Setting up a PC Trasporter on a IIGS

[luvwagn]

Hi @luvwagn,

Yes, the composite from PCT. Can you boot and use the card just using that video signal?

Tks

Yes, i've done that without the colorswitch card connected to the IIgs. But I've never tried composite

 

[smpjmp]

I'm still struggling to get a gotek working with the replacement Transdrive board from Japan Has anyone made this work?

Have you heard from anyone about this? I too am struggling with the one on github. Thanks

 

[micheledipaola]

Have you heard from anyone about this? I too am struggling with the one on github. Thanks

I made it a couple years ago, you can find the post on page 1 of this thread:

Success! With this TransDrive adapter, I was able to read MSDOS disk images from a usb thumbdrive connected to a Gotek, using FlashFloppy firmware ( https://github.com/keirf/flashfloppy ).

Once I connected the Gotek to the TransDrive adapter and the adapter to the card, The PC Transporter setup utility (3 times shift pressed at boot....) detected and configured it as drive B: - I have to say that PC emulation is another world, so I am still struggling to find my way among different image formats, compressed images etc., and my first failed attempts were simply due to not working images, but I got to understand it only once I managed to find working ones. Also, the thumb drive must be formatted in FAT32 format.

Anyway, one more step forward towards a full understanding ad setting up of the card!

BTW I have now a second card (with the RAM expansion) and a second ColorSwitch module, which are not working / not being recognized by the AE PC Transporter software... I tried to reseat the ram and other socketed chips, with no result. Any hint?

Next goal for these weeks / months: interoperability between MS DOS and ProDOS, starting with the command line tools provided with the card to move files from/to the two different systems.

I ended up adding the gotek to the original TransDrive unit (AE external drives box built for the PCT) since the one I got only came with the 5.25" drive:

View attachment 89544

...aaaand done!
Night brings council as they say - I realised I was plugging the TransDrive unit in the IIGS SmartPort, but instead I should have plugged it into the DB19 port provided with the card, which then plugs into the card directly and it is meant exactly for plugging PC drives.

After doing that, everything works, units check disks at boot and react to path change, so if I enter B: at the prompt and then DIR /p (to get keypress and make it to read the whole file list) , this will happen:

View attachment 89545

BTW, if you want to boot the card from your DOS hard disk / special file on ProDOS volume, be sure to take the USB out of the Gotek or it will boot from there first - as usual, floppies come first in the booting sequence.

Now since I made it, here are some infos about how I wired the Gotek inside the TransDrive.

As I wrote, a card-edge to 34-pin adapter is needed to plug into the card-edge cable inside the TransDrive:

View attachment 89546

There is a PCB design of the adapter freely available (see previous posts) but for 18€ shipped from the Netherlands to Italy, I decided to get mine from https://www.gotek-retro.eu (which is the English version of www.gotek.nl ) . The website shopping system is quite... retro, too, as you will have to fill in a form to request your product(s), and then they will get back at you on email to arrange payment (PayPal only) and shipping. Anyway after a few days, here is the adapter I got:

View attachment 89547

In order to connect everything, I also needed a (female) molex to floppy power connector, and since the card-edge strip inside the TransDrive is quite short, also a 34-pin extension to connect the Gotek. Luckily I already had everything in my stash:

View attachment 89550

Then as you can see in the first pic, I used a 3d-printed bracket to correctly fit the Gotek inside the TransDrive unit.
Wish I had found a (matching) grey bracket, instead of this ivory one, but I guess there will be time for that.

So another success in the end! I am super happy!

Hope my notes about how to plug what in which port can help you @smpjmp - as I wrote, I had to try several PC disk images before finding some actually working in the gotek.

 

[smpjmp]

I made it a couple years ago, you can find the post on page 1 of this thread:

I ended up adding the gotek to the original TransDrive unit (AE external drives box built for the PCT) since the one I got only came with the 5.25" drive:

Hope my notes about how to plug what in which port can help you @smpjmp - as I wrote, I had to try several PC disk images before finding some actually working in the gotek.

The one I used is https://git.nclf.net/ajfite/pct-godrive/-/tree/master?ref_type=heads This one had the board designed and the schematic looked to be more accurate than the reprint from the post link. This however does not seem to work for me. Does not work with floppy drive either, but the original apple drive works fine connected directly to the PC Transporter.

 

[NJRoadfan]

You don't "need" a TransDrive unit to use one of these. You can directly connect an Apple 3.5" drive to the DB-19 port on the card and read/write 720k MFM DD floppies.

For those asking, yes the SuperDrive card can be used with 1.44MB MFM disks to boot the PC. I got it working years ago, which surprised me because the PC Transporter software predated all that by a few years.