Micro PDP-11/23+ Gotek Flashfloppy Success

[cliffmiller]

Finally got my Gotek with Flashfloppy to boot the PDP.

The computer is a Micro-PDP11/23+ in a BA-23 case with M8189, M8067, and M8639-YA (an RQDX1). There is no hard drive but there is an RX-50 dual floppy. I've booted RT-11 in the past from a floppy and over the second serial line with the TU-58 emulator on a PC.

I worked through a number permutations of settings and jumpers on the Gotek but this worked:

The only hardware jumper is on "S0".

Changes to the standard FF.CFG:

interface = shugart
host = dec
indexed-prefix = "DSKA"

The files on my thumbdrive are named "DSKA0001.img" and so forth. I believe it is necessary to match setting and filename?

I worried that I'd have to have two Goteks since the RX-50 is a dual drive but the system booted with just one. I am curious that some people reported success only when changing the configuration to interface = ibmpc. Many of the posts and other resources on Gotek for the PDP-11 and VAX referenced the RQDX3 controller which I understand is an upgrade. Could that be the source of the differences seen?

The media is a Thumbdrive purchased from an auction site containing a number of XXDP images in both RX-33 and RX-50 size. I booted with one of the 400K images thinking the RQDX1 doesn't support the RX-33.

 

[czunit]

Congrats! The settings are different for Goteks on RQDX3 vs Professional 300's for example and I think there was a requirement on the RQDX3 of a certain ROM code to use RX33's.

If someone can test against an RQDX1/2 and post that would be cool.

 

[cliffmiller]

Congrats! The settings are different for Goteks on RQDX3 vs Professional 300's for example and I think there was a requirement on the RQDX3 of a certain ROM code to use RX33's.

If someone can test against an RQDX1/2 and post that would be cool.

True - when I changed to an RQDX3 the interface had to be changed to “ibmpc” and the jumper to the S1 position. The ROM version on the RQDX3 is the latest.