From E1 -> E1 + HxC

[Futureman]

I thought I'd document my E1's transition to having HxC permanently installed.

Nothing revolutionary going on.. I just thought others might be interested.

I'm going to remove the floppy holder and install the HxC where it used to be.. once all my disks are archived, I honestly can't see myself using the internal floppy that often.. hence no real need for the floppy holder.
(I'll obviously keep the plastic holder incase sometime in the future I decide to revert back to stock condition)

1 - Started with a nice found bit of aluminium.. nice and hard (Not soft & chewy that will clog your files)

measured out where I wanted everything to go, and began drilling holes so it was like swiss cheese.. then filed away the holes for a while till it looked a bit like these.

The slot for the SD card was done with a dremel cutting disk (wear glasses!!) and then filed into a nice slot with a small flat file.

2 -I'm using switches that are the same as used in much Oberheim gear (I had some lying around from a previous midibox SEQ I made)
These switches keep in style with the E1. (wider than them, but same style)

 

[Futureman]

Ugly pictures eh?

It'll look nice when it's done.. I'm a fan of making things ghetto style with recycled parts, but that look great.

[Futureman]

Still ugly

I'll search around for a close colour to the E1 to paint the front of the panel.. I seem to remember someone had found a Tamiya colour that was a close match to the EII

[Elmbeatz]

great futureman!!
thanks for documenting your progress!!

[Futureman]

I tested the HxC working with my E1 with a known working file (Thanks Esynth!) and it worked perfectly!

That is for about 1 minute... then one of my voice cards died.. ughhh.

I've had a little look inside, and I   h o p e   to get it working...

(The two events.. HxC & voice card dying are un-related)

Anyway... here's a little snap of the panel in place.. (Not screwed in.. just seeing how it all fits.)

Seems OK to me.

I have yet  to choose a switch that will toggle between HxC and the E1's internal drive..

[Elmbeatz]

Beautiful!!

You're gonna make it Blue with the corresponing font, will you?

[Futureman]

Sorry, but no text..

And I've primed it black, and will leave black it now for the moment.

[Futureman]

Found the fault in my E1.

A dead SSM2044 had died and was shorting out the output of the whole voice card.

This stopped 4 voices working, and heavily distorted a fifth.

So, I'm back to 7 voices working.. Yay.

The 8th voice never worked, and I'll endeavor to fix it, but so far it has eluded me.

[Futureman]

Here's some more

I've got it working etc.. BUT

I can't seem to be able to change between the internal drive and HxC. I need to do a bit more research.

Esynth, did you install a switch to toggle between HxC and the internal floppy?

(I did read your write up, but I was unsure what strategy you eventually ended up with)

[Elmbeatz]

REALLY COOL!!!!!!

I'd given it blue and original fonts though. 
Does it work already?

[esynthesist]

Looks great.

Esynth, did you install a switch to toggle between HxC and the internal floppy?

(I did read your write up, but I was unsure what strategy you eventually ended up with)

My configuration does not have the switch - I only use a switch on my Emulator-II.
On my Emulator-I, I re-connect the ribbon cable: I use the external HxC, so I made all connectors externally available at the backside of my Emulator-I.
This is configuration 5 in my document.
The one with the switch is configuration 6; I have only described the one with external HxC because I didn't think of your great solution to build the internal HxC into the floppy disk holder instead of a replacement of the actual floppy drive. But when you ignore the external connectors, the schema should be the same for an internal HxC.

Normally the switch should be installed on wire 16 of the ribbon cable (untwisted)
This doesn't work ?

///E-Synthesist

[Futureman]

Hey,

My configuration is un-twisted.

I made a new cable

IDC on motherboard -> floppy connector on disk drive -> IDC on HxC

With a switch on wire 16 that selects either from the floppy or HxC and connects back to the motherboard.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

But if the floppy is disconnected, the HxC will work.
If HxC is disconnected and the floppy is connected, the floppy will work.
(obviously is the selector switch is in the correct position)

Unless you have some suggestions, I'll pull it apart and make a video of it working and consult Jeff. That may be the easiest way to proceed.

Regards
Mike

[esynthesist]

Well, this proves that I should always test everything before writing it down 
So it seems that simply applying the same "logic" as the one which works fine on the Emulator-II seems not a 100pct correct approach here.
Maybe I will do some tests and experiments.

But we can start asking Jeff in the meanwhile on the HxC forum.
The difference between Emulator-I and Emulator-II is that:
- Emulator II uses wires 10 and 12 for drive select (0 and 1) and wire 16 for the motor.
- Emulator I uses only wire 16 for both drive select and motor.

[esynthesist]

But we can start asking Jeff in the meanwhile on the HxC forum.

The question has been posted on the HxC forum...