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Pcw9512

Yeah, I actually had completely disassembled mine at one point so I could clean the case and insides and remove the second bay cover and it was quite a pain.. Lots of parts and everything was really packed in there. Tiny hands help. :)


The HT lead is a problem. Cant easily removed the video tray without disconnecting it. Is it a pull off ? does it disconnect at the tube or the transformer ? Long time since we did monitor repair during my apprenticeship (1984 !) and I dont want to break it.

However, will have to put it aside for a week.

Just got another Disk II for £5 that I'm having a play with first.
 
Finally got around to stripping this machine down.

Amstrad's designers must have hated their service engineers.

Finally got to the floppy, and yes the belt has 'melted' onto the nylon wheel. Will get a new one as I like original stuff working, but will probably get a 3.5" working with it too (looks fairly simple).
 
Will get a new one as I like original stuff working, but will probably get a 3.5" working with it too (looks fairly simple).

So definitely cool to get the 3" drive working (i ordered a belt for mine on ebay), however I would't bother with a 3 1/2" drive. They don't really fit in the case, so you'd have to hack up the case (or maybe not, i'm not sure the difference of a 95 series vs 85 series), plus it's a matter of time before all 3 1/2" media fails anyway. What I did was move the 'real' 3" drive to drive B (since none of my 3" disks really work anyway) and then placed a gotek into the 'A' drive. Since a gotek can be placed into a custom faceplate to match the 3" bay size, it kinda works perfect and doesn't involve modifying the case at all.

Here's the gotek mount:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2850367

If you don't have a 3d printer, you can also find them on Ebay.. I believe all the 3" mounts between the amstrad pcw's are the same (they might be the same with other amstrad 3" bays, but I wouldn't know). Here is mine modified.

IMG_20190820_113858.jpg
 
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What I did was move the 'real' 3" drive to drive B (since none of my 3" disks really work anyway) and then placed a gotek into the 'A' drive. Since a gotek can be placed into a custom faceplate to match the 3" bay size, it kinda works perfect and doesn't involve modifying the case at all.


View attachment 60280

Probably a better idea.

Time I designed my own to go with my PET drive.
 
Amstrad's designers must have hated their service engineers.


I take it back.

Doh, four screws and the monitor comes off with the HT tray giving easy access to the floppy. Didn't notice that the monitors surround was separate from the base.

Floppy fixed but will wait for the gotek and put it all back together. Found a gotek for £13 on amazon :). I imagine I will need to install flashfloppy on it ?
 
imagine I will need to install flashfloppy on it ?

Yup, you need flashfloppy (or hxc) firmware. I'd also suggest getting the OLED display (128x32: 0.91") so you can easily skim through the disks. There was a file browser they made for the amstrad but after spending a bunch of time to track it down and get it working, I ended up deciding it wasn't really very usable, the oled route was better (the file browser works similar to the c64/amiga type but it only allows 12 programs in the menu and you would have to constantly swap those around depending on what you want to play).

Anyway, if you go the OLED route, just send me a PM and I can send you link to a USB image with everything on it ready to go.

There is a video of a youtuber using a similar gotek setup to give you an idea of it with the oled setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwuH09S5YSE

FYI, as you probably discovered, the pinout on the Amstrad cables are slightly different (especially the power cable), so you'll want to google that before you hook it up, lest it fries the new gotek. Heres a llink to help with that:

https://fabriziodivittorio.blogspot.com/2018/04/retro-restoring-amstrad-pcw-8512.html
 
FYI, as you probably discovered, the pinout on the Amstrad cables are slightly different (especially the power cable), so you'll want to google that before you hook it up, lest it fries the new gotek. Heres a llink to help with that:

https://fabriziodivittorio.blogspot.com/2018/04/retro-restoring-amstrad-pcw-8512.html

Yes, knew it was different but that link makes it clearer, thanks.

I do have a 3" drive with a standard shugart interface in an Einstein, Odd that Amstrad decided to go their own way.
 
Quick question,

I have a gotek that I will connect up as drive 0/A (have the details on 34 to 26 and PSU connector differences, waiting for parts from RS before I will get the gotek in). My question is how I make the original drive respond as drive 1/B. It doesn't seem to have any jumpers to change which drive select signal it responds too and the cable in the case does not have a twist or any other mod to force the drive to drive 1/B ?

Any ideas ?
 
There are no jumpers but the drives do have a link to select whether they are drive 0 or 1, so it may be possible to desolder and rewire the link. However the service manuals don't say how the link is marked, so you may end up following PCB traces to find it. On the FD-1 drives used by the CPC it's apparently labelled SW1 (on one side of the PCB) and JP119 (on the other) but things may well be differe

Alternatively, you could introduce a twist in the cable to swap the drive 0 and 1 select lines.
 
Think I have found it. There is a surface mount 'resistor' (with a value of 0 ohms printed on it !) labeled JP1 that can be moved to an unlabeled pad to direct DS1 instead.
 
Couple of questions if I may. Do you have links for the OS ? and how did you configure your Gotek ?

Attached is the FlashFloppy Configuration files that would go onto a USB stick along with any software (in HFE format) you have for it. This is mostly for folks reading this thread in the future. However, I'll send you a message with a link to something a bit more comprehensive.

View attachment FF.zip
 
Ta very much :)

Just got the hardware sorted (though not installed yet) so will work though the Gotek setup.

Thanks.
 
Hi again

Sorry but can I have a little bit more help.

Gotek is installed as boot drive but I cant get anything to boot.

Putting FF.CFG and IMAGE_A.CFG with CPM.HFE, I get the three beeps straight away

With a FF.CFG I used with a PC (set to shugart) with a PC .IMG file, the drive is accessed and the screen flashes white/black then fails with three beeps (as you would expect with a none PCW file) which seems as if the device is being accessed.

So it looks as if the interface works, but I have not got it setup correctly. I have managed to damage the 3 digit display :(, think I must have touched the chip against the USB connection shell but before that, I could see it stepping tracks. (edit : think its because the new CFG refers to an OLED)

With the Gotek, I dont really understand the use of HFE files and the use of the IMAGE_A.CFG file. The file in your ZIP had a ref to a Zork boot HFE, should each file on the stick be referenced ?

I dont have any other jumpers other than DS0 installed.

Ideas ?
 
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Hi again

Sorry but can I have a little bit more help.

Gotek is installed as boot drive but I cant get anything to boot.

Putting FF.CFG and IMAGE_A.CFG with CPM.HFE, I get the three beeps straight away

With a FF.CFG I used with a PC (set to shugart) with a PC .IMG file, the drive is accessed and the screen flashes white/black then fails with three beeps (as you would expect with a none PCW file) which seems as if the device is being accessed.

So it looks as if the interface works, but I have not got it setup correctly. I have managed to damage the 3 digit display :(, think I must have touched the chip against the USB connection shell but before that, I could see it stepping tracks. (edit : think its because the new CFG refers to an OLED)

With the Gotek, I dont really understand the use of HFE files and the use of the IMAGE_A.CFG file. The file in your ZIP had a ref to a Zork boot HFE, should each file on the stick be referenced ?

I dont have any other jumpers other than DS0 installed.

Ideas ?

Actually, the Image_A.CFG is really just an index file for the last loaded file.. It doesn't affect anything and will be recreated when you change disks.

FF.CFG was indeed done for an OLED display. You can edit that file to be for the 3 character display, though I honestly would add the oled to it for this particular system. You can get away with the 3 Digit Display for autoboot systems like the atari/amiga but on non-autoboot it's not really optimal. That said, I do have an autoboot system for the amstrad that also has the menus, etc.. a gentleman on the internet (under the name 'habi soft') had got it working and after a bit of hunting found the files and configuration needed. I'll attach the autoboot stuff to this message, basically this would replace the cfg files in the root.

Here's the files needed for Autoboot/3 character display (this should also work for hxe as well as flashfloppy):
View attachment PCW-AUTO.zip

This is the search you'll want if you go the OLED route: 128X32 OLED Display module 0.91"
(incidentally, the oled display does fit in a stock case but would need some hot glue to hold it in place.. it'll seem bigger but the actual display part is not)

D0 should be all you need. Looked at the image of mine, that's all i have there (except i also have a speaker added to the one below d0).
 
I intend to get an OLED once I have proved I can get the machine to work.

I think it might be a problem with using HFE files on the gotek, it doesnt seem to recognise them as disk files.

I found a copy of CP/M for the 9512 in DSK format and it boots. The USB stick I am using has an internal LED that flashes when its accessed, with the .DSK file, it flashes a bit on power up, then starts reading.

Put the CPM.HFE as the only file with the same FF.CFG and when the Gotek is powered up, the USB stick's internal LED flashes continuously and the PCW gives three beeps, suggesting that flashfloppy isn't reading the file.

What firmware are you using ?, I'm running 3.12a

I also have a keyboard problem, pressing D gives a D but I gives a string of characters IUO and R gives WER, hope its not the encoder.
 
I intend to get an OLED once I have proved I can get the machine to work.

I think it might be a problem with using HFE files on the gotek, it doesnt seem to recognise them as disk files.

I found a copy of CP/M for the 9512 in DSK format and it boots. The USB stick I am using has an internal LED that flashes when its accessed, with the .DSK file, it flashes a bit on power up, then starts reading.

Put the CPM.HFE as the only file with the same FF.CFG and when the Gotek is powered up, the USB stick's internal LED flashes continuously and the PCW gives three beeps, suggesting that flashfloppy isn't reading the file.

What firmware are you using ?, I'm running 3.12a

I also have a keyboard problem, pressing D gives a D but I gives a string of characters IUO and R gives WER, hope its not the encoder.

I'm not sure what firmware i was using, i believe it was 1.2. However, I just copied the update file for 3.12a over to the gotek and ran the update and it's now using 3.12a as well. Everything still working fine.

Honestly, it doesn't sound like a software issue. You can maybe try with a 3 1/2" drive to confirm that works, although i'm not sure what the process to image a working floppy for that would be. Anyway, the SD card image I provided came directly from the SD that is used on my Amstrad (though I have a PCW8256 - upgraded to 512k). The only time I've experienced issues similar to the one you have, was on my TRS-80 and it turned out the cable was loose.. but it also did exactly the same thing, the lights would turn on the USB drive and flash but nothing would run. Remember that even if the cabling is incorrect, if that gotek has power, it's still going to go through all the motions of reading a usb stick... It's just not sending the data back to the computer. As far as the Gotek is concerned, it's working fine..

UPDATE:

fyi, the earlier mentioned thread, he did a separate post specifically for the 9512.. I would check this out, it looks like it might need a change with the jumper from S0 to M0 and remove the second drive. If that works, then it sounds like a special circuit might be needed to make it work with two drives.

https://fabriziodivittorio.blogspot.com/2018/05/installazione-gotek-su-amstrad-pcw-9512.html
 
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Yes, read that. I am only running with the Gotek at the moment to remove too many variables.

Your on a 8512 ? wasn't the A drive a single sided 40T drive ? I wonder if the images need rehashing to match the 720K drive the 9512 is expecting.

Anyway, thank you so much for the zip file, its got everything !, I'm sure I will get it working, at least the machine is largely working.
 
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