Akai S950

HxC Floppy Emulator Akai Keyboards/Samplers support
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Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

Yes you are right. The empty HFE images are in DD format for the S900.

I just sent to you a new firmware and some non-formatted HD disk images.
Please update your hxc with this new firmware, format the images and send me back these images.

Thanks by advance !

winsten
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2013 4:55 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by winsten »

winsten wrote:
Feliks wrote:Hi guys,
I just wanted to drop in and say that my s950 woes are over. Lotharek sorted the issue I was having with screen contrast and now my HxC drive works perfectly.
Thanks to Jeff & Lotharek for all the help and troubleshooting advice. :D

winsten wrote:can the hxc save the full amount of keywords on a fully maxed out s950?
I read that hd disks can be saved with the s950 but do these disks allow the full amount of data held in ram to be saved on a single disk?
Yes, the HxC can save the full amount of keywords but the disk images I have been using are only 720kb DD Disk images so you need to use 2-3 images to save all contents of the 2.2mb ram on a s950. I have no experience with HD disks so far.
thanks for the information,

how about larger floppy sizes for eg I seen a custom 4.5mb mpc 3000 floppy image http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iet4gD4qcRo

I want to be able to store full ram contents onto one disk,

also jeff any opinions on my overclock idea? feeding data faster to the actual device with user selectable increments for eg

speed 100%-990%

see if these devices can take data at a faster rate.

so whats the biggest custom disk size you can use with a s950? 4.5mb on a mpc3000 is nice but its far too slow, I would like to be able to have a custom disk size that can save the full contents of a upgraded s950 with max ram.

JayB
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:11 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by JayB »

Greetings to all
I need advice on the preparation of import samples into my sampler. I already have one set of "purdy drums" sampler that reads "but I do not know how to prepare a program of my own samples. Naky program is needed or can be used directly HxC floppy emulator and then set exportovat as HFE.
What is the correct procedure? Thank you in advance for your advice.

Siem
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 1:32 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by Siem »

Jeff wrote:Yes you are right. The empty HFE images are in DD format for the S900.

I just sent to you a new firmware and some non-formatted HD disk images.
Please update your hxc with this new firmware, format the images and send me back these images.

Thanks by advance !
Hi Jeff,

I also would like to have HD images for the S950. Could you mail these to me?

cheers,

Simon

Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

Do you have the "resistor mod" ?

Siem
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Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 1:32 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by Siem »

it works now (it took me quite some time, had the cable connected wrong).

I've written all steps down for people that don't want to read the whole thread:

1. Download and update your SD HxC Floppy Emulator firmware (the procedure is included): https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... rmware.zip

2. If your HxC drive isn't modded for the Akai S950 (you can ask this when you order): Add a 2.2Kohms resistor to R12 on the HxC drive - or - a 2.2Kohms resistor to R18 in the Akai S950

3. The correct jumper setting on the drive is: 1 (ID0A) on, the rest off. It was the default setting on my drive.

4. Install the drive in your S950. The broad connecto should be upside down connected to the HxC drive.
This means that the part of the connector that sticks out (in the middle) should be looking up.

5. format your SD-card with the FAT32 filesystem.

6. Download the quick install disk images: https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... Images.zip

7. Inside the zipfile you just downloaded is another zipfile, "SDHxCFE_Akai_S950.zip", unzip this and copy the files to your SD-card.

8. start eveything without a SD-card inserted, access the menu of the HxC drive, set it to "S950_HD"

9. insert the card, now everything is ready

good luck!

banksy76
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2011 1:08 am

Re: Akai S950

Post by banksy76 »

I purchased a HxC for my S950 a couple of years back and converted a whole load of my floppy discs to hfe format which are still loading and playing back without issue. However I have another batch of floppy discs that I wish to convert but I am having difficulty and am hoping that someone here would be so kind as too jog my memory of the finer points of the process as there must be something that I have forgotten to do.

I am opening up the latest version of the HxC software and in 'SD HxC Floppy Emulator Settings' I am selecting 'Akai S950HD' from the HFE file interface mode menu and clicking ok.

I am then Selecting 'Floppy Disk Dump' from the main menu and then clicking ' Read Disk' and the floppy disk drive becomes active.

Upon completion I am then selection 'Export' from the main menu and placing that exported file onto the SD card.

However, when I try to load that fie in the S950 it reads extremely slowly, (unlike my original files that were converted that still work fine) and eventually I met with a message on the S950 stating Bad Data


My older files are still loading fine, so what I am I missing out in this current conversion?

pinky_blue
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:49 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by pinky_blue »

Hi,

I recently bought an AKAI S950 with max RAM from ebay. I was told that it had a broken disk drive which was fine as I planned to replace it with the hxc floppy emulator.

I managed to install the floppy emulator and had it working briefly (sampling and saving to the SD card). I then took the hxc out again so I could secure it within the S950. But now after reconnecting, I keep getting the error message "oops disk not mounted" and it won't save to the SD card.

I've followed all of the steps in Siem's post above but I'm still getting the error message. I've been advised to make sure I have the latest firmware, can someone advise what the latest version is and possibly send it to me? I'm also wondering if the ribbon cable might be an issue, is there somewhere I can get a suitable replacement?

Thanks

Chris

Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

Have you the resistor mod installed on the HxC ? Have you try to change the floppy ribbon ?

pinky_blue
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:49 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by pinky_blue »

Jeff wrote:Have you the resistor mod installed on the HxC ? Have you try to change the floppy ribbon ?
Hi Jeff,

Yes I have the resistor mod installed. I haven't tried to change the floppy ribbon yet as I don't know where to get a replacement from. Do you know where I could buy one from?

pinky_blue
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:49 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by pinky_blue »

I've had some success tonight. A new ribbon cable arrived and I've installed it. It is a 34 pin cable. I can now access the disk menu without getting the "oops disk not mounted" message. So I think the old ribbon cable was definitely a problem.

I've been sampling again but when I try to save my sample I'm getting a new error message

"OOPS! Disk is unprepared. you must FORMAT it……"

I'm using a mac so its formatted MSDOS FAT and has the S950 Quickinstall floppy images on it.

I've tried plugging the ribbon cable in the other way but I get the "oops disk not mounted" message again so I'm pretty sure its plugged in correctly.

Thanks

pinky_blue
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:49 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by pinky_blue »

I think I've had some progress with my S950 over the weekend. I was convinced that the ribbon cable was broken so I replaced it. It seems to have done the trick to some extent as I'm now able to access the disk menu and can format the SD card from the S950, but when I try and load or save samples or programs it starts to load or save and cycles through the names of the samples and then gives me the error message "Oops Bad Data from Disk....".

I'm really not sure what to do now? I've been reading that the ribbon cable should be as short as possible but I've got the shortest I could find online (55cm). Does this really cause much of an issue? I'm in central London so was going to look for a shorter one in the PC repair shops.

Also I was going to try formatting the SD card on a PC rather than a Mac. Is this likely to have much of an effect?

Thanks

Chris

Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

Are you sure that your hxc have the resistor mod ? Have you tried another sdcard ?
What is your switch setting ?

pinky_blue
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:49 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by pinky_blue »

Hi Jeff,

I finally managed to test this with 3 different SD cards, formatted on a PC in FAT32 and with the quick install images on the SD cards. I'm still getting the same error.

I've uploaded a picture of the switch settings here:

https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 9458_n.jpg

The resistor mod was installed by Lotharek when I bought the HxC.

Thanks

Chris

pinky_blue
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:49 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by pinky_blue »

I've also updated the firmware and this has not solved the problem.

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