Akai S950

Jeff · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:08 pm

jandoe wrote:

Hi,

Today I hooked up the SDCard Floppy Emulator with my Akai S950 and successfully stored a freshly sampled sound on the sdcard, switch the 950 off and on and successfully loaded the sample:)

Initially the disk LED was permanently on so I opened the S950. The floppy connector on the mainboard of the S950 (see the attached picture) is reversed. I cut off the plastic thing on the plug on one side of the ribbon cable, so i could connect it in reverse. Now the LED stopped being permanently on.

Attachment:

s950_floppy_connector.jpg

I used a custom raw floppy image with the following setting:
Track type: MFM
Number of tracks: 80
Sectors per track: 5
Two sides floppy
Sector ID start: 1
RPM: 300
Sector size: 1024
Bitrate: 250000
GAP3 length: 50
Interleave: 1
Skew: 0
Total Sector: 800
Total Size: 819200

Now I'm going to build a nice case for the floppy emulator to fit in the drive bay of the s950.

Thanks Jeffe and LOTHAREK (fast shipping!...twice;)

Thanks for your feedback !

jandoe · **Joined:** Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:08 pm **Posts:** 15

Hi,

Finally, the floppy emulator is integrated in my S950. I'm looking forward to make a video of using it, but I don't have the time. So I start with share some photos.

Attachment:

950_1.jpg

Attachment:

950_2.jpg

My dad and my brother (big thanks!!!) cut a perfect hole in the front panel (where the floppy drive slot was) and build a nice plexi glas front panel (painted black from the back). The pcb is mounted on an aluminum plate fitting the old floppy drive slot.

The biggest problem was the data cable to the 950 main board. It looks like it has to be as short as possible (weak signals?).

Reading and writing works perfect but there is a problem with changing floppy images while the 950 is running. A disk is only recognized if it's mounted when switching on.

Thanks!

Jeff · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2011 7:51 pm

Nice setup !

About the disk change problem can you send me one HFE file that you are using ?
What is the jumper setting and floppy cable used ?

jandoe · **Joined:** Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:08 pm **Posts:** 15

Here is a picture of the floppy cable. It's cut of a regular pc floppy cable:

Attachment:

P1060716.jpg

The pin layout on the akai pcb is:

Code:

33            1
  [         ]
34            2

My jumper settings (as viewed with the shugart connector on the left):

Code:

[#][ ][ ][ ] Drive B
[#][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ]  Drive A
3  2  1  0

The config file I'm using:

Attachment:

config.zip

I 'm using firmware version 1.6.0.0

I disabled automatic loading of the last mounted file on startup, so no image is selected on startup. I observed the following behaviour:
-Switching on S950
-Select disk image
-Display shows: T:002/080 S:0 (!! Starts in track 2, may be this is important !!)
-Pressing DISK-Button on the S950
-RB appears in the display shortly / Floppy LED lights up / Emulator makes head moving sound (I love it

)
-Display changes to: T:000/080 S:0
-S950 shows correct disk menu. Disk is accessible.

Now I try to change the disk image:

-Mounting a different image
-Display shows: T:000/080 S (!! Starts in track 0 !!)
-Pressing DISK-Button on the S950
-S950 says the disk is unformated. Disk is not accessible.

Sometimes the S950 says that the disk is unformated even on mounting the first image. On pressing the DISK-Button a second time the disk is shown as correctly mounted and is accessible. This does not work after switching to another floppy image.

Greetings
Jan

Jeff · **Posted:** Mon May 09, 2011 7:32 am

First move the jumper to "drive A"
The "drive B" setting should be used only if you emulate two disk drive with the emulator.

jandoe · **Joined:** Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:08 pm **Posts:** 15

It's working! I though, I tried every jumper setting :oops:

I have to press the DISK-Button two times (the first time the disk is shown as unformated) but thats no problem.

Thanks!

bresk · **Joined:** Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:46 pm **Posts:** 1

eeeeeeeey that faceplate looks dope! great work ...
mine, mounted on an s900 is working great... but I have yet no idea on how to place it for good.
is it a problem if the PCB is in contact with the metal parts ?

yesterday I cannibalized a longer flat cable and a serial modem cable for some RS232 dumps :mrgreen:

for now having no issues with the longer flatcable...it even have 2 connectors and I'm using the end one.

JEFF ..THANKS FOR THIS GREAT DEVELOPMENT !

ferdji · **Joined:** Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:50 pm **Posts:** 8

ferdji · **Joined:** Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:50 pm **Posts:** 8

HI,
i have the same problem. I can format the disk but after S950 tell me the disk is unformatted.
Maybe my image disk is corrupt. Is it possible to someone to post a good image disk here.
Thanks.

jandoe · **Joined:** Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:08 pm **Posts:** 15

This is an empty floppy image generated with the parameters I posted earlier in this thread. http://jandoe.de/950/floppy01.hfe

ferdji · **Joined:** Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:50 pm **Posts:** 8

Nice,
i will try this tonight. Thanks.

ferdji · **Joined:** Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:50 pm **Posts:** 8

No works !!!
S950 say Unprepared disk damn when i try to save a sample.
I can format a disk but not save.

Jeff · **Posted:** Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:11 pm

ferdji wrote:

No works !!!
S950 say Unprepared disk damn when i try to save a sample.
I can format a disk but not save.

Firmware version ?

ferdji · **Joined:** Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:50 pm **Posts:** 8

1.6.0.0 revision C

Jeff · **Posted:** Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:34 pm

ferdji wrote:

1.6.0.0 revision C

Jumper setting ?

HxC Floppy Drive Emulator

Akai S950

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