First- let me address this whole question of OS's.
It seems some are making this WAY too complicated.
Emax 3.2 will boot any Emax whether it has SCSI, SE or not.
Your Extra features just won't be there.
But Emax will still boot.
Therefore, as a STANDBY test OS disk, this is the tried and true to have a couple copies of.
Emax OS 1.0 HD - added support for SCSI - requires SCSI is installed, won't use SE as the support for it isn't there...
Emax OS 1.1 HD - added support for SCSI - requires SCSI is installed, won't use SE as the support for it isn't there...
Won't boot a NON-SCSI Emax
Emax OS 1.0 SE - added support for SE - requires SE update is installed, won't see SCSI as the support for it isn't there...
Emax OS 1.1 SE - added support for SE - requires SE update is installed, won't see SCSI as the support for it isn't there...
Won't boot a NON-SE Emax
The above versions can be confusing, so I will always-
1) Update the machine to SE, so now SE OS or not is no longer a factor...
-if it's already SE, no harm / no foul, the machine simply boots.
2) Where it doesn't have SCSI this is easy to tell from quick visual inspection, and if not there- no point in even attempting to boot a SCIS OS>It seems some are making this WAY too complicated.
Emax 3.2 will boot any Emax whether it has SCSI, SE or not.
Your Extra features just won't be there.
But Emax will still boot.
Therefore, as a STANDBY test OS disk, this is the tried and true to have a couple copies of.
Emax OS 1.0 HD - added support for SCSI - requires SCSI is installed, won't use SE as the support for it isn't there...
Emax OS 1.1 HD - added support for SCSI - requires SCSI is installed, won't use SE as the support for it isn't there...
Won't boot a NON-SCSI Emax
Emax OS 1.0 SE - added support for SE - requires SE update is installed, won't see SCSI as the support for it isn't there...
Emax OS 1.1 SE - added support for SE - requires SE update is installed, won't see SCSI as the support for it isn't there...
Won't boot a NON-SE Emax
The above versions can be confusing, so I will always-
1) Update the machine to SE, so now SE OS or not is no longer a factor...
-if it's already SE, no harm / no foul, the machine simply boots.
3) Add SCSI - I will add SCSI to any rev2 or rev3 board sent to me (for fee of course)
- now the Hardware is fully updated with all available option capabilities.
Regards Emax OS with SE support- Some have not applied the SE Upate, and honestly I don't understand why.
The ONLY thing the SE Update disk does to the machine is update a few bits in the Parameter EEPROM, allowing the SE features to work and to boot with an SE disk.
The moment you boot with a NON-SE OS, your Emax for all intensive purposes is like it doesn't have SE.
The OS on the disk is what has the extra features added in...not the machine.
Again --to be clear-- an SE EMAX can still boot a NON-SE OS.
Emax OS 1.1 SE + HD - requires SE update and SCSI is installed, so you have almost all available Emax features.
Last released verision
Emax Plus OS 1.0 SE + HD - requires SE update and SCSI is installed, added ability to have additional SCSI drives besides ID 0.
An Emax that has both SCSI update and SE Update applied will be able to use / boot ANY of the available OS's.
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As to FDD (floppy disk drive)- where you have a flash drive and don't want to use a FDD, more power to you.
But if you ever need to diagnose issues where you think there is a SCSI / drive issue and Emax isn't booting and now don't have a floppy to boot from- you will be stuck.
...browsing the forums again for solutions / help...
- now the Hardware is fully updated with all available option capabilities.
Regards Emax OS with SE support- Some have not applied the SE Upate, and honestly I don't understand why.
The ONLY thing the SE Update disk does to the machine is update a few bits in the Parameter EEPROM, allowing the SE features to work and to boot with an SE disk.
The moment you boot with a NON-SE OS, your Emax for all intensive purposes is like it doesn't have SE.
The OS on the disk is what has the extra features added in...not the machine.
Again --to be clear-- an SE EMAX can still boot a NON-SE OS.
Emax OS 1.1 SE + HD - requires SE update and SCSI is installed, so you have almost all available Emax features.
Last released verision
Emax Plus OS 1.0 SE + HD - requires SE update and SCSI is installed, added ability to have additional SCSI drives besides ID 0.
An Emax that has both SCSI update and SE Update applied will be able to use / boot ANY of the available OS's.
-----------------NEXT TOPIC---------------------------------
As to FDD (floppy disk drive)- where you have a flash drive and don't want to use a FDD, more power to you.
But if you ever need to diagnose issues where you think there is a SCSI / drive issue and Emax isn't booting and now don't have a floppy to boot from- you will be stuck.
...browsing the forums again for solutions / help...
-----------------NEXT TOPIC---------------------------------
As to the PC "not working to make disks" dilemma- I have successfully used EMXP, EMX, EMAXUTIL on 3 different PC's with completely different floppy drives.
An 700Mhz VIA CPU - (Intel clone) with VIA chipset mobo, sony floppy drive
An 1.5Ghz Pentium 4 / Celeron w/Chaintek mobo, teac floppy drive
An 2.6Ghz Pentium 4 w/MSI mobo, mitsumi floppy drive
They all worked, I got all parts used, and this is variation of chipset and processor and floppy drive that makes me believe the vast majority will work properly.
I've really not seen the problems described, using a PC to make disks...
Where your Emax has the bad floppy drive, your PC can be making all the disks correctly and it won't matter a bit as you don't have a good drive in the Emax.
It can also be a bad Floppy Controller chip too... WD1772 can be bad (though rare for it to happen), or the supporting circuit.
Thus I always hook up my test "known-good" floppy to verify working order of the floppy circuit when I go to evaluate an Emax board sent to me.
Once I know Emax floppy circuit is working, I install Slim Floppy in my units because
1) They are readily available
2) They are inexpensive (I have 2 spares sitting on the shelf to replace my current drive in event they go bad).
Total cost for JM215A adapter and 2 slim floppy drives (1 installed + spare) - typically less than $25.
That's my take.
So hopefully this whole floppy / OS conversation (rant or whatever) can be put to rest now...
-Ted
On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 8:17 AM, Windrum Scoggin <windrumscoggin@...> wrote:
Here is a pdf to the specs2) My new Emax SE is on the way this week. If its floppy is good, I will try to use the above method as posed by geektech207 and use Omniflop and my PC to make a bootable SE OS disk. The internal PC FDD I am using is a Teac 235HF.You know, I truly believe that is what this list is for..so we can help each other keep our aging (but beautiful sounding) EMU samplers alive.BUT
This EMAX FDD is getting out of hand and becoming a right PITA isn't it?
Personally, if I didn't t have an XP based PC running Omniflop with an internal FDD then I would have completely ditched the FDD concept long ago...If you can't make an OS disk for your EMAX, then transfer sounds to that floppy via a PC with EMXP, a floppy drive and Omniflop installed, that will allow you to do this, then what is the point of having an FDD in your EMAX? You will constantly be at the mercy of the rest of us on the user forum in trying to make you disks and if our machines OS doesn't match yours we have even a bigger rabbit hole to climb out of
Even if we have the same OS, and we make you disks, whose to say that after we ship them to you, they will work?
I know that I personally have built a PC specifically to run EMXP and installed the Omniflop drivers as I am also using an Ensoniq EPS 16 plus and just have to have the ability to transfer the OS and sounds to floppys/flash/zip drives for my SCSI enabled EMU/Ensonqi samplers. That being said, I too have had a hell of a problem getting Emax OS to load onto disks and even if I did do it correctly, my Emax HD's own internal FDD is toast. It will read and write only disks that it can read and write due to it being off, somehow. I know this cause I tried to load OS disks Ted sent me and they wouldn't load so I handed them off to another fellow back up Ted's way who needed the OS disks and the disks Ted made for me that would not load on mine, loaded fine on his machine! That told me my machine had a bad FDD.
So my situation is I
1) have an EMAX HD with a bad HD and Floppy. ONly way I can get it to boot is using EMXP and CF cards then boot it up using the PCD 50B. So far, it works and I am happy.
http://www.msc-ge.com/download/itmain/datasheets/teac/FD-235HF-C891.pdfHopefully, it will work. If it does, and the FDD in my arriving unit is NOT bad, then just PM me and I will try to make OS Floppy disk for anyone that wants one. The only issue is, EMU kept changing the OS for their EMAX's and it grows tiresome because from what I am reading here, people with a Plus OS Emax can't load an SE OS disks Made from an SE OS Emax, and vice versa...Ie You can't load a sound disk made from a machine with at different OS than the one you are on.... Correct ME if I am wrong Ted or Jammie? If this be the case we are all in quite the funk cause some of us have SCSI machines with Plus OS on them, some of us don't and those who have older EMAX running non Plus OS can't load sound disks saved to Plus OS disks.
That being said, I hope I am wrong cause my 1010 model with HD is running Emax Plus OS Rev 1.0 and I don't know if I can upgrade my SE model to this when it arrives, or not; OR if the SE OS will load disks from a Plus OS Rev 1.0 disk.
I know in my case it won't because my FDD on my HD 1010 model Emax is bad, anyway so no disk I make on that FDD will run on any other Emax that has a known good FDD, even if they are the same OS. Herein lies the dilemma of having bad FDD's in our Emax's. FDD's just suck.
Finding and original sectored FDD for the Emax itself seems to be a tightly held secret amongst the second hand parts guys. Route66 says he sells them, as does this guy here:
http://www.eprelectronics.com/store/E-mu-Accessories/MISC/Emu-EMAX-I-Floppy-Disk-Drive-p160.html
Most of the time, both these guys want too much or they are out of stock. I imagine if someone can get the part number off the FDD after purchasing one, they can simply find it elsewhere for a third of the price but being route 66 and EPR are mostly out of stock, they are probably having to find NOS (New Old Stock) drives themselves then simply jack up the price to us as a charge for doing the research that most of us could do on our own if we simply knew what we were looking for.
Now then, on Youtube, Retrosound installed and HxC floppy emulator in his unit. the Cost of the floppy emulator is about the same as an NOS FDD and quite frankly, I hate screwing with the FDD's on these Emax units. They are slow, tedious and break eventually...just like the crappy internal 20 MB HD did on my Emax when all I did was remove it when installing a PCD-50B SCSI card reader/writer.
So, IMHO I forgo the floppy cause I hate messing with them. Mine doesn't woke save to read and write disks that only MY Emax that wrote them can use and I am not sure I want to spend the money on another EMU Emax internal Floppy Disk Drive anymore when half of us can't even write a damned bootable floppy on our PC's cause most of us don't even have PC's with Floppy drives in them anymore!
Am I right or am I right?
Ha ha!Tell ya what...If my SE 1000 unit comes in with a good FDD and I can make a good Bootable SE FDD using EMXP and Omniflop, and it loads and boots this my soon to arrive Emax SE 1000 up, I will make anyone an OS disks that want them, just PM me. No charge save for the cost of the floppy and shipping. I can't gurantee it will work on your machine if your FDD has doen what my HD 1010 FDD drive did but we can try.
I will do it till the damned FDD drive dies.Then, i am finding another PCD 50B to install on my new unit or justgoing HxCI am really tired of the Emu FDD dilemma and eventually, I think the rest of you will grow tired of dealing with it too.
Cheerswindrumscogginatgmail
I--On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 3:06 AM, <geektech207@...> wrote:
If you live in the U.S. then I could probably manage that if you send me a couple disks and some postage in trade. If you're overseas then I don't really want to fill out a customs form, etc. Maybe someone more local to you has some OS disks, if that's the case. Anyone with a bootable emax should be able to create a working disk for you, and there's a fair amount of people on this mailing list.
No interest in starting a new business. Wouldn't feel right about it after all the free help / utilities that all this is based on. Free (vintage) love.
Le Sociere Des Oscillateurs Mystere