Floppy disk to usb

Re: Floppy disk to usb

Hi Bill
I'm not an expert in this area but the floppy disk drive in your KN7000 is connected and programmed internally in your KN7000 to do its job.
A USB drive would have to be similarly connected and programmed to achieve the same end. So really two questions for you.
1) where would you connect it to the KN7000 as there is no USB slot.
2) How would you go about programming the KN7000 to work with it
Others may know the answers but it looks complicated to me.
Rog

Re: Floppy disk to usb

Hi RMepstead have look at YouTube it's all there and it looks good but is it any better than the floppy disk and will it run on a usb pen above 1gb thanks for your reply. Bill

Re: Floppy disk to usb

Hi Bill.
I assume a USB Pen is what I would call a USB memory stick.
So if I've got it right you would load the USB pen up with style files or midis; insert it into the USB drive which has replaced the floppy drive; then hope to press one of the existing buttons on the KN7000 causing the style files or midis in the USB memory stick to appear in a list on the screen so that one of them can be selected.
I didn't watch all of the video on youtube - it was a bit ponderous - but I still don't understand how the KN7000 would be programmed to recognise the data on the USB pen...maybe I should watch the rest of the video.
Clearly, Bill, I don't know the answer to your question but purely by the fact that we are discussing it no doubt someone else will come in with the answers.
Rog

Re: Floppy disk to usb

Re: Floppy disk to usb

I had some problem posting just now, I'll do some checking into that asap. Luckily, before I post I always press Ctrl-A to select what I've written and then Ctrl-C to copy the it into memory just in case something goes wrong... So, here we go... Ctrl-V to Paste it back in!

Hi Bill,

You could fit a USB drive in a KN7000. However, you really don't want to do that.

USB drives are a reasonable option for the keyboards that don't have an SD Card, for those who:

- Are prepared to do some research online about the correct USB drive to buy
- Prepared to fiddle about inside their keyboard to install it after doing more research
- Have a floppy drive on their computer (could be a USB drive or a built-in drive)
- Don't mind learning about a few pieces of software to move the files into the correct slots on the USB stick (from floppy to computer)
- Are very confident about moving Technics files around on their computer

What you then enjoy is convenience:

- Access up to 2000 Styles and files on the USB stick, 20 at a time, because the USB stick emulates 100 floppy disks
- Some drives will let you access many more than that because they can theoretically emulate 1000 floppy disks

What becomes more difficult is:

- Adding more styles to a USB stick is (marginally) less convenient than using floppies
- Using the Style Convert disk is more difficult (You have to copy it to the USB stick in emulated floppy number 1 when you want to use it. You can't keep it there)
- Upgrading or restoring your operating system (for the same reasons as the previous point)

With KN7000 you have the best of both worlds because:

Floppy Disks

- Using floppies is really convenient sometimes
- Floppies are not as slow as people think. USB drives are not as quick as people think because the keyboard still believes that it is reading a floppy disk.
- Floppies are the easiest way to transfer Styles and other files to an SD Card (but not the quickest way, which is KNSDExplorer or similar program). The keyboard's built-in software has all the features to copy from floppy to SD Card.
- Floppies are great for playing midis. Ok, you can do that off a USB drive but remember that you are limited to short file names the same as a floppy, you have to remember which emulated disk contains which midi or Style, swap to it (maybe by pressing one button 60 times) and then figure out which is which, they will have 6 letters and numbers to describe each one. SD Cards have many more, I think about 22 letters and numbers I can't remember.
- Commercial midis and Styles are really convenient off floppy. Load up quickly and try them then save the best ones onto SD Card.
- Floppies are extremely reliable despite what people think (just never put them next to a speaker because of the magnetism).

If your floppy drive isn't working well, get a floppy drive cleaner they are about £5 to £10 on Ebay. If it's broken they aren't expensive to fix and I'm sure our Supermember Mr Ferret or our Friendly Engineer Mr Tutt will fix it for a very reasonable fee.

Unfortunately KN2600 doesn't have a Floppy drive, only SD Card. But hey, SD Cards are brilliant!

SD Cards

- You can fit up to 20 x 99 = 1980 Styles and files on an SD Card
- SD Cards are very fast, much faster than USB Stick floppy emulators
- SD Cards of 1Gb used to cost 100s of pounds but are now available for £5 to £25 depending on brand and whether they are new.
- SD Cards can use the longer file names, so it is easier to know what you are loading
- SD Cards can contain hundreds of midis at the same time as the 1980 Technics files
- KN7000 and KN2600 can play MP3 files, if you have the Panasonic SD Writer Kit and SD Jukebox. You can synchronise MP3s with the sequencer. I know Roger has had some issues with those (might be due to not using SD Jukebox 2.4 Rog). Note that you can not copy SD Cards from one to another if you use MP3s on them, the MP3s won't work on the copied card but all the other files will.
- With SD Cards you can use the Favourites menu on your keyboard. Your list of favourites gets saved on your SD Card and is specific to that SD Card, so each SD Card can have its own list of Favourites (Favorites if you're American). Look it up, great feature.

I'll let someone else extend the list

I hope I've deterred you from opening up your KN7000 and encouraged you to use your floppy drive

Best wishes,
Mike

Re: Floppy disk to usb

Hi RMepstead thank you for the interest in my post I thought the pen or the stick may be to some advantage but after reading Mike post its not worth the effort. Many thanks Bill

Re: Floppy disk to usb

Hi Mike thank you for your reply and help. After I read though your information and its a great peace of information I don't think I will bother and stick with the floppy.
Look at some floppy on ebay and the price is not to bad.Many thanks Bill