iPcas Floppy Drive Emulators

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Ketron Keyboards and Workstations

iPcas Floppy Drive Emulators

Postby Mike Bracchi » 03 Jul 2012 21:31

From this: Image To This: Image

KETRON SD 5 Keyboard: Floppy Disk Drive retrofitting – USB Floppy Emulator
Guest Post from an ipcas customer in Germany:
(Translated, original post in German language)



USB Floppy Emulator for KETRON SD 5
In older keyboards – e.g. in my KETRON SD 5, the input device is a floppy drive und the internal RAM memory is supplied with information by a floppy disk.
I would never replace my KETRON SD 5 with a modern keyboard however; the reason is the good quality.

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With the IPCAS USB floppy emulator for USB pen drives, the known disadvantages …
    Sensitive to mechanical wear and tear
    Problems with dust, oil and other adverse environmental conditions
    Malfunction due to permanent mechanical load
    Low memory capacity
… of conventional floppy disks, which anyway are hardly to buy, can be totally attributed to the past.

Most salient features:
    The old floppy disk drive is replaced 1:1. The connections are identical, so no further changes have to be made.
    The USB Stick at the USB Floppy Emulator replaces the old diskette entirely. USB memory components have long life spans and high capacities.
    The new USB floppy drives and USB memory components are practically immune to impacts from magnetic fields, dust or shock.
    The contents on 100 floppies can easily be placed on one single USB Stick. That saves a lot of time and costs!
To replace the equipment I’m proceeds as follows:

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    Opening the keyboard (screws located on the bottom)
    Slide back the panel of the keyboard
    Removal of the floppy disk drive (FDD)
    Detach of the data cable from the floppy drive controller
    Inserting a floppy controller computer cable to the floppy connector
    Connect this cable and the power supply cable (4-pin.) to the emulator.

Now the keyboard will switch on and the floppy drive (with inserted USB flash drive) are energize and the keyboard reports: not formatted.
After that, the format command must be executed according to the display information.
Then the emulator should set to 01 (with the Up button). The UP switching and formatting and will resist until 99.

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If the formatting performs, you play the songs on the respective place (00-99), then – start playing – as usual.
When the formatting is completed, copy the songs on the respective place (00-99). Afterwards, as usual, start the playback.
Mike Bracchi
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Re: iPcas Floppy Drive Emulators

Postby Mike Bracchi » 31 Oct 2012 11:45

Further details on the emulators ....

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Sorry about the quality of the screen shots :(

Direct Link to Ipcas GmbH: http://www.ipcas.com/products/usb-flopp ... o-udd.html
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Re: iPcas Floppy Drive Emulators

Postby Mike Bracchi » 31 Oct 2012 12:11

And there's more reading here :wink:

Storage options are growing day by day and eventually the floppy drives start floppy disks started to fade out. We now days have much more versatile options to replace floppy drive as source of data transfer in IT related equipments. From last so many years our company has been working for solutions related to data transfer. But ironically it was till few years back that the solution or commonly known as floppy to usb converters were designed to replace the floppy drives. These were specially fabricated and designed keeping in view the large number of customers of various fields who were still dependent on only and only floppy drives.

    These were customers from fields related to

    a) CNC machines ( Electronica, Sodick , Seib and Meyer)

    b) Plastic Molding Machines

    c) Robotics industry ( ABB / Kuka robots )

    d) Textiles industry ( Bonas, Grosse , Staubli )

    e) Embroidery machines ( Tajima, ZSK , SWF , Lasser , Saurer, Brother, Barudan )

    f) Wire Cutting ( Electronic etc)

    g) Diamond Cutting

    h) Music Industry (Yamaha Musical Keyboards and synthesizers , Korg , Roland, Tritron, Kerton etc)

And many other industrial applications.
These above mentioned customer are still largely dependent on old and vulnerable floppy drives. As these old machines have no options to upgrade them or otherwise the cost to upgrade costs more that the basic machines , there is Zero options left with these industrial customers to keep their dependency on these unreliable floppy drives. Floppy drives are still bread and butter for these machines. Adding to the grievances of these valuable industrial users the floppy drives have added another problem as they are no longer available in market in addition to its bad quality of bad media of floppy disk in the market.

The time to end of an era of floppy drives has now been announced with the invention of floppy to usb converters also referred to as floppy to usb emulators, floppy to usb simulators, floppy emulators and floppy drive emulators. Our team has really worked hard and given a serious thought in this marvelous invention. We have manufactured different versions of floppy to usb converters keeping in mind the needs of the industry. These floppy to usb converters have been designed so smartly that they use same traditional floppy drive 34 pin channels and same +5 volts dc voltage. The size of these floppy to usb converters was also kept same, so that it can fit into same place. These emulators have practically started the end of and old era related to floppy drives.

    Different Versions Offered

    · 1.44 mb floppy to usb converter , 34 pin Interface

    · 720 KB Double Density floppy disk to usb emulator, 34 pin Interface

    · 1.2 mb floppy to usb upgrade, 34 pin Interface

    · 1.44 mb floppy to usb converter , 26 Ziff Interface

Why to upgrade the Floppy drive with Floppy Drive to USB converter?

USB Disk Drive is more powerful than the old floppy disk drive, is replaced 1:1. It is designed to replace traditional floppy drive equipped on all types of device, enable to transfer data from a USB flash driver and ensure a more convenient and efficient data storage and transferring drive. With the use of our floppy to usb emulators there will be no more wastage of precious time and resources. There is 100% satisfaction as this a reliable and long term solution which offers a error free data migration process.

· Floppy Disc Drive to USB converters have long life spans and can handle high capacities. It is more efficient data storage and transferring drive. It is compatible all kind of devices which are equipped with floppy drives.

· Floppy Disk Drive to USB emulators are practically immune to impacts from magnetic fields, dust or shock. It’s simple, easy, and fast to install floppy to usb emulator stick in the existing location of the original floppy drive.

· Floppy to USB converter are easy and convenient to use. They can atleast store and manage 100 floppies on a single USB flash disc.

    Disadvantages of Floppy Disk Drives

    · Floppy disk is not durable

    · Hardly available to retailer anymore

    · Can be destroyed by magnetic field due to dust and dirt

    · Access time of floppy disk is slow

    · Storage capacity of floppy disk is limited

Features of Floppy Drive to USB Magic Box :

For every one floppy disk drive users need one Simulator. The unit has been fabricated in such a way that all the connections are same ( data and power ), even the physical size of the emulator has been kept same. So no customization needs to be done on replacing the Floppy drive to USB upgrade unit.
The Floppy disc to USB emulator when installed in any equipment , atleast is capable of storing data worth 100 Floppy Disk.
This Floppy Disk to usb converter and Pen drives are almost resistant rather immune to issues created from magnetic field, climatic environment or shocks.
A simple application is also provided at Zero of cost on purchase of floppy disk to usb converter which assists in formatting a USB Pen drive into 100 blocks of 1.44/1.2/720 kb capacity each or as per user requirements. This application is must to create boot function work , which is must must requirement in many industrial machines.

Source: GoteK Corp India @ http://www.gotek.in/index.html
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Re: iPcas Floppy Drive Emulators

Postby Mike Bracchi » 20 Nov 2012 12:55



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Re: iPcas Floppy Drive Emulators

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