Aca500plus Bootselector

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    Hi, I am thinking of buying aca500plus for my amiga but I am curious regarding the following. My setup consists of an external gotek as df3: (last in daisy-chain because it doesn't have a pass-through connector). Can I swap df3 to df0 by using the Bootselector function of the card?

    No, the boot selector logic of the ACA500plus only swaps df0: and df1:. You'll have to make yourself a custom boot selector for your case, as I believe there is no commercial product that covers your case.


    Boot selectors are extremely simple, they just route the SELx lines differently. On an A500, the CIA chips are DIL, so something like that is easily hand-made.


    If there would be more customers with your setup, a custom change to the boot selector logic could be made. However, more than two disk drives are extremely rare these days, so I fear that making such a custom logic would be more expensive than the ACA500plus itself, giving yet another incentive to make a custom hardware-based boot selector for your setup.


    Jens

    So I suppose that even if I switch off the rest of the drives (df0 included) by the software of the card and leave df3 running, will it still be assigned as df3 by the Amiga OS?

    Correct, that's how it is right now.


    However, I just attempted to fit this functionality into the CPLD code, and I was surprised that the fitter came back with a solution. I still need to test it, but it seems like I have implemented the functionality "if target swap-drive is disabled, boot-select will be shifted to the next higher drive". I never thought about this functionality, as using bootselect and selecting to disable a drive was always handled separate (and even developed in different stages of the ACA500plus development).


    If this works as intended, we can roll the update out with the JTAG updater that we are currently developing (see Indivision ECS V4 thread). If you are making this your buying decision, please don't buy yet. Again, we need to test this first.


    Jens

    I've finally come around to testing this, and it turned out to need quite some additional work to cover all corner cases. However, the result is very usable! New features are:


    - classic bootselect where df1: becomes df0: and the internal drive disappears

    - truly swap df0: and df1:, where the internal drive gets auto-mounted as df1:

    - df2: becomes df0: and internal drive+external df1: are disabled; df3: can still be used if connected.

    - df3: becomes df0: and all other drives are disabled.


    This will be rolled out with the JTAG updater that will be available later this month (yes, I know this is late, but it's almost through QC). It's not yet represented in the menu, so it can only be used to a small extent. The only measurable change is the "truly swap"-option, but the menu doesn't offer any of the new settings.


    So again, if you're making this your buying decision, don't buy just yet, but wait for the menu update to implement these new features. Once we have this, you'll be able to build a setup where you can boot from four different drive types - although I can only think of three different ones right now:


    - Gotek emulator

    - 3.5" drive

    - 5.25" drive


    Does anyone have any idea for a fourth floppy-connected medium?


    Jens

    I there any news on the JTAG updater? Just to make sure I have not just missed it :-)


    i have the

    - Gotek emulator (df3)

    - 3.5" drive

    - 5.25" drive


    setting and would love to be able to boot from df3. My ACA has HW revision $08 (bought in may 2022)

    Sorry - lots of things in the pipe here, including the pending software update for the ACA500plus that I want to fully test before releasing the JTAG adapter and said menu update.


    Jens

    Software update that covers this new bootselector has just been published (see Wiki and news). JTAG updater will follow shortly.


    Jens