Gotek USB/SD Floppy Drive Replacement
ClemFM
http://www.gotek.net.cn/ )
You simply connect the device to a 34 pin floppy cable and it can use
either SD cards or a USB flash drive as a floppy disk!
The device supports IBM PC floppy formats 720K, 1.2M and 1.44M however
I'm trying to find out if it can be jumpered to work as a 180K (SSDD)
or a 360K (DSDD also PC format) floppy drive for the Model 4.
Has anyone tried this device?
(You can also have up to 99 virtual floppies on 1 card and switch
between them with the 2 buttons on the front of the unit!, this gives
nearly all of the benefits of a hard drive with none of the controller
or OS hassles etc.)
winston19842005
28eb5057-43f7-4a47...@u9g2000prd.googlegroups.com, "ClemFM"
<cle...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hmm. I've forgotten how to read Chinese (Kai Lan hasn't gotten that far yet,
either).
And I couldn't find a single "Gotek" on ebay.
Can you provide a link for any ebay auctions? Or a link to a page in
English? Even Spanish will do. German even.
Bill H
wrote:
> On 6/13/09 4:02 AM, in article
>
> - Show quoted text -
Google can help:
Bill H
tur...@gmail.com
>
> Bill H
These look really cool.
Many people have tried replacing the 40 TK SS DD Model 3 drives with
720K 3.5" -- I'd bet that would be your best place to start. But hey,
if you can write this guys in Chinese, ask them to but some extra
tricks in there for 8" drives and 5.25" SSSD drives, etc. -!
tur...@gmail.com
>
> Bill H
here's another -- or maybe a parent or sister-company:
http://www.commerce.com.tw/modules.php?modules=company&action=company_inside&ID=E0220491
and here's more info on the Gotek versions:
http://www.ecplaza.net/tradeleads/seller/5684700/simulate_floppy_to_usb.html
(this link also has a contact form if you want to ask questions about
the drive.)
desc.
-----------
Simulate floppy to usb conversion for embroidery machine is our latest
products.
It replaces the floppy disk driver through 34PIN or 26PIN floppy disk
driver interface,with this conversion unit
installed ,you will never use the floppy disk .but use USB flash disk.
It is easy to install ,and easy to use.
Most model of STAUBLI MULLER knitting machine with 1.44M floppy disk
driver are
supported.
If you are interested in my products ,contact me.
Wish pleasant cooperation!
Optional Information
- HS Code : 8448 Parts, Accessories of Typewriters & Office Machines
-----
contact
-------------
Company GOTEK.corp Zhangjiagang China
Contact Person Mr. Yan.gu
Homepage http://gotek.en.ecplaza.net
Other Items More 4 Trade Leads , Product Catalog(s)
Telephone 86-512-5591-7088
Fax
Address miaoqiao town north-youyi road, zhangjiagang, Jiangsu, China
215600
Tags simulate floppy to usb
ClemFM
I emailed them re SSSD 380K disks and the answer was no! As you say,
the best approach is to simply make TRSDOS/LDOS etc work with 720K,
does anyone know of the required patches etc to achieve this?
I was going to struggle with one of the GIDE IDE controllers which
plug into the Z80 socket, however this device has almost all of the
advantages of a hard drive with none of the problems (drivers for the
GIDE etc).
Clem
ClemFM
The GIDE IDE Controller can be found here http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/~kc-club/gide/gide.html
They have improved the design further, God I wish TRSDOS/LDOS etc
drivers were not an issue!
Knut
I'm using 3.5" drives in all my machines also the model III. The TRS-80 thinks it is a 5.25" drive
capable of doublesided 80 track (density is a controller feature so it does SD and DD). No patch is
needed unless you want to do more than the DOS can do. For example I sometimes use TRSDOS 1.3 and it
then just thinks it is a 40 track single sided drive. Note also that compatibility with double track
width is not necessary either so "skip" is not necessary, just use the first 40 tracks (or for
model-I 35 tracks).
The drives are normal PC 1.44MB type (and I have found none that don't work with TRS-80). The only
problem might be to find one with jumpersetting for driveselect, all drives nowadays are set to DS1,
sometimes 0Ohm resistors can be moved with a soldering iron to select DS0 instead. For model III you
need only DS0 and DS1 which would correspond to :0 and :1 on the top connector and :2 and :3 for the
bottom connector respectively. Media should be 720K so the drive does the correct rotation speed.
1.44MB media can be used (note that there are some controversy on this subject and there are people
that disagrees with me), you only need to cover the hole on the righthand side when you see the
floppy as you put it into a drive. Cower that hole with opaque tape from below (some drives sense
optically and most with a microswitch from below, (it helps you too if it is opaque)). Then the
drive will think it is a 720K floppy. The actual media of 1.44MB floppies is slightly different from
720K but the difference in coersivity is so small it matters little in my experience. No problem
with bad tracks when formatting and no problem with fading data (yet, 7 years now, also some
experience with PC that goes back to the early 90ies no problem using 1.44MB as 720K). I use real
720K mostly now because I have (I did buy a bunch a few years back).
Knut
ClemFM
1. They have the 720K version with a USB host mode connection i.e. you
can use any USB flash drive as the drive (Host mode means you don't
need a computer, you simply plug in a USB drive). Each flash drive can
have up to 100 720k disks on it which are selectable via the buttons
on the front of the drive (they simluate the disk change process -
eject/insert).
2. They have a prototype of a SD card 720K unit and will be going into
production soon.
I'm going to go with the USB version at present for my 4P and another
CP/M system that I have.
This certainly appears to be a much more elegant solution than a SVD.
The devices should be stable/reliable as they are mainly being using
in industrial sowing/embroidery equipment as replacements for
720/1.44/1.2M drives.
Clem
Nickname unavailable
Which of the images on the site corresponds to the one you are looking
at?
I didn't see current price info - did you obtain that as well?
This looks interesting - I've an SVD and it is slow. I'd like to see
speed comparisons. I saw a 50kb/s rating on one of the drives,
wondering if that is throughput. I remember floppies used to be rated
250kbps or 500kbps, but this was the data rate, not throughput, and
not very attainable.
ClemFM
wrote:
Gotek have them on Ebay, search on "Convert floppy driver to usb for
embroidery machine" in all categories.