Disklavier

That was a great save for you!

Yes, quite fortunate; though I've found that a good, hard slap or pound with fist has fixed many a dysfunctional device. Often, something is just stuck.

Full disclosure, I had tried floppy drive cleaner and just about everything else first. In any case, floppies are outmoded and unreliable, anyone with one in their DKV should either bypass it with MIDI or upgrade to a better storage device.

Sam Kanter

www.keyboardcollective.com

(212) 684-3304

On Dec 19, 2016, at 10:12 PM, dashby dashby@... [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

That was a great save for you!


Slamming the floppy into the drive at least in your case,

freed up a floppy drive mechanism that was sticking or

you were able to dislodge some dirt that had over time,

accumulated on the write/read head(s) of the floppy

drive preventing the head(s) from reading the revolving

magnetic disk and it's data.


But sometimes, if you slam the floppy

disk in, I too have become frustrated, :-)

it finishes off the drive and it no longer

responds and the battle is over.


I am happy that this was not your story!

DNA

On 12/19/2016 9:53 PM, Skanter123 skanter123@... [disklavier] wrote:

Two years ago I obtained a 1998 MkII that had hardly been used, but the floppy drive did not function. As I said before, Yamaha wanted $315 for their proprietary drive, and I would have to install it myself or pay another $300 for a DKV technician to do it.

The whole situation made me so angry that I took a floppy and SLAMMED it into the drive with full force. To my surprise, that fixed it. :-)

I now use a desktop computer next to the piano to record, store, save and play thousands of MIDI files. I have a $10 USB floppy to convert all Yamaha disks to MIDI files. Everything works perfectly. I recommend dedicating a cheap laptop for this function instead of an expensive DK-850 unit. I don't, however, use DKV Radio or TV, it would not work with my piano anyway.

Sam Kanter

www.keyboardcollective.com

(212) 684-3304

On Dec 19, 2016, at 7:52 PM, dashby dashby@... [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi Everyone,

Mostly just a lurker here, I like to know about player pianos, I am a
piano player as well. I also have a 35 year career in A/V recording,
some community television and as a computer technician.

Floppy drives and disks have been around
from about the mid 1970s into the late 2000s.

(See Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk)

Along with aging, they have always been problematic because as
with audio tape and video tape, the floppy drive head(s) is/are in
actual physical contact with the magnetic rotating disk.

Eventually as with all audio tape machines, i.e. reel to reel, 8 track,
audio cassette and all video tape machines, i.e. reel to reel, Sony
3/4 inch U-Matic, Sony Beta or JVC VHS cassette, the heads get
dirty and clogged with dust and audio or video tape gunk which
in the old days you had to periodically clean off either by bringing
the unit to a repair shop, or taking it apart and cleaning it yourself
by hand with Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol and a Degausser.

(See Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing

Or you could try a self-contained audio reel to reel, 8 track, audio
cassette or video reel to reel, Sony 3/4 U-Matic, Sony Beta or JVC
VHS cleaner. Sometimes you cleaned the units and they would start
working again, sometimes not. As a repair tech, I cleaned by hand,
hundreds of these units. In addition, some floppy drives just plain
mechanically wear out over time and use or got damaged by the
floppy disk.

Examples of Floppy Drive self-contained Cleaners:

http://www.newegg.com/Floppy-Drive-Diskette/SubCategory/ID-131

Fast forward to 2016. The floppy drive and floppy disks were never
meant to last this long and most are only going to fail faster and
faster over time.

In the old days you just bought off the shelf from a computer store,
a standard floppy drive because the Data Connector and Power
Connector and Data Protocols were universal.

Example of a Standard Internal Floppy Drive: $8.49 plus shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007543%20600010633

Examples of Standard External USB Floppy Drives:
Range from $18.99 to $29.99 plus shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007543%20600010635%20600010634

It may be that Yamaha, like many companies, in order to lock you
into their system and pay their higher profits, has a proprietary
floppy drive so you can't go to a computer shop and pay about
$9 to $20 for a new floppy drive, instead of about $300 which I
read someone here mentioned as the cost to buy a floppy drive
via Yamaha Repair Service and you have to install it yourself.

If this is the case, their price is not in line with the OLD technology
they are selling you and they are gouging customers because
proprietary means they can.

I see over time, more and more people here are complaining about
floppy drives. So it is probably very wise indeed for everyone who
is still relying on the floppy drive built into their Yamaha Player
Pianos to be making plans to migrate as rapidly as possible to
other sustainable solutions as have been mentioned by other
members here.

There is no winning with this floppy drive, floppy disk game.

Please plan ahead because increased Floppy Drive and
Floppy Disk failures are coming to a theater near you. :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

DNA

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