Possible alternative for diskdrives

sp1200 · Possible alternative for diskdrives

Very interesting thread about a hardware diskdrive emulator:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45592

This might work with the sp1200 too

downsample

Hell yeah!

DFACE DXA

sick. i gotta look into this

does anybody know how to get there hands on one of these? i can only find a bunch of french stuff

TonyBordelo

Hi,

found this company:

http://www.datexdsm.com/emulator/docs/DTX200_EN.pdf

Would be really great to order some of these!

peterpiper0815

Thats some crazy stuff. Thank you!! I think I will call the german distribution tomorrow.
peace

TonyBordelo

Damn i read on a nother page that this things cost 800$! Please tell me after calling them if this is true. I also found this:

http://rpemb.com/products/fusb_enhanced.htm

That thing seems to coast 100$ what is more acceptable..

Razz

TonyBordelo

Hehe and here is another one for all my german people, but don't know the price:

http://www.ipcas.de/produkte/usb-...isketten-emulator-fdd-zu-udd.html

goldenmean · .

wow, def keep us posted if any of this stuff would work out, esp for the sp and mpc60. it seems like its only a matter of time before things like this start hitting the market and i hope they work for these old samplers because i really hate using floppies.

winz

WOW!
this would be ultra great!
gonna check out the prices at the german web site...
but how to transfer the OS on this thing???

TonyBordelo

Hi, the one from Germany is 500 € i found out. But i found a chinese supplier that sell functionaly the same and they are 100$ for the enhanced version. So i ordered 2 to test it with my SP and my 950.
To transfer the OS i think you have to start the SP opened with the floppy, than after booting switch the drives and save the OS to the USB stick. Or copy it with omniflop, but i ain't found out how the software works for the SP?

winz

winz

peterpiper0815

sequoia1232

Yo! This is totally blowing my wig. PPPPLLLEEEEAAAASSSEEEE share your findings if you actually end up getting ahold of these drives.

That's a lot to splash out for something thats yet untested. But I'm sure curious...

psoul

yo awesome!!
do this test Tony and if it all works we can find the way to pass sample trough computer to the card (wwwwoooowwww)

Audionoid

this is great if it works. Keep us posted mate!

Mr Macks

Looks great, and yes once one OS has been put onto one persons USB stick it would be easy to transfer by email/internet.

I like the comment "but it won't have the same warmth as a floppy disk".

TonyBordelo

Thats the one i odered:

http://www.rpemb.com/products/fusb_enhanced.htm

The price is 100$ plus shipping. Hope it will work...

rokuez

i doubt it will work because I think/assume that the SP's OS won't see disc sectors that are too large...

Audionoid

well, let's just wait and hope that it will work. Even though I don't want to get my hopes too high.

TonyBordelo

The lady i talked to told me that theres a jumper for DS0 and DS1, so thats good news. I somewhere read that you can choose between 720k and 1,44, but i will ask here if thats true. There seems to be a software with the device to format the usb stick with the 100 disk images, perhaps you can choose it there...

TonyBordelo

New info: its no problem to format it to 720k, but its only possible to replace 1,44mb drives. Thats strange, i will try it anyway. My SP accepts HD floppys with no problem so perhaps theres already a 1,44mb drive inside?If not i can still use it with my S950 Wink

Deck Daddy

YES! Eventually, one of these models or a similar system are going to work, and that'll be so frekkin' fresh! There are a lot of other users with other equipment that has the same problems as us when floppies go out, so we're not alone, and therefore it will be a market for this.

SWEET Very Happy

TonyBordelo

According to the specs of the TEAC FD235HF-A529 this is also a 1,44mb drive:

http://www.teac.com/DSPD/support/floppy_drives/fd235hfa529_specs.htm

Same with FD235HFC929, Sony mpf420-1...

Technically there now is a 99% chance that it will work, hope that the E-Mu god is with us for the other 1% Razz

downsample

This topic is hot, fuckin more action round here than I've seen in ages. Good to see people still check in on the forum! Show love, view posts since last visit.

ThatDamnSoGood

hi!

i read all the tread and waow!!! it would be awesome!

I'm from france, and i live near a distributor of this product, but i'm not an expert, so if somebody tell me all the things to ask, i could phone to them, and tell you the result!

peace

rokuez

even if you could partition the usb drive into a whole bunch of small partitions...

what code is there in the SP operating system to allow you to view a library of disc partitions. i don't think there is code in the Sp OS to allow you to randomly go thru 1-100 little partitions and choose the one u want.

i think for this to work someone would have to introduce new code to the sp os.

RHYTHM MONSTER

I'm pretty sure you choose the partition on the device rather than the SP.

winz

TonyBordelo

Yes, Winz is right, you choose it from the device. Thats the manual the lady send me:

sequoia1232

Yep, it does look like a possibility at least. The trick will getting the OS image to work on the drive. I'm guessing that we'll be able to handle that.

tanaka_san

Hmm...re: getting the OS image on the disk, without a program like EXP or similar, I wonder if this will really be possible...but if we could. Smile

TonyBordelo -- any luck getting it to work on the SP?

TonyBordelo

No, i just ordered it plus sending money with paypal plus shipping it from china will take 1-2 weeks to get it. But as soon as i get it i will post some results.
My idea for getting the OS on USB is this: Open up the SP, than start it. After booting from disk i will plug the disk drive off and plug in the FUSB. Then save it. Should work in my opinion...

Deck Daddy

sequoia1232

Pulling the floppy out and replacing it with your new expensive drive while the power is on is probably not a good idea. You can damage the drives, the sp, or possibly yourself.

Although nobody has really broken open the SP disk format for direct PC use, there are programs that will let you make an exact image of a floppy without being able to read or write to it. I'd start there first...

TonyBordelo

Okay, i will try it this way. So the i have to get a image from my OS disk, put out my pc floppy, put in the FUSB, copy the image from my HD to the USB, take out the FUSB and put it in the SP1200, then hope it works...
All that stress because of some damn floppys Mad

psoul

omniflop i think it's the name... the prob from what i understand is that work only with floppy driver inside pc, not an external usb floppy driver.....

peterpiper0815

Even with an imagefile of the OS disk you need to find a way to write it on the USBstick in the correct format. Simply copying the imagefile to the USB wont work (I guess).
If there is a way to read out the OS-Floppy Image file to get the "real" file(s) and copy them to the USB stick......that should work.

peace

RHYTHM MONSTER

It doesn't necessarily have to be powered by the SP to try to get the OS on there. You could power the device with an PC power supply sitting next to the SP. I'd be afraid to switch the power cables manually, you'll probably see some sparks if you do. Data cable would probably be ok.

TonyBordelo

Thats a great idea RHYTHM MONSTER!! This could really work, as far as i know the sp is devided in sections an only when you press the Disk button this section is active.
But as i wrote if you have the OS image on your PC HD and than copy it via the FUSB connected as your PC floppy drive onto one of the USB partions it should also work. We will see in a week or two...

psoul

i think if u format a partition true pc and then copy os emu sp1200 doesn't see it....
i think this cause if u put a floppy format by sp1200 into computer u can read it cause there is an unknow file system

however i was thinking to put a floppy driver usb connect to fusb connected to emu sp1200 (rotfl)

lol guys we are in the middle of a change of era for emu sp1200 rotfl!!!

peterpiper0815

TonyBordelo

Its a floppy drive like all others. Omniflop is only for reading unknown formats.
Im doing a image of the OS disk right now, it takes 5 hours to do that shit cos floppy image only reads wit 0,1kb/s!!! Thats such a joke...
I think i will try the rhytm monster technique first..

ThatDamnSoGood

someone try the FUSB?
peace

peterpiper0815

I guess Tony is still waiting for his FUSB. I hope more and more that this thing work. My s950 floppy act strange since two days. Ooooops......disk not mounted.
950 Users know what that means Sad

I just bought a Teac 235HF 217-U and hope that will work without soldering something.

peace

TonyBordelo

Hi, i got the FUSB yesterday and tried to get it to work right but no succes! It starts formating and the usb stick is blinking and everythings fine, but then it stops blinking and the sp is formating for ever...
I also switched the jumpers on it, sometimes it says disk not ready, try again, and when i set the usb stick switch to write protectet the sp tells me that too. So i think ist the format the usb stick has, the drive itself seems to be recogniced by the sp...
Very strange, i wrote to the manufacturer because they included some freaking kind of software to create the disks on the usb stick, maybe they can help me.
If not i try to get it to work with my S950, hope that will work. Peace

winz

damn, thats a shame...
keep trying and thanks for the effort!

psoul

i think the prob is the RY34 setting that is not present on the fusb jumper setting....

a floppy driver to be read by emu and akai need to be ds0 and signal ready on pin 34

Mr Macks

F*ck.

Hope you missed something..........

Mr Macks

After re-reading your post ... wouldn't you format the USB in the computer before putting into the SP ? i mean like making an image of a floppy and then putting on the USB or something ?

I hope that someone on here who knows alot about computers and disk formats etc. can shed some light, but I think there's still hope.

peterpiper0815

TonyBordelo

Hi, good info Peter! I will install the FUSB into the S950 next week to see if it works. If not i will change the pins and try it again with the SP. Hopefully thats the solution because in all other ways the FUSB seems to work fine with the SP...

DFACE DXA

i think the 950 will be even more of a headache

peterpiper0815

DFACE DXA

normal jumper replacement drives that work in alot of other equipment dont work in the 950. i dont think anyone has found a suitable replacement. most other old gear works with numerous jumper floppys

essence

Maybe this information might be helpful :

http://akaiscsifaq.digidude.net/akaifaq_floppy.htm

TonyBordelo

Hmm i really don't get it to work. Can someone help me out with the cable routing thing, i don't really understand it. I routed the cable from pin 2 to pin 34 but still get a drive not ready on the sp. A picture would be cool. Thnx

psoul

no sorry mate it's not my knowledge.... however i see some amiga site where they teach you how to phisically pins this things.... later when i go back home i try to find some page to link here... maybe u can ask help to that technician... however if the producer don't know how it works it's pretty hard to solve...
my question is: is the fusb the producer or u can find a different brand name (try to open the fusb) in order to find the real factory producer?

peterpiper0815

I just want to let you know that my s950 floppy problem is solved. I was a little bit confused cause sometimes it worked but all of the sudden when I hit disk it shows the "oooops" message.
So I opened it up (again) today and realized that it work when I jiggle on the powercable of the floppy. The cable was ok but the PSU Board had a cold solder pin.
So I put a little solder on the 4 Pins of the floppy power connector and ...bingo... it work again.

So if your s950 shows that "ooops" message dont get to frustrated. It could just be something like this.

peace

loopwhole

dont know about yall but i love floppies...

shawn rudiman

damn! that shits looks fuckin sweet. if they are around a 100 bills.. wow.. that just solved sooooooooooo many samplers issues. shit. please please please someone find a spot to getem for 100 bills and testem! dman. im bricked.

shawn rudiman