Floppy drive emulators

Spark123 · 16 Apr 2013

Hi,
I know this ia long shot but has anyone used a floppy drive emulator which has a USB port on the front?
I have seen some (from China which I am not over keen on buying - would prefer a reputable UK supplier but) clicky

I'm just wondering if it is possible to use one of those devices instead of a floppy drive in a lighting desk that uses a bog standard PC drive, would I then need another one in a PC to be able to talk to the USB stick or will it plug into a USB port?
I don't have a FDD plug on the motherboard hence getting it to talk to my most current PC will be a problem if I need two.

joinerjohn · 17 Apr 2013

Must admit, the only FDD emulators I've looked at are for my Yamaha keyboard. I usually transfer midi files I've created, to a usb drive then use the missus computer to write these to a floppy disk using a usb floppy disk drive I have, (my computers running a Linux OS which doesn't support FDD's any more, but the missus computer has Win XP which is supported) Apparently, for my keyboard the usb's have to be formatted specially so the emulator detects a usb as a floppy disk (formatted in 1.44mb blocks each writeable with data)

Edit forgot to mention that I can record directly to the floppy disk drive on my keyboard, but prefer to use a midi sequencer on the pc. (many more options for editing)

OwainDIYer · 17 Apr 2013

Lighting desks and similar can be non-standard in the way they interface and may be designed for a specific drive.

If you haven't discovered it already, try the lighting forum on Blue Room.

timtheenchanter · 17 Apr 2013

OwainDIYer said:
Lighting desks and similar can be non-standard in the way they interface and may be designed for a specific drive.

If you haven't discovered it already, try the lighting forum on Blue Room.

indeed, some can be "hacked" to use USB or usb drives (some of the strand desks spring to mind.
USB floppy drives are avaliable, I have a couple (for this purpose TBH)

Spark123 · 17 Apr 2013

Have had a look on the blueroom and the same question has arisen on there but no answers to press, might just buy one to have a play with.

The desk(s) are from Zero 88 frog range btw - they use bog standard floppy drives so can't see that end being an issue, it is the PC end I am wondering about and wether or not the USB stick will be readable in a normal windows PC USB port when it is formatted into 1.44mb blocks.

joinerjohn · 17 Apr 2013

I believe these floppy emulators , come supplied with software, so your PC will recognise them if you run the software used to format them.
Here's one such floppy emulator software manual
http://www.ipcas.com/download/products/usb-floppy/usb-floppy-emulation-manual_v1.3.pdf

Spark123 · 18 Apr 2013

Had a look at the ipcas versions but are a little bit pricey just to try to see if it works.
Have sent for one from Hong Kong so will try it in an old computer first when it turns up.

Spark123 · 26 Apr 2013

The GOTEK one has arrived from Hong Kong. It doesn't appear to be bad quality. I now have it installed in one of my lighting desks and works fine so have ordered another for my other desk.
The USB stick can indeed be formatted, then read and written using software on a PC using a bog standard USB port.

Floppy drive emulators

Spark123

joinerjohn

OwainDIYer

timtheenchanter

Spark123

joinerjohn

Spark123

Spark123

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