Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

HxC Floppy Emulator Roland Samplers/Keyboards support
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JamesKollmann
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Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:42 pm

Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by JamesKollmann »

Hi folks,

I have purchased a Revision F of the SD Floppy Emulator, and I am trying to get it working with a Roland MC-50 sequencer. I removed the original floppy drive, which was a Chinon FZ-354. The drive had the following diagram for the jumper settings:
jumper_diagram.png
jumper_diagram.png (14.84 KiB) Viewed 15361 times
The actual jumper settings were:
jumper_settings.png
jumper_settings.png (6.97 KiB) Viewed 15361 times
I connected the power cable and floppy drive cable to the emulator, and reassembled the MC-50. I then formatted a 128MB SD card to FAT32, and copied the HXCSDFE.CFG to it from the Config_file/Default_Mode directory of the v1.7.2.0 firmware zip file. I inserted the SD card into the emulator, and switched the MC-50 on. The emulator screen now displays:

HXCSDFE.CFG
Choose a file


However, both lights on the emulator are constantly on. Is this correct, or does it mean that the floppy drive cable has the pins reversed? If the pins are reversed, what is the best way to correct this? I am also wondering if I need to edit the configuration file, and if so how I can do this on Linux.

I then need to know how to copy the disk images from my existing floppy disks. I have a USB floppy drive connected to my computer, which runs Debian Linux. The floppy drive is recognised as /dev/sdb. Does anyone know the correct dd command to copy the disk images from the floppy drive? The MC-50 has a double density floppy drive, and I think it only uses one side of each floppy disk.

Once I have copied the images from the disks, I assume I just copy them to the SD card and should be able to access them from the emulator once any issues with the floppy drive cable are resolved.

My final question is regarding creating blank images. I assume I can use the dd command to do this, rather than copying an existing disk image to the SD card and deleting all the songs from it using the MC-50. If so, then I would be extremely grateful to know the dd command to use in order to create such a blank image.

My apolgogies for so many questions, but I am very excited that I might be able to get my MC-50 working without having to use incresingly unreliable floppy disks. I hope that if I can get this working, it will then provide enough information for anyone trying to do the same in future!

Regards,

James

Jeff
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Re: Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by Jeff »

JamesKollmann wrote: However, both lights on the emulator are constantly on. Is this correct, or does it mean that the floppy drive cable has the pins reversed? If the pins are reversed, what is the best way to correct this?
Just plug the floppy cable to the other way : the colored wire to the other side.
JamesKollmann wrote: I am also wondering if I need to edit the configuration file, and if so how I can do this on Linux.
You can get the software sources from SVN :
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hxcfloppyemu/develop
JamesKollmann wrote: I then need to know how to copy the disk images from my existing floppy disks. I have a USB floppy drive connected to my computer, which runs Debian Linux. The floppy drive is recognised as /dev/sdb. Does anyone know the correct dd command to copy the disk images from the floppy drive? The MC-50 has a double density floppy drive, and I think it only uses one side of each floppy disk.

Once I have copied the images from the disks, I assume I just copy them to the SD card and should be able to access them from the emulator once any issues with the floppy drive cable are resolved.
Once you got the dd image, you have to convert it to the HFE file format with the HxC tool.
JamesKollmann wrote:
My final question is regarding creating blank images. I assume I can use the dd command to do this, rather than copying an existing disk image to the SD card and deleting all the songs from it using the MC-50. If so, then I would be extremely grateful to know the dd command to use in order to create such a blank image.
I think that i will provide you some ready to use blank image for the MC50.

JamesKollmann
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:42 pm

Re: Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by JamesKollmann »

Hi Jeff,

My apologies for the delay in my replying to your post. The floppy drive cable in the MC50 is too short to connect the other way around, so I had to order an extension cable from a seller on eBay. However, whichever way around that I connect the cable, both lights on the HxC emaulator remain constantly lit. I thought this might be norrmal for the revision F of the emulator, so I have tried loading a disk from the SD card. I managed to find an old PC with a floppy drive, and I installed Windows XP onto it, I then used the HxC software to read one of my disks. It's a high denity disk, although the MC-50 only has a double density drive, so I placed sellotape over the high density hole before reading it on the PC. The HxC software read the disk, and I saved the image both as a raw image (720KB) and in HFE format.

I then copied the HFE format image to a 128MB SD card, and generated the default configuration file using the HxC software. The I switched on the MC-50 with the SD card inserted into the emulator. I selected the image, and the display on the emulator says:

RA T:040/080 S:0

If I then try to load a song on the MC-50, the emulator briefly buzzes but a moment later the MC-50 says no disk is inserted (with the floppy drive cable inserted the other way around there is no buzz from the emulator and the MC-50 immediately says that there is no disk inserted).

I have attached both the raw and HFE disk images, and hope that you can help!

Regards,

James
Attachments
mc50.hfe.gz
HFE MC-50 disk image
(32.11 KiB) Downloaded 861 times
mc50.img.gz
Raw MC-50 disk image
(5.09 KiB) Downloaded 842 times

Jeff
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Re: Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by Jeff »

And with this one ?
Attachments
mc50_shugart.zip
(30.36 KiB) Downloaded 951 times

JamesKollmann
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:42 pm

Re: Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by JamesKollmann »

Hi Jeff,

That one works perfectly! If you can let me know how I can generate further images in the correct format then I'll be a very, very happy man :-)

Kind regards,

James

Jeff
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Re: Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by Jeff »

JamesKollmann wrote:Hi Jeff,

That one works perfectly! If you can let me know how I can generate further images in the correct format then I'll be a very, very happy man :-)

Kind regards,

James
Just set the interface mode to "Shugart" into sd hxc setting window before exporting the HFE file.
That's all

JamesKollmann
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:42 pm

Re: Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by JamesKollmann »

Thank you ever so much!

Just in case any other MC-50 owners come across this thread, I should add that in the end I did not need the the extension cable. The existing cable in the MC-50 connects to the HxC emulator with the same orientation as it does to the original floppy drive.

Regards,

James

Jeff
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Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:12 am
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Re: Roland MC-50 - both lights on HxC continuously lit

Post by Jeff »

JamesKollmann wrote:Thank you ever so much!

Just in case any other MC-50 owners come across this thread, I should add that in the end I did not need the the extension cable. The existing cable in the MC-50 connects to the HxC emulator with the same orientation as it does to the original floppy drive.

Regards,

James
Some pictures / movie of your setup will be greatly appreciated :wink:

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