Floppy Disk To USB Converter Installation and Operation Manual Kit Price $125.00 Plus Shipping
Why Should I Change My Floppy Drive To A USB Drive? You won't ever need floppies anymore and yet you'll be able to secure a guaranteed long-term future for your instrument. Disadvantages of legacy diskettes: The old floppy disk drive is slow and takes several seconds to transfer data Hardly available at retailers anymore Sensitive to o Magnetic fields o Dust, oil and other adverse environmental conditions o Mechanical wear and tear Low memory capacity Most salient features: The old floppy disk drive is replaced 1:1. The connections are identical, so no additional changes have to be made to the instrument. The USB Stick at the USB Floppy Converter replaces the old diskette entirely. USB memory components have long life spans and high capacities (Same as 100 floppy disks). The new USB floppy drives and USB memory components are practically immune to impacts, magnetic fields, dust or shock. The contents of 100 floppies can easily be placed on one single USB Stick. That saves a lot of time looking for the correct floppy. The cost to upgrade is considerably less than the cost to purchase a new instrument. The time required to install the upgrade is usually less than an hour on most instruments. Page I
Once your new USB Drive is installed, you will be able to plug in your pre-formatted Flash Drive and start saving your presets or recorded music just like they do on the newer instruments. That's Right! Page II We are including, in the cost of the conversion kit, a pre-formatted matching Flash Drive FREE! In Addition: All contact information will be supplied with each kit, so if you have any questions, all you need to do is look at your Flash Drive. The phone number is printed in each one. We don t have a automated phone system, so you will be talking to a real person (American) who speaks and understands the English language. We do not however, speak or understand Spanish. If you have existing floppy disks that you would like to have placed on your Flash Drive, send them to us before we ship your kit and for $1.00 per disk they will be placed on the Flash Drive. Your floppy disks will be returned with your kit. Shipping cost will be as close to the actual cost as possible. It will take approximately 3 weeks to fill your order. If you supply an e-mail address or a phone number, we will provide you order status information if a problem developes. E-mail works best, as we only have one phone line.
Page 1 Above is a picture of my Lowrey Royale (SU-500) powered up with a working 1.4 Meg floppy disk installed. Close up, showing the floppy disk in the working drive. Make sure your disk system works before you start the replacement.
Page 2 The back is removed by loosening the five screws across the top with a 1/4 nut driver. The five screws along the bottom must be completely removed. The three screws on each side and the two screws in the middle must also be removed. I suggest you store the loose hardware in a small dish. The right side speaker can easily be removed by disconnecting the two wires on the spade terminals and removing the four 5/16 screws that hold the wooden block in place. Store it in a safe place until it is ready to be re-installed. Pay close attention to the location of the colored wires. The orange wire went to the red dot. (reversing the wires will cause a phase shift). Next unscrew and remove the roll-top stop bumper using an offset Phillips screw driver. A 1/4 nut driver and a 5/16 nut driver were used to remove all other screws.
Page 3 Directly under the drive is a 1 hole and the 1/4 screw holding the drive in place. Using a 1/4 nut driver remove this screw.
Page 4 Remove the 34 pin data cable and the 4 pin power plug from the back of the floppy drive. Position the cables out of the way and carefully pull the floppy drive up and out of its cage. Pay close attention to the orientation of the red strip on the data cable. It should be replaced on the same side on the new drive. On computer systems the red strip goes to pin 1 of the connector, but on my Royale the cable was installed backwards (on right).
Page 5 Place the drives on a flat surface as shown. and remove the four Phillips screws that hold the mounting plate to the floppy drive. Place the removed screws back in the floppy drive (not used). Use the four screws supplied with the USB drive to fasten the mounting plate on the bottom of the new USB Converter.
Page 6 Pictured below is the USB Converter connectors. The four pin power connector is on the left and the 34 pin data cable is on the right. Make sure you place the female connector on the male pins, so that each pin goes into its own socket. Caution should be used when installing the power cable to assure that all of the pins are totally seated. Its is obvious, but power should be off during the installation process.
Page 7 In this photo you can see the USB Converter has been inserted into the drive cage. It tends to hang-up on the front edge, so make sure it has cleared the front edge and is seated against the felt pads on the front of the drive mounting plate. If it is seated correctly, you will see the hole for the mounting screw when you look up from below the drive location.
Page 8 The drive is seated properly and the screw can now be installed in to the bottom of the drive plate. See the photo below.
Page 9 Replace the right side speaker using the four 5/16 screws that you removed earlier. Be careful not to over tighten them. They should be snug, but you can strip them if you over tighten them. Next replace the wires that go on the speaker terminals, making sure they are installed on the same terminals they came from. Finally, Using the offset Phillips screw driver, re-install the stop bumper for the roll-top. Do not replace the back until you have double checked your connections with a good strong light. If everything looks correct, you can apply power and turn on the instrument. You should see a double zero appear on the front of new USB Converter. You should also see a period at the bottom and to the right of each digit.
Page 10 This is what you should see when power is applied, the red button is pushed in, and there is not a Flash Drive inserted. The two red dots are status indicators. When they go out it is an indication that the Flash Drive has been initialized. Your pre-formatted Flash Drive has 100 floppy disks on it (00-99). Each virtual floppy will operate exactly the same as a physical floppy, except, much faster. The RED button should be out before you insert the Flash Drive in to it s slot. After inserting the Flash Drive, Press the Red button in. The Green light will come on, indicating that the drive is ready.
Page 11 The virtual floppy disk can not be changed with the Red button pressed in. To advance to the next desired virtual floppy, make sure no disk activity is taking place. Then press and release the Red button. It will stick out. To move to the next virtual floppy press the Right Black button one time. The display should read 01. Continuously pressing the right button will sequence the right display digit 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and back to 0. Performing this action on the Left Black button will sequence the left digit in the same way. Once the desired virtual floppy has been selected, the Red button must be pressed in to allow the Flash Drive to transfer data. The Green light will come back on, indicating that the selected virtual floppy is ready to be used.
Page 12 In this photo the converter is telling us what has occurred. The Green light is lit, so we know that the drive is ready to transfer data. We know that while the Red button was depressed, the Right Black button was depressed five times and the Left Black button was pressed twice. Thus, the 25 shown on the display. Now, as soon as the dots go out, with the Red button pressed in, and the Green Ready light lit, the drive is ready for data to be transferred between virtual floppy 25 and the instrument. Before the Flash Drive can be removed, all data transfer activity needs to have been completed and the Red button needs to be in the Out position. That can be verified by observing that the Green light in NOT lit. When data is being transferred, the Flash Drive light blinks at a fast rate. Once the transfer has been completed, the light will slowly go back and forth from bright to dim. Remove the Flash Drive when the light is dim. NOTE: CAUTION - CAUTION - CAUTION Removing the Flash Drive during data transfer may cause the Flash Drive to be damaged. No damage to the USB Converter will occur if the Flash Drive is removed during a data transfer.