Ok Ladies and Gents, Help an old timer out here. NOOB ALERT

HxC Floppy Emulator Ensoniq Keyboards/Samplers support
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PDK Studios
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon May 08, 2017 7:50 pm

Ok Ladies and Gents, Help an old timer out here. NOOB ALERT

Post by PDK Studios »

Hi All ... good to meet you.

Ok .. this is my story so far ..

Some years ago, I purchased an EPS 16+ with a load of Factory discs. Don't get me wrong .. this keyboard is still working, loading etc and is doing well. But not ignoring the march of time, I know that sooner or later, either the drive will go west or the data on the discs.

I have been looking at a Floppy Emulator and have seen units from Gotek, and have heard good things about HxC. The points range from "great units" to WTF ??

It would appear that Ensoniq use a "special drive" originally, so what ones do I go for that WILL work in these units ?? ... I get it has to be a 720k and not a 1.44Mb unit, but apart from that .. I have seen that the Ensoniq even uses a different cable to a "standard" floppy drive ??

I have seen a vid where the Floppy Emulator is in the usual drive bay aperture with an LED display set back in the area where Floppys are normally put for changeover and that looked quite tasty. Is this a "display addon" that is available for the emulators ???

I like this keyboard and would hate to see it die for the sake of updating it now, I'm a complete noob to a point (I am and have been quite useful at ripping Computers apart, building them etc) ... but from what I am seeing on the Internet, this whole Floppy drive emulator scene is hit and miss.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

mondo1976
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2015 3:54 pm

Re: Ok Ladies and Gents, Help an old timer out here. NOOB A

Post by mondo1976 »

The HxC flashed Gotek works well with the EPS16+ in my experience. I like the self-contained and noiseless nature of the Gotek and if you're only used to using floppies then it should be just about perfect, but SCSI would be recommended for any heavy lifting.

I typically just boot from the flashbank and then switch to SCSI CD/HDD for loading large libraries and collections, bypassing the floppy altogether, but if you end up needing to replace a dead floppy drive then I would suggest the Gotek as it's not much more than a traditional floppy and at that point then replacing it has become a necessity.

PDK Studios
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon May 08, 2017 7:50 pm

Re: Ok Ladies and Gents, Help an old timer out here. NOOB A

Post by PDK Studios »

Hi Mondo .. many thanks for your input.

Unfortunately, I don't have SCSI on this 16+ .. and from what I hear, they are now no longer available. This is just deemed to be the "basic" 16+ keyboard unit with standard RAM etc, hence why the floppy drive is so important.

I take on board your posting and I guess it's off to find a 720k Gotek and get ready to flash with the HxC hardware.

Once again, i appreciate you taking the time to answer my post ... Many thanks :)

Kind Regards

mondo1976
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2015 3:54 pm

Re: Ok Ladies and Gents, Help an old timer out here. NOOB A

Post by mondo1976 »

PDK Studios wrote:I take on board your posting and I guess it's off to find a 720k Gotek and get ready to flash with the HxC hardware.
Just as a clarification, it doesn't need to be one of the more expensive 720K-ready Gotek devices. You can get the cheapest 1.44MB version and it will still work because all that matters is the STM32 chip inside it, and the firmware that already comes on the Gotek is overwritten.

So you could probably grab a Gotek for about $25, the HxC license for about $12, a USB-TTL programmer for $3, and a USB drive for about $10, bringing the total to $50. Pretty reasonable since a floppy drive that works with the EPS16+ is going to be in that ballpark and that's not including future diskettes.

Once you get it installed, email me @ mondomailer1976@gmail.com if you want a ready-made "startup pack" for it.

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