Emax

Hi,
An internal SCSI ZIP 100 pulls rather more 5V power than the stock
Miniscribe hard drive in an Emax, and therefore stresses the PSU more than
normal.

Miniscribe 8425S
5V 0.6A
12V 0.7A
peak 2.0A

Internal SCSI ZIP 100
5V 1A continuous
5V 1.7A peak

We have successfully run an Emax keyboard with an internal ZIP 100 and
Floppy Drive, with the Hard Disk removed. However whilst this worked for us
it could wreck your PSU - so we don't suggest you do it !!! A better and
safer alternative is to use an external ZIP(or power the internal ZIP
separately). External ZIP's are easier to locate and can be easily used with
an Emax that has already got a hard disk. Remember the Emax only formats a
maximum of 20MB on ANY drive.

Connect the internal Emax SCSI connector to a SCSI internal 50pin to
external 25pin adapter. Mount the adapter in the rear casing of the Emax as
described in the original E-mu SCSI retro article on our web site. We  can
supply the adapter if you have trouble getting one, or go to www.jameco.com.
You will need to take careful precautions when drilling out the Emax casing
as it is made of conductive plastic, so please do read the E-mu arcticle. We
will be putting pictorial upgrade instructions on our web site soon.

You will need Emax Plus OS when using an external  ZIP, as the ZIP can only
work on ID 5 or 6. The Plus OS enables selection of SCSI ID. We can provide
the Emax Plus OS diskette for free. An internal ZIP set to SCSI ID 0 should
work with OS HD 1.1. We have successfully run an External ZIP 100 with an
Emax HD model (OS Plus), and we have over 20 ZIP's full of factory and pro
samples. So if you do use a ZIP, you have access to an amazing new library
of sounds. The ZIP works really well with an Emax and formats in 2 seconds,
and tha horrible drive noise is gone !! The Plus OS enables you to run 2
external ZIP 100 drives which makes backups possible.

You can run OS HD 1.1 without a hard drive, it just won't be able to run any
HD instructions. It fails safe...

For anyone else on the list interested in a ZIP upgrade...Right now you need
an Emax HD model, as this usually has the correct digital board and boot
EPROM and PAL chips. Upgrades to older digital boards (e.g. early non HD
Emax's) is currently impossible, until we gain remanufacturing rights from
E-mu ( a subject that is under discussion with Dave Rossum etc.).

If anyone on the list has got an Emax (not Emax II) to work with any other
drive than a Miniscribe or Rodime 20MB, please let us know as this will help
future users as Rodimes are very short in life span (MTBF is 12k hours) and
Miniscribes are not much better !! We are trying to locate high quality
Miniscribe spare hard drives for users who have lost their hard drive, but
this is proving very difficult and the ZIP route is far more practical.

Hope this all helps.. keep the questions coming !!!

Rob

The Emulator Archive
www.emulatorarchive.com






  -----Original Message-----
  From: John Silveria [mailto:emaxjs@...]
  Sent: 03 November 2001 05:43
  To: emax@yahoogroups.com
  Subject: Re: [emax] boy have i got problems!


  On 2 Nov 2001 at 13:27, David W Crosby wrote:

  > If i just disconnect the hard drive, will that mess anything up? It's
  > extremely noisy and the emax is difficult to turn on/off because the
  > on/off button is missing.

  No matter what you unplug from the power supply a Zip drive will still
burn it out. It
  simply draws too much power. You might be able to replace the Power
Supply, I've
  heard of people doing that with the ESi-32, but I've never had a report
from anyone who
  has done it.

  It's no big deal to go in and unplug the HD and remove it, just remember
at that point
  you will not want (be able?) to use the HD 1.1 OS you'll want to convert
all your disks
  into Emax OS 3.2. You should replace the power switch as well while you
are in  there.


  John Silveria II
  AIM: EmaxJS
  The Silveria Family Website
  Emax and Emax II User's Group
  http://www.silveriafamily.com

  Emax and Emax II User's Group

  http://www.silveriafamily.com

  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.



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