HxC Floppy Drive Emulator

I too have a Korg DSS1 (mine has the SCSI upgrade) and would like to get a floppy emulator.

More importantly, I have a Fairlight CMI IIx sampler with 8 inch floppies. The Fairlight needs to be able to trade floppy sound disc images like you can with the DSS1. I would be happy to test this device.

Basic Fairlight floppy info at the bottom of this page [url]http://www.ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/tech.htm

More specific information about the two Fairlight floppies (system and sound discs):

QDOS 8" floppy format (Series I/II/IIx)
Drive: Mitsubishi M2896-63, Qume Q242, YE Data YD180
360rpm, single density (FM), soft sectored (1 index hole), 77 tracks/side, 26 sectors/track, 128 Bytes/sector, 500KBit/sec raw
single-sided -> total: 2002 sectors = 250.25KB formatted
double-sided -> total: 4004 sectors = 500.5KB formatted
Note:
There are two variants of the double-sided QDOS format: QDOS-6809 and QDOS-6800 ("old QDOS"), differing in the low-level sector-numbering scheme for side 1 (which is handled by the low-level driver and is transparent to the user as long as the device parameters are set appropriately).
For compatibility, Series IIx machines (running QDOS-6809) still employ the (old) QDOS-6800 format for CMI sound-disks (with the system-disk however having the new QDOS-6809 format).

found below
[/url]http://members.tripod.com/kmi9000/kmi_cmi_soft.htm

Will it work?

Rumor has it that 3.5 inch floppy drives have been used with Fairlight before.

Since the Fairlight CMI IIx sampler seems to use an wd1771 floppy disk controller, it should work without problem with the hxc floppy emulator.
What type of file disk image support the Fairlight CMI IIx ?

M.Indlekofer@gmx.de

is the author of cmios9 and probably knows the answer to this question.

This is a port of cmios9, which provides ftp-like access to
Fairlight OS9 + MDR-DOS + QDOS floppy/hard disk image files and devices.

http://www.freshports.org/converters/cmios9/

M. Inlekofer@gmx.de responded:

Disk images indeed can be mounted with full filesystem access by use of cmios9. The main problem is to extract the I/II/IIx-floppy binary images. For this purpose, I have written a tool for OS9 to accomplish this task at least on a Series III/MFX2 machine (see Yahoo Fairlight group -> Files -> QDOS4OS9). The floppy format basically conforms to the Motorola MDOS specifications (expect for the low-level sector numering which is different for the Series IIx as compared to I/II).

With the Korg DSS1, the disc images are made with MSDOS in the PC computer's original floppy. Perhaps the same method could be made to work if a PC could mount an 8 inch floppy, then use the PC thru MSDOS to make dis images with the same program COPYQM?

The answer may be simpler than that. The Fairlight OS, allows for copying sound disc floppies. If the Fairlight could simply mount the HxC Floppy drive emulator as an unformatted disc? Then, the HxC emulator could be formatted using QDOS? Then, the files could be copied from 8 inch floppy to the HxC emulator?

With the DSS1, can the DSS1 save new sounds to the HxC as if it was a real floppy drive? If so, I would think the same would be true if the Fairlight thinks the HxC is an 8 inch floppy drive.

Jeff?

Yes this will be possible with the final version, but actually the prototype on the website is read-only.

i have a DSM1, it has the SCSI port at the back..unfortunately the owner manual i have is the one for the other version without the SCSI port.
could someone tell me what type of drive i can hook up?
any tips?

thx in advance
olivier

Hi Olivier,

have a look at the following pages:

http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/dsm-1/drives.htm

yes...but that page is related to the floppy disk drive replacement.
i don't want to replace mine, i just want to add an external "drive" to the SCSI port at the back..

my question would probably be "what type of (ZIP..Harddrive..?) do i need?
i've heard that not everything would work.
i have a iomega 100mb ZIP drive laying around ..do you think i could just get a simple SCSI/Parallel cable adapter to make that work?

apologises for threadjacking...
DSM1/SCSI Ressources are pretty rare on the net...i thought all DSM1 had the SCSI port, but apparently it's only present on the later series.

Sorry,

but on Fairlight CMI IIx QFC9 board you don't find WD1771 floppy disk controller but one FD1791... Picture of my CMI IIx in sounds voices testing :


I have repair for many time my fairlight... and working for modify the QFC9 (Floppy Drive board) but I am in way with no simple solution at this day...

More information on CMI IIx service manual here (all board's specially QFC9) : http://egrefin.free.fr/images/Fairlight/CMI2x/CMI2xServiceManual.pdf

The Fairlight File System are QDOS it's same of MDOS (Motorola DOS) fairlight change M in Q (Qasar M8 first name of prototype beford Fairlight C.M.I. released). Yes Fairlight Qasar M8 are a simple based evolution of Exorciser from Motorola !


when Motorola making the Exorciser, it's one of first complete developpment system for 6900 and 6809 CPU... And this system have floppy drive (8" and after 5.25"), and the Disk Operating system are MDOS !
Your found more information about MDOS here (totaly compatible with Fairlight QDOS) : http://exorciser.net/excorciser_en.htm

I tested AnaDisk for make some disk image from original Synclavier and Fairlight 5.25" en 8" floppy disk, but It's not a great succes...

I have some good images from Synclavier I but not for Synclavier II (bad images) and for Fairlight... I not sucess to connect Qume Floppy Drive to PC floppy interface controller (not soft but hard).

Yes Fairlight have too type of format single side (6800 sound disk and system disk for CMI I and II) or double side (6809 system disk for CMI IIx).

I am ready, if you want help and beta tester for all tests !
I have these synthetizers and they are available to make experiments !
I think it's good help for the HxC system work on the Fairlight and Synclavier,and may be for Emulator II or III in the future !

best regards,

JB (voir la suite sur la partie Française, mon anglais est trop pauvre )

Hey wdevos and oliver8
You lucky ones!!!
I have both, DSS-1 and DSM-1 (DSM-1 just bought, it's on the way, so I don't know if it has an SCSI expansion, let's see

And searching since I think 15 years for the SCSI expansion for the
DSS-1.
Can you tell me, where you got it from???

wdevos:
If you EVER think about selling your DSS-1 with SCSI, please let me know!
I love that machine, but the floppy kills me each time

So i found this webpage and i'm very, very impressed of your work, Jeff!
That's really a masterpiece!!!!
Actually I'm on holiday, but when I come hime, I'll try to build the floppy emulator. Or is it in meantime possible to buy it??

I am a power user of the Korg DSS1 since 1987, the year I bought it.
I love this machine very much and I´m still using it for recordings.
Yesterday I read the first time about the HCX Floppy Emulation and instantly I became aware of the fantastic chance to upgrade my old instrument.

Where and when the HCX Floppy Emulator is available?
Or has someone in this forum one for sale?

Please contact me.
I´m really interested in this product.

To Jeff,
thanks for your work.

Chris

Any news on the HxC working with a Fairlight yet?

Hi at this time is work fine but only on "read only" mode...

Any progress on the write mode?

As for E-mu EIII: I have replaced the internal Harddisk with a 1 GB CF-card. Works fantastic. For the EIII I wouldn't need the HxC. The EIII can boot from the CF-Card and instead of floppies I use CD-Roms, or I change the CF-Card. It's really fantastic

Hope to see a working solution for the Fairlight CMI IIx soon.

Regards,

Peter.