Fairlight-CMI

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been able to reply sooner -- too much (non-Fairlight) stuff going on!

I'd like to make a CMI retrofit kit for the HxC, and probably will, but it will likely take a while.  I've only got a little time on the weekends to work on it.

The older machines have the full-height floppy drives but the newer ones have the half-height drives with a painted metal bezel/cover to fill the extra space.  Take a look a the pictures of my machine in the photos section and you'll see what I mean.

That metal frame comes out pretty easily.  What I'd like to do is make a replacement frame that includes a cutout for the 3.5" drive form factor HxC.  That would let you keep the existing drives installed, and you wouldn't need to cut any metal.  I found a local metal shop that I think can make the frame, but have not had time to visit them yet.

I'd also like to put a couple of small switches on that frame to let you select whether the HxC or old drive(s) is(are) used.

For adapting the ribbon cable that carries the floppy signals, I am using a board I made long ago when I was experimenting with 3.5" drives on the CMI.  I would want to make a few changes to the board before releasing it.

We also need to get power to the HxC.  I made an adapter cable that the 8" drive cable plugs into, but it is a older connector that I don't think is easily found.  I want to find a better option for that power connection.

I like the idea of mounting the HxC inside the card cage, but think it won't be very practical -- you really want access to the buttons and display on the front of the unit.

The converted disk images are each 3.2MB.  If you have a 1GB SD card, that will hold over 300 CMI disks!

Joe
 

--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "dvdborn" <dvdborn@...> wrote:
>
> Me too!
> 
> David
> http://dvdborn.blogspot.com
> 
> 
> --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "WT" <waveterm@> wrote:
> >
> > I´m in !
> > 
> > WT
> > 
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Peter K." <synthserv@>
> > To: <Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2012 5:42 PM
> > Subject: [Fairlight-CMI] HxC and CMI IIx Floppydrive replacement
> > 
> > 
> > First of all: Thanks very much Joe for your help. . I read on the HxC forum 
> > that problems with image seem to be solved. 
> > (http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=118&p=6950#p6950)
> > 
> > Next step would be creating a frontplate, same size as one floppydrive, 
> > holding two HxC "floppydrives" and one switch, so one of the HxC 
> > "floppydrives" can be switched with the remaining, original floppydrive, so 
> > 8" discs can be copied to the HxC "floppydrive".
> > 
> > Perhaps we can do this as a group in order to keep costs down?
> > 
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > 
> > Peter Kersten.
> > 
> > From: Gordon JC Pearce
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 8:18 PM
> > To: Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: Re: [Fairlight-CMI] Re: "CMI Plug" 4 Gbyte bootable drive on a SCSI 
> > connector!
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On 12/09/12 18:59, James Thomson wrote:
> > > Hi Joe,
> > >
> > > Thanks for all of your hard work in bringing such exciting
> > > developments for the CMI 2X. You first gave us the USB mouse and TFT
> > > monitor adaptor and now it looks like we will soon be able to use a
> > > modern storage solution ! Please keep us up to date. Thanks !
> > >
> > 
> > I reckon you're all thinking too small and too expensive.
> > 
> > *Everyone* who uses a sampler with SCSI runs into this bother. The E-mu
> > ESI list (before the moderator stopped approving posts) had a couple of
> > people a month looking for something like this - and that's just one
> > make and model, with the people who knew what they wanted to ask for.
> > 
> > Pump them out to everyone that uses SCSI samplers, and even old
> > computers with SCSI disks. You'll get your volumes up and your prices
> > down. Everyone wins.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Gordon JC Pearce MM0YEQ
> >
>