Synth-DIY Yahoo! Groups Archives

Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-27 by raclette74@...

Hey gang !

i just upgraded my emax to a hxc floppy emulator and i can't say i'm happy with it : i bought a sandisk sd that was broken from the start, i have a second sd that worked for a few hours but that's now stick in a " read fat..." process (seems ok on the computer but the emax do not want it anymore). Fortunately i found a third one in an old smartphone that seems to work (for now).

I tried to save a sound to the sd but all i can have is a "disk error" message.

So, in summary :

- sd cards seems to be very fragile

- loading process as slow as a floppy

- saving... herm... i suppose it's as slow as a floppy but i could not manage to save a sound.

Can somebody tell me why this product seems to be a "must have" for a lot of people before i go back to the trusty floppy...

thanks,

julien :-(

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-27 by Ted Summers

Interesting- I hadn't heard any complaints about the HxC til now, but then I always recommend the SCSI option.

(disclaimer- I do sell the SCSI kits).

Sandisk is good and I normally don't have problems with that brand.

If they are high speed flash or large size that could be a problem- some drives have flash drive limit and I wouldn't use larger than 128MB in it as you can only do 99 banks, right? So more space is waste of $$ on media.

I don't have an HxC so I can't give further troubleshooting or comment.

Regards,

Ted

On May 27, 2014, at 6:43 AM, raclette74@... [emax] wrote:

Hey gang !

i just upgraded my emax to a hxc floppy emulator and i can't say i'm happy with it : i bought a sandisk sd that was broken from the start, i have a second sd that worked for a few hours but that's now stick in a " read fat..." process (seems ok on the computer but the emax do not want it anymore). Fortunately i found a third one in an old smartphone that seems to work (for now).

I tried to save a sound to the sd but all i can have is a "disk error" message.

So, in summary :

- sd cards seems to be very fragile

- loading process as slow as a floppy

- saving... herm... i suppose it's as slow as a floppy but i could not manage to save a sound.

Can somebody tell me why this product seems to be a "must have" for a lot of people before i go back to the trusty floppy...

thanks,

julien :-(

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-27 by Robert Van Kuran

For what it's worth,
I use a 32GB (max supported) SanDisk in my Rev. C HxC w/ my EII all the time no issues.

You will need to reformat from time to time. Any issues I've had then seem to go away. So backup the contents regularly.

Have you tried a fresh reformat? 

-RVK

Show quoted textHide quoted text

> On May 27, 2014, at 7:39 AM, "Ted Summers djtbs1@... [emax]" <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> Interesting- I hadn't heard any complaints about the HxC til now, but then I always recommend the SCSI option.
> 
> 
> (disclaimer- I do sell the SCSI kits).
> 
> Sandisk is good and I normally don't have problems with that brand.
> If they are high speed flash or large size that could be a problem- some drives have flash drive limit and I wouldn't use larger than 128MB in it as you can only do 99 banks, right? So more space is waste of $$ on media.
> 
>  I don't have an HxC so I can't give further troubleshooting or comment.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Ted
> 
> On May 27, 2014, at 6:43 AM, raclette74@... [emax] wrote:
> 
>  
> 
> Hey gang ! 
> 
> i just upgraded my emax to a hxc floppy emulator and i can't say i'm happy with it : i bought a sandisk sd that was broken from the start, i have a second sd that worked for a few hours but that's now stick in a " read fat..." process (seems ok on the computer but the emax do not want it anymore). Fortunately i found a third one in an old smartphone that seems to work (for now). 
> 
> I tried to save a sound to the sd but all i can have is a "disk error" message.
> 
> So, in summary :
> 
> - sd cards seems to be very fragile
> 
> - loading process as slow as a floppy
> 
> - saving... herm... i suppose it's as slow as a floppy but i could not manage to save a sound.
> 
> 
> 
> Can somebody tell me why this product seems to be a "must have" for a lot of people before i go back to the trusty floppy...
> 
> 
> 
> thanks,
> 
> 
> 
> julien :-(
> 
> 
> 
>

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-27 by raclette74@...

Thanks guys !

@Ted : i'm not really complaining, i'm just not seeing the real advantage of a hxc over a floppy. If the sd cards are that fragile, having all your sounds on a single one could be a real problem when the sd card is crashing. As stated by RVK : frequent backup strongly advised..

@Robert : yes i re-formated the "read fat..." card, on the pc, with no chance. Same behaviour before and after...

Maybe it's because i'm a hxc newbie, i'll dig it...

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-27 by Ted Summers

Well, the SD shouldn't have that many problems in of itself.

I use SD in my flash drives (PCD-50b, MicroTech DPAI-SCSI, and an generic ide over acard SCSI bridge).
The only thing I am mindful /careful in regards is to not hot swap them (emax 1 can corrupt a hot-swapped SD or CF media from my experience).

but where it is emulating floppy, the considerations may be different.

I do know that if you hotswap a media where the drive doesn't specifically support it, you can damage drive and or media. The only other question might be what revision HxC you have.... that might be helpful where others have comparison of what rev they have that are working properly (difference in version or firmware??)

-Ted

Show quoted textHide quoted text

On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 9:38 AM, raclette74@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Thanks guys !
@Ted : i'm not really complaining, i'm just not seeing the real advantage of a hxc over a floppy. If the sd cards are that fragile, having all your sounds on a single one could be a real problem when the sd card is crashing. As stated by RVK : frequent backup strongly advised..

@Robert : yes i re-formated the "read fat..." card, on the pc, with no chance. Same behaviour before and after...

Maybe it's because i'm a hxc newbie, i'll dig it...

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-27 by raclette74@...

Thanks Ted ! That's a very interesting point, because a hot swap is exactly what i did, as i was loading/testing files (.hfe) and putting the sd back & forth between the emax and the computer. The hxc is a brand new rev f.

That's clearly what happened. The sd is off the hook, it was working like a charm until i made these tests. A (newbie) blunder...

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-27 by Robert Van Kuran

Hot swap is ok on HxC for me w/ Rev. C.
The catch, use the HxC software utility to create a custom config file and uncheck (disable) the "Load last loaded floppy" box option.

If you are reorganizing and moving files around whilst viewing files on your PC and then that file path is not present you will run into issues when loaded back into the HxC.

That is a trick I learned the hard way.

Thanks,
-RVK

Show quoted textHide quoted text

> On May 27, 2014, at 12:01 PM, "raclette74@... [emax]" <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Ted ! That's a very interesting point, because a hot swap is exactly what i did, as i was loading/testing files (.hfe) and putting the sd back & forth between the emax and the computer. The hxc is a brand new rev f.  
> 
> That's clearly what happened. The sd is off the hook, it was working like a charm until i made these tests. A (newbie) blunder...
>

Re: Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-29 by raclette74@...

The hard way ? Lol. Sounds like i'm not the only one in trouble. I did not explore the hxc software that much until now because i recently transplant a multicard reader in my computer and he did not like it at all, but i'll check that "Load last loaded floppy" thing asap.

Re: [emax] Re: Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-29 by Robert Van Kuran

No trouble after learning the workflow.

-RVK

Show quoted textHide quoted text

> On May 29, 2014, at 4:41 AM, "raclette74@... [emax]" <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> The hard way ? Lol. Sounds like i'm not the only one in trouble. I did not explore the hxc software that much until now because i recently transplant a multicard reader in my computer and he did not like it at all, but i'll check that "Load last loaded floppy" thing asap. 		
> 
>

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-29 by Garth Hjelte

At 09:39 AM 5/27/2014, you wrote:

>Interesting- I hadn't heard any complaints about the HxC til now, but then I always recommend the SCSI option.
>(disclaimer- I do sell the SCSI kits).

I agree with SCSI. I just don't see the point of a floppy emulator. That's like getting a rickshaw-emulator instead of buying a car.

I don't think anyone uses a Emax because they are poor and can't afford anything else and hardware is the only way they make music. Invest in a SCSI kit, forget the pain and suffering of floppy images etc.

IMHO 

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-29 by Niklas Ehrlin

Well the point of getting the emulator would be that it is ONE kit, and its available, and comes with installation guides.

No need to try to find suitable stuff that might or might not work.

I would love if there was a decent SCSI-kit that was available and confirmed working and that you could install yourself.

Niklas

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-29 by Ted Summers

Niklas-

To address your statements---

Well- I can tell you that a turnkey kit with a drive would cost money.

And I can also tell you that plenty of people have sent me many an email over the years complaining about costs related to drives, parts, etc.

The reason I never made a turnkey kit including the drive are mostly cost and availability, not even accounting for the fact that someone who is going to build this up then has to sit on the stuff until it sells.

There's a lot of overhead involved.

When I did have used drives for sale it was more than six months before I sold the last one, in the meantime, it cost me hundreds of dollars to purchase them...out of pocket. I'm not an actual business, just a hobbyist, like so many other people in these communities.

Point of fact- I have had several instances where people didn't want to buy the $52.50 kit, they only wanted the TIM PAL and I should just sell them that....Then send me email later saying they couldn't find the correct EEPROM or SCSI controller or asking me what they needed to buy to program it, etc!!!

Of note-

Materials cost me about 50% of the cost of the kit- not allowing for any TIME involved in providing this (programming, testing, packaging, driving to the post office or ups to ship), etc.

it's why I stopped selling slim floppy adapters- because people wouldn't pay $20 for a $10 item that I had to modify for Emax which took about 20 minutes to modify and another 10 or 15 minutes to fully test.
I couldn't even make my money back for the time required to mod it.

So I published the detail on the web....

SCSI chipset kit I sell IS install yourself (or for the not technically inclined you can have a local electronic repair shop do it, or I do install for $50 flat fee US + ship).

The instructions are available: http://djtbs1.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/emax-plus-scsi-retro-instructions.pdf

Technical ability to install the kit due to board mod requirements is something that you would have to blame EMU for.

With that said-

These are the SAME binaries given by the factory, and programmed into ICs by myself as Emu no longer sells it.

I test every IC in my testbed Emax before shipping them out.

The SCSI chipset itself does work, it's tested with a well known track record.

I have sold over 60 kits between here, vintagesynth, my wordpress site and ebay.

There is a database of known working drives here on the group in the "Database" section.

If you are worried about buying a particular drive- ASK!!!
Plenty of people here have tried many things out and can give guidance to buy or not to buy, or UNKNOWN.

The only thing left up to chance is what drive you want.
And that is also why the kit I sell isn't a "turnkey" solution.
But then- that makes sense for a couple of reasons:

1) Some people want external not internal

2) Some people want Zip or SyQuest, some want flash, and some (scarily) want to stick with the good old fashioned HD.

3) Drive prices and availability vary and cannot be guaranteed.

4) Some people want one drive, but may want to switch to a different drive later

5) Some people will buy the chipset kit, and save to get exactly the drive they want later, so they can do the upgrade in parts...

Hopefully this gives you some insight...

Regards,
Ted

Show quoted textHide quoted text

On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 12:55 PM, Niklas Ehrlin niklas.ehrlin@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Well the point of getting the emulator would be that it is ONE kit, and its available, and comes with installation guides.
No need to try to find suitable stuff that might or might not work.

I would love if there was a decent SCSI-kit that was available and confirmed working and that you could install yourself.

Niklas

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-29 by Niklas Ehrlin

Hi Ted. I just made a answering statement to WHY the emulators seems appealing. This was not a cry for someone to actually start selling kits, I know the risks and hassle this would mean. I am still unceartain on what road to take myself, as I still have a machine that I have not been able to boot yet, as both the internal HDD and floppy are broken. And without any boot, I cant tell the full status of it, and are ofcuorse looking for the easiest way to just get it running.

Show quoted textHide quoted text

Den 29 maj 2014 22:31 skrev "Ted Summers djtbs1@... [emax]" <emax@yahoogroups.com>:

Niklas-

To address your statements---

Well- I can tell you that a turnkey kit with a drive would cost money.

And I can also tell you that plenty of people have sent me many an email over the years complaining about costs related to drives, parts, etc.

The reason I never made a turnkey kit including the drive are mostly cost and availability, not even accounting for the fact that someone who is going to build this up then has to sit on the stuff until it sells.

There's a lot of overhead involved.

When I did have used drives for sale it was more than six months before I sold the last one, in the meantime, it cost me hundreds of dollars to purchase them...out of pocket. I'm not an actual business, just a hobbyist, like so many other people in these communities.

Point of fact- I have had several instances where people didn't want to buy the $52.50 kit, they only wanted the TIM PAL and I should just sell them that....Then send me email later saying they couldn't find the correct EEPROM or SCSI controller or asking me what they needed to buy to program it, etc!!!

Of note-
Materials cost me about 50% of the cost of the kit- not allowing for any TIME involved in providing this (programming, testing, packaging, driving to the post office or ups to ship), etc.

it's why I stopped selling slim floppy adapters- because people wouldn't pay $20 for a $10 item that I had to modify for Emax which took about 20 minutes to modify and another 10 or 15 minutes to fully test.
I couldn't even make my money back for the time required to mod it.
So I published the detail on the web....

SCSI chipset kit I sell IS install yourself (or for the not technically inclined you can have a local electronic repair shop do it, or I do install for $50 flat fee US + ship).

The instructions are available: http://djtbs1.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/emax-plus-scsi-retro-instructions.pdf

Technical ability to install the kit due to board mod requirements is something that you would have to blame EMU for.

With that said-
These are the SAME binaries given by the factory, and programmed into ICs by myself as Emu no longer sells it.

I test every IC in my testbed Emax before shipping them out.
The SCSI chipset itself does work, it's tested with a well known track record.

I have sold over 60 kits between here, vintagesynth, my wordpress site and ebay.

There is a database of known working drives here on the group in the "Database" section.
If you are worried about buying a particular drive- ASK!!!
Plenty of people here have tried many things out and can give guidance to buy or not to buy, or UNKNOWN.

The only thing left up to chance is what drive you want.
And that is also why the kit I sell isn't a "turnkey" solution.
But then- that makes sense for a couple of reasons:
1) Some people want external not internal
2) Some people want Zip or SyQuest, some want flash, and some (scarily) want to stick with the good old fashioned HD.
3) Drive prices and availability vary and cannot be guaranteed.

4) Some people want one drive, but may want to switch to a different drive later
5) Some people will buy the chipset kit, and save to get exactly the drive they want later, so they can do the upgrade in parts...

Hopefully this gives you some insight...

Regards,
Ted

On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 12:55 PM, Niklas Ehrlin niklas.ehrlin@gmail.com [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Well the point of getting the emulator would be that it is ONE kit, and its available, and comes with installation guides.
No need to try to find suitable stuff that might or might not work.

I would love if there was a decent SCSI-kit that was available and confirmed working and that you could install yourself.

Niklas

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-29 by Ted Summers

Well- a stock floppy is about $75 US.

My suggestion- follow the instructions on my Wordpress site and modify the slim adapter.
http://djtbs1.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/jm215a-slim-floppy-adapter-modifications/

get the part from ebay (seen on ebay.com in US, and ebay.de and ebay.nl)

Get a slim floppy drive (I prefer TEAC FD-05) they are cheap as low as $5 -$10
http://www.ebay.nl/itm/TEAC-FD-05HG-P-N-19307587-87-Dell-PowerEdge-1850-Slim-Line-Floppy-Disk-Drive-FDD-/271451838956?pt=DE_Computer_Floppy_Zip_Streamer&hash=item3f33ca59ec

NOTE: use the cable which comes with JM215A adapter not the drive- that is VERY IMPORTANT!!!

Get a PC with floppy drive, and using OMNIFLOP format emax floppy (or have someone in EU send you a OS floppy.
then you can at least do a test without too much additional expense to verify the Emax is not dead / having other problems.

At that point you can follow with whether you want to buy a scsi or other drive...

-T

Show quoted textHide quoted text

On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 2:20 PM, Niklas Ehrlin niklas.ehrlin@... [emax] <emax@...m> wrote:

Hi Ted. I just made a answering statement to WHY the emulators seems appealing. This was not a cry for someone to actually start selling kits, I know the risks and hassle this would mean. I am still unceartain on what road to take myself, as I still have a machine that I have not been able to boot yet, as both the internal HDD and floppy are broken. And without any boot, I cant tell the full status of it, and are ofcuorse looking for the easiest way to just get it running.

Den 29 maj 2014 22:31 skrev "Ted Summers djtbs1@... [emax]" <emax@yahoogroups.com>:

Niklas-

To address your statements---

Well- I can tell you that a turnkey kit with a drive would cost money.

And I can also tell you that plenty of people have sent me many an email over the years complaining about costs related to drives, parts, etc.

The reason I never made a turnkey kit including the drive are mostly cost and availability, not even accounting for the fact that someone who is going to build this up then has to sit on the stuff until it sells.

There's a lot of overhead involved.

When I did have used drives for sale it was more than six months before I sold the last one, in the meantime, it cost me hundreds of dollars to purchase them...out of pocket. I'm not an actual business, just a hobbyist, like so many other people in these communities.

Point of fact- I have had several instances where people didn't want to buy the $52.50 kit, they only wanted the TIM PAL and I should just sell them that....Then send me email later saying they couldn't find the correct EEPROM or SCSI controller or asking me what they needed to buy to program it, etc!!!

Of note-
Materials cost me about 50% of the cost of the kit- not allowing for any TIME involved in providing this (programming, testing, packaging, driving to the post office or ups to ship), etc.

it's why I stopped selling slim floppy adapters- because people wouldn't pay $20 for a $10 item that I had to modify for Emax which took about 20 minutes to modify and another 10 or 15 minutes to fully test.
I couldn't even make my money back for the time required to mod it.
So I published the detail on the web....

SCSI chipset kit I sell IS install yourself (or for the not technically inclined you can have a local electronic repair shop do it, or I do install for $50 flat fee US + ship).

The instructions are available: http://djtbs1.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/emax-plus-scsi-retro-instructions.pdf

Technical ability to install the kit due to board mod requirements is something that you would have to blame EMU for.

With that said-
These are the SAME binaries given by the factory, and programmed into ICs by myself as Emu no longer sells it.

I test every IC in my testbed Emax before shipping them out.
The SCSI chipset itself does work, it's tested with a well known track record.

I have sold over 60 kits between here, vintagesynth, my wordpress site and ebay.

There is a database of known working drives here on the group in the "Database" section.
If you are worried about buying a particular drive- ASK!!!
Plenty of people here have tried many things out and can give guidance to buy or not to buy, or UNKNOWN.

The only thing left up to chance is what drive you want.
And that is also why the kit I sell isn't a "turnkey" solution.
But then- that makes sense for a couple of reasons:
1) Some people want external not internal
2) Some people want Zip or SyQuest, some want flash, and some (scarily) want to stick with the good old fashioned HD.
3) Drive prices and availability vary and cannot be guaranteed.

4) Some people want one drive, but may want to switch to a different drive later
5) Some people will buy the chipset kit, and save to get exactly the drive they want later, so they can do the upgrade in parts...

Hopefully this gives you some insight...

Regards,
Ted

On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 12:55 PM, Niklas Ehrlin niklas.ehrlin@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Well the point of getting the emulator would be that it is ONE kit, and its available, and comes with installation guides.
No need to try to find suitable stuff that might or might not work.

I would love if there was a decent SCSI-kit that was available and confirmed working and that you could install yourself.

Niklas

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-31 by guitar5l50@...

Hello Ted,

Do you still have any SCSI kits available?
I need to get the PAL chip...

From an old post I found:
http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3216

Kit includes:
IP379a PAL
SCSI Capable EPROM (boot prom)
AM5380PC SCSI Controller
28-pin socket for the EPROM
Wire-wrap wire for the necessary modifications.
50-pin SCSI internal ribbon cable (non-terminated).
HD-capable Emax SE OS disk

OR

From the Emulator Archive Upgrade Doc:

(Kit 2007) Emax Keyboard to SCSI

Materials:

(1) SCSI Retro Instructions (Fl360) (1) SCSI user instructions (Fl363)

(1) SCSI mounting plate (EM404) (1) 5380 SCSI interface chip (II349)

(1) SCSI cable (AF240) (1) Emax HD firmware (lP355)

(1) 28 pin IC socket (JC 308) (1) Emax HD TIM PAL (IP356)

(1) Emax Plus software disk (ZD856) (4) 4-40 kepf nut (HN 304)

(4) 4-40 x 1/2” screw (HS118) (1) SCSI port hardware set (HS400)

(2.6') 28 gauge wire-wrap wire (WW130) (3) adhesive cable clips (HC312)

(1) Hard Disk Supplement (FI342) (1) HD Retro label (ZL371
(1) SCSI adapter board (AF259)

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-31 by Ted Summers

Yes- the contents are as described in the Emu's On Acid post, not the factory guide- those other components haven't been reproduced.

The cost is $62.50 including Priority mail shipping in the US.

Any destination outside the US I have to calculate the shipping options to provide a price.

Regards,

Ted

On May 31, 2014, at 10:17 AM, guitar5l50@... [emax] wrote:

Hello Ted,

Do you still have any SCSI kits available?
I need to get the PAL chip...

From an old post I found:
http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3216

Kit includes:
IP379a PAL
SCSI Capable EPROM (boot prom)
AM5380PC SCSI Controller
28-pin socket for the EPROM
Wire-wrap wire for the necessary modifications.
50-pin SCSI internal ribbon cable (non-terminated).
HD-capable Emax SE OS disk

OR

From the Emulator Archive Upgrade Doc:

(Kit 2007) Emax Keyboard to SCSI

Materials:

(1) SCSI Retro Instructions (Fl360) (1) SCSI user instructions (Fl363)

(1) SCSI mounting plate (EM404) (1) 5380 SCSI interface chip (II349)

(1) SCSI cable (AF240) (1) Emax HD firmware (lP355)

(1) 28 pin IC socket (JC 308) (1) Emax HD TIM PAL (IP356)

(1) Emax Plus software disk (ZD856) (4) 4-40 kepf nut (HN 304)

(4) 4-40 x 1/2” screw (HS118) (1) SCSI port hardware set (HS400)

(2.6') 28 gauge wire-wrap wire (WW130) (3) adhesive cable clips (HC312)

(1) Hard Disk Supplement (FI342) (1) HD Retro label (ZL371
(1) SCSI adapter board (AF259)

Re: [emax] Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-05-31 by Ted Summers

PS- I take paypal.

Paypal to: djtbs1@...

Regards,

Ted

On May 31, 2014, at 1:56 PM, Ted Summers wrote:

Yes- the contents are as described in the Emu's On Acid post, not the factory guide- those other components haven't been reproduced.

The cost is $62.50 including Priority mail shipping in the US.

Any destination outside the US I have to calculate the shipping options to provide a price.

Regards,

Ted

On May 31, 2014, at 10:17 AM, guitar5l50@... [emax] wrote:

Hello Ted,

Do you still have any SCSI kits available?
I need to get the PAL chip...

From an old post I found:
http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3216

Kit includes:
IP379a PAL
SCSI Capable EPROM (boot prom)
AM5380PC SCSI Controller
28-pin socket for the EPROM
Wire-wrap wire for the necessary modifications.
50-pin SCSI internal ribbon cable (non-terminated).
HD-capable Emax SE OS disk

OR

From the Emulator Archive Upgrade Doc:

(Kit 2007) Emax Keyboard to SCSI

Materials:

(1) SCSI Retro Instructions (Fl360) (1) SCSI user instructions (Fl363)

(1) SCSI mounting plate (EM404) (1) 5380 SCSI interface chip (II349)

(1) SCSI cable (AF240) (1) Emax HD firmware (lP355)

(1) 28 pin IC socket (JC 308) (1) Emax HD TIM PAL (IP356)

(1) Emax Plus software disk (ZD856) (4) 4-40 kepf nut (HN 304)

(4) 4-40 x 1/2” screw (HS118) (1) SCSI port hardware set (HS400)

(2.6') 28 gauge wire-wrap wire (WW130) (3) adhesive cable clips (HC312)

(1) Hard Disk Supplement (FI342) (1) HD Retro label (ZL371
(1) SCSI adapter board (AF259)

Re: Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-06-07 by sweetsynthchuck@...

Hxc is too exspensvie but be on the look out for gotek usb drives that will eventually be flashed for specific samplers at a fraction of what hxc costs.
about 20-25 euro

also i heard the chinese will be making a hxc clone compatible with the "official" software.

100 euros vs 30suro

Re: Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-06-07 by hxc2001@...

In this case just overwrite the CFG file, this will solve the issue too.
No need to format the SD ;)

Re: Hxc worth the pain ?

2014-06-07 by hxc2001@...

Hi,

I think that you should contact the HxC support :
http://torlus.com/floppy/forum
http://hxc2001.free.fr/imiel.htm

Regarding your issues, you may have a power supply problem with the Emax, or you have got some very bad Sandisk-clone sdcard...
About SDCard: Like all flash medias (USB key,CF,...) there is a lot of counterfeit cards everywhere :

FAKE SanDisk Ultra Secure Digital Cards Exposed

FAKE SanDisk Ultra Secure Digital Cards Exposed

How to identify counterfeit SanDisk Ultra II Secure Digital Cards A significant high number of eBayers have been deceived by inferior quality, unpopular cheap, slow...

View on www.ebay.com

Preview by Yahoo

So get the good ones, and they will works many years without issue...

About write problems : It seems that there is something special with the Emax : You must use the right OS to avoid these write problems.

For the Read/write speed : The floppy bus speed cannot be increased... So no improvement possible here. The limitation is the Emax floppy controller.

Contact me at this email http://hxc2001.free.fr/imiel.htm if you want to solve these issues.

thanks

jf