Akai S950

[andyfox]

Hello, thanks for your reply.
I did some tests but still, no luck.

Strange thing no1
I tried to unplug the cable from the drive and plug again it, apparently nothing changed.
Only one thing I noted after replug of power cable:
before, the drive did not load properly and I got only black squares on the HxC LCD.
Now it apparently is working...

Strange thing no2 is:
before the tech intervention, as soon as I switched on the Akai S950, it started loading the HFE (floppy) and all the samples.
Now, nothing happens.

When I try to load ANY .hfe image, I get the same result:
"OOPS! Disk in unprepared, you must FORMAT it....."

I tried formatting the HFE, formatting goes smoothly.
When I try to reload the same disk I format, same result: "OOPS! Disk in unprepared, you must FORMAT it....."

I am also using the disks downloaded from HxC official website.
A real nightmare.

Anybody has an idea?

Andy

[Jeff]

Hello, thanks for your reply.
I did some tests but still, no luck.

Strange thing no1
I tried to unplug the cable from the drive and plug again it, apparently nothing changed.
Only one thing I noted after replug of power cable:
before, the drive did not load properly and I got only black squares on the HxC LCD.
Now it apparently is working...

Nothing strange to me : The power cable connector is/was bad/oxidized.

Strange thing no2 is:
before the tech intervention, as soon as I switched on the Akai S950, it started loading the HFE (floppy) and all the samples.
Now, nothing happens.

When I try to load ANY .hfe image, I get the same result:
"OOPS! Disk in unprepared, you must FORMAT it....."

I tried formatting the HFE, formatting goes smoothly.
When I try to reload the same disk I format, same result: "OOPS! Disk in unprepared, you must FORMAT it....."

I am also using the disks downloaded from HxC official website.
A real nightmare.

Anybody has an idea?

Andy

Are you sure that your power supply was serviced / replaced ? Can you check the +5v voltage ?
Is your HxC "modded" with the additional resistor ?

[andyfox]

Hello Jeff, thanks for reply and sorry for the late.
Yes the HxC is modded with the right transistor.
I am going to have my Akai S950 checked again for the right voltage and will post here the results.
Maybe the "new" (in reality old, since I changed it years ago..) LED display in my AKAI is taking too much energy from the PSU?

Thanks
Andy

[hima]

Hi, I can't seem to find a guideline on installation. Does such a thing exist? I can't solder so I'm trying to get a sense of how easy this is to complete...

[lasscimmiabeat]

Finally I was able to make some floppy dumps. Sorry for the delay.
They can be downloaded here: http://jandoe.de/akai_s950_floppy_dumps.zip

regards
Jan

hi jan the link are broken please re-up
tnx man..

[DerekvanBeelen]

Hi All,

I also had to go through the whole run. Didnt got the disk working for 4 years.
In the end the cable on the emulator was the other way around...

But still a problem:
Now I can enter the Disk Menu on the Akai. But when I try to save a program it mentions unformatted.
The latest firmware is installed and on the SD Card are the HXCSDFE.CFG and the DSKA0000.hfe files.

I checked the SD Card, it is in (Ms Dos) FAT 32. But still same Unformatted error.
Then I tried to format the card on the S950 in the disk menu but then the error is Unlock the Sd card even though it's unlocked.

Any idea's what I can do to save on the SD card for the first time????

btw; The Emulator is akai resistor modded.

[Jeff]

Hi All,

I also had to go through the whole run. Didnt got the disk working for 4 years.
In the end the cable on the emulator was the other way around...

But still a problem:
Now I can enter the Disk Menu on the Akai. But when I try to save a program it mentions unformatted.
The latest firmware is installed and on the SD Card are the HXCSDFE.CFG and the DSKA0000.hfe files.

I checked the SD Card, it is in (Ms Dos) FAT 32. But still same Unformatted error.
Then I tried to format the card on the S950 in the disk menu but then the error is Unlock the Sd card even though it's unlocked.

Any idea's what I can do to save on the SD card for the first time????

btw; The Emulator is akai resistor modded.

Use the Akai zip content :
https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... Images.zip

And check that the ribbon is correctly connected.

[73volts]

Hello
I just bought a hxc rev f emulator, I mounted it in a s950 it's ok. I formatted a 32go sandisk sd card on my mac mini in MS-DOS (FAT) = FAT32. then I pasted the .hfe and .cfg files from the QuickInstall_FloppyDiskImages folder (https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... Images.zip)

after that I put the sd card in the sampler but what to do ??
the hxc display shows dska0000.hfe and below T: 000/080 S: 0
When I go to disk of the sampler I can't do anything, I want to save a sound it tells me disk unprepared you must format it, but when I go to format disk it format but nothing more happens afterwards.
do you know a clear procedure for recording sounds from s950 to hxc?
thanks

[Jeff]

Should work "out the box" with the quick install images. Is the switch number 1 (ID0-A) turned to ON ?

[73volts]

Sorry for the late response but it works.

One thing is strange : why the names I give in the s 950 do not appear on the screen of the hxc.
it appears just :
dska0001.HFE
T:007/080 S : 0

Thanks

[marfemarf]

How do you mount the rev f in the 950 with screws? It keeps falling inside. Not good. The screw holes don't match the old floppy drive location.

[andyfox]

Hello guys,
I am here again almost years later...
Still trying to find a solution with the AKAI S950 and HXC.
This is a recap of the actual situation:

**2019**
The AKAI stopped working while loading disk images. Saying "disk is not formatted" and sometime making a long low weird noise while powering up. Black squares shown on the display of the HXC.

**2020**
I had to move in another studio.
While transporting the AKAI, probably some connection and weak tinnings made my AKAI to not power up anymore...

**2021** - NOW
DAY 1
AKAI is back from being serviced, PSU is OK, AKAI now powers up. Service is saying no power suppy problems.
Apparently everything was working!
BUT.. I am stuck with the same problem I had in 2019: loading disks is not working.
Even loading the given disks in the ZIP format for the AKAI S950 returns a "Disk must be formatted".
Loading old HFE with my sounds is not working also.

DAY2
I can format an HFE, I can appartently save a new sample on the just formatted image, but it doesn't work.
No saving. No sample name is being saved. I also don't hear any sound while saving.

DAY3
I tried to remove the 4pin cable from the PSU and from the HXC, an reconnect it on both sides.
Suddenly: back on the old problem in 2019! That is: powering up the unit, the drive is displaying only a line of black "squares".
No beep, just a long weird low buzzing sound.

Any idea?
Is it the cable?
Maybe the drive is broken?

Thanks for your help
Andy

[Jeff]

DAY3
I tried to remove the 4pin cable from the PSU and from the HXC, an reconnect it on both sides.
Suddenly: back on the old problem in 2019! That is: powering up the unit, the drive is displaying only a line of black "squares".
No beep, just a long weird low buzzing sound.

Any idea?
Is it the cable?

If the power supply is under 4.5V the HxC stay in reset state, that's why you have the famous line of black "squares" on the LCD.
( This is a firmware/"software" setting - but i don't like the idea to hide power supply issues ).
So you definitively have a power supply or bad wiring issue. Try to clean the connectors contacts.

EDIT: Reading again your issues, it appears that this machine need a serious restoration.

EDIT 2: Attached the latest firmware version with the Brown Out Reset disabled. You need to power the emulator with a working power supply to do this update.

hxcfe_V1_8_8_2a_NOBOR.upd

(60 KiB) Downloaded 378 times

[andyfox]

Hello, thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately at this time, still no luck.

After 2 years, still no luck reading HFE images I've always been reading and creating.
Images starts loading, then "OOPS! Bad data from disk" appears.

What I did until now:

- fixed the issue of "reset state" (some traces were broken): no more black squares on the LCD.
- changed the floppy internal cable to the HXC
- changed SD Card

On the other hand firmware update is not working (hxcfe_V1_8_8_2a_NOBOR.upd)
Formatted SD Card, copied the file.
Powering up the machine with both right+left returns black square and fast pulsing of the red leds?
As soon as I release, firmware is still the old production one HXCFE_V1_8_2_40
HxC floppy drive emulator is from 2014, could this be a problem?

At this point, I think I am going to replace the HXC with the old AKAI original floppy drive and do some tests with floppy disks.
If it's working, It will for sure be a problem of the HXC unit.

Thanks
Andy

[Jeff]

I am pretty sure that your HxC has no problem. Your machine appears to be in pretty bad state : moving the cables seems to give different results caused by some bad contacts.
If possible try to power the HxC with something else.

To update the firmware you need to format the sdcard in FAT32 and only have the upd file into the root folder.

EDIT : BTW do you have the "akai mod" resistor installed on this SD HxC ? it was only installed on demand in 2014. Can you share a picture of the hxc pcb ?