Yamaha VL1 floppy drive - different kind of connector

[CoolColJ]

Just wondering if the emulator can be made to work with the Yamaha VL1.
It reads and writes standard PC HD floppy disks

Problem is it uses a single flat ribbon type connector, and has no separate power connector

Looks like this


I guess it's also like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fujitsu-Lifebook-C- ... RCH:US:105

[CoolColJ]

I've hosted the pics here
click each pic to get the full size
http://imgur.com/a/xhUSG#1JNYW

red circle is where the floppy connects to the board

[Jeff]

I've hosted the pics here
click each pic to get the full size
http://imgur.com/a/xhUSG#1JNYW

red circle is where the floppy connects to the board

In fact you need to make an passive adapter.
What is the drive model ?

[CoolColJ]

I've hosted the pics here
click each pic to get the full size
http://imgur.com/a/xhUSG#1JNYW

red circle is where the floppy connects to the board

In fact you need to make an passive adapter.
What is the drive model ?

It reads EME-216Y
Matsushita brand

[Jeff]

I've hosted the pics here
click each pic to get the full size
http://imgur.com/a/xhUSG#1JNYW

red circle is where the floppy connects to the board

In fact you need to make an passive adapter.
What is the drive model ?

It reads EME-216Y
Matsushita brand

Question : Are you able to make this adapter yourself ?

[CoolColJ]

Maybe, if someone told me exactly what to do
Although about a 50-50 chance of failing

[CoolColJ]

some info

Done a bit of digging and found out that Matsushita made both the EME-213 and the EME-216 in a 26 pin format with a different number suffix. Pinout as below.

1---SIDE SEL
2---GND
3---RD DATA
4---GND
5---WR PRT
6---GND
7---TRK 00
8---GND
9---WR GATE
10--GND
11--WR DATA
12--GND
13--STEP
14--GND
15--DIR SEL
16--GND
17--MOTOR ON
18--HD OUT
19--READY
20--GND
21--DISKCH
22-- +5V
23--DRV SEL
24-- +5V
25--INDEX
26-- +5V

These were gleaned from a badly copied PDF so could contain errors, ie HD OUT ?
I believe DISKCH is an alternative signal saying that a floppy is present ?
Hope this helps.

[Jeff]

So the shematic of the adapter should be :

vl1toshugart.gif (28.73 KiB) Viewed 21023 times

[CoolColJ]

Thanks

But what about the power supply? The drive doesn't have a separate power input, so it must be coming from the flat cable it currently has

Yeah I don't think I'm capable of making this

[Jeff]

Thanks

But what about the power supply? The drive doesn't have a separate power input, so it must be coming from the flat cable it currently has

Yeah I don't think I'm capable of making this

You can get the power supply from the wire 26,24,22 or directly from the motherboard...

[glenn.szymanski]

I just found this thread. The floppy drive in my VL1-m died like 2 years ago. I really don't care about saving and loading sounds from disks, because all I have is the original factory disk. However, there is a website that has a great archive of sounds...

http://www.kbspace.com/vl1m/patches/

I just want to download these sounds and get them into my VL1-m. Is there a way to do this via midi?

I have a bunch of the old Yamaha VL editors and they're also available here (but I think they only run in Mac OS 9)...

http://www.johnkorchok.com/VL1.html

A tech at Yamaha suggested that I try this software...

http://www.squest.com/Windows/Instrumen ... index.html

but when i try to open the sounds that I downloaded from Ken Barry's site, I get an error saying "these are not soundquest files".

I located someone on ebay selling replacement floppy drives for the VL for $70. I may buy one, but it's a bit expensive. I have a cheap USB floppy drive that I bought, I just hope that I can use that to save the downloaded VL voices to.

If anyone has any info, please contact me glenn.szymanski at gmail.com

thanks!

[CoolColJ]

Those old VL1 editors on the Mac, Yamaha and a third party one will load those VL1 files and transmit them

I bought one of those drives from Ebay. It's a beltless Sony drive so they won't die
And they soldered a special connector on the back of it to take the VL1's ribbon connector
They said they are working on a USB flash drive version

[Jeff]

Please note that a slim version (with the 26 pins connector) is now available :
http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=115

[glenn.szymanski]

.

Those old VL1 editors on the Mac, Yamaha and a third party one will load those VL1 files and transmit them

Which editor exactly? There are a few of them. Are there any for OSX or do I have to find an OS 9 machine?

[CoolColJ]

.

Those old VL1 editors on the Mac, Yamaha and a third party one will load those VL1 files and transmit them

Which editor exactly? There are a few of them. Are there any for OSX or do I have to find an OS 9 machine?

The old Yamaha ones will on OS 9
http://www.johnkorchok.com/VL1.html

This one will on OSX
http://www-acad.sheridanc.on.ca/~degazi ... esign.html


What I did was get the drive, dump all my patches to Vl1 and then to Sounddiver and use that instead