I almost have forgotten ...If you haven't switched "auto play song"on your keyboard
you must load something of diskette (Song,style..etc.)
very important: switching first computers on, then keyboard ! not rename folder with
program (3.03b) don`t start program with shortcut.
sorry, now has much to do -I have started with sale and representation of HDM2 for Europa.
P.S. I don't know as is live with PSR2000, I am playing PSR2100 with HDM2 now .
best regards
max

[This message has been edited by HDM2-FLASH (edited 07-10-2003).]

Hello

I think it's great we actually have somebody now that represents the HDM2 and can explain things to us.

Thanks Beakybird for being the one that kept going with this so that we all have a chance to make our own educated decisions on it.

Scott Langholff

One question that comes to mind was when Gary Diamond contacted Yamaha they thought that this gaget might overload the power supply (or whatever). I noticed Beakybird in one of your posts that when you used the HDM the disk drive is actually shut off. I would love to know the power consumption of the disk drive and also of the HDM. This appears to be the only safety factor that needs to be addressed unless there is something I haven't thought of.

Scott Langholff

Yes, the floppy drive is off when the HDM2 is in use. There are two power cables now inside my keyboard.

I don't know the exact power specs on the HDM2. My keyboard has been very stable with it inside. When you think of it, this device is merely a circuit board with a slot for a flash memory card and a very rudimentary switch attached to a cable. I cannot see how this could draw as much energy as a floppy drive that has something that spins around. I might be concerned with the hard drive based HDM but not with this flash card based system.

I'll be checking very soon to see if the system works with the new software, etc.

Beakybird

I was able to get the HDM2 software to work. I don't know if it's the software or if it's that my computer is very unstable, but the software froze on me several times. Also, sometimes my keyboard couldn't access the floppy drive with the mini din input attached to the computer.

Even if the software did work consistently, I wouldn't use it. Here is why. The software doesn't recognize file names larger than eight characters. When you load a file from your computer onto your HDM2 drive and you call up the drive when you are actually using the keyboard to play, what comes up on the keyboard display is this: All styles are named in caps with only 8 characters maximum. If you have two dixieland styles, it comes up as DIXIEL~1 and DIXIEL~2. Also, all of the fancy icons that come with many styles are reduced to the default drum icon. That's no good.

So I would rather for now transfer files from my floppy drive to the user drive, and from the user drive to the HDM2 bank. This takes a while, but it is the only way to do it. Maybe when the PSR2100 comes to the USA(I'm going to get it when it does), perhaps it is possible to transfer from the USB to the floppy drive. In this case, the software would not unnecessary.

So, I am happy with the device, but the software is useless for me. Hopefully, an update will be issued to the software so that the file name will appear as it is originally written, and icons will remain the same. Otherwise, we hope that the PSR2100 will be able to write from the USB to the floppy drive.

Beakybird

Hi Beaky

You never did mention - do styles load faster from HDM than they do from floppy?

Is Max from Germany selling these to U.S. customers?

Tom G.

Tom,

I thought I did mention. Styles load at the same speed as a floppy style. This unit doesn't have the advantages of a hard drive or extra user memory. It does enable one to change "floppies" at the flick of a button.

With real floppies, if you know what song you want to do next, and it's on another floppy, you either have to change floppies while performing (extremely difficult) or change after the song (time consuming). With the HDM2, you can change banks before the song ends, and you can then call up the styles on that bank immediately. The time it takes to change banks, however, is only slightly faster than manually taking out the floppy and putting another in. It's not a perfect system, but it is a definite improvement over the current system.

Beakybird

Larry,

You didn't answer the second part of Tom's Question--Does the distributor in Germany sell directly to U.S. consumers?

Gary

Yes, both Max of Germany and Valeriy of the Ukraine sell to the USA. But it's not easy. I recommend that Max set up an account with paypal.com. I happened to purchase my product from Valeriy of the Ukraine. I had to do a complex money transfer through my bank. This cost $20. So in total, I paid $217 + plus the price of my flash card, about $40. I'm still glad I bought the unit.

Both Max and Valeriy are honest people. Max sent me references of happy customers in Europe. I ended up working with Valeriy, because he was the first person to contact me when the new product came out.

Beakybird

Hi Beakybird and all

I talked to my organ tech about the power consumption for the HDM vs the floppy disk drive. He said the floppy drive would use 12 volts and the memory card reader (which I guess is what the HDM really is) takes 5 volts. So, if you are using one or the other at a time, then it appears the HDM would require less power. Also, even though they use 220 current in the Ukraine, they use an ac adaptor just like we do. Which means what's going on inside is the same whatever the current. So it draws the same juice in the US as in Russia. So if the inventor knows it works and is safe "over there" it'll be the same wherever.

This is obviously paraphrased lay language. My tech seemed pretty confident with his answer, but he did end his answer with "I think",and I suppose that would be the way to answere it unless it was right in his hands with the schematics.

Best

Scott Langholff