Emax

Does anyone here have EMAX I SE HxC files they could either share with me or even sell to me?

I've had this HxC reader installed for months now, and it seems like such a pain to convert these sample banks into HFE files that the HxC drive can use. I still don't have any SE OS disk files in HFE to try, months after installing the emulator drive, and I'm now leaning towards replacing the HxC drive with a regular floppy drive.

But I just thought I'd put it out there again and see if anyone here has some SE disk files first?

At 12:24 PM 2/8/2016, you wrote:

>Does anyone here have EMAX I SE HxC files they could either share with me or even sell to me?
>I've had this HxC reader installed for months now, and it seems like such a pain to convert these sample banks into HFE files that the HxC drive can use.

When you say "these sample banks", which ones are you speaking of, and why is it a hassle? What is the work you have to do to get them into the HFE format? 

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User

I thought someone loaded some into the group files section after the last round of discussion about this?

Although this reinforces my argument in support of SCSI.
The whole problem with Floppy was that on EVERY floppy, you have to have the OS.
So, if you change to a new OS version, you must load in the OS and then save it on every floppy.
HxC continues with that method, in that every “disk” image you make has to have that OS in there - the exact SAME OS.
To change it to something else (like the 4.0 OS to use EmuSer, or SE or NOT SE, etc) - same activity again.
So HxC - if you have 99 banks, you have to perform this activity 99 times.

SCSI- you load 1 OS on the HD / image (which holds 35 floppies), and you are done.

For SCSI, you would perform this operation 3 times for 3 HD/images for a total of 105 banks…
When you have an up and running hard disk / device which you booted from, you can take a disk with ANY OS on it, and load that bank in and SAVE that bank onto the HD if desired.
Since it is loading the OS from the Hard Disk, you don’t run into the problem of the version / sw mismatch from the disk.

But that’s just my opinion...


-T

On Feb 8, 2016, at 12:58 PM, Garth Hjelte garth@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

At 12:24 PM 2/8/2016, you wrote:

>Does anyone here have EMAX I SE HxC files they could either share with me or even sell to me?
>I've had this HxC reader installed for months now, and it seems like such a pain to convert these sample banks into HFE files that the HxC drive can use.

When you say "these sample banks", which ones are you speaking of, and why is it a hassle? What is the work you have to do to get them into the HFE format? 

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 04:42 PM 2/8/2016, you wrote:

>Although this reinforces my argument in support of SCSI.

I am getting a EMAX SE in, which has no SCSI.

>The whole problem with Floppy was that on EVERY floppy, you have to have the OS.
>So, if you change to a new OS version, you must load in the OS and then save it on every floppy.
>HxC continues with that method, in that every “disk” image you make has to have that OS in there - the exact SAME OS.

Why does each floppy HAVE TO have the same OS on it? Isn't the OS loading upon boot up only, and then it's irrelevant? Or does the EMAX work on a section-load basis - that is, if you need to use a DSP function, it has to load that OS section in? (In other words, the EMAX doesn't have enough system memory to hold the entire OS.) If the latter is true, you'd need/want the same OS on every disk because the right section could be loaded. If the OS was different, the new section would be incompatible. Is that correct? 

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User

Garth, 

Emax doesn’t have enough system memory to hold the complete OS, so it loads in the relevant module (section) of OS from disk when accessed….this is discussed in the guides.
So yes- the OS needs to be the same from disk to disk to disk.
But if you boot from Hard Disk, it KNOWS you booted from Hard Disk, and keeps pulling the OS section from there, not floppy.
If you stick in a floppy, it only loads or saves the bank information (unless you choose an OS write function from the menu, of course).

-T


On Feb 8, 2016, at 9:45 PM, Garth Hjelte garth@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

At 04:42 PM 2/8/2016, you wrote:

>Although this reinforces my argument in support of SCSI.

I am getting a EMAX SE in, which has no SCSI.

>The whole problem with Floppy was that on EVERY floppy, you have to have the OS.
>So, if you change to a new OS version, you must load in the OS and then save it on every floppy.
>HxC continues with that method, in that every “disk” image you make has to have that OS in there - the exact SAME OS.

Why does each floppy HAVE TO have the same OS on it? Isn't the OS loading upon boot up only, and then it's irrelevant? Or does the EMAX work on a section-load basis - that is, if you need to use a DSP function, it has to load that OS section in? (In other words, the EMAX doesn't have enough system memory to hold the entire OS.) If the latter is true, you'd need/want the same OS on every disk because the right section could be loaded. If the OS was different, the new section would be incompatible. Is that correct? 

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 09:59 PM 2/8/2016, you wrote:

>Emax doesn’t have enough system memory to hold the complete OS, so it loads in the relevant module (section) of OS from disk when accessed….this is discussed in the guides.

OK, thanks. That's what I thought. The earlier Ensoniq's were like that too.

>So yes- the OS needs to be the same from disk to disk to disk.
>But if you boot from Hard Disk, it KNOWS you booted from Hard Disk, and keeps pulling the OS section from there, not floppy.
>If you stick in a floppy, it only loads or saves the bank information (unless you choose an OS write function from the menu, of course).

OK, thanks. I'll have to start including in our programs a bulk thing that standardizes the OS over many images. Shouldn't be difficult. We are in the last stages of writing and creating Emax I floppy images, mostly for the purpose of floppy emulator use. Chicken Systems programs read any Emax disk or image but doesn't currently write to them.

Lastly, we have a Emax SE here. They didn't come with SCSI (the SE Plus did). I see posts here going back to 2010 about a 3rd-party SCSI. Is it available, do most Emax I people use them, and how useful is it because as I understand the Emax is only 0.5mb as most? (SCSI is fast and fun but if you only have half-a-meg it devalues SCSI quite a bit.)  

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User

Garth-

I have the binaries (from Emu) for SCSI and recreated the chipset to install SCSI on the REV2 / REV3 board.
It is available.

It is 20MB drive size and holds 35 full disk banks per target (SCSI ID #) with a total of 6 possible connected drives.
With PLUS OS, the transpose key switches between SCSI target #.

All 35 banks from each target are available from the Emax menu for load / save.
It�s not hot swap (Emax limitation, not the drive limitation), but I have a 2 slot (target not LUN based) MicroTech drive, so I have 70 banks (+1 floppy).
I can copy from 1 target (PC card slot) to another to make a backup of the full 35 banks without power off, etc.

I also still have slim floppy in there, because diagnostics, etc run off floppy...

Regards,
Ted


On Feb 11, 2016, at 10:08 AM, Garth Hjelte garth@chickensys.com [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

At 09:59 PM 2/8/2016, you wrote:

>Emax doesn’t have enough system memory to hold the complete OS, so it loads in the relevant module (section) of OS from disk when accessed….this is discussed in the guides.

OK, thanks. That's what I thought. The earlier Ensoniq's were like that too.

>So yes- the OS needs to be the same from disk to disk to disk.
>But if you boot from Hard Disk, it KNOWS you booted from Hard Disk, and keeps pulling the OS section from there, not floppy.
>If you stick in a floppy, it only loads or saves the bank information (unless you choose an OS write function from the menu, of course).

OK, thanks. I'll have to start including in our programs a bulk thing that standardizes the OS over many images. Shouldn't be difficult. We are in the last stages of writing and creating Emax I floppy images, mostly for the purpose of floppy emulator use. Chicken Systems programs read any Emax disk or image but doesn't currently write to them.

Lastly, we have a Emax SE here. They didn't come with SCSI (the SE Plus did). I see posts here going back to 2010 about a 3rd-party SCSI. Is it available, do most Emax I people use them, and how useful is it because as I understand the Emax is only 0.5mb as most? (SCSI is fast and fun but if you only have half-a-meg it devalues SCSI quite a bit.)  

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 12:50 PM 2/11/2016, you wrote:

>I have the binaries (from Emu) for SCSI and recreated the chipset to install SCSI on the REV2 / REV3 board. It is available.

Where and how? 

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User

>> How? 
Rob from Emulator Archive got the binaries through an agreement with E-mu Systems, but found he was unable to use them. 
The files were in a proprietary format.
(likely they gave the files to him with the expectation he would never get them to work, and my understanding is the agreement clearly said not to expect any support from Emu regards the legacy product).

As I was querying him a couple times a year, and explained I was more than happy to do testing, or work on the issue (and had resources towards that end), he gave the files to me.
I was able to get the files converted from proprietary format to a useable format and burn the SCSI TIM PAL chips (this required buying an expensive EPROM programmer with the proper PAL support).
I asked Rob if he wanted any compensation for getting the binaries, which he declined.

(with the understanding that if I got the SCSI to work, an expectation that the kit be a reasonable / fair price, which I believe it is at (currently) $57.50 USD + shipping)

I had a non-SCSI Emax which was my first test unit. It worked as expected after modification following the factory instructions. Since - I have sold at least 50 kits over the course of last 8 years or thereabouts.

>> Where?
I don’t understand this part of the question? I’m located in the US?

Further information is explained in the Yahoo! Emax User’s Group FAQ, on my wordpress site.

https://djtbs1.wordpress.com/


Regards,
Ted Summers
Co-Moderator / FAQ Owner



On Feb 11, 2016, at 2:16 PM, Garth Hjelte garth@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

At 12:50 PM 2/11/2016, you wrote:

>I have the binaries (from Emu) for SCSI and recreated the chipset to install SCSI on the REV2 / REV3 board. It is available.

Where and how? 

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Are you looking for this ? :http://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/QuickInstall_FloppyDiskImages.zip
 

    On Monday, February 8, 2016 9:24 PM, "synthbay@... [emax]" <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 

     Does anyone here have EMAX I SE HxC files they could either share with me or even sell to me?
I've had this HxC reader installed for months now, and it seems like such a pain to convert these sample banks into HFE files that the HxC drive can use. I still don't have any SE OS disk files in HFE to try, months after installing the emulator drive, and I'm now leaning towards replacing the HxC drive with a regular floppy drive. 
But I just thought I'd put it out there again and see if anyone here has some SE disk files first?