E-mu Emulator Sampler User Forum for the EIII EII EI and EIII XP

There is some misinformation on the internet that claims you can't boot from SCSI.  I just installed a SCSI2SD card in my Emax HD SE and it boots without an SD card being loaded in the HXC.  (I have both an HXC and SCSI2SD installed.)

Here's what I did to get it to work.  (Not that all the steps are necessary, I just want to document for future reference.)

1. Plugged the power and SCSI cable into the SCSI2SD card.  (Their website says to be careful not to expose the underside to conductive materials, so be careful.)
2. Applied power and booted with the original floppy then formatted the SD card.  This took some time as some floppy disks would not boot.
3. Unplugged the Emax, swapped out the floppy and installed the HXC.
4. Booted from the SCSI2SD then inserted an SD card into the HXC and loaded a bank.
5. Saved and loaded banks from the SCSI2SD

No problems so far!

To create banks for the HXC, I followed these instructions copied from the HXC forum:

http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1412

I feel so dumb!
I figured it out, step by step.
To make your own SD cards for
Emax I/II do the following:

A. On your PC, place the 'Emaxos.emx' OS file that is compatible with your particular Emax
into the folder of the 'EM1' (EM2 files for Emax II) that you wish to convert .
If the files are EB1/EB2 (Emax I/II bank files) you will need to
Convert them to EM1/EM2 first using the freeware
Program EMXP (google it)
Next get the OS for your particular Emax ready
Whatever OS your Emax booted with using the floppy
Drive is the OS you want to use with the floppy emulator
To check which OS your Emax uses boot off the original
Floppy drive before installing the floppy emulator then on the Emax click
'Master' >8 Special> then lower slider up to read the software
Rev your Emax is on.
Once you have that read that disk into your PC using the HxC
Software and your PC floppy drive or simply obtain a copy online somewhere
If you don't have a copy contact me at windrumscoggin@gmail.com
And I will email you then 'emaxos.emx' file that you need.
Next, build your custom SD card
1. With Emaxos.emx on hand , first use EMXP to convert
Your EB1/EB2 files to EM1. Create a folder with those EM1(EM2 if Emax II)

2. Next, and thisbis crucial, you must place a copy of The 'emaxOS' file
In the same folder as the EM1 sound disk images before you use the
HxC software to convert or the
Emax will not be able to load the sound files and you will get
An error such as 'please insert disk', 'bad software' (if you used the wrong OS for your Emax)
Etc. Or in worst case scenario you'll get gobblygook images on your Emax LCD
And nothing will load at all. Therefore, to be safe I used Emax OS 3.1 (for all Emax I) as it
Is an universal OS all Emax models can read and load.

3. Next, with 'emaxos.emx' file in the same folder as your EM1(EM2 for Emax II)
Open the HXC software. Click 'batch convertor' tab
Select the folder containing all the EM1 files along with they 'emaxos.emx' file
And choose target directory as your FAT32 formatted SD card.
Click 'convert' and the conversion process will begin.

4. After step three click 'SD HxC floppy emulator settings'
Check the box that says 'force loading startup A.HFE'
Enable auto boot mode
Force loading Autoboot.hfe at power up if you prefer.
HFE file interface mode is 'EMU Shughart'
Click 'save config file' and save to the SD card

5. Next browse your SD card on your PC.
You should have all the EM1 files converted to .hfe format
And it will read like 'nameofsound_EM1.hfe
As well, your HXCSDFE.CFG file will be there too.

6. Now remove the SD card from your PC
Place it into your Lotharek FE and cold boot the EMAX
If the Emax says 'please insert disk' then click the middle
Red button on the FE until you hear it clicking and
Loading a sound. The Emax display will read
'Loading Bank' then load the sounds.

The reason you have to have the OS inside the
Folder that has the EM1 sounds prior to converting
In HxC software is due to the EMax being designed to boot the OS
Off the floppy first then subsequent sounds on that floppy
It has to have the OS before it can load the sounds. When you make
A new SD card the Emax looks to it just like it were loading
An original floppy. Each EM1 file is viewed as it's own
Separate floppy disk by the Emax and if each one doesn't
Have the 'emaxos.emx' file attached to it during
The conversion process within the HxC software
then the Emax won't know what to do with the converted EM1
(EM2 for Emax II) and hence won't load it.

I've repeated this process several times and it works every time.

Hope this clarifies things greatly and if you have any issues email me
Happy 12 bit sampling!

8)

Hello,

finally tried to replace my internal SCSI Zip with a SCSI2SD card reader.
Ordered 2 units from Amigakit (second unit for an ASR10) and followed the instructions.
So the firmware is updated and the configuration is set to the values suggested for the Emax.

So far so good.

Unfortunately my Emax HD Rack (updated to SE) running the OS Plus 1.0 is unable to perform the Format HD command.
It freezes after the Just a moment... message. I tried using 8GB and 1GD cards from SanDisk.

Then i tried to restore disk images to the SD cards using EMXP on Win10 but the Emax freezes during the Load Software message.

My guess would be that the cards might not be compatible.

Does anybody have a suggestion what to try?

best,
André

I seem to recall having the same problems.  Do you have your floppy installed?

Hi,

good that you could make it work :)
Do you remember what did the trick in the end?

I tried with the floppy in place as it was working fine with an internal Zip drive.
Also tried removing the floppy but this did not work as well.

Are there different revisions of the Emax that are more sensible in regard to SCSI devices?

As i was running out of ideas i've ordered a Meanwell RT65B PSU.
Will try to fit it next weekend in case there is something wrong with the power supply.

After replacing the power supply i could get the SCSI2SD to work without any problems!
I used the MeanWell RT-65B like "Who" suggested in another thread.

Working great now :)

Congrats on getting it to work!!