to df1 and hold the mouse button while booting the A1200 you can tell it to boot from DF1. You'll still have some problems with games hard coded to df0 but at least you can try some out and load the selector program
lovely conversion but the fit in the front of the case is terrible they could have least made the from look like the outer case of the fdd drive to make it a snugger fit, im sure there will be an stl for this on thingerverse to make it actually look the part, other than that great vid as usual
NVM its flashed noticed in 4:04 , Keirf does have a newer firmware called flashfloppy ,with better disk image support,Oled display support and the ability to add a ESP8266 and control the thing over wifi, he has a github thats easy to find, "keir flashfloppy github"
Hmm in a nutshell support for a whole bunch of other computers, new formats HFE, ADF, IMG and ST image formats, no need for config files just insert a fat32 flashed usb, I think it has write support now, optional mods you can do: fit a nice clear OLED display that tells you what disk you have inserted, rotary encoder instead of the switches, speaker that mimics drive reads and clicks, esp8266 so you can load/control images remotely, and many more. Its constantly evolving and he is still adding new stuff the last update was October 17 :)
Great video @RetroManCave - I'm planning on doing something similar with one of my GOTEK drives. I wanted to make you aware of a new firmware for them that has a lot of advantages: FlashFloppy [ github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/ ]. Unlike Cortex or HxC it's fully open source and under active development. There are a couple lovely addons like being able to add back sound if you like though a sound chip or buzzer, upgrading to a click wheel, and support for multiple display types (including cheap OLED displays that will fit in the existing mounting hole for the three digit display but will show access information and complete filenames). It's compatible with the HxC tooling, so you can map disks to numbers like with the Cortex but also allows for no config and just running through images placed on the disk (easier with a LED or OLED mod). The advantage of being compatible with the HxC tooling is the config files for mapping/managing image:number mapping is an XML file and there are some Windows/Linux tools to help as well. I've been upgrading all my GOTEK drives to FlashFloppy and found an inexpensive OLED on ebay which has the required pull-up resistors built in [ www.ebay.com/itm/0-91-IIC-I2C-SPI128x32-White-OLED-LCD-Display-Module-For-Arduino-PIC/172435137027 ] and works quite well. If you have an A1200 or an A3000 there are 3D Printable mounting brackets for these drives on Thingiverse as well (I'm designing an A2000 model but it's not done yet). Hope this is useful!
Carl Perry thanks Carl I'll have a good read through those links. Perhaps I can demonstrate some of these improvements and add ons some time on the channel for all to see
The HxC firmware still under active development too and most (if not all) of the features of this FlashFloppy firmware was taken from the HxC Floppy Emulator project. Even the compatibility with the HxC tools was ripped off... Have a look to the HxC Forum (Gotek section) for the latest features and updates for more details. (Manual/Features : torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1683)
JeffHxC2001 good to know! I have a GOTEK with HxC2001 on it but didn't know so many features were now supported. Finding all the docs were much easier with FlashFloppy and I didn't know that forum existed until now. Apologies for the misinformation.
The forum and manual links are on the page where you bought the firmware : hxc2001.com/store/index.html Firmware update : hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/HXCFEUSB_HFE_beta_firmware.zip "Manual" on the forum : torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1683 Don't hesitate to update to the latest WIP FW version. ;)
Oh b*****ks. I had an external floppy drive (a 1011) which no longer worked and I scrapped it probably about 10 or more years ago. I think it was the drive itself that was worn out, the case and interface were probably fine. Unless of course the complete unit is hidden away somewhere and I can't remember where! Still got the Amiga 500, but I put a modified Sony floppy drive in it.
I did all the same things you did but my Gotek will not boot, even when I have the Selector.adf file on it. It's formatted as Fat32 and I got some extra files that needed to be on it because it uses the flashfloppy firmware drive. Everything eventually came together in a package I put together but it would not boot. Can you test my package if it boots? You can find it here: www.everythingtech.nl/amiga/amiga-flashfloppy-usb-basic.zip
First!! Wouldn't it be awesome to take this stuff back in time 30 years? Imagine taking a Vampire, and some of these goodies, an iPad and a Raspberry pi3, all back to 1987...:)
What about games and apps that look for CPY signal? Does unmodified GOTEK emulate this? BTW I think github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy is better firmware than Cortex. Thanks
Hi Cave Man, fantastic video! Only ordered a Gotek a week ago, waiting for it to arrive. Do you then just plug the external drive connector into the normal drive port on the back of the A500?
Hi, yes you do but unless you also have the boot selector mod it will act as drive DF1. Alternatively you plug it into the floppy drive port internally for it to be DFO and run the cable out of the case or install it in place of the floppy drive.
Thanks for sharing! I've actually had all the parts to try this lying around for some time now but never got around to trying it. Seems to work nicely. I love the non-destructiveness of this. :)
I have installed over 100 of these, in many industrial machines, from the 90's. I also had to make a 26pin to 34 pin converter, because some machines used a 1/2 height laptop floppy drive. Good Stuff.
+gkrieg365 Nice! So many CNC machines etc with floppy drives. I bet these are life savers for them
You Sir are a gentleman.I search long for a solution to write Disks on Pc. But Discs are a Dead Medium on Pc. You reanimated my Amiga 500. Back in the day when i was a teenager Amiga500 was my Favorite gamesystem to play. Cant wait for the Megablast. So many thanks to you :)
It's been that long since I touched an Amiga, probably 1995, that I've forgotten most the proprietary aspects it had but it's good that it's still being used and remembered today in hardware and even in emulated form.
The fact that there are still Amiga's around and being enjoyed over 32 years later is great and these devices mean you can enjoy it exactly as you did all those years ago but with a bit more security of knowing disks aren't at risk of dying as you've got them on USB.
Saw parts of this clip some time ago, didn´t think much about it. Now I am sitting here with an Amiga 500 and a non-booting gotek and I am so glad you posted this! Ordering a boot selector!
Martin Thulin excellent. Glad to be of service.
That is a great little mod, and I like that it's easily reversible. That external enclosure is perfect for the Gotek, as well. Very nice. Thanks for the video.
Best enclosure and setup of a gotek I've seen. Nice one :)
I've been using exactly same setup for over a year now and absolutely love it!
Great tutorial! I've wanted to do exactly this (mount an external drive emulator as DF0) mod for my A500 but assumed I wouldn't be able to since I only have Kickstart 1.3 in my 500. Thanks so very much for providing this information :)
What a great idea, looks great and saves hacking the original amiga case.
That actually looks really nice in the external enclosure. I have an external here that has no face plate, it works on my A500 but not my A600 or A1200. Looks like I just found a new use for it. Great video as usual.
I have almost identical external drive modified as yours, but in my case I've swapped original display with OLED one. Of course hole had to be modified also, to fit the screen perfectly, but now it looks amazing. I've also added piezo buzzer, set the drive to Normal mode and left as DF1 because I prefer using classic floppys. Gotek is only for simply transferring ADFs.
Anyway nice video 👍
What a neat little addition to the Amiga!
Thanks for the video. This is definitely the route I'll be going. I have an external drive and being able to use the GoTek to boot from as well as the original floppy drive and being able to copy from the GoTek to actual floppys for authenticity if I so want. That's perhaps the one thing you didn't mention in the video but if you disable the DF0-switch then the GoTek works as a regular external drive.
I wish this was around 10 years ago, when I still had an Amiga 500. Had to get rid of my A500 because I moved to a much smaller place and didn't have space for it :(
Still miss that little wonderful machine and all the games I had for it.
Thank you. It answered all my questions.
Awesome stuff RetroMan! I love the CIA modification and the switch. That's hot! I was considering doing something like this, but my DF0: floppy drive on my main A500 died so I just replaced it with a GoTek. But I just got a new A500 with a working floppy drive, so this could be a great solution. Very cool project!
I most respectfully point out that when removing cables, it is a good idea to pull the plug rather than the wires. I had the wires come out of the socket on an Atari disk drive, and one of the wires subsequently came out of the connector, which was not a standard connector so it was too small for the crimper. I had to painstakingly solder the wire back onto the connector, and it kept on falling off and falling off until I finally got it.
Good point, caution should always be taken with these old cables. I replace them with new where possible as I've been on many wild goose chases thanks to perished cables which visibly look fine
And the cable that I used appeared to be proprietary and I would have had to hardwire the connection had I not figured it out.
infinitecanadian nice job
Thank you.
love ya work.. thanks for another useful and entertaining vid
Nik Trathen you're welcome thank you for watching
As a new Amiga 500 owner (first ever!) I have a black Gotek on the way (i just like the look lol), and definitely plan on adding that DF0 switch. :-)
Thanks for sharing, so only a boot selector is required, and a df1 drive. That's nice, I try to get this stuff.
What did you use to clean the board?
Isopropyl Alcohol and Mrs RMC's toothbrush.
LOL "The wife's toothbrush"
Fancy meeting The Guru here. ;)
I now have an extensive collection of Peter Molyneux insults, thanks to your vids. lol
"The polo-necked effeminate vampire." is still a firm favourite.
Did you ever notice btw that David Braben's head is shaped like the space ship from Elite?
Very informative, thanks!
The only disadvantage with this is that you miss out on the glorious sound the Amiga floppy drive played whenever it accessed an AmigaDOS disk. Oh the joyous music the drive played whenever you tried to load two files at the same time.
Good point... you'll be pleased to know there is a newer version of the device and firmware which plays floppy disk noises while reading. Not quite the same but a step closer :)
RetroManCave classic, they think of everything. 👍
That's awesome. I didn't realise how much i missed the sound until i first heard it on UAE many moons ago, although it was a little too high pitched if I recall correctly. Been a while since I've used UAE though so that might have been addressed since.
You can also retrofit a sound mod to older Goteks with a firmware update and pizo speaker 🔊
i'm waiting for my gotek to arrive myself, for an atari st i restored this month!!!
Out of interest what did you use the new ribbon cable for shown @0:15 or wasn't it needed in the end? If needed please add a link. Cheers!
It wasn't needed in the end I used the existing cable in the drive case. The cabld you refer to came included with my gotek
Might have to fit a gotek in external case nice neat job .
It would be awesome to have a Kickstart ROM selector like this to swap between 1.2 & 1.3 as needed.
There are such devices, but I'm not sure why you'd want to drop back to 1.2? You could also put a kickstart boot disk on the USB stick and boot to another version of Kickstart as a quick workaround if needed
I had something years ago I cant remember the name but I could go between Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0 maybe it was 2.04. come to think about it it was called Kickboard. and my machine was the Amiga 2000.
I have a board in my A500+ that switches between 1.3 and 3.1. You put your original ROM in a socket and you can use a bootable disk to flash any other ROM you want into the onboard flash chip. I prefer WB 3.1, but some games refuse to work with anything other than 1.3. It's switchless too - you just hold the reset shortcut for a few seconds to make the switch.
Matthew Harrison (matthehat) that sounds very nice indeed
Ah, I remember that board now. Yeah.
Interesting! Two questions, in case you might just know the answers :)
In the meanwhile you're using external gotek as DF0:, is it the internal drive usable as DF1: or it's temporary "disabled"? and what about the external drive port, have you tested it? Cheers! M
+Mark D while the gotek is df0 the internal drive is disabled, it doesn't even do its little clicking noise or spin up if you put a disk in. If the internal drive is df0 then the external is df1 in the normal way.
RetroManCave I guessed so. TA
I 3D printed a mounting for the gotek circuit board. display and gotek buttons are accessible through the floppy slot without modifying the case
(the original drive went into another A500 that had a broken drive)
That's exactly what I plan on doing with my A500 and Gotek in external floppy drive!
I had a fun evening with it last night. One point I noticed while playing Indiana Jones, this is read only. There is newer firmware which allows you to write also, which I'm looking into as that's quite important
Hi would this mod be needed on the Amiga A1200.
Thank you in advance. Colin H
I actually have a failed DF0 and my DF1 worked fine so I pulled it out and stuck it inside, worked perfectly (a touch ghetto I know) and I really should gotek i know but i have hundreds of working floppies!
So that's two examples I have seen where the PCB pin 1 is on the right hand side to match up with the floppy/Gotek side. Both of my similar-looking external drives have pin 1 on the left, making it necessary to twist the ribbon cable. Doing so makes it much harder to slide the cover on. Arrgh.
What issue was encountered when the higher module was touching the RF shield?
Where do you get the Selector.adf file?
Is the Gotek accessible from within Workbench? Or is it only designed for booting disk-based games/content?
Yes, it behaves just as a normal floppy drive would
@@RMCRetro Thanks!
That is a much more elegant solution than putting the gotek in the original floppy drive slot.
my A4000 has an inbuilt jumper to do this.. I'm using an external drive as df0 now.. haven't got around to fixing the internal one..
Really nice video! I've got an A1200 (which has a CF card with WHDLoad on it) and an A500: the trouble with the 500 is I've had to put it somewhere that makes it near-impossible to reach the floppy drive without becoming a contortionist: having an external Gotek as df0: would be very handy.
Just one question: how easy is it to physically remove the CIA chip before you fit the drive selector? I can be a bit clumsy at times and fear doing damage to my 500 - is it a relatively simple job?
They pop out pretty easily but use caution especially if you don't have a chip remover. You can use a screwdriver but you do risk cracking the plastic on the socket if the old plastics are brittle or too much force is applied. Gently does it, and you'll be fine.
Thanks!
What a great solution! you're' the man. Thank you
Jerker Ivarsson you're welcome. Still using it daily here with no problems.
Great, I just bought one. It works fine with 1.3 roms right?
Yep I used it with 1.3 and 1.2 no problem
You mentioned that you where routing the switch trough the trap door, but the cable looks very short, so how did you handle that?
Kan you use the Amiga to Copy from disk to USB then ?
Great video again. Is there a version for the 600 and 1200?
Did you reinstall the RF shied?
How did you solve the issue with the shielding? Did you cut a chip sized hole through the shielding?
S James for now I don't have the shielding in. Thinking on that one
Is the shielding very low over that chip? I remember my old Amiga 500+ (before battery acid ate the board), had an OS selector board which was one chip height+dil socket height+board thickness, and that stuck onto an existing chip with double sided foam as far as I can remember, and it fit in the shielding fine.
There's not much in it, a bit of foam might be just what's needed. I'll have a proper play with it when I'm next working on the Amiga and find out. Space is limited here so I have to pack the Amiga away when I'm working on other computers one at a time! I need a workshop :)
That is a really clever mod, do you know if that switcher works with other amiga models...600, 1200?
Sinisteve it does not as they have the CIA chips soldered. It works with my CD32 with an SX1 or a Terrible Fire as it has no other floppy so it is naturally df0.
RetroManCave definitely a better solution of having 2 a600s like me one with gotek and one without and then just swapping when needed😂
I tried your idea with putting a gotek in a faulty floppy external drive I’ve got laying around but the floppy drive pretty much slots straight into the board without a ribbon cable and nothing lines up😥it does work though and was an easy way to copy adf files from the gotek onto floppies, something I’ve wanted to do for ages
Hello matey. I wondered if you can help me, I thought this was such a good idea I went out and ordered the boot selector but having fitted I’m having issues, the floppy drive works but the gotek isn’t booting...watching your video carefully I think my A500 is a different revision...the chip in my EVEN CIA (b) is 4589 24 I can see yours is different🤔🤔
Sinisteve hmmm that's odd. Is the gotek showing as DF1 if you boot to workbench even with the switch on the selector switched?
RetroManCave I’ll have to dig a copy of workbench out, when I power on the internal drive is silent when switched and the boot up pauses for 3ish seconds before the boot screen appears, but when I flick the switch back and boot the internal floppy shows life straight away and boot screen is almost instant as normal🤔
Thanks for cool video and great recommendations! Do you know if there's a Boot selector for A600? Or can I use the A500-chip?
Hmmm not sure I don't have an A600 and I *think* the CIAs are soldered to the board so it might be more of a hardware hack... would need some research
How does the gotek work with those 81 track copyprotected diskettes who will access those tracks?
A good question, I suspect the solution is just to use the cracked versions of the program available to download
I have noticed there is a special firmware available for goteks for amiga so might be that... good video anyway.. :)
FYI The HxC Firmware for Gotek is supporting copy protected images.
The external drive you used was indeed an Amitek brand. They came with a funky old school PC dome badge as the logo that could easily be removed if needed.
www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600/pict/122607121713_/Amiga-External-Floppy-Drive-Sony-Amitek-version-tested.jpg
Now that I have an external case coming :) Question, what would happen if you then added a second (normal) external drive? Would it work? Would it come up as DF1 or 2?
That's a question we need to answer! I don't have an additional drive so can't check for you but I'd expect it to work this way and would love to know the answer
I think a friend has a spare, so I'll report back :) on another note, doing some research it turns out that boot selector just switches a pair of pins (13 and 14) and you can make your own which is what I'm going to try.
Sounds good, be careful with those CIA chips and let us know how you get on
By the way amazing project
Where do you buy the boot selector from?
+EXITMUSIC2011 amigastore.eu - prompt delivery. The Gotek came from another supplier who was very slow in comparison
RetroManCave Thanks :)
Hi, can anyone tell me what enclosure this Gotek is in. I'm looking exactly the same to do this project please!
I remember on my Amiga 500+ external floppy was booting without the problem. I wander will GoTek without CIA chip mod would work on A500+.
It is indeed possible, newer kickstarts allow it and I think you can hold the mouse button down on some to boot from DF1. The problems come when software has been hard coded to look for DF0 specifically.
Can you load the benchmark add file from the gotek USB stick like any other adf game?
I've got the same setup, but with Flash Floppy firmware in the Gotek drive. Most disks work, but I can't find a working copy of Bubble Bobble. Has anyone had any luck with the boot selector and Bubble Bobble?
Hello!! How about Ndos games ?
Great mod! However it’s driving me insane to figure out which external drives have the same configuration as yours shows in the video e.g. 34pin connector and separate power cables, mine had just the ribbon cable!?! Is there anyway way to tell e.g. brand name perhaps?
I'm away for the weekend but can have a look when I'm back for any model numbers or identification. Drop me a DM on twitter if you like
The thing I'm looking for is kind of the opposite of this. I have a huge collection of Amiga disks and my old Amiga is pretty much dead, so I really want a floppy drive that I can plug into my pc that can read the disks so I can convert them into ADFs via Winuae. Do you know of a device that can do this? Maybe an interface for the Amiga floppy drive itself?
Evil Twin what you need is a Catweasel. Allows you to do just that. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Computers_Catweasel
RetroManCave Thanks, I'll look into this.
I just got an A500 and purchased a Gotek. Problem is I do not have workbench in adf format. Where could I find it? Also how did you connect the external gotek to the A500. Last question, how many files/directories can you put on gotek before it starts getting slow?
G'day. I'm fairly new to Amiga's (was always jealous of them as a kid with my CGA 286). You mentioned issues with DF0 and 1. If this external SD drive was simply mounted as DF1 and you booted the computer from a regular Kickstart disk in DF0; would games not run correctly from the USB drive? They simply dont run from DF1?
Or do Amigas not work like this?
Mr Lurch some would work with a newer kickstart but others would not. This is because many games are coded specifically to look for and use df0 and if it's hard coded then you can't really work around it
Shame there isn't a way of making the internal one DF1 when the Gotek is in use.
What exactly do you need to put on the usb key to make it work? I saw you stating the Gotek is looking for a file called selector.adf? Where can I find that file?
Also, can you still use a DF2 and DF3 in this configuration, if you switch DF0 and DF1? It's because I want to do the same thing, I have 2 external 3.5" drives here, and 1 external 5,25 drive. I still want to be able to use them. Can I still hook these up to the 'modified' DF1 Gotek drive?
Yep, I need an amiga 500.
Can the Gotek load the USB key contents into internal storage?
+Peter Fielden-Weston well yes but only in the same way a floppy disk contents could be copied to an internal HD if you had one
My CIA chip is raised by trapdoor ram extension thingumabob.
Sadly - this thing seems to be not an option for me.
Nice video. I have an external drive like yours. It's a California Access CA-880. it has a Citizen OSDC-45C drive. It doesn't work. I think water got into the drive. I got the boot selector from kirsti_73 on ebay for my 500. I haven't been able to get my gotek to work with it yet but there's different jumper settings i didn't try yet and I was trying to get it to work with my 1200 which might be pointless.
@stude1965
have you had any luck with that drive in the past year by any chance? I ask because I just claimed the old family Amiga, and the external drive is in fact one of those CA-880 units. Hoping to do a mod like in
@RMC - The Cave 's video here, but if this particular drive is a no-go I'll look into other options!
@@BustaUppa No sorry. At first it works with the gotek but after a while it freaks out and won't read it anymore.
Greetings from Colombia. I really like your channel. I wonder: is there a drive emulator like this for the Atari XE65 computer? Thanks and keep the good videos.
Does the Gotek handle virtual disk swapping with software that uses more than one adf file? I use win uae which of course uses virtual floppy drives to add the adf's to, which takes care of disk swapping .Wing Commander for example which was split over three discs and uses three adf files. So how does the Gotek handle it?
ste309w it does. In the menu I show on the screen you assign adf files to slot numbers. When playing you then just press the buttons on the front to change the number and that disk is mounted
RetroManCave Now I see. So when you get the onscreen prompt for disk 2, you switch to that number. Great stuff. Thanks. Hoping to get my old Amiga back next week and see if it's all still working. Might invest in a Gotek.
I guess as that AMSTRAD ripoff one has DF0 DF1 on it but the original Gotec doesn't have the DF0 hard switch on it as the Gotec version is useale on the AMSTRAD that means the ripoff is usable on AMIGA probably but has the DF0 switch on the thing itself.
A cool hack! Will it work with my CD32 and SX-1 expansion module?
Yes I show this on a CD32 episode with the SX32 and a 2nd floppy drive and it works great
Do these work in the 500+ I bought one months ago but I could never get it to work. Not sure if user error or incompatibility is to blame
Yes, and the A1200. I bought mine already flashed for use with the Amiga, did you buy a flashed one or a regular unflashed one?
RetroManCave sorry, I should have been specific. I've got a HxC flashed drive that works if I hook it up inside. I meant to ask if the CIA mod board works with other models. I can't get it to work at all with my 500+
Matthew Harrison (matthehat) oh I see... amigastore.eu/en/485-df0-selector.html it certainly says it is A500+ compatible
Yeah, unless I got a dud it looks like I've done something wrong.
Gotek drives though - what an amazing thing they are. The HxC firmware is worth checking out for other machines. I've got them installed in my Atari ST, Archimedes A440, Amstrad CPC6128, my Pentium gaming PC and a homebrew Z80 system. The firmware is about £10 a pop from the developer and you can get the drives on Aliexpress for about £15 each.
I haven't used a real Amiga since the late 90's and I'm getting a 1200 soon, so I'm ramping up on modern modifications.
Does this mod also applies to the 1200? In other words, does the 1200 as the same CSG module as the 500?
No you'll want a different solution for the A1200. The 1200 also lets you boot holding down the mouse button and select a drive to boot from (DF1 as an option). It won't always work but you may have more success. You may also want to use a hard disk or Compact Flash adapter and WHDLoad to get a better experience. This isn't an option on the A500 as it has no built in HD controller like the 600 or 1200
Right, thank you. I expected as much.
I'm already planning to replace the 20-something years old internal harddrive by a CF adapter. Some Amiga mods are really expensive from what I've seen but this one is surprising cheap and is sure to make the user's life easier.
I'm not really planning on using old demos or games, so I'm not sure I need a floppy emulator. WHDLoad, the CF adaptor and Win UAE will certainly serve my purpose. Well, unless some capacitor in the computer or the PSU blows up to my face.
What is the largest size usb pen drive compatible with this?
+gamerdude0 largest I've seen used in the forums is 64gb...should be enough?
This is a cool idea, however, it's very doable to fit a Gotek drive within the A500 without modifying the case.
There are two ways to do it. The first way, which I did, was to modify the face plate of the Gotek drive. Here's an image of my A500 with the Gotek inside: i.imgur.com/5feeRXb.jpg . In short, you have to saw off the top of the Gotek's faceplate, and remove its top cover. Then you need a mount (which I bought 3D printed, but I can't find the mount right now!). Since the Gotek's buttons end up inside the A500, I wired two buttons to the Gotek, which I mounted on the cutout for the disk ejection button. I think it's a neat way - the only caveat is that you have to lean over to see which memory location you're on. The second way is to remove the Gotek enclosure altogether, and use a mount like this: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2745049. There are pros and cons with both methods - for the first one, you need the extra buttons, and the 8-segment LED display is a bit obstructed, but with the second option you also need a separate OLED screen. I actually like the buttons the way I did it, because they're very easy to use. I'd still want that display, though;)
how do you sort the df0 problem on an A1200 ??
I don't know of an A1200 df0 selector. I'd go for a compact flash hard drive and whdload on a 600 or 1200
RetroManCave yeh i have a cf internally, id rather a usb or sd external, bugger !
Ace mod RMC! Can this be done on a A1200?
Not with this solution no, I haven't looked into the mod on the 1200 because I tend to favour a compact flash HD using its built in IDE controller, then you get much faster loading times.
Thanks for reply RMC. Very true and I do have this setup but if you want to run ADF files such as PD games which don't have a WHDLoad file then you still need to run them via a floppy drive/gotek?
so can this be done on a A1200
Doom99 yes but you may prefer to spend your time on a cflash card and WHDLoad as the a1200 has a HD controller
hi retroMan thanks for the reply, just getting back into the Amiga. Managed to fit a cf card to my newly purchased A1200 but there is still a lot of software out there that needs to be on floppies. Searched all day trying to figure out how to do this on an A1200 but no luck. Found one or to electronics diagrams but they were a bit too heavy for me. If your sure it can be done and you do come across any instruction or products on your travels drop us a reply. just found your channel by the way very good, gonna have a few cups of tea and a bit of binge-watching latter ;-[>
Will it work on the A600 ?
The Gotek will, you will need a different boot switcher for the A600. With an A600 you may want to go down the compact flash HD route however depending on your setup.
Hi I realise this is an old video but I wonder if you can help me.
I'm trying this now on an Amiga 1200, but mounting the goTek in a broken 1011 drive.
Should the goTek be jumpered as DF0 or DF1? If I jumper it as DF0, the drive just shows - - -. If I jumper it as DF1 it shows 000 and DF1 shows on the desktop as DF1:???? and double clicking does nothing.
It was working when fitted internally as DF0: Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
+Geoffrey Armstrong do you know why the 1011 was broken, could it have been the board and not the fdd at fault?
+RetroManCave You might be on to something... I seem to remember it came up as DF1:????
D'oh
Geoffrey Armstrong unless you've performed a floppy hack to swap the drives around like I did in the A500 it will be DF1. The A1200 still has some success though working like this. If you set the gotek to df1 and hold the mouse button while booting the A1200 you can tell it to boot from DF1. You'll still have some problems with games hard coded to df0 but at least you can try some out and load the selector program
Bel video,anch'io preferisco la soluzione drive gotek esterno,nell'A500 deve restare il drive dischetto originale
Another nifty use for those floppy emulators =)
Boot Selectors from the video are available for purchase here: sordan.ie/product/530/boot-selector-df0df1-df1df0-signal-sel0-from-sel1-amiga-500/
Thank you, I've added it to the description, always good to buy from source
Great! Thanks a lot.
I think i'd miss the familiar 'chuck chuck chuck ERRGGNK' (for about 10 minutes..)
lovely conversion but the fit in the front of the case is terrible they could have least made the from look like the outer case of the fdd drive to make it a snugger fit, im sure there will be an stl for this on thingerverse to make it actually look the part, other than that great vid as usual
LGR bump new subscriber
Carlos Noguez a friend of LGR is a friend of thr cave! Welcome
Are you going to keep the gotek stock and not flash it with one of the custom firmwares, it adds a lot of functionality to the floppy drive
HPZeta I've heard about that but not read up enough yet on the advantages. What can I expect with the alternative firmwares?
NVM its flashed noticed in 4:04 , Keirf does have a newer firmware called flashfloppy ,with better disk image support,Oled display support and the ability to add a ESP8266 and control the thing over wifi, he has a github thats easy to find, "keir flashfloppy github"
Hmm in a nutshell support for a whole bunch of other computers, new formats HFE, ADF, IMG and ST image formats, no need for config files just insert a fat32 flashed usb, I think it has write support now, optional mods you can do: fit a nice clear OLED display that tells you what disk you have inserted, rotary encoder instead of the switches, speaker that mimics drive reads and clicks, esp8266 so you can load/control images remotely, and many more.
Its constantly evolving and he is still adding new stuff the last update was October 17 :)
Sounds like fun, I think the write support would be most useful. I'll look into that but for now I'm going to play some games :)
Enjoy the games :) I am running a much older version, its great so far, will probably update mine soon...
I'd like to see a review.
+Objectorbit noted thank you
Nice device. Although I wouldn't mind dropping the load speed emulation.
I suspect that would break compatability or just fall over. You really need to go down the HD/SD/CF route with WHDLoad for speed
Yeah. I guess there's a reason for emulating the speed other than just making it feel more authentic.
Please do same mods but on an A1200 ;) thanks
Great video @RetroManCave - I'm planning on doing something similar with one of my GOTEK drives. I wanted to make you aware of a new firmware for them that has a lot of advantages: FlashFloppy [ github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/ ]. Unlike Cortex or HxC it's fully open source and under active development. There are a couple lovely addons like being able to add back sound if you like though a sound chip or buzzer, upgrading to a click wheel, and support for multiple display types (including cheap OLED displays that will fit in the existing mounting hole for the three digit display but will show access information and complete filenames). It's compatible with the HxC tooling, so you can map disks to numbers like with the Cortex but also allows for no config and just running through images placed on the disk (easier with a LED or OLED mod). The advantage of being compatible with the HxC tooling is the config files for mapping/managing image:number mapping is an XML file and there are some Windows/Linux tools to help as well. I've been upgrading all my GOTEK drives to FlashFloppy and found an inexpensive OLED on ebay which has the required pull-up resistors built in [ www.ebay.com/itm/0-91-IIC-I2C-SPI128x32-White-OLED-LCD-Display-Module-For-Arduino-PIC/172435137027 ] and works quite well. If you have an A1200 or an A3000 there are 3D Printable mounting brackets for these drives on Thingiverse as well (I'm designing an A2000 model but it's not done yet). Hope this is useful!
Carl Perry thanks Carl I'll have a good read through those links. Perhaps I can demonstrate some of these improvements and add ons some time on the channel for all to see
The HxC firmware still under active development too and most (if not all) of the features of this FlashFloppy firmware was taken from the HxC Floppy Emulator project. Even the compatibility with the HxC tools was ripped off... Have a look to the HxC Forum (Gotek section) for the latest features and updates for more details. (Manual/Features : torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1683)
Latest HxC FW updates : hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/USB_HFE_hxc_floppy_emulator_firmware_release_notes.txt
JeffHxC2001 good to know! I have a GOTEK with HxC2001 on it but didn't know so many features were now supported. Finding all the docs were much easier with FlashFloppy and I didn't know that forum existed until now. Apologies for the misinformation.
The forum and manual links are on the page where you bought the firmware : hxc2001.com/store/index.html
Firmware update : hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/HXCFEUSB_HFE_beta_firmware.zip
"Manual" on the forum : torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1683
Don't hesitate to update to the latest WIP FW version. ;)
Oh b*****ks. I had an external floppy drive (a 1011) which no longer worked and I scrapped it probably about 10 or more years ago. I think it was the drive itself that was worn out, the case and interface were probably fine. Unless of course the complete unit is hidden away somewhere and I can't remember where!
Still got the Amiga 500, but I put a modified Sony floppy drive in it.
I did all the same things you did but my Gotek will not boot, even when I have the Selector.adf file on it. It's formatted as Fat32 and I got some extra files that needed to be on it because it uses the flashfloppy firmware drive. Everything eventually came together in a package I put together but it would not boot. Can you test my package if it boots? You can find it here:
www.everythingtech.nl/amiga/amiga-flashfloppy-usb-basic.zip
The colour grading looks like a 1970s BBC documentary
Hehe I had no idea what colour grading meant back then. It was just me and a point and shoot camera
First!! Wouldn't it be awesome to take this stuff back in time 30 years?
Imagine taking a Vampire, and some of these goodies, an iPad and a Raspberry pi3, all back to 1987...:)
If anyone can do it, it's you Jesus
How do you think we got them in 2017? :D
+Jesus Blessed be the Gotek makers
Making such a cheesy comment....Bignose.
What about games and apps that look for CPY signal? Does unmodified GOTEK emulate this? BTW I think github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy is better firmware than Cortex. Thanks
Hi Cave Man, fantastic video! Only ordered a Gotek a week ago, waiting for it to arrive. Do you then just plug the external drive connector into the normal drive port on the back of the A500?
Hi, yes you do but unless you also have the boot selector mod it will act as drive DF1. Alternatively you plug it into the floppy drive port internally for it to be DFO and run the cable out of the case or install it in place of the floppy drive.
RetroManCave Thanks for the speedy reply Mate. Sorry, yes I meant after installing the DF0 switch. Just ordered 2 of them! 😁