Kaypro GoTek or HCX Advice Solicitied

[k6whp]

Succinctly and if appropriate here, Can anyone recommend (1) whether GoTek or HCX floppy controller is preferable and (2) if GoTek, specifically which vendor or eBay seller or source you like? I would like to mod/upgrade two Kaypro 2Xes I have along with a Kaypro 1.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Gary C]

Goteks are cheap and do everything you need when programmed with flashfloppy.

The flashfloppy software is well supported too with new profiles being actively generated for unusual formats.

Buy from Amazon for about £25 / $30, eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/SovelyBoFa...k&qid=1647860245&sprefix=gotek,aps,155&sr=8-3

and get the OLED display eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/ALAMSCN-Di...7860652&sprefix=gotek+ole,aps,191&sr=8-2&th=1

The flashfloppy website should have all the help for setting up config files, but people on here can probably help.

No idea about the Kaypro interface (does it integrate power into the interface cable ?), but I'm sure we can sort it out. Recently fitted one to my Osborne 1

 

[k6whp]

Gary,

Thank you for the recommendations. I did some snooping around and have come up with these preliminary items:

A "Ready to GoTek" floppy emulator:

Gotek Black USB Floppy Emulator OLED,Speaker,Dial - Amiga Atari IBM Roland AKAI | eBay

New Gotek drive is totally cool!". These have been tested on an Amiga 500. They should work on any device listed on the FlashFloppy Wiki. Google "FlashFloppy Host ". There are many, and I have included a list below.

www.ebay.com

The gent who sells these has a YouTube channel with really decent explanations of how things work and even how one can do the mods he did to arrive at the final product he sells. Here is his video:

I bought a GoTek from him because they supposedly had all the mods done shown in the video. the price was reasonable, and the workmanship looked pretty decent. I suppose I could have done the mods. Amateur radio op who builds/repairs small, low-power radios and the mods he does are reasonably trivial. But, since there were other videos he did telling/complaining about new GoTek upgraded features, I figure he sells the upgrades or improvements or I will know more about it after this project is finished.

Additionally, to interface the GoTek to the KayPro, I found/purchased the following FDD cable adapter:

Card Edge to IDC Male Connector Adapter - 5.25" to 3.5" Floppy Cable | eBay

For all applications where you need to replace a 5.25 floppy drive unit with a 3.5 floppy or gotek floppy emulator. This adapter can adapt the original 5.25" floppy connector on your ribbon cable to one that you can plug directly into a 3.5" floppy drive or emulator!

www.ebay.com

It was shipped promptly and the workmanship looked superb.

To house the GoTek, I got this 3.5" to 5.25" mounting bracket from China:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/262749846499

It has not arrived yet, so I cannot comment re its quality. But it should not be necessary to do the conversion and testing.

BUT KNOW YE THESE CAVEATS: I have NO pecuniary interest in any of these products other than they are my conjectures and guesses! As the conversion progresses, I will try to post notes and discoveries back here for others interested. I still have to understand how one transfers files to the USB stick. I understand it is done by using software to transfer the various CP/M files to a disk image. Here the retrofriends guy describes how he does it for his Amigas. The preamble contains a decent description of the concept and I shall report my efforts to do the same on the Kaypro when I have accomplished it.

If anyone has Kaypro specific recommendations re this software, I am all ears!

Thanks again, Gary, for getting me started!

 

[Gary C]

The OLED installation certainly is an improvement and the Artery controller is easier to reprogram if you were to need to.

 

[VERAULT]

I use a Gotek with HXC firmware in my Kaypro 4/84. ITs a really nice option. I have the Piezo sound mod and OLED screen mod (the rotary encoder option doesnt really apeal to me. I forget how much the Firmware was. I think 10 euros at the time.

 

[Gary C]

I use a Gotek with HXC firmware in my Kaypro 4/84. ITs a really nice option. I have the Piezo sound mod and OLED screen mod (the rotary encoder option doesnt really apeal to me. I forget how much the Firmware was. I think 10 euros at the time.

Would you say the HXC software has any advantages over flashfloppy (regardless of price) ?

 

[VERAULT]

I have never used flashfloppy. I was sold on the HXC firmware right away when I saw the list of supported devices and they continue to make it better.

 

[Gary C]

Fair enough

I wondered if it was worth trying it, but would have to have some tangible advantage over the free flashfloppy software which I have found to work on everything from an Osborne to an MZ80K.

 

[VERAULT]

I hear you. For me the price is nothing for the support of an hxc without the cost of one.

 

[Gary C]

Might try it next time I need to, just for comparison.

 

[k6whp]

The GoTek arrived today and I am all set except I have a question about the GoTek to Kaypro power connector. (See pics below.) Obviously, the Kaypro has the Molex connector and about 18 AWG wire but the GoTek has the four-pronged plug that will accommodate the Pololo 4-connector 0.1" plugs. Before I kludge anything together, I wonder if there are commercial alternatives to make the connections a little more "seamless".

Appreciate any tips/recommendations.

Thanks,

WHP

 

[Gary C]

Like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350852253454

 

[k6whp]

Yep! Thanks! There's an eBay guy [practically] down the street from me that sells these!

Appreciate the lightening response!

~WHP

 

[Gary C]

Thats night shifts for you !

 

[k6whp]

Well, after a whole lot of head-scratching and research and an incredible amount of support/assistance form the members on this site, I got the GoTek in the Kaypro and running -- sort of!

For an update: I will be succinct and fill in the remainder when I have the whole shooting match buttoned up.

Mechanically, installing the GoTek is a matter of rounding up the parts and plugging them in.

(1) My source for the GoTek is in the thread above. The guy sells them with the FlashFloppy firmware and a speaker installed for around $57 and shipping.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185217960568


(2) The adapter for the floppy cable also from eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165371212267

(3) The FDD power cable adapter also from eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125189050726

(4) Still in the works and awaiting arrival is the disk drive bay housing. Cannot comment on quality or worthiness; delivery time a little long:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/262749846499

Note that I have no pecuniary interests in any of the above sources; I was referred by like-kind products recommended here or elsewhere.

I possess only Kaypros and a Windows 7 desktop for this project. My goal is to revive the Kaypros and not build up a DOS or other machine in order to do so. Wonderfully, I have had some success and essentially discovered how to upload CP/M files onto a thumb drive. All that was required was to format a USB thumb drive (FAT32) and copying .hfe files to the drive. The GoTek does all the rest. For this, I used the HxC floppy emulator software and the exported .td0 and .imd images from he HxC floppy software. The Kaypro read the images just fine.

The link for the software is:

HxC2001 : HxC Floppy Emulator download

HxC2001 Support / Download page

hxc2001.com

Once one has a .td0 or .imd file, just load the file and export it. The result will be a similarly named .hfe file -- as in KP2XSTUFF.td0 becomes KP2XSTUFF_td0.hfe or similar. Then copying that to the USB drive and inserting the drive into the GoTek makes it "visible" and available to the Kaypro. If it is a bootable image, then a cold start will pick up the diskette image and it's just like old home week!



If you wish to convert a bunch of the .imd or .hfe files, you can put them a source directory and use the batch converter option. It picks up all those files, converts them, and deposits them into the specified target directory. (The directories can be the same.)




The problem is that, at this stage, I am the mercy of the .imd or .td0 disk image files as they come from the archive sites. I can't make up my own "mix" as it were. And this is where the Teledisk, CP/M tools or and similar DOS utilities come into play. They allow the CP/M individual files to be grouped together and then written out as a .hfe image file.

I downloaded them and attempted to run them in a W7 cmd window to no avail.

Therefore, any resolution to the above would involve either a Windows app similar to the HxC floppy app "Disk Browser" that would allow me to accumulate the desired files and output a collection of CP/M disk file images in an .hfe or .IMD or td0 file format. That could be converted to a usable .hef disk image. Similarly, a suitable DOS virtual window like your Linux{?) DOS Box above could be used to run Teledisk or the CP/M tools.

Any suggestions of corrections gratefully accepted

 

[k6whp]

Just thought I'd close the loop on this thread(?) as I finally have the GoTek mounted on the K2X -- and it works great! And, yes, I'd recommend the process to anyone wishing to relieve themselves of the worry of worn out FDDs and floppy media. The only downside, insofar as I can see, is the inability to harness the advice givenhere (Thak you David and Larry) and effect a solution to the gathering of Kaypro or CP/M software and converting it to work on the Gotek in the .hfe format. (That seems to be the only format picked up by the GoTek in y corner of the world.)

But, since I have the GoTek and a now-working B: drive, I can load the .hfe files I have gathered to the USB thumb drive and download the files I need on a work diskette and upload them to another blank or empty disk image and rename it using my Windows 7 desktop. I had thought of writing a "loader program" in C/C++ for the Windows environment (I refuse to go out and build up an old DOS machine to cut my CP/M diskettes; maybe someday, just not at the moment.)

Besides, I have a wealth of software from the old days so it becomes a matter of cloning ersatz empty .hfe formatted files for the GoTek selected disk onto the USB stick by doing a Windows copy and renaming them something like "EMPTY 1.hfe", EMPTY 2.hfe", etc., and uploading the appropriate software files from the floppy diskettes in my collection and Bob's your uncle!

As mentioned above in a previous entry, I was awaiting the drive bracket I got off of eBay to arrive from China so the GoTek could be permanently mounted in one of the 2X machines. Here are the results:





The drive bay caddy was not the best of construction but only set me back about $5 delivered from China and arrived in only two weeks so it's not that bad. If I can be of help on a project like this, please let me know. Gotta be a great thing to get one's vintage machine back in the game and -- after about 45 years of software development work -- I enter the lists with a fresh new prospective on CP/M and how elegantly simple it is for a 2K OS.

Oh, one last thing re the comatose Epson FDDs? I was able to score a couple of those old 3M disk head cleaning disks off of eBay and they woke up two of them. My other 2X is havign trouble recognizing the A: drive and booting off it so I am swapping out good pieces (drives,mother boards, cables, etc.) without waking it up. However, it's only a matter of time til I solve the problem and then I intend to add a GoTek to it as well!

 

[ajacocks]

There are also some really nice 3d-printable 5-1/2" look-alike Gotek housings. For example:

5.25" IBM PCjr Floppy Drive case for Gotek FDD emulator by erikhuybregts

This is a case for a Gotek FDD emulator that closely matches the look of the 5.25" floppy drive of an IBM PCjr (And probably other IBM models from that era). I printed all parts with supports. The front face has an extra support build in at the display bezel because I was not happy with the...

www.thingiverse.com

I printed one of those for my Commodore PC10-III, and it looks really good, IMO.

- Alex