ALESIS DataDisk SQ

HxC Floppy emulator support for all others Keyboards/Samplers...
Jeff
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by Jeff »

No, probably not. (All appears to be fine according to the server log)

But what is displayed on the emulator with and without the usb stick ?

Have you set the right S0 jumper ? (and removed all others)
Is the floppy ribbon connected to the right way ?
cyberzach
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by cyberzach »

Jeff, on the display with no usb it shows HXC. The only jumper I have on it is on the SO connection the ribbon cable is connected the same as it is on my other unit also I swapped the new non working drive and put it in the data disk unit that had the gotek that you helped me program and it does not work there either, it just keeps giving me the same disk unreadable or not formatted message on the screen of alesis data disk and if I let it format the drive it still comes back with disk unreadable message is it possible I just have a bad drive or is there something else I should try? Thanks, Zach
cyberzach
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by cyberzach »

Jeff, sorry never mind, sorry to waste your time, it was complete user error. I updated with the wrong firmware I used HXCFEUSB_V3_1_23_1a firmware instead of the HXCFEUSB_V3_1_37_1a firmware, one I updated with the HXCFEUSB_V3_1_37_1a firmware it worked flawlessly Thanks again for all your help, and I love your product its a real gem. Thanks, Zach
luxvolcon
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by luxvolcon »

Hello all.

I just want to report a new successful Alesis DataDisk upgrade with the USB Gotek Emulator HxC Firmware Installed. YAY ! :mrgreen:

Just a few notes i'd like to share with anyone interested :

1. There were a few attempts to get the Gotek to Start actually receiving the Firmware from the Server Access. Maybe user error, but I did follow all instructions. It worked on fourth attempt.

2. The Gotek drive I purchased is a 750kb version. I'm not sure if this did/will make any difference, but before I tried this whole upgrade thing, the drive could see the USB stick, but not actually write anything to it. Now with the HxC Firmware , the DataDisk is reading and writing MIDI and Sequence DATA like a boss.

3. The 2 (successfully working) USB thumb drives I am currently using are both formatted to FAT. 12 or 16 I cannot tell, BUT FAT32 Definitely does NOT work. I cannot explain this, and I have used multiple thumb drives to experiment with, formatted on PCs AND Macs.

4. Upon Booting : The DataDisk will eventually read the USB drives, with a little coercion. Tapping the INFO button, or SEND button on the DD usually gets it to see the USB drive. After that the file exchange is seamless.

5. Setting the jumper on the Gotek to MO was critical. No other jumper required (aside from when programming).

Kind regards, and best of luck. A big thanks to Jeff for responding so quickly to my Paypal purchase at the HxC Store.

Damian.
Jeff
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by Jeff »

Some comments :
luxvolcon wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:07 am 2. The Gotek drive I purchased is a 750kb version. I'm not sure if this did/will make any difference, but before I tried this whole upgrade thing, the drive could see the USB stick, but not actually write anything to it. Now with the HxC Firmware , the DataDisk is reading and writing MIDI and Sequence DATA like a boss.
Any Gotek does the same job (1.44MB or 720KB version)
luxvolcon wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:07 am 3. The 2 (successfully working) USB thumb drives I am currently using are both formatted to FAT. 12 or 16 I cannot tell, BUT FAT32 Definitely does NOT work. I cannot explain this, and I have used multiple thumb drives to experiment with, formatted on PCs AND Macs.
This is quite odd. What is the error exactly with the FAT32 ? Which USB stick are you using (size?) ?
luxvolcon wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:07 am 4. Upon Booting : The DataDisk will eventually read the USB drives, with a little coercion. Tapping the INFO button, or SEND button on the DD usually gets it to see the USB drive. After that the file exchange is seamless.
I have changed the mount delay in the latest versions, maybe i need to reduce this delay. Try to update to the v3.3.8.2a to confirm or not if this solve this issue.
luxvolcon wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:07 am 5. Setting the jumper on the Gotek to MO was critical. No other jumper required (aside from when programming).
This is odd too : S0 should be the right setting and your 4. issue is probably related to this too.
Which files are you using on your stick ?
luxvolcon wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:07 am Kind regards, and best of luck. A big thanks to Jeff for responding so quickly to my Paypal purchase at the HxC Store.

Damian.
Thanks. This was a RasberryPi who responded you ! :D
luxvolcon
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by luxvolcon »

Hi Jeff.

With regards to the FAT32 format, I found it odd, and it could be down to the type of USB drive I am using.

The only successful ones are also only 128mb in size, as I have had no success with anything 4GB or higher. I aim to purchase a few 1 or 2 GB drives to see if any changes in formatting success rate. I do also have a suspicion that the test USB sticks I was using have been 'over'-formatted, giving me bugs?

The error I get is a 03 Flashing code, which I read to be a FAT error, correct?

With regards to jumper setting of MO (?), this setting was the only one that worked, perhaps with a few other jumpers adjacent to it, but I let this one stay as I got consistent results. Perhaps I can go back when I open it up to put in the OLED, and try your suggestions of SO setting.

I'm happy with the settings as they are, and if the drive access delay work-around gets too much for me, then I will try your v3.3.8.2a suggestion.

I must admit, I'm more than happy getting the DataDisk pimped, as it has been a tireless workhorse since I bought it in 1991, and has been faithful at many gigs playing back my MIDI compositions, and storing my vintage synth patches.

Thanks again for a prompt reply.

I hope to post some pics on the forum and / or Facebook page once the Gotek OLED, and my new LCD display screen is in. :)
AMSynths
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by AMSynths »

Hi, I recently installed a Gotek into my £25 DataDisk and have it working well. It needs a custom firmware file with the specs as outlined at the top of the post, and Shugart drive must be stated. The Gotek needs the external 5V power to work properly and I have MO and DS0 set. Works like a dream now. Rob
AdrianM45
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by AdrianM45 »

Hello

I recently purchased Oled version of Gotek for my DiskDrive.
It originally came with FlashFloppy+ which I successfully updated to newest version of HxC.
I’ve done everything as instructed but for some
Reason when I format usb with DD it formats it and after formatting all the slots it asks to format again and when I skip to info it says “Disk Unreadable”.
I renamed “indexed” file and have tried both 720 and 1.44 with the same outcome.
I’ve changed to Shugart in the settings as I’ve seen that in this thread but I don’t know if it matters or not.

So can anyone point me out what can be wrong? I might try different USB maybe? Or start the whole process again?
Jeff
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by Jeff »

AdrianM45 wrote: Sat Aug 03, 2024 8:31 am Reason when I format usb with DD it formats it and after formatting all the slots it asks to format again and when I skip to info it says “Disk Unreadable”.
Hello,

Which images are you trying to format ?

This should work :
Jeff wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:35 pm Format the usb stick in FAT32.

Then unpack the SDHxCFE_PC_720KB.zip present into the following zip to the root of the usb stick, rename HXCSDFE.CFG-indexed to HXCSDFE.CFG and reformat the image with the Alesis Datadisk :

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... Images.zip

AdrianM45 wrote: Sat Aug 03, 2024 8:31 am I’ve changed to Shugart in the settings as I’ve seen that in this thread but I don’t know if it matters or not.
switch back to the default setting ("from hfe" if i remember correctly)
AdrianM45
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by AdrianM45 »

Jeff wrote: Sat Aug 03, 2024 2:14 pm
AdrianM45 wrote: Sat Aug 03, 2024 8:31 am Reason when I format usb with DD it formats it and after formatting all the slots it asks to format again and when I skip to info it says “Disk Unreadable”.
Hello,

Which images are you trying to format ?

This should work :
Jeff wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:35 pm Format the usb stick in FAT32.

Then unpack the SDHxCFE_PC_720KB.zip present into the following zip to the root of the usb stick, rename HXCSDFE.CFG-indexed to HXCSDFE.CFG and reformat the image with the Alesis Datadisk :

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... Images.zip

AdrianM45 wrote: Sat Aug 03, 2024 8:31 am I’ve changed to Shugart in the settings as I’ve seen that in this thread but I don’t know if it matters or not.
switch back to the default setting ("from hfe" if i remember correctly)
I figured it out somehow but can’t remember what it was sorry.
Also second unit I’ve got won’t work with FAT32 and it was a challenge to find small pen drive.
At first I thought that I have done something wrong or unit is faulty but it came out to be incompatible with USB DRIVE.

Cheers Jeff
Jeff
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by Jeff »

AdrianM45 wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 11:23 am
I figured it out somehow but can’t remember what it was sorry.
Also second unit I’ve got won’t work with FAT32 and it was a challenge to find small pen drive.
At first I thought that I have done something wrong or unit is faulty but it came out to be incompatible with USB DRIVE.

Cheers Jeff
Happy that you figured out ! :)

About the USB big sticks (>32GB) there are some tools to formatted them in FAT32. (search "Fat32 Formatter", "Fat32 Format" on google...)

I am interested to have an empty HFE file formatted by you ALESIS DataDisk. Can you send me one ? (email: hxc2001 at hxc2001 dot com)
AdrianM45
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by AdrianM45 »

Jeff wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 1:36 pm
AdrianM45 wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 11:23 am
I figured it out somehow but can’t remember what it was sorry.
Also second unit I’ve got won’t work with FAT32 and it was a challenge to find small pen drive.
At first I thought that I have done something wrong or unit is faulty but it came out to be incompatible with USB DRIVE.

Cheers Jeff
Happy that you figured out ! :)

About the USB big sticks (>32GB) there are some tools to formatted them in FAT32. (search "Fat32 Formatter", "Fat32 Format" on google...)

I am interested to have an empty HFE file formatted by you ALESIS DataDisk. Can you send me one ? (email: hxc2001 at hxc2001 dot com)
It works with FAT only where other one works fine with big usb sticks.

Alesis seem to format only one block(disk) at the time so I assume for example it would just be “000” that you want and you can copy it to further files or you want me to format all 80?!😂😂
Jeff
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by Jeff »

AdrianM45 wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 1:51 pm Alesis seem to format only one block(disk) at the time so I assume for example it would just be “000” that you want and you can copy it to further files or you want me to format all 80?!😂😂
No no just one is fine. I will then prepare a 7z with 40 preformatted images to make things easier !
AdrianM45
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by AdrianM45 »

Jeff wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 2:06 pm
AdrianM45 wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 1:51 pm Alesis seem to format only one block(disk) at the time so I assume for example it would just be “000” that you want and you can copy it to further files or you want me to format all 80?!😂😂
No no just one is fine. I will then prepare a 7z with 40 preformatted images to make things easier !
Perfect. It might be that the FW on my unit is 2.02 but im waiting for new EPROMs and I can make one again with 2.09FW.
I’ll send them once I’m back home mate.
Jeff
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Re: ALESIS DataDisk SQ

Post by Jeff »

Thanks for the image !

Please try this on a fresh/clean USB stick and let me know if you can save and read to the images without formatting them :

https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_dri ... ataDisk.7z

(rename one of the CFG file to HXCSDFE.CFG. See the readme.txt file for more details).
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