Casio FZ1

[Robber1956]

FZ10m rockets sky high!

335 GBP with 6 hours to go.

Put a HxC Rev F floppy emulator inside and you'll have a awesome sampler. Only thing is, how to get all these floppy's converted?

(LCD looks good )

(some time later, no new posting but just an edit):


OMG!!! 440 GBP, they've gone crazy!
The seller must already be very happy by now.
3 more hours to go, this is like the cup final.

Countdown 30 seconds...

29-jul-15 20:28:57 CEST

465 GBP!!!

Well done, enjoy your FZ10m. Need any advice or fz samples, visit us here on Vintage Synth Explorer.

[Robber1956]

Perhaps I should switch off the EL during normal use and when editing and transfering switch it on, modding an external switch somewhere to save lifetime. Don't like it though.

Okay, this is the idea. I will use the 'display' button to switch on/of the backlight foil. The display button is only used in combination with the value slider and only in the 'modify' mode to change contrast of the LCD (this has nothing to do with the backlight!).
To do so you have to keep the display button down (in the 'modify' modus) while moving the value slider up and down.
Can we use this button also for alternately switching on/off the EL panel by just pressing the display button once and still be able to change contrast if we keep the display button down? That would be great.

How to do this?
I don't know, but I can imagine that pushing the display button should trigger another on/off switch which is situated between the wires that carry the currecy to make the EL panel glow. These wires carry as I understood quite a high voltage (about 90 volts if I'm correct) so the on/off switch must be able to handle this.
Also when starting the FZ up the EL panel switch preferably has to be in the 'on' mode but this is not necessary.
Can this be done? Is this an "arduino" thing? What are the consequences when you keep the display button down while altering the contrast? Anybody?

[madtheory]

I've just bought an FZ-1. I found HFE images for the HxC emulator on the Casio Collectors Yahoo Group. Our own gmeredith made them, so it saves us all a lot of time

https://au.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ ... =241350895

They seem very small, but it says it's the "factory library"? Can't wait to try them out

Has anyone built a RAM expansion for the FZ? There's a schematic here for SIMMS:
http://www.buchty.net/casio/fz1-simm.html

[Specialjustin]

Hi, i did originally post this on the FZ user group but it seems to be dead...

Hi, I've got an FZ20 that i just replaced the backlight (original was still ok'ish, so the sampler has not had that much use) for a clearer white foil. Everything appears to working fine for now...

Next I would like to get the SCSI working but in the past, on another FZ20 i never had any luck even with the help of a guy called Chris Strellis (http://www.strellis.co.uk/), he's a great guy. But unfortunately no matter what i did, it was always false starts and/or disk errors, lots of oh oooh ahhh maybe... fail! The drives i used were a Bernoulli 44mb drive and a Syquest drive from the same period. The drives were said to be fine appeared to make the "right" noises, but alas nothing worked. They are now long gone as i thought it was just doomed. I now regret that, but did try everything even voodoo!

Sooo, is there a more modern/reliable solution or is the SCSI just a bit broken on the 20m?

Cheers for any input.

[madtheory]

Hxc floppy emulator is the way to go I think.

[Specialjustin]

Hxc floppy emulator is the way to go I think.

Is the Hxc compatible with SCSI or is just a floppy emulator?
Also is the speed of the Hxc any faster read/writes than standard floppy? I suspect the floppy controller is speed limited, but the HXc might be a bit swifter?

[ahaigh01]

I still haven't fitted my FZ with an HxC but I plan to soon. I just got finished restoring my Emulator II with and HxC and PSU so that has been taking up my time.

The HxC is not SCSI, just floppy. Speeds will be the same as a real floppy, unfortunately. The HxC has the advantage of very large amounts of storage compared to a SCSI drive connected to the FZ-20M. But the SCSI drive can load and save in a few seconds compared to floppy. The FZ-20M was only capable of using a few Mac harddrives from that era. I think only the 20-80 meg drives if I remember correctly.

Yes, Chris Strellis has a video on youtube using a FZ-20M with a Bernoulli 44mb. Seems to work well. I have tried connecting a SyQuest 44mb drive to my FZ-20M - it sees the drive but fails when trying to format the disk. So I have never gotten a SCSI drive to work on mine because I don't have a suitable drive.

This SD SCSI drive replacement is supposed to be compatible with the FZ-20M, but I have never known of anyone who had one. I would love to try it out...

http://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index. ... le=SCSI2SD

[Specialjustin]

Thanks for the reply Ahaigh01!

I suspected the speed would be limited with HxC.

I have seen that page about the sd scsi

"Casio FZ-20M Requires TERMPWR jumper. The manual shows the pin25 of the DB25 connector is "not connected".
May require scsi2sd-config --apple flag "

But don't really understand if it works, nearly works or just works in theory. Would like to try it out also, is it pricey?

It was the video of Chris using the Bernoulli drive that got me trying and failing in the same way you did. Always felt it wanted to work but never did.. But Chris is a top chap none the less!

Cheers

[Crystal20]

Your one post has given me more information than the entire 8-bit collective forums! Thank-you for all the information and all the links. As long as the sampler doesn't suffer from technical problems relating to the actual computer components then I know a local techie who can fix old synths like this in his sleep (and for cheap). The other day I was thinking of buying a mirage (a local shop has one for £100), if you say the FZ1 goes for around the same price then I'm gonna ring up the shop and tell them I'm no longer interested in the mirage. The weight of the keyboard isn't a problem (apparently 17.5KG), my stand can cope with up-to 27 on the bottom tier so I'll just move my other synths up the stand and dump my DX9 in a wardrobe (I guess I could keep it as a sound module).

Thanks again for all the information! You've been a great help!

[miserablism]

So, I've just found out my FZ-1 has a quirk which honestly makes using it pretty frustrating, tbh. I noticed that if it's turned on long enough it starts corrupting samples, gradually adding more and more crackling sounds. Also, when I use the mix write option it does the same thing straightaway - both the original samples and the mix get dirty. I figured it can't be the outputs since the synth section works just fine, also the inputs also should be ok since there's nothing wrong with the samples in the beginning. Could it be connected in any way to the LCD screen/backlight dying? That's the only reasonable reason i managed to semi-find. Did any of you come across such issues and did you get rid of them?

[madtheory]

My guess is there's a problem with power supply to RAM. Check capacitors, including any used for grounding. I say this because apparently a trick with the rack is to turn power off and back on quickly to deliberately corrupt the RAM, and get weird distortion. I think the keyboard has a different switch so it's not possible. But it's the first thing I'm trying when K finally pick mine up!

[Baus]

Hi all,

I am trying out the FZ-1 and it's awesome.

What I would like to do is send single cycle waves from the computer to the FZ-1. I used 'File Ex' in Windows XP and was able to convert the .wav to .fzv Sending it to the FZ-1 using this program I keep getting a MIDI-IN Timeout error.

So, I tried the same thing using FZ Transfer and suprisingly it worked....but....just once! After that I keep getting a 'Data Error' message in the FZ-1 or a MIDI-IN Timeout error in FZTransfer, just like in File eX.

Besides the option of the 25-pin cable of course am I overlooking something?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Robin.

[gmeredith]

What MIDI adapter are you using? A USB-MIDI one or a MIDI port from an internal sound card/break-out box? I had a lot of trouble with timeouts as I recall on a lot of equipment when I used to try sending from my MIDI port on my sound card. Using a USB-MIDI adapter (Edirol UM1-EX) fixed that I think for me.

[Baus]

I hoped you would notice my post Graham. Thanks.

I am using Windows XP with a Roland Super MPU-64 USB Midi Interface which usually works flawlessly with my vintage gear. I use it to send .wav over Midi to the EPS-16 Plus for instance....no problem.

Like I wrote... it worked once. That's what irritates me now...haha. I think "if it worked once it should work twice and more".

If there is a program (like Omniflop) that I can use to write floppies that would be okay too for the moment but to my knowledge that does not exist for the FZ-1... at least not in Windows (XP).

Robin.

[gmeredith]

I wish I still had my FZ working, I could try it out for you - it died on me a few weeks ago