Industrial Solutions

Guest Post from a satisfied customer of Southern Germany:
(Translated, original post in german language >>)

Floppy Disk Drive retrofitting: USB Floppy Emulator for KETRON SD 5 In older keyboards – e.g. in my KETRON SD 5, the input device is a floppy drive und the internal RAM memory is supplied with information by a floppy disk. I would never replace my KETRON SD 5 with a modern keyboard however; the reason is the good quality.

With the IPCAS USB floppy emulator for USB pen drives, the known disadvantages …

• Sensitive to mechanical wear and tear
• Problems with dust, oil and other adverse environmental conditions
• Malfunction due to permanent mechanical load
• Low memory capacity

… of conventional floppy disks, which anyway are hardly to buy, can be totally attributed to the past.

Most salient features:

• The old floppy disk drive is replaced 1:1. The connections are identical, so no further changes have to be made.
• The USB Stick at the USB Floppy Emulator replaces the old diskette entirely. USB memory components have long life spans and high capacities.
• The new USB floppy drives and USB memory components are practically immune to impacts from magnetic fields, dust or shock.
• The contents on 100 floppies can easily be placed on one single USB Stick. That saves a lot of time and costs!

To replace the equipment I’m proceeds as follows:

1. Opening the keyboard (screws located on the bottom)
2. Slide back the panel of the keyboard
3. Removal of the floppy disk drive (FDD)
4. Detach of the data cable from the floppy drive controller
5. Inserting a floppy controller computer cable to the floppy connector
6. Connect this cable and the power supply cable (4-pin.) to the emulator.

Now the keyboard will switch on and the floppy drive (with inserted USB flash drive) are energize and the keyboard reports: not formatted.
After that, the format command must be executed according to the display information.
Then the emulator should set to 01 (with the Up button). The UP switching and formatting and will resist until 99.

If the formatting performs, you play the songs on the respective place (00-99), then – start playing – as usual.
When the formatting is completed, copy the songs on the respective place (00-99). Afterwards, as usual, start the playback.

More information on the ipcas UBS Floppy Emulator solutions >>

The ipcas FloppyEmulator V3 supports nearly all disk formats. Also special Formats like CP/M, DEC Rainbow, extended DOS or Stäubli JC3/4/5 are supported.
The parameterization and configuration is complete without jumper.

More information about the FloppyEmulator V3 >>

We will be more than glad to support you with first-hand information on our highly innovative Hardware and Software products and concepts. We would be happy to see you and give you a live display of our produce from today until 3 March 2011 at Stand 129 in Hall 9 in the Nuremberg Trade Fair Center (Messezentrum Nürnberg).

Also this year we proudly present a very special highlight:

Floppy emulator V3

The extended version of our Floppy-Emulator is to be at the ready.
In addition to higher compatibility, even to exotic disk formats, the configuration and setup is all done via graphical user interface on the PC.
Now jumpers are a thing of the past.

Take the chance to see the Floppy-Emulator 2 live at the embedded world 2011 until Thursday. Visit us at Hall 9, Stand 129.

The "USB Disk Format Tool" is a small console application to format a USB flash drive for use with the Floppyemulator.

The USB Disk Format Tool is now available for download in the support area and on the product page.

Supported operating systems: Windows 2000/XP (x86)

Using the USB Disk Format Tool and the USB Disk Index Selector together (for example in a batch script), a variety of actions can be automated.

• automated formatting
• automated switching
• automated selection

Note:
Of course, the USB Floppy-Emulator works completely operating system independent when using only one disk image per USB flash drive.

If you are only looking for a comfortable USB-Flash-Drive disk images format tool, you can use the "USB floppy format tool for Windows" (also available in the support area).

Comparison of the ipcas floppy emulator with 3.5 inch and 5 1/4 inch floppy drives.

Demonstration of the Floppy Emulator: A USB Pen Drive in use as floppy disk or up to 100 floppy disks in one USB Pen Drive.