01WproX and floppy emulator question

TomG · Post by **TomG** » Fri Feb 05, 2021 5:54 pm

I recently have inherited great 01WproX keyboard. It has not been used for over 20 years, still in carrying case with keyboard covered by original piece of foam. So – practically new.

The “2032” battery inside was (of course) dead, but with some problems, I was able to replace it by the new one. It’s working great now!

The problem I have are: built in diskette drive and the diskettes. I got the original KORG diskette and that is all. I found several articles on Internet about replacing floppy drive in vintage synthesizers by the “floppy drive emulator”. I found on Amazon such drive which in the description says “for Yamaha KORG Keyboard”. It costs about $35 US – not expensive at all. Thinking about putting it in my 01WproX.

Has any of you, users, experience with such emulator? I’m looking for someone who installed it on 01WproX. I want to know if it works, how it works and how difficult is the replacement itself.
Thank you in advance for any response!

voip · Post by **voip** » Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:58 pm

The floppy drive controller, and the floppy drive used in the 01/WFD and the 01/WproX are identical, so it would seem reasonable to assume that the experiences of replacing the FDD would be the same.

The following may be of interest:

https://indra.com/~cliffcan/01fddfix.htm

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=72888

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=67404

TomG · Post by **TomG** » Sat Feb 06, 2021 5:00 pm

Thank you voip for your response. I believe that the floppy emulator will work on 01WproX.

But, to be honest, I am afraid to do the replacement work myself. So, if there is a user who replaced the original floppy with the USB floppy emulator on 01WproX – I would like to get his/her opinion and some useful advice on how to do it. I mean: which screws to remove, how to get access to the floppy drive’s mount and so on. In the 01Wpro/01WProX_SERVICE_Manual you can find some information but only for 01Wpro, not proX.

Any one has such experience with 01WproX?

TomG · Post by **TomG** » Fri Feb 26, 2021 10:51 pm

I read several tutorials on how to install USB floppy emulator on KORG 01/WproX and followed instructions for the installation.
It didn't work...

Every time I try to access the USB thumb drive - for reading, writing or formatting - I am getting an error:

ERROR: Drive not Ready.

Any suggestions?

TomG · Post by **TomG** » Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:18 pm

Finally, I have installed USB Floppy Emulator on my 01WproX!

I attempted to install emulators from three different places, with three-digit screens, with little analog window and text information – all gave me similar error messages.
Eventually I found on ebay place in England, which sells modified GOTEK emulator: six different models, all of them with two- or three-line display window (some of them color display), three of them with rotary controller. I bought the one with three-line color display and rotary controller. It came with 16GB USB thumb drive preloaded with a lot of stuff! You can have multiple folders and subfolders on it, each with many floppy images. The buttons and the rotary knob allow you to find images in any folder.
It’s FANTASIC unit! Installation was no-brainer. If the ribbon cable is plugged in the wrong way – you are getting a message on little screen telling you to reverse it.
And delivery to US was very fast – about ten days!

cpmagneticmedia - the person that modified and programmed the GOTEK unit puts on the USB drive hundreds of sound disks and midi files. You can browse folders using rotary controller and two buttons.

The support is also great. You get immediate support when contacted the seller through email.

If interested, you can find these emulators on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Plug-Play-USB- ... 2749.l2649
.