PianoDisc PDS-128Plus + Gotek Hardware

[mrojas36]

Hello!

I hope everyone is staying safe. I am retrofitting an old PianoDisc player (Model PDS-128Plus) with HxC Emulation + Gotek Hardware. I cannot get the PianoDisc to recognize a floppy. I have installed and tested using diagnostic firmware and everything looks good. I can see the PianoDisc attempting to seek and read tracks, but then just ignores the disk.

I believe this is one of those units that will need some custom firmware. I have installed a logic analyzer to capture the actual I/O signals and compared those to the original drive.

I am confused why the two captures are so different. I thought originally I had a ground problem on the capture - but after building a board and re-capturing, the signals look the same.

The original floppy is a TEAC FD-235HF-7529. The configuration straps are set to some weird setup - swapping the Density and Ready pins.



Here are the strap configurations:



Here are the original floppy timings:



Here are the Gotek timings:



And some pictures of the setup:





Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

Thank you!
Mike

[mrojas36]

Looking at the Gotek and original floppy timings - I am confused on why the TrackZero and Dsk/Chg (34) are oscillating.

[Jeff]

According to your captures i think that the drive is not in shugart mode : the drive is not ready.
Please try to change the the interface mode to shugart. (remove the stick and press both buttons for the menu)

[mrojas36]

Thanks Jeff!

I’ll give it a try.

[Jeff]

i would add : try also the akai s950 modes.

[mrojas36]

As soon as I changed the Interface CFG on the main menu to SHUGART it worked! Thank you so much for the help!



The timings look great!



Have a great weekend and stay safe.

Best regards,
Mike

[daniel.brown]

Does anyone here know how the jumpers should be set for the GOTEK USB Emulator to work with a Pianodisc PD128 plus?

Photo included below

Capture.GIF (108.48 KiB) Viewed 9701 times

[daniel.brown]

Would it be possible for someone to show how to change the GOTEK to the Shugart Mode? Says to push both buttons after removing the stick. But how do I select that mode?

Thanks!

[Jeff]

Would it be possible for someone to show how to change the GOTEK to the Shugart Mode? Says to push both buttons after removing the stick. But how do I select that mode?

Thanks!

What can you read on the gotek screen without any usb stick ?