General
Greaseweazle is a USB interface and tool for reading and writing floppy disks in any format: PC, Amiga, Amstrad, all kinds of synths, and many more! Or a tools and USB interface for accessing a floppy drive at the raw flux level
Source: https://github.com/keirf/Greaseweazle/
You will find everything about the Greaseweazle (GW) software and documentation on Github. And here is an overview of the Greaseweazle models.
A short note for the DOS and CP/M community: You can save/duplicate any DOS or CP/M disk with the Greaseweazle, but the so-called image or LUX files occupies 10 to 20 MByte storage on your hard disk and this for each image!
The advantage of the Greaseweazle workflow is that you can use modern equipment and information technology and only need some old disk drives. It is much easier to keep running a few NOS floppy disk drives (8", 1.2M, 360K, 1.44M, 720K) than a whole DOS system.
Versions
Until the end of 2022, I always used GW version 0.28 for both F7 and V4. Everything ran fine, so I had no reason to look for updates. But in January 2023 I realized that there is already version 1.5.
Test Station
New Version (since 01/2023)
All three drives are housed in a modern drive enclosure with its own power supply. The connection to the respective FLUX adapter is made with the so-called Shugart-BUS also called daisy chaining. In other words, the cable has no cable twister. Access is via the DRIVE SELECT selection, which is set on the respective drive. This also means that all three drives always rotate when accessed, because there is no separate MOTOR ON signal.
- DS1 or DS0
- Panasonic JU474-5 ........DS/HD, 360 rpm, 80 tracks, 96 tpi
- DS2 or DS1
- Teac FD-235 ............. DS/HD, 300 rpm, 80 tracks, 135 tpi
- DS3 or DS2
- Shugart SA455 ........... DS/HD, 300 rpm, 40 tracks, 48 tpi
Old Version (until 12/2022)
I use this teststation for my KryoFlux and my Greasewezle(s).
Installation
System
In contrast to the Kryoflux, the software installation on Windows 10 is very easy. Simply copy or install the current software and connect the Greaseweazle to the USB port. The installation will take no more than 2 minutes.
And this is unfortunately a disadvantage of the Kryoflux. It absolutely needs its own Windows USB driver. After using the Greaseweazle and the FLUXTEEN, which use/install the original Windows driver, I can no longer work with the Kryoflux. This problem can be solved by a new installation, but it requires some knowledge and is a bit tedious. For this reason I use Kryoflux with macOS; works fine.
GUI
Furthermore, you have the option to choose between two Windows GUIs if the command line version of GW.EXE is too inconvenient for you.
I have both installed, but I like "FluxMyFluffyFloppy by Frank Bopple" a little better. In this GUI, you can easily create various templates and thus work very flexibly and quickly.
Drive Select
In connection with the FLUXTEEN, which can only handle DAISY CHAINING, I noticed that the Greaseweazle (GW) can handle both the crossed IBM floppy cable with twist (drive A: and B:) and the DAISY CHAIN cable (drive 0, 1 or 2).
You can control this in GW with the command line parameter "--drive=A or B or 0 or 1 or 2". With other words, you can use three different drives in GW.
The Kryoflux (KF) on the opposite can only handle two drives and uses the modern IBM PC cable/jumper scheme with the twist. Here you jumper both drives as DS1, both as the 2nd drive. Connect drive B before and drive A after the twist.