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Home Forums Hardware, USB Emulators and Floppy Disk Drives emulators and floppy drives.

emulators and floppy drives.

I am interested in replacing the floppy drive in a KN1500 with an emulator. I was reading somewhere about someone doing it with a Gotek device. Does anyone have any information on that. I would appreciate knowing. Thanks, Sam

Viewing 1 to 12 (12 Total) emulators and floppy drives.
SAMBELL United States Total Posts: 4 Joined: August 23, 2016	I am interested in replacing the floppy drive in a KN1500 with an emulator. I was reading somewhere about someone doing it with a Gotek device. Does anyone have any information on that. I would appreciate knowing. Thanks, Sam Tags: Posted on August 30, 2016 at 6:48 PM
Display Messages: Threaded Flat 11 Replies
admin United Kingdom Total Posts: 1055 Joined: February 2, 2014	Re: emulators and floppy drives. Sam, For now, if you go to the top level of the forums (click on Forums in the main menu) and then use the Google search feature on that page for the words "Gotek" or "emulator" I think you'll find some good information. We'll be upgrading several of our keyboards to USB and SD Card readers in due course. I don't have the full information about that now but I'm hoping someone else will help you for now. I've added this forum so that we start to keep this info in one place. When we upgrade our keyboards (JD5live and me) we'll take photos and give full descriptions. This is a while away at the moment but it's something that we must do because dealing with as many floppy disks as I do is starting to become very difficult. I'm actually more than happy with the performance and reliability of floppy disks for just playing but as you can imagine I have literally hundreds of them to keep organised here, so I intend to do some upgrades as soon as it is affordable and time allows. Best wishes, Mike Posted on August 30, 2016 at 11:42 PM
SAMBELL United States Total Posts: 4 Joined: August 23, 2016	Re: emulators and floppy drives. Thanks for the response, Mike. I will find it and check it out. I have converted a KN2000 to using a SDcard using a HXc2001 emulator and I'm really pleased with it. I also have a KN1500 which I want to convert and I thought I'd use a USB drive with it. If I can help, let me know. Posted on August 31, 2016 at 2:13 PM
admin United Kingdom Total Posts: 1055 Joined: February 2, 2014	Re: emulators and floppy drives. Sam, I'm really interested to hear that because the HXc emulators are the ones I've been most interested in, especially the SD Card versions. I'm not sure which way to go. I have many keyboards and I could convert several of them to Gotec type emulators for the same price as a single HXc but from a convenience point of view I have MANY Sd Cards for KN7000 and I'm wondering whether I could store different versions of the same Styles on an SD Card to use in HXc SD Card emulators. From what I read so far, this would require some software to be written. The KN7000 could then access Styles in the normal way off the SD Card and the SD Card could be written to by (the new) software for all the other models. All of that sounds ideal but I'm starting to think that when costs and software writing are taken into account it would be simpler and cheaper to use the Gotec types. HXc looks really slick though. All of this is why I've been so hesitant to date. It is of further interest to me because I have a KN2000 with no working floppy disk. So any advice you can give will be appreciated. Many thanks, Mike Posted on September 1, 2016 at 12:13 AM
spencernj France Total Posts: 5 Joined: August 18, 2016	Re: emulators and floppy drives. I have written a short write up of fitting one to a KN6000 see here:http://technicskn7000.com/kn7000-forums/technics-kn6000-kn6500-foru... This may help if you have any questions please ask. I will do my best to answer. For information although I say I am using a pen drive, to avoid the USB "pen" sticking out too much I am actually using a USB holder for a micro SD card. So this allows you to use a micro SD card. It also works with a holder for a SD card and one I have for a Sony Memory Stick. I am using these because they are old and have less than 2Gb capacity and can be bought for pennies (or donated for nothing) and anything bigger than about 1.5Gb is pointless as the emulators do not use more than 1.5Gb. I attach below a picture of my KN6000 with a USB emulator fitted with a Micro SD card reader plugged into it. Attachments: 14079547_10205258787108090_3609572421526036162_n.jpg Posted on September 12, 2016 at 10:41 PM
dragon United Kingdom Total Posts: 2 Joined: September 19, 2016	Re: emulators and floppy drives. I and a friend have both purchased a Technics SM-AC1200 from a local Yamaha dealer. They cost us £50 each with all the cables included and in my case. several floppies of styles. I would love to convert mine to USB but at 86 years of age I am very wary of opening the instrument. Soldering would be no problem but I feel I would need some degree of guidance. I am in Nottingham. .. Fred Posted on September 29, 2016 at 12:36 PM
paulius55 United Kingdom Total Posts: 9 Joined: November 23, 2016	Re: emulators and floppy drives. I have fitted a Gotek USB floppy emulator to my KN5000. It did need the push-button modification, but this was a very simple job to do and the unit works very well indeed. Opening the keyboard and fitting the drive was really plug and play and it took more time to remove the screws than to replace the actual drive. Incidentally I have sourced a piece of Windows software that allows your PC to access all 100 virtual floppy drives and to format USB sticks as well. This makes the task of converting all of your floppy disks to USB very easy. Posted on February 2, 2017 at 10:40 PM
jd5live United Kingdom Total Posts: 360 Joined: June 8, 2014	Re: emulators and floppy drives. Paul,that is great news as we are getting a lot of members looking to convert to Emulators,mainly in the UK and US., the KN5000 I have here is Mike's (admin master) and has had the hard drive fitted,through Keyboards on loan and ones I own I can cover KN800 to KN7000, the main thing I have been doing is to take styles originally created on the KN800 through the step up process to enable them to be used all the way to the KN7000,some of these styles are quite nice and simple also when they were created there were also some special sound edits included, as daft as it sounds it can take near on half a day to transfer from model to model,because of fine tuning the balances etc. I hope to have the first 5 ready for models up to the KN5000 by Easter or there about. I also note you are in the UK where about are you I am based in the West Midlands. Regards John. Posted on February 2, 2017 at 11:13 PM
paulius55 United Kingdom Total Posts: 9 Joined: November 23, 2016	Re: emulators and floppy drives. Good morning John, I am in the East Midlands, in Northamptonshire actually. I see above that Dragon (Fred) was wanting to fit a USB emulator to his keyboard. I have family in Ilkeston, just a few miles from Nottingham, and travel up fairly frequently so if he needs help, or moral support I am willing to help. Posted on February 3, 2017 at 9:25 AM
llakefield United States Total Posts: 1 Joined: March 22, 2017	Re: Re: emulators and floppy drives. Hello, Would you please tell me the piece of Windows software that allows a PC to access floppy discs created on keyboards. I have many discs that I have written sequences on using a KORG i2. I would like to copy them and burn them to a CD to see if my KORG Pa2X would read them. Another reason to save them to CD is that I am concerned about loosing the data from the floppies. Perhaps this software would allow the discs to be copied and written onto new floppy discs as well for backups. I am also looking for a SY-FD20 floppy disc drive to install into a Technics SX PR-250. Thank you, LL Posted on March 23, 2017 at 6:05 PM
admin United Kingdom Total Posts: 1055 Joined: February 2, 2014	Re: emulators and floppy drives. Hi LL, Sorry I can't help you much regarding Korg keyboards as I've never played one. You don't need any special software to access Technics Styles on floppy disks, you just need a floppy drive in your computer or a USB floppy drive (but be sure to get one that reads 720k disks as well as 1.4mb disks). More info about that is available in the Help Menu. For an SY-FD20 you'll find it cheaper to get an older model Technics keyboard that already has one. Such as the KN1000. However, check that it actually has the SY-FD20 before buying it, not all KN1000s have them. The SY-FD20s usually sell for more than the cost of a KN1000. Best wishes, Mike Posted on March 26, 2017 at 8:27 PM
dragon United Kingdom Total Posts: 2 Joined: September 19, 2016	Re: emulators and floppy drives. Paulius. I have sent a PM. .. FRed Posted on April 24, 2017 at 7:10 PM