macsonny Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 (edited) Hi All, I've been building up a few of @Dropcheck floppy boards for 5.235" drives. Built and populated 3 boards now and they all work really well. I wanted to try to see if I could get these boards to run a 3.5" floppy drive. I have 3 of the DSDD drives from some Atari ST's and figure they would be good to try out. But I'm not sure which is the best ROM to use to test with. Anyone able to assist with the suggested ROMs I can burn and test with? Thanks macsonny Edited May 25 by macsonny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peri Noid Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 What is this board compatible with? If it's XF551-based then I'd suggest Hyper-XF firmware. For the 3.5" version you need a WD1772 (not 1770) or a VL1772 to work properly. The recent VR177X replacement (produced in Australia) should work but we have some mixed reports here in Poland and it's not confirmed that it's OK. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TZJB Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 10 hours ago, macsonny said: Hi All, I've been building up a few of @Dropcheck floppy boards for 5.235" drives. Built and populated 3 boards now and they all work really well. I wanted to try to see if I could get these boards to run a 3.5" floppy drive. I have 3 of the DSDD drives from some Atari ST's and figure they would be good to try out. But I'm not sure which is the best ROM to use to test with. Anyone able to assist with the suggested ROMs I can burn and test with? Thanks macsonny Long ago @bob1200xl published some modifications for the XF551 which I carried out. Thanks Bob! I used these mods years ago with a 40/80 track switchable 5.25" floppy drive, but to be honest as I only had one drive of this type, I did not want to rely on it so it went into storage. Saying that, the XF551 720KB DSDD disk that I made is still intact and does still boot into SpartaDOS when connected up to an 80 track drive with the 80 track OS mods. My modified ROMS are from an older version of XF551, not sure which one, 7.4 I think. It has both the 40 and 80 track ROMS in the file using pin 26 to switch between them but are for a 5.25" mechanism with a 6mS step rate. XF551DUO.128 The 7_7 file contains modified 64Kb versions of XF551 Rev 7.7. Woolley density switching 7_7 roms.zip Hyper+ XF is available here: http://blog.3b2.sk/igi/post/Hyper2b-XF-10-MANUAL.aspx. The English translation needs a bit of work. Incidentally, I just looked at my Atari XF551 board and it has a VL1772-02PC designation on the FDC and M5M8040HP on the CPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 I also like the Hyper+ XF rom. I've used it and also the no longer available CSS 3.5" module and rom for years. I like them both. I need another disk drive like an "added hole in the head," but I'm thinking about buying one of those from Zaxon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup8pdct Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 7 hours ago, Larry said: I also like the Hyper+ XF rom. I've used it and also the no longer available CSS 3.5" module and rom for years. I like them both. I need another disk drive like an "added hole in the head," but I'm thinking about buying one of those from Zaxon. Do you have the rom on file? it should be easy to remove the need for the copy protection module. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 26 Author Share Posted May 26 (edited) 17 hours ago, Peri Noid said: What is this board compatible with? If it's XF551-based then I'd suggest Hyper-XF firmware. For the 3.5" version you need a WD1772 (not 1770) or a VL1772 to work properly. The recent VR177X replacement (produced in Australia) should work but we have some mixed reports here in Poland and it's not confirmed that it's OK. FYI - I bought a few of the VR177X to try out. Mix results. Found they didn't work well with the HyperX+ ROM but worked fine with other ROMs such as Turbo XF551. I think they are a good alternative for the price. Edited May 26 by macsonny 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted May 26 Share Posted May 26 If you are using 3.5" drives with an XF551 board you need to also use a rom that is specially setup for 3.5" drives. This file contains versions of the HyperX roms for both 5.25 and 3.5" versions. You need to use the "B" version. I know there is a modded Atari bios that will work as well, but I don't have that file at the moment. You may also need to set the drive mech itself for DH0/DF0. Most drives have that ability, it's just not always easy to do it. XFTOOLS.ZIP 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted May 26 Share Posted May 26 (edited) 18 hours ago, macsonny said: FYI - I bought a few of the VR177X to try out. Mix results. Found they didn't work well with the HyperX+ ROM but worked fine with other ROMs such as Turbo XF551. I think they are a good alternative for the price. Interesting. Anybody has a good picture of the chip without the label? I am curious to know exactly what FPGA was used. There is a blurred picture that shows it is a LATTICE chip, but the part marking is unreadable. Edited May 26 by ijor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 7 hours ago, ijor said: Interesting. Anybody has a good picture of the chip without the label? I am curious to know exactly what FPGA was used. There is a blurred picture that shows it is a LATTICE chip, but the part marking is unreadable. I'll check mine tonight and send you a pic if I can get what you need. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 12 hours ago, Dropcheck said: If you are using 3.5" drives with an XF551 board you need to also use a rom that is specially setup for 3.5" drives. This file contains versions of the HyperX roms for both 5.25 and 3.5" versions. You need to use the "B" version. I know there is a modded Atari bios that will work as well, but I don't have that file at the moment. You may also need to set the drive mech itself for DH0/DF0. Most drives have that ability, it's just not always easy to do it. XFTOOLS.ZIP 150.81 kB · 5 downloads Let me know if you find the ROM I need. Yes, using your 5.25" board but trying out with a 3.5" drive. However I've ordered some of your 3.5" boards from PCBWay and might just wait for them to arrive and do it right 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 One bad thing about that is that those boards assume you have an Atari SF314 external disk drive and case. They are not that common and are somewhat expensive to source because of that. I'm sure you can design and print a 3D case and use an industry standard 3.5" drive mech instead. But that's something to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 On 5/27/2024 at 3:46 AM, Dropcheck said: If you are using 3.5" drives with an XF551 board you need to also use a rom that is specially setup for 3.5" drives. This file contains versions of the HyperX roms for both 5.25 and 3.5" versions. You need to use the "B" version. I know there is a modded Atari bios that will work as well, but I don't have that file at the moment. You may also need to set the drive mech itself for DH0/DF0. Most drives have that ability, it's just not always easy to do it. XFTOOLS.ZIP 150.81 kB · 10 downloads Which file in the XFTOOLS.ATR file do I need to use to setup the drive mech? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 Progress!!!! Seems using a VL1772 is ok but using a VR177X isn't so acceptable! Working great with the pictured drive and the ROM @Dropcheck provided above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 (edited) A little more testing and I'm about 99.9% sure it's the VR177X I've been trying out is causing drive format failures. I also swapped the 8040 for a 8050 and the drive still works fine. Whilst the VR177X are a great replacement for VL1772, they are most definitely not a 100% compatible replacement. Edited May 30 by macsonny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 My current work-in-progress. All using @Dropcheck XF551 boards and non-Atari floppy drives. I'm now at the point of working out how to mount the boards. A weekend project I suspect. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted May 30 Share Posted May 30 51 minutes ago, macsonny said: A little more testing and I'm about 99.9% sure it's the VR177X I've been trying out is causing drive format failures. Did you have a chance to check if the chip marking code is readable? Or it is covered with a label? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleister Posted May 30 Share Posted May 30 Hi. I have VR177x with this FPGA.. I'm testing it with Polish clone of XF551 with 3.5" drive made by x_angel... seems that VR chip is not working wit HyperXF B firmware... format failure. With Bob Wooley OS v7.7 for 720kB drive seems that everythink works ok for me. But, I need more testing it.. From back side of VR177x is small (maybe) Jumpers A-B.. but I dont know, for what they are.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 10 hours ago, ijor said: Did you have a chance to check if the chip marking code is readable? Or it is covered with a label? Thanks I had a quick look this morning as you just reminded me. Yes, I can see the marking on the main chip. I'll get the details tonight and share here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macsonny Posted May 31 Author Share Posted May 31 (edited) Here's is what is on the chip: Lattice LCMX02-1200HC 4GT100C A2271R26 Pic attached. Hope that helps. Edited May 31 by macsonny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted May 31 Share Posted May 31 5 hours ago, macsonny said: Here's is what is on the chip: Lattice LCMX02-1200HC 4GT100C A2271R26 Pic attached. Hope that helps. It does. Thanks a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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