How to double the amount of floppy drives? DualSlim comes to help!

Enlighted (4304)

16-10-2022, 07:35

Also did you disconnect the pin12 cable coming from the A1F conversion board?

Wait a minute. Maybe the 26pin flat cable also has no drive select just like A1F interface? And it is wired with DS1 to DS (plain driveselect) on the second output? Alexey could confirm. If that is the case both drives should be set to DS0.

By itozzz

Expert (67)

16-10-2022, 09:43

I have tried both ways with the gotek on bus 0 and the floppy drive on 1 the gotek works without problem but if I do a call format "a" (format b = syntax error) it formats what is on the gotek but it goes into The floppy drive motor runs even if it doesn't have a disk, I don't know or I haven't seen if there is a way to configure the drives as ds0.

By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4304)

16-10-2022, 11:16

Gotek can be configured as DS0 with jumper S0 I think. Just try with only the Gotek connected to either port of DualSlim (so first on 1 then on 2), FDD not connected.

I don’t know if FDD requires modifications to work. It was not mentioned by Alexey.

It may actually be needed that both drives are set to DS1… let’s wait for Alexey to give some insights.

By itozzz

Expert (67)

16-10-2022, 18:36

testing the gotek alone in slot 1 of the adapter works normally, in slot 2 it does not recognize it. I think something is missing to tell you that there is a drive B: . I don't see any way to configure the gotek slim as ds0 nor does the slim drive either. (if you look at the photo I uploaded from gotek you will see that there are only pins JE, JD, MO and S1. pin 68 is connected directly to pin 12 of the ide (it does not have contact with the cable or the ide port of the A1F.
It is clear that pin 68 is needed because if not, only one hardware unit recognizes me.

By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4304)

16-10-2022, 18:47

Maybe try without the S1 jumper on the Gotek?

By itozzz

Expert (67)

16-10-2022, 21:09

(S1 off no detect nothing)
More details:
If I run megareport from disk (cn1 on adapter) (gotek is conected to cn2 on adapter) I have what you see in the image:

But if I run the megareport from a rom cartridge i get:
DISK CONTROLLER 1
TOTAL LOGICAL DRIVERS 1
TOTAL HARDWARE DRIVES 0
I would have to mount 2ng diskrom ?
Can it be possible that this a1f rom only mounts a: drive? :o

summarizing:
gotek connected to cn1 adapter and floppy drive to cn2 adapter. when run FILES gives me the files of the USB content but the floppy drive starts up, it's as if they were both the same drive.

By Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3649)

17-10-2022, 00:44

You might want to solder a wire on the back side of the board. It's normally needed for PC drives to work properly in A1F, so give it a try. Found this fix on a Brazilian site.

By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4304)

17-10-2022, 05:33

@Alexey: any insight what this mod actually does? The pin 8 it connects to is motor on, but what are we connecting to?

By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4304)

17-10-2022, 06:22

@itozzz: In Shugart interface there is only 1 motor signal and 4 drive select signal. The drive should only spin if it’s corresponding drive select is triggered and motor on is enabled. Now these 26 pin drives are not really Shugart drives so they may not incorporate the logic to enable motor only when DS is active. TC8566AF has MEN0 and MEN1 (so separate motor controls), you could connect these signals to the pin 10 off the respective ports on the Dual Slim (check which one is DS0 and which DS1). Make sure to break the trace from 34pin connector pin 16 into both pin 10s. MEN0 is on pin 63 and MEN1 on pin 62. This may actually be needed to get the system working as A1F was not designed for 2 drives it may not even use both MEN0 and MEN1 to generate combined MEN and just directly uses MEN0.

A similar thing was needed to add 2nd diskdrive to FS-A1FX.

@Alexey: I see the DS0 and DS1 are routed to the different ports (as the 26 pin flat cable has only DS). Should Gotek be configured as DS0 or DS1?

By Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3649)

18-10-2022, 18:36

sdsnatcher73 wrote:

@Alexey: any insight what this mod actually does? The pin 8 it connects to is motor on, but what are we connecting to?

As far as I understand, this pin is needed for PC floppy to work in A1F. Looks like the original FDD from A1F only needs DS signal to start spinning, Gotek can be also used without this MotorOn signal. But for a converted PC drive this signal is essential. For some reason it was not routed to the cable.

My Gotek or FDD inside the A1F are set to DS0 and work just fine. They work via the A1F adapter.

I think the only way to make both Gotek and FDD work on A1F is to find and connect the DS1 signal from the motherboard to the DualSlim board (pin 12 on CN3).