Steve M wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:39 pm
I've got BD drives and Microdisc drives. I've got Cumana with 3.5" drives. I don't have a Gotek yet.
I've been holding off from getting a Gotek as there is the issue with files being converted to it's format. I'm not aware of anything that can get the files back to Oric .dsk files (?)
Yep. That is indeed an issue. I think I once suggested Oricutron supporting edsk (Amstrad CPC) disk format. It is a container, similar to our dsk, which is natively supported by the Gotek's firmware. The software tool can convert from dsk to edsk (but not the other way round) too, and it is also supported in the MiSTer, SiDi, etc. Oric cores. Having it supported in Oricutron would ease things a lot, but also a conversion tool could be created.
My Opel interface had the 3" and 3.5" drives. It's gone wrong so need repairing.

I used to copy thing on there from the 3" to 3.5" then I'd use the Cumana with 2 3.5" drives. I used to copy 3.5" floppies on the PC. Now my old PC need repairing
Can you connect a real drive to the Cumulus? I thought that might be a way to convert files.
I also have an old laptop to be able to write 3.5 disks with WRITEDSK, but eventually it will fail and I will get stuck with no way to produce physical floppies. It should be possible to plug a real floppy and a gotex in my Microdisc clone and create physical disks from disk images, but only if they are DOS-friendly (Sedoric, OricDOS,...). We don't have (yet) a tool to duplicate disks at low level (no dos, different, or variable, geometry, etc.). And, as you said, the other way round is not possible. You end up with an hxc floppy image you cannot convert to Oric dsk (see above, my discussion about edsk format).
About using a PC, the only solution I've seen so far is
Greaseweazle. Not easy if you are not good with the soldering iron (I suck!).
And the answer to your question is no. The Cumulus emulates the Microdisc controller and the 4 floppy drives. There is no way to connect a real one.