Disklavier

Great to see it worked for you also Scott. Anybody that has and older Disklavier (I have an MX-88) and does not want to spend a lot of money to upgrade to get rid of floppies, this is a great option. Some people don't

like to convert and copy the files from floppy, but once you are done its great! It is nice to be able just to select a different folder on the memory card to select a different floppy. The control box just thinks you inserted a different floppy, all other operations are identical.

I never did get around to making a video, If I get a chance I will.

Happy New Year Everyone, This is a great group.

Eric

Eric

Hi Scott and Eric, can you give me some details please on where you get the floppy drive from Poland, a website link will be good. Also is there any other modification need to be made on the emulator please? How much is the emulator drive please? As I am from Australia and recently bought a second hand Yamaha disklavier MX101R locally and want to see if there is any way to upgrade the current floppy drive. At the moment, the floppy drive still works on my piano.

Thanks and appreciate for your help.

Ray

George and other members,

I will attempt to answer your questions.

First to Install the Sdcard floppy emulator is fairly simple, even if you have minimal computer or

electronics experience. You power down and unhook your control box from piano. Make sure to note the

power cable and ribbon cable orientation on floppy drive. Simply unplug cables from old floppy drive

and plug into the emulator. Remount with screws and put lid back on. The hardest part on getting

everything to work is formatting and installing files to the sd card, and not that bad since they give

you a program to do that.

Most People have failed in the past, because they have tried to use standard floppy drive emulators.

These will not work because the pinout of the standard pc drive, is not the same as a Shugart drive,

which were out way before pc drives. 3 or 4 of the pinout functions are different, even though the

pinout LOOKS the same.

The program converts the floppy iso file to an Hfe file, which not only includes the floppy image

information but the interface (shugart) information. Therefore the files stored on the sdcard folders

for disks are bigger. You can use up to a 32GB SDHC memory card.(I have an 8GB). With an 32Gb

card you can save over 8000 HD 1.44Mb or 16000 DD floppies. At least I'll never use that Much!

In short in you want to update your old disklavier that uses floppies, this is the ticket. I have an Mx 88

piano, which I Love. The emulator has a display, SD card slot, and three buttons... that's it. When you

power the control box up, the emulator powers up at the same time, and is ready to go. That last disk

you played is loaded. 2 Buttons are used to step and down through the file menu, and one is the select

file (disk) button, its that simple.

Ray,

Wow, I can't believe all the buzz my posting has generated... I guess there a huge pent-up demand for a solution like Eric originally proposed.

I see that Eric has graciously been addressing many of the questions which were posed since I last logged in here, and want to again give Eric the kudos that he so greatly deserves. Without his guidance I would not have been able to perform the upgrade. The key piece of information is that the original floppy drive uses the Shugart interface (not an IBM-compatible type interface).

A couple of questions that I'd like to address:

Q: How many floppies can you put on the floppy emulator?

A: This really depends upon the size of the SD card that you use. The emulator will currently support up to a 32Gig SD card. Given the size of a DSDD floppy as were originally used in the MX100B (which is 720k) then there is potentially room for over 44,000 floppies (if my math is any good). At any rate, even using a very small SD card, such as 4Gig will provide room for well over 10,000 floppy images. Let's just say that you're not going to be able to find enough music to fill up the SD card! LOL

Q: Does MIDI work with the emulator?

A: YES! This was one of my concerns, and I find that MIDI works just fine with the emulator, since the MX100B thinks that a floppy is actually present in the floppy drive.

I think that Eric has answered the lion's share of the other questions.... But if anyone has more questions then please pose them!

Cheers,

Scott

SCOTT and ERIC,

All of this is incredible news!

I am forwarding all of this information to the Disklavier engineers in Japan.

Thanks guys!!

Bill

Sent from my iPhone.

On Jan 4, 2014, at 10:30 AM, <scott.cammack@...> wrote:

Wow, I can't believe all the buzz my posting has generated... I guess there a huge pent-up demand for a solution like Eric originally proposed.



I see that Eric has graciously been addressing many of the questions which were posed since I last logged in here, and want to again give Eric the kudos that he so greatly deserves.  Without his guidance I would not have been able to perform the upgrade.  The key piece of information is that the original floppy drive uses the Shugart interface (not an IBM-compatible type interface).



A couple of questions that I'd like to address:



Q: How many floppies can you put on the floppy emulator?

A: This really depends upon the size of the SD card that you use.  The emulator will currently support up to a 32Gig SD card.  Given the size of a DSDD floppy as were originally used in the MX100B (which is 720k) then there is potentially room for over 44,000 floppies (if my math is any good).  At any rate, even using a very small SD card, such as 4Gig will provide room for well over 10,000 floppy images.  Let's just say that you're not going to be able to find enough music to fill up the SD card!  LOL



Q: Does MIDI work with the emulator?

A: YES!  This was one of my concerns, and I find that MIDI works just fine with the emulator, since the MX100B thinks that a floppy is actually present in the floppy drive.



I think that Eric has answered the lion's share of the other questions....  But if anyone has more questions then please pose them!



Cheers,



   Scott





---In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, <PianoBench@...> wrote:

Scott and Eric, do you have any other comments on the user experience? I am curious as to whether you find that the time to save and load a recording is noticeably shorter.

Thanks,
PianoBench

> On Jan 3, 2014, at 4:57 PM, <rkhleunghk@...> <rkhleunghk@...> wrote:
> 
>  
> 
> 
> Hi Scott and Eric, can you give me some details please on where you get the floppy drive from Poland, a website link will be good. Also is there any other modification need to be made on the emulator please? How much is the emulator drive please? As I am from Australia and recently bought a second hand Yamaha disklavier MX101R locally and want to see if there is any way to upgrade the current floppy drive. At the moment, the floppy drive still works on my piano. 
> 
> Thanks and appreciate for your help.
> 
> 
> 
> Ray
>

Hi,

I have a DGB1KE3C Baby Grand with a DKC-800/850 module.  I am able to copy
pianosoft floppy content to the hard drive using a USB floppy drive.  Am I
supposed to also be able to copy Pianosoft Plus Audio CD content to the hard
drive?  

Thanks,
Cliff

Thanks for the reply, Bill!

How about connecting an external hard drive and storing files there? 

Cliff

> On Jan 4, 2014, at 6:04 PM, Bill Brandom <bill.brandom03@...> wrote:
> 
> Hi Cliff,
> 
> The DGB1KE3 Classic is a great piano! I am quite sure you are enjoying this instrument. 
> 
> E3 pianos do not have hard drives. E3 pianos are equipped internally with 128 MB of flash memory. While this memory allows you to store a tremendous amount of MIDI files, it is not large enough to store any type of audio files. As a result, you must insert Pianosoft Plus Audio CDs into the CD drive whenever you want to listen to them.
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
>> On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Cliff DeGuzman <cliffdeguzman@...> wrote:
>>  
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I have a DGB1KE3C Baby Grand with a DKC-800/850 module.  I am able to copy pianosoft floppy content to the hard drive using a USB floppy drive.  Am I supposed to also be able to copy Pianosoft Plus Audio CD content to the hard drive?  
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Cliff
> 
>

Thanks. I will wait for that feature. :-)

Cliff

> On Jan 4, 2014, at 7:05 PM, Bill Brandom <bill.brandom03@...> wrote:
> 
> Hi again Cliff,
> 
> An external drive (hard drive or thumb drive, formatted FAT32) can be used with your E3 but at this time only MIDI files will be recognized by the E3. I know the Disklavier engineers are working on this issue, so hopefully, in the future with a software update...
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
>> On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 6:26 PM, Cliff DeGuzman <cliffdeguzman@...> wrote:
>>  
>> Thanks for the reply, Bill!
>> 
>> How about connecting an external hard drive and storing files there? 
>> 
>> Cliff
>> 
>>> On Jan 4, 2014, at 6:04 PM, Bill Brandom <bill.brandom03@...> wrote:
>>> 
>>>  
>>> Hi Cliff,
>>> 
>>> The DGB1KE3 Classic is a great piano! I am quite sure you are enjoying this instrument. 
>>> 
>>> E3 pianos do not have hard drives. E3 pianos are equipped internally with 128 MB of flash memory. While this memory allows you to store a tremendous amount of MIDI files, it is not large enough to store any type of audio files. As a result, you must insert Pianosoft Plus Audio CDs into the CD drive whenever you want to listen to them.
>>> 
>>> Bill
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Cliff DeGuzman <cliffdeguzman@...> wrote:
>>>>  
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> I have a DGB1KE3C Baby Grand with a DKC-800/850 module.  I am able to copy pianosoft floppy content to the hard drive using a USB floppy drive.  Am I supposed to also be able to copy Pianosoft Plus Audio CD content to the hard drive?  
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Cliff
> 
>

hi Rod,

Thanks for this thread! I've been reading the forum for a while, but this is my first post about my piano. It looks like this emulator might solve my problem, although I'll ask an idiot question first.

My hardware is an MX-100 A series, not "B". I'm not sure how it differs from the "B" series. Pretty old but it works great for my needs, except for a possible floppy intermittent. The machine will play from floppy or external MIDI, but randomly "lose" the disk - i.e., the file stops playing and the piano floppy player will look for a disk - "Please insert disk." It will then see (read) the disk and allow me to play the file till it happens again after a random period of time. It's the same when playing from an external MIDI player - the disc is lost and the piano stops. It's not the MIDI player on the computer that seems to be the issue, it's just the disk stops reading and stops the piano playback.

The piano is a U1S 48" from the mid-80's, as far as I can tell. I bought it second-hand and I don't know if it is grey-market or not.

I'm guessing the floppy drive is failing, or dirty, most likely. After this many years either is possible. But the emulator sounds like the perfect fix and update to solve the playback issue.

After reading about the emulator working with the MX-100B series I have to ask: Will it also work the same way with the MX-100A? I'm guessing yes, but I don't know what changed from the "A" to "B" hardware. It's likely the changes are minor (I hope). If it will work the same, I'm ready to order the emulator.

I've been reading the forum for awhile and I've gotten some very useful information from the posts - thanks to you all for keeping this great technology alive.

Scott (a different one, not the other one)

I have the same situation with an MX-100.  The floppy on the piano must be working, in order to use the external Midi Player.  

Would be interested if someone could pre-package a drop-in floppy replacement for the piano, for sale.

No songs are required but I think that it needs to look like it is formatted properly.  

Thank you very much for helping us save the “oldie but goodie” Disklavier units.

Ralph

From: sacsound100@yahoo.com 
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2014 9:02 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [disklavier] RE: Successful floppy emulator installation in MX100B

  



Thanks for this thread! I've been reading the forum for a while, but this is my first post about my piano. It looks like this emulator might solve my problem, although I'll ask an idiot question first.



My hardware is an MX-100 A series, not "B". I'm not sure how it differs from the "B" series. Pretty old but it works great for my needs, except for a possible floppy intermittent. The machine will play from floppy or external MIDI, but randomly "lose" the disk - i.e., the file stops playing and the piano floppy player will look for a disk - "Please insert disk." It will then see (read) the disk and allow me to play the file till it happens again after a random period of time. It's the same when playing from an external MIDI player - the disc is lost and the piano stops. It's not the MIDI player on the computer that seems to be the issue, it's just the disk stops reading and stops the piano playback. 



The piano is a U1S 48" from the mid-80's, as far as I can tell. I bought it second-hand and I don't know if it is grey-market or not.



I'm guessing the floppy drive is failing, or dirty, most likely. After this many years either is possible.  But the emulator sounds like the perfect fix and update to solve the playback issue.



After reading about the emulator working with the MX-100B series I have to ask:  Will it also work the same way with the  MX-100A? I'm guessing yes, but I don't know what changed from the "A" to "B" hardware. It's likely the changes are minor (I hope).  If it will work the same, I'm ready to order the emulator.



I've been reading the forum for awhile and I've gotten some very useful information from the posts - thanks to you all for keeping this great technology alive.



Scott (a different one, not the other one)

hi Scott,

thanks for your prompt reply and the tips to install the emulator.

thanks for the cable tips and will look into it later.

i was wonder if you have a copy of user guide or manual for the MX100B as my piano is a second hand one, and it doesn't come with any manual or user guide at all..... so it will be handful if i can get a copy of the manual to refer to.

I believe my piano is MX101R, the grey market one from japan which equivalent to MX100B. so if anyone have a copy of the manual, can you email to me please?

as the yamaha website do not have any manual for MX100B any more..... : (

thanks in advance.

ray

Thanks a lot for the link, PianoBench, I didn't realize those manuals were out there....

Thanks a lot, Pianobench. it is greatly appreciated your help.

the manual is useful and i believe the MX100B is the same as MX101R in japan. it is good that you have directed me to this manual and now i can have a copy to understand how the midi part work.

btw, can you explain to me what is the different in between MX100A and MX100B please? looks to me they are the same as they are sharing the same manual.

thanks

Ray

Actually, they used two different sets of manuals because of the difference in the displayed volume ranges. The MX100A had a low range down to a -3. The MX100B had a low range down to a -10. Other than the color change of the LCD screen and volume control, all functions and button layout were the same. So the MX100A owners manuals are useable with the MX100B.

Bill

Sent from my iPhone.

On Jan 14, 2014, at 8:37 AM, George Frederick Litterst <PianoBench@...> wrote:

Hi, again.


Bill Brandom is the authority on MX100A vs. MX100B. My understanding from Bill is that the MX100B had an ability to play more quietly and that the LCD screen was changed from red to green. If those were the only changes, then it is not surprising that the manual that was subsequently published (and which is on the DEN website) says that it is for the MX100A and the MX100B. Apparently the buttons and the user features are no different.

Regards,
PianoBench

> On Jan 14, 2014, at 9:39 AM, <rkhleunghk@...> <rkhleunghk@...> wrote:
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks a lot, Pianobench. it is greatly appreciated your help.
> 
> the manual is useful and i believe the MX100B is the same as MX101R in japan. it is good that you have directed me to this manual and now i can have a copy to understand how the midi part work.
> 
> btw, can you explain to me what is the different in between MX100A and MX100B please? looks to me they are the same as they are sharing the same manual.
> 
> 
> 
> thanks
> 
> 
> 
> Ray
>

All, Its interesting to hear about the differences in the MX100a and MX100b. Does anyone know if it s possible to upgrade an a to b? Are there really any

thanks Bill and All,

thanks for all the prompt reply. it is great to know the different between the models.

sounds like the MX101R for Japan market has both capturing the both features of it with Red LCD display and the +/-10 in volume control ....

thanks

Ray