Here is an email from a German friend who is helping me buy the HDM - hard drive device- in Germany:

Dear Larry,

I would have ordered the item already, but it isnt as easy. At least I talked to Ivan Kanjo, who remembered you, and in a few phone calls with him I could clear some questions regarding the HDM and ordering it. He is the rigth guy to buy from, I would say. The situation is as follows:

- the "old" HDM-System, in which you were interested, is hard to get from him as well. - he said, he knows Sergiy Gulshani, but the price of 195 Euros is without taxes, customs and shipping if you would buy directly in Ukraine, which we canot do.
- he told me, he is right now not able to deliver the HDM System you wanted, maybe in a few weeks. But he strongly recommends the updated, advanced system, which will do the same job but ways better. They are producing a new system, which has no HDM, no mechanical parts, is ways smaller, it is a memory card, which costs 299 Euros, and you can plug in any regular card up to 1000 MB, which you could buy in addition by yourself then.
- he said, since I´m travelling to Chicago on April 16,2003, it wouldnt be a problem to deliver that new system by that time. I would pay for that in advance, at the time they deliver it to my home. So no money can be lost.

But here´s what I suggest: Please call him any time next week (he will have all the details of this new product by then), he speaks english, and explain to him what you want. I dont know about the differences of the old and new system. He then will get in contact with me, he said, and tell me when that part could be delivered to me after your order. This way you really get what you want. For 299 Euros, plus maybe some more for shipping it to my home. He assurde me that new system would be suitable for your Yamaha PSR2000, but make sure you discuss that point with him.

His phone nr. is 01149-841-481487 or 01149-179-4830968 (from USA).

Please tell me next week which one you could order, I can organise the rest.
Best regards

Christian

I find it encouraging that this person is willing to receive payment upon delivery, even though $300 is expensive. Nevertheless, it would be great to have a memory card that you could take in and out. This means you could update your files without having to take the keyboard out of the case.

What do you think?

Beakybird

This one sounds a lot better than the last product they offered. From the way the email reads, you would be installing an adapter card that would accept a flash card, similar in many respects to the flash cards that are used in digital cameras. I would imagine that what you would be buying is the adapter only, or at least that's the way it sounds, then you would procure flash memory cards from another source.

I also have a tecnhician in Maryland looking into replacing the internal floppy drive with a super drive. If they are compatable, the super drive disks hold 120 megs of information, which is 119 times greater than what is available in the 2000 to begin with.

I'll let you know what I find out.

Good Luck,

Gary

I tried replacing the floppy on a keyboard w/ a super drive, but it don't work. The super drive is an optical drive, same as cd, zip, dvd, etc. It won't fit to the floppy pigtail. I put it in my computer instead, where it still happily resides. Good luck.

Thanks Guardman, that's good to know.

Cheers,

Gary

I spoke with Kanjo Ivan in Germany. He told me in stilted English that he will have the new system delivered from the Ukraine in two weeks. He said that he is receiving 25 of them. He told me that it is a flash card system, and that one has to purchase a flash card to use the system. He told me that the system costs 300 euros delivered in Germany -that's about $300 USA.

It's expensive. It would make one reflect on purchasing a Tyros. I think that for me it's the way to go since I want to have onboard speakers and I don't want to pay that much more money to buy a Tyros.

According to an email that I got from my friend in Germany, who was helping me purchase this item, the system is C.O.D. You pay when you get the item.

My friend, Christian, is coming from Germany on April 15. If anyone else wants to try this thing out, please contact me. By the way, this Ivan Kanjo replied to my email inquiring about the system and mentioned that he only ships to Germany.

Beakybird

Beakybird

Looking forward to your report on this HDM. Hope it is what you want. I know we will all be interested in hearing about installation, operation, speed etc.

Regards
Scott Langholff

It's taking longer than I thought. Here is an email and a picture (Oh well, I don't know how to post these pictures) of the new HDM that takes flash memory that I'm going to order:

Hallo Larry!!
I`m so sorry......you must wait for new HDM 2 week more
but i send per airplane to you
we have big problems with import in Germany ,i promise
i send to you .
Here you have pictures...old+new system.
P.s I`m now in Croatia make Holliday come in Gerrmany in 10 days -
they send from Russia in c.a 5 days new Hdm.
Please forgive !!
Best regards
max
Hallo Larry!!
I`m so sorry......you must wait for new HDM 2 week more
but i send per airplane to you
we have big problems with import in Germany ,i promise
i send to you .
Here you have pictures...old+new system.
P.s I`m now in Croatia make Holliday come in Gerrmany in 10 days -
they send from Russia in c.a 5 days new Hdm.
Please forgive !!
Best regards
max