Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hello, I recently installed a go-tek usb emulator on my casio wk-3500. I didn't use the floppy drive on it anyway, so even if it's the wrong one it doesn't matter to me. However, it does appear to be working, it has power going to it anyhow. Is there a certain type of usb I should use? Is there a media chip missing in the emulator I got? If there is a media chip missing, can I install one myself in the emulator? I was also wondering if I wanted to get a new preset tone, what kind of file is supported by my keyboard? Is there a way to convert fxp's to a supported file type? I'm sorry for all the questions I'll stop now. I've been trying to figure this out for a while. I just can't seem to find useful information. Thank you for all your help

 

Meg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

You may want to check Yahoo user groups for the Yamaha RM1X, Yamaha SY77 (UK forum in particular) the Ensoniq TS-12 and there may be others where users have installed the Gotek in these keyboards/modules. I haven't attempted it, but it can be done.

 

There unfortunately is no easy answer, but it seems from my research that there is a particular Gotek drive that must be used, there are 1-2 variations that won't work-the firmware has to be a certain kind as these were originally designed for older tech devices such as sewing machines!-not kidding. apparently there was some kind of sewing machine that used this floppy drive emulator.

 

There are also connection issues-the floppy connectors can look the same, but I recall a modification had to be made to get these to work in say an Ensoniq TS or Yamaha involving a jumper setting or wiring.  I think I recall a yamaha PSR user group also tried to replace the floppy drive in some of the PSR keyboards with the Gotek drive. I know this much because I'd considered this in several music keyboards  but was discouraged when I saw how difficult it seemed to be. And the drive must still use a partitioned USB thumb drive that if not partitioned exactly like the floppy disk structure in the music device, will not work.

 

I will look up some of my old links to tech user groups that have done this successfully, but with a Casio MZ2000, the information may or may not help. Even the so-called "compatible" drives you see on eBay aren't always. people who have gotten it to work say it is really beneficial if you have alot of data specific for the music machine, but the other drawback is that since the drive still sees the files as floppy disks-it is just as slow as the floppy-it will not access the data at the rates a thumb drive is capablr of. I could be wrong but i seem to remember that speedbump. I hope I've helped and not been too discouraging. wish it were easier, I'd have done this to at least 3 of my music keyboards/modules.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I have just found the solution after struggling with this for several years now and gave up after receiving an incompatible floppy emulator, wrongly shipped I think because I ordered the correct one. The correct emulator for the Casio CTK-811 is a Gotek SFRM144-U100K. However, the jumpers need to be installed before it will function correctly. Download the user manual from Gotek and you will see the jumper locations illustrated MO S1 S0 JB JC JA J5. The emulators is generally shipped with S1 in place and J5 parked on the common side bridging J5 & JA. Unpark that jumper and set it to the J5 active (parallel orientation with the S1 jumper). So now you should have S1 & J5 jumpers set. Pin 1 of the ribbon cable to the floppy drive has the RED stripe so make sure you get that right. The infuriating thing is that Gotek gives no indication whatsoever about the function of J5 as though it doesn't matter but it does matter - big time! Without J5 you will get the error message from the CTK-811 "ErrFormat". To load files to the stick and format it from a Windows 10 computer etc. in the correct floppy file structure, you can download free software from the German vendor "ipcas" Germany - English version available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/23/2017 at 5:16 PM, Meg said:

Hello, I recently installed a go-tek usb emulator on my casio wk-3500. I didn't use the floppy drive on it anyway, so even if it's the wrong one it doesn't matter to me. However, it does appear to be working, it has power going to it anyhow. Is there a certain type of usb I should use? Is there a media chip missing in the emulator I got? If there is a media chip missing, can I install one myself in the emulator? I was also wondering if I wanted to get a new preset tone, what kind of file is supported by my keyboard? Is there a way to convert fxp's to a supported file type? I'm sorry for all the questions I'll stop now. I've been trying to figure this out for a while. I just can't seem to find useful information. Thank you for all your help

 

Meg

my gotek works on a wk-1800 I wrote this  a while ago somewhere on under WK-1800 on page  

check the data cable  many   more keyboards you  have to  rotate the cable don't bother the notch  !

That's 1 thing what gives you a read / write error and also you need the usb software to format your usb-stick like  being a floppy disk   .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

Hi,

 

Sorry to dust off this old chesnut. Greg's tip above regarding the jumpers to use helped me to get my AP60R to read the usb I've formatted per the required floppy drive structure.

 

My issue is that if I change the floppy index on the emulator, the AP60R still references the filenames from the first disk read. This occurs whether I change whilst still in disk read mode, non-disk read mode, or even if I remove the usb drive completely and reinsert it and select a different floppy disk index.

 

The only way it will read current filenames from the disk I want to read is to remove the drive, turn the keyboard off and on again, reinsert the usb, select my desired disk index and then press the disk button on the AP60R.

 

Wondering if anyone else had this same experience and if a solution was found.

 

Cheers

 

K

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, I should have said, although it shows filenames from the disk it first read, it plays the file that is in the same position as the first read disk index.

 

E.g. First read disk - file 3 is Euryth~1

Try to read second disk, still shows Euryth~1 as file 3 but plays Evanes~1, which is the third file on the second disk.

Ta

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Xentaur said:

Sorry, I should have said, although it shows filenames from the disk it first read, it plays the file that is in the same position as the first read disk index.

 

E.g. First read disk - file 3 is Euryth~1

Try to read second disk, still shows Euryth~1 as file 3 but plays Evanes~1, which is the third file on the second disk.

Ta

Hello XENTAUR .    Yes is a known problem  you can't change to an other index/directory  unless you  reset /switch off/on  the power .

It is annoying  but the floppy system also used only  1 directory /index  I don't know of any fix for this  sorry  for that  .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I have several keyboards and tone modules/groove boxes with that floppy drive in them but I never bothered to replace the floppy with a USB floppy emu drive. Why? too much hassle. Now mind you, I have NEVER owned a CASIO product with a floppy disk drive in it other than the VZ1 which I sold almost the same week. As long as I can buy a replacement drive cheap and buy new floppies that are reliable, I am good. But I do understand the need for flash solid state more reliable storage media. The Floppy emulators require you to power down the instrument when changing virtual floppies sadly yes.. My friend bought a emulator for his Akai MPC200XL  instead of buying the SD card IDE drive instead. The Casio keyboards mentioned in this thread, do they have just a floppy drive or is there an SD card slot too? I imagine all you can save to floppy is midi file and registration info(no audio), so the files would be rather small. I normally just save an entire machine state to floppy as that reduces write cycles on the floppy disks. Now if you can, try and find a SD card slot floppy emulator instead. as you can still find old small SD cards floating around the net for cheap and thus you can use them as direct floppy replacements(32mb card as a 1.44mb floppy but flash drive instead of magnetic). Granted it is a waste of the other 30MB but heck, at least the SD cards will be robust, and last a lifetime! Just tossing ideas into the fire. Now, I am of the thought that if the instrument does not have the ability to have a higher capacity storage device in it(just a floppy drive), then I will be content with a RELIABLE substitute of said storage device(floppy). Examples would be the Casio models mentioned in this thread, Yamaha PSR-SQ16,YAMAHA SY77,YAMAHA RM1x,etc. Now the story changes if the Casio keyboard or other brand instrument has BOTH a floppy AND a high capacity storage option at the same time(Yamaha A4000/5000 sampler rack,AKAI MPC2000XL.KORG TRITON STUDIO,etc), then you need to either find reliable long life storage MEDIA for those instruments instead of trying to swap out the storage drive/slot, OR if the instrument has it, buy and install, the higher capacity device the instrument was designed to handle either externally or internally, but find a more reliable tech version of that(SCSI or IDE HDD but SSD versions). Some times trying to shoe horn high capacity workarounds for instruments who's OS and electronics was not designed for it is just asking for trouble. Sometimes...

Edited by pianokeyjoe
more to say
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...
  • 8 months later...

Would momentarily interrupting the power (+5v) to the drive after changing the USB stick cause the drive to re-read the USB stick and reset the directory contents? A small 'break' (NC) push-button alongside the drive could let the operator do that, perhaps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

i also have an ap-60r and have purchased the u110k version.  i have updated the pins for s1 and j5 but still receive the errformat error on the usb drives.  is there anything else that might be needed...

 

am i missing something on the format of the usb?  thanks in advance

 

i am using windows 11.  is there something i need to do for the formatting of the usb drive itself???

 

 

EDIT:  i was able to get the usb drive working.  it was all about the jumpers.  Now that its working, i have noticed that when i access a drive, i can play that list, but to go to another disk, i have to power cycle the piano and select that disk first.  there is no way, that i have found, to go between disks while actively using the piano

Edited by grandfinalemike
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.