Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

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homerian
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Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by homerian »

Hello guys,
I am looking at purchasing an HxC SDF Floppy Drive Emulator to replace the floppy drive which forms part of the MDR (Music Disk Recorder) in my Yamaha Electone EL-70 organ.
As the floppy drive is a NON-standard floppy drive instead of a PC drive, will the HxC still work?
Does anyone have any experience of using the HxC in a Yamaha MDR?

Jeff
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Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Jeff »

homerian wrote:Hello guys,
I am looking at purchasing an HxC SDF Floppy Drive Emulator to replace the floppy drive which forms part of the MDR (Music Disk Recorder) in my Yamaha Electone EL-70 organ.
As the floppy drive is a NON-standard floppy drive instead of a PC drive, will the HxC still work?
Does anyone have any experience of using the HxC in a Yamaha MDR?
Yes this should work !

Paradoxic
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Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:36 pm

Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Paradoxic »

I have an EL90, which uses the same MDR (Music Disk Recorder) as the EL70.
From my investigations, the differences in this Organ from a standard PC type floppy drive are....

* Pin 2 is a signal from the disk drive to the organ controller signifying an HD disk. ON = Ov = HD 1.44MB, OFF = DD 720KB

* Pin 34 is Drive Ready, 0v when ready, rather than Disk Change

* Motor on signal is permanently ON, so a mechanical drive is permanently spinning when a disk is inserted.

* The in use LED illuminates only when data is being transferred, rather than when the drive is spinning.

I was wondering if the emulator can be fully compatible.

rgds
Ian

Jeff
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Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Jeff »

Paradoxic wrote: I was wondering if the emulator can be fully compatible.

rgds
Ian
yes! :)

Paradoxic
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Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Paradoxic »

Jeff wrote:
Paradoxic wrote: I was wondering if the emulator can be fully compatible.

rgds
Ian
yes! :)

Can the Gotek hardware (which I have) also be made compatible?
I have it still on the bench, not yet in the organ.....
With v3.0.6.0a firmware and the "Normal_Mode"configuration file I seem to have continuous 5v ( ie OFF) signal at pin 34 where I was expecting it to switch to 0v when an image is loaded.

Jeff
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Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Jeff »

Paradoxic wrote:
Jeff wrote:
Paradoxic wrote: I was wondering if the emulator can be fully compatible.

rgds
Ian
yes! :)

Can the Gotek hardware (which I have) also be made compatible?
probably
Paradoxic wrote: I have it still on the bench, not yet in the organ.....
With v3.0.6.0a firmware and the "Normal_Mode"configuration file I seem to have continuous 5v ( ie OFF) signal at pin 34 where I was expecting it to switch to 0v when an image is loaded.
True only if the drive is selected by the machine...

Paradoxic
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Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Paradoxic »

Jeff wrote:
Paradox wrote: I have it still on the bench, not yet in the organ.....
With v3.0.6.0a firmware and the "Normal_Mode"configuration file I seem to have continuous 5v ( ie OFF) signal at pin 34 where I was expecting it to switch to 0v when an image is loaded.
True only if the drive is selected by the machine...
Thank You.
I have been working on physically mounting the LCD. I can now proceed to connect to the organ. :)

Paradoxic
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Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:36 pm

Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Paradoxic »

Finally........

Got around to fitting Gotek emulator with i2c LCD, running software version v3.0.6.6a, into my Yamaha Electone EL90 organ

and........

After initial testing I can confirm satisfactory record and playback.
It's so good to be able to navigate a directory structure with meaningful folder and floppy names rather than anonymous 000-999 floppy numbers! A great result !!

It is my understanding that EL70 and EL90 use the same disk drive
EL500/EL700 should also work with slightly different configuration. They utilize a disk change rather than drive ready signal at pin 34, which is configurable.


One question I have though, is ....
Are there any plans to include all configurable items into the UI of the floppyemulator software? It seems the number of configurable items has outpaced the software.

Thanks,
Ian

Jeff
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Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Jeff »

Paradoxic wrote:
One question I have though, is ....
Are there any plans to include all configurable items into the UI of the floppyemulator software? It seems the number of configurable items has outpaced the software.

Thanks,
Ian
If you are talking about the pins settings, this is available into the beta software :

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... t_beta.zip

Paradoxic
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Re: Hxc SDF Floppy Drive Emulator in Yamaha EL-70 organ?

Post by Paradoxic »

Jeff wrote:
If you are talking about the pins settings, this is available into the beta software :

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... t_beta.zip
Yes, about the function of pins 2 and 34.

Thanks. I hadn't spotted that update. I'll take a look.

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