HxC Gotek can read but not write

[Lazarini]

Hi
I'm trying to replace a TEAC FD-235HF 6540 in an industrial knitting machine (Universal MC-729).
The machine runs it's control system over what seems to be a PDOS operating system running in a Force Computers CPU.
The floppy disks used to transfer data to and from the machine are not directly readable in WIndows, but only through a software provided by the manufacturer.
So far, I was able to make a dump from a real floppy disk with the HxC software and save it to a .HFE file. With the file saved in a flash drive, the Gotek locates it, and the machine is able to read it's contents and load the programs from it. However, saving to it is not possible. There's no error during the saving process, The file simply isn't there after it.
The same behaviour is observed when reading from and saving to the disk image in Windows using the software from the manufacturer.
Is there any solution to the problme i'm facing? Any ideias on what to try and fix it?

[martin.webexplore]

Hi!
Do You have any progress on this? Im looking ways to get Gotek working on Universal mc748

[avahdat]

Hi,

My dad has a Universal MC-748 and is desperately looking for a copy of the start-up floppy disk (he is 80 years old and uses the machine to make a living). Is there a way for you to share the disk file for your Universal knitting machine with me?

[martin.webexplore]

Hi! Do You mean UX1-UX2-UT-UU floppy image or whole physical diskette set?

Which one of these and what version do You need. I think we have 2.34

Regards,
Martin

[avahdat]

Thanks Martin for the response.

It says "UT-Disk V1.67e" on it. I assume V1.67e refers to the version. We can try a newer version to see if it works.

[avahdat]

This is what it says on it:

ut-disk.jpeg (18.4 KiB) Viewed 16468 times

[Lazarini]

This is what it says on it:

ut-disk.jpeg

Sorry for the long delay for replying to your message. I've got very little free time to try and dump the boot-up disks in the last few months, but I finally did it.
In this link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EHhKBz ... sp=sharing you can find all 4 of the disks (UX1, UX2, UT and UU), on version 3.33.
The disks were imaged using OmniFlop in a Win XP machine. I've included a copy of the program in the zip file to make things easier. Just remember to install the floppy drive driver so that it can read and write correctly to the disk (refer to the User Guide for OmniFlop on how to install). Apart from that, creating a new floppy should be as easy as choosing "Write disk", the imagem file and the target drive. If prompted for disk format, use Stride PDOS (640kb).
Hope you can get your machine back up and running

[Lazarini]

Hi!
Do You have any progress on this? Im looking ways to get Gotek working on Universal mc748

I didn't yet have the time to work further on this issue. Still clueless on why it can read from the image file, but not write to it...
Hope to try a few things in the upcoming weeks. Any news I will be posting here

[Jeff]

Please share the HFE files before and after the write attempt(s).
What can you read on the gotek screen when no usb stick is connected ?
Which screen has you gotek ?
If you have an oled screen, do you see "WA" on the second line when you write something ?

[Lazarini]

Please share the HFE files before and after the write attempt(s).
What can you read on the gotek screen when no usb stick is connected ?
Which screen has you gotek ?
If you have an oled screen, do you see "WA" on the second line when you write something ?

Here's the link for the files, both before and after the write attempt:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Tried with different USB sticks, same behavior. Machine reads fine and is able to load files from drive, but not writing to it.

The drive is an Eilasung, model FDD-UDD U720k, board has markings ELS34E, and is based on the STM32F105.
It has the 7 segment display.
When no USB stick is inserted, it reads HxC on the display

[Jeff]

Please share the HFE files before and after the write attempt(s).
What can you read on the gotek screen when no usb stick is connected ?
Which screen has you gotek ?
If you have an oled screen, do you see "WA" on the second line when you write something ?

Here's the link for the files, both before and after the write attempt:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Tried with different USB sticks, same behavior. Machine reads fine and is able to load files from drive, but not writing to it.

The drive is an Eilasung, model FDD-UDD U720k, board has markings ELS34E, and is based on the STM32F105.
It has the 7 segment display.
When no USB stick is inserted, it reads HxC on the display

It seems that the write gate signal is working, but the write data line isn't : no data is captured.
Some questions :
- Can you try the emulator on another machine (PC or anything else)
- Have you an oscilloscope ?
- Which upd file have you used ? one from this archive or something else ? : https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... rmware.zip

[Lazarini]

It seems that the write gate signal is working, but the write data line isn't : no data is captured.
Some questions :
- Can you try the emulator on another machine (PC or anything else)
- Have you an oscilloscope ?
- Which upd file have you used ? one from this archive or something else ? : https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... rmware.zip

1. I have tried it on a PC, using the software from the machine manufacturer (which interfaces directly to the floppy controller to read and write this non-DOS format). Same behavior occurred. (I haven't tried writing to a standard DOS floppy image directly from Windows Explorer though)

2. I do have an oscilloscope (single channel portable one, but it does the job most of the time)

3. I have used the .upd file from this very archive. Current version on the device is 5.2.3.1a

[Jeff]

It seems that the write gate signal is working, but the write data line isn't : no data is captured.
Some questions :
- Can you try the emulator on another machine (PC or anything else)
- Have you an oscilloscope ?
- Which upd file have you used ? one from this archive or something else ? : https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... rmware.zip

1. I have tried it on a PC, using the software from the machine manufacturer (which interfaces directly to the floppy controller to read and write this non-DOS format). Same behavior occurred. (I haven't tried writing to a standard DOS floppy image directly from Windows Explorer though)

2. I do have an oscilloscope (single channel portable one, but it does the job most of the time)

3. I have used the .upd file from this very archive. Current version on the device is 5.2.3.1a

Can you check and report here where are connected the WDATE (Write Data - Floppy pin 22 ) and /WGATE (Floppy Write Enable/Gate - Floppy pin 24) signals to the STM32 ? I suspect a different GPIO usage on this Gotek "clone".

[Lazarini]

Can you check and report here where are connected the WDATE (Write Data - Floppy pin 22 ) and /WGATE (Floppy Write Enable/Gate - Floppy pin 24) signals to the STM32 ? I suspect a different GPIO usage on this Gotek "clone".

WDATE (Floppy Pin 22) goes to STM32 pin 41 (PA8)
/WGATE (Floppy Pin 24) goes to STM32 pin 62 (PB9)

As far as I could check from schematics I've found in the forum, it's the standard Gotek pinout.

[Jeff]

(I haven't tried writing to a standard DOS floppy image directly from Windows Explorer though)

please try it.