HxC SDcard on Emulator II

[HideawayStudio]

It's been some time since I've been this impressed with a retrofit....

I've just fitted an HxC Floppy Disk Drive Emulator (SDcard version) to my old Emulator II and it's utterly brilliant!!

Installation is pretty simple. You need the 3.5" form factor SDcard version of the Rev.F HxC available here:

http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=42

You also need a black 5.25 to 3.5" drive bay adaptor and a 34 way IDC socket suitable for a 3.5" drive.

And a suitable 3.5" floppy drive power Y-lead eg:

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/29073616 ... adtype=pla

Basically you remove the top 5.25" drive. Fit the 34 way IDC plug to the existing ribbon cable. Fit the HxC in the drive bay adaptor and screw it in place of the original floppy drive. Make sure the HxC is set to ID0A & B and set the jumper on the remaining 5.25" drive to drive 2. Plug the power into the Y-lead to both drives.

Format an SDcard in FAT32 on your PC, run the HxCFloppyEmulator program to generate a config file and download the EOS file image for a blank disk with OS from the EMXP website - emuiios31.hfe and copy it to the SDcard.

You can insert the card into the HxC and the EII will boot up off of it. You can configure the drive to boot from the floppy image of your choice.

The really cool aspect of this retrofit is that it supports both read and write which means you can load up your favourite floppies on the remaining floppy drive and copy them over to disk images on the HxC.

I've spent this afternoon doing just this and now I can take the SDcard out, place it in my PC, and simply copy all of the virtual disks over to back them up - Brilliant!!

[dblondin]

I have the same one, it's great. I have a switch installed to select between the HxC drive B or the physical drive B. It seems to work well switching between them while powered on. I haven't downloaded the latest update - it looks like there have been some big improvements to the firmware this month.

[madtheory]

That's cool. Once you've booted from the card can you then select different disc images to load from the card, without rebooting?

[HideawayStudio]

That's cool. Once you've booted from the card can you then select different disc images to load from the card, without rebooting?

Yes, there are up and down buttons that allow you to select the disk image of your choice and then you hit the select button - this is the equivalent of placing another floppy in the drive and then you hit the load bank button just as you would normally - it's a beautifully transparent and easy to use system.

[walkathon]

Been loving seeing HxC readers bring a lot of gear back to life. Thx for sharing! Slowly starting to kick myself on passing on that cheap-ish E-II last month ....

[madtheory]

Apparently this device doesn't work on a Fairlight II. Dan have you any interest in that particular beast?

[HideawayStudio]

Apparently this device doesn't work on a Fairlight II. Dan have you any interest in that particular beast?

Err, yes, actually Series II support is being worked on - I only heard from Jean-François on this subject the other day.

I believe they've managed to make it work read only to date but they seem pretty confident it will work both read and write.

With the aid of Kryoflux the 8" disks can already be read as images. I am probably going to invest in this technology too.

HxC does work with the Prophet 2000 - I really want to also fit one to my Prophet 2002.... that would transform the old beast!

[madtheory]

That's fantastic news. There are disc images on the Fairlight US site. Very cool.

[Sir Ruff]

I am seriously thinking that doing this to my SP-1200 is the only way to go... The concept of trying to remember what disks I might have saved that sample to makes my brain hurt as-is.

[JMP]

Great info Dan. I must follow suit and know where to ask when stuck sorting it out !