Sunday, October 11, 2015

Replacement Battery Information for PRC that operates Mark IV Disklavier

Replacement Battery Information for PRC that operates Mark IV Disklavier

A couple of years ago (Oct 2013), my husband noticed our battery on the PRC for our Mark IV Disklavier was weak.  He had me order a replacement battery.  It is still working fine!  Here is the information for the replacement battery:

The original manufacturer of the battery (i.e. Sharp) has, apparently, stopped making the battery needed for the PRC.  However, there is a manufacturer in China (Hong Kong) that makes an equivalent available via EBay. Shipping is included in the $16.95 price.


Fit Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000, SL-C3000, SL-C3100 battery

Background:
The Sharp Zaurus was a personal digital assistant (which reportedly influenced the Newton) and was produced from 1993 until 2007. The picture of one below shows that it looks very similar to our Yamaha PRC.

Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 runningOpenZaurus and OPIE, with docking cradle and stylus was produced around 2001. We purchased our Yamaha DC7M42 31-Aug-2005.  You can easily see the PRC was just a custom version of this Zaurus line of personal digital assistants.
 

Monday, March 16, 2015

Digital Photo Albums for My New iPad Mini 3

I generally use Apple iPhoto to create my photo albums to print.  I have traveled extensively over the past fifteen years and thought it would be nice to save some of my photo albums in digital format to view on my new iPad mini 3.

You can easily save the books in a suitable compressed pdf file format to load onto your iPad.  To do so, bring up your photo album project in iPhoto.  View in All Pages format.  Then click on the first page of the album while holding down the control key on your keyboard.  You should see a list of additional popdown menu options.  Select the Save as book option.  Give your album a name and safe to your hard drive.

I normally transfer pdfs to my iPad via iTunes file transfer method into GoodReader and then from there I use the "Open in .... " option to put directly into my iBooks on my iPad.  That works great and doesn't require syncing via iTunes.

Alternately, you can drag the pdf photo album file into your itunes ibooks and then sync your ipad using iTunes after you select the album and your other books to be synced again.

Once in iBooks you can organize all your photo albums into a category you create - say "My Photo Albums".

Now, you will have a digital copy of your printed photo albums to view on your iPad or iPhone.

I spent one summer making slide shows and albums of old family photos that were stored on DVDs.  Looks like now, most computers don't have DVD players and in an effort to have that archive of those family treasures, I am now proceeding with a digital version that can be stored on my old iPad.  Rather than selling my old iPad for a few dollars, I have opted to keep it for digital photo books and cookbooks.

I can also use my iPad in remote mode with Apple TV to view these albums on my big screen TV without having to load a DVD into a player.





How to Copy Your Music from a Shared Library to Another Library



I store a copy of all my music CD's on my main Mac desktop to listen to in my office.  When I am home and using another computer or my laptop in another part of the house, it is easy to share my iTunes music library and listen to songs.   This gives me more room on my laptop for other files - mainly photographs and documents I am currently working on.  This morning, I decided I needed to transfer some of my music from my main Mac computer to my laptop so that I could listen to it while traveling.  My laptop is also the computer I use to sync my new iphone 6 plus and ipad mini 3 (which also need some music).

Itunes makes it easy to share music and to also copy music from one machine to another.  To copy your library contents you must authorize your iTunes account on the other computer.  To discourage users from sharing their library with lots of people, you are limited to sharing your library with five people.

If you haven't done so, authorize your computer by clicking on that option under the Store menu in iTunes.

Make sure both machines are set up for sharing music files.  Select Home Sharing under the File menu in iTunes and enter the apple id and password on both machines.

Next, click on the Home Sharing tab underneath the Sharing section in iTunes source list to view the shared library.   (Both computers should be using the same wifi network).

You have access to both libraries - your's and the other computer's.  You can select a song from either library and play it or copy it to your other library.

Merely, select the song or album you wish to copy from the other computer via wifi and select the Import button in the lower right hand corner of the iTunes window and your music selection will be copied to your library.




Wednesday, March 04, 2015

How to Make a Quick List of Files Contained in a Folder

Computer tip that might come in handy sometime:  I have a folder with just my books in it.  So I arrange them by name and then view them in list view.

Then I use select All (cmd A) and  cmd C to copy them.
 I open a Text edit document make sure it is in plain text mode.  (Type something then select “make plain text” from the Format menu).

Then paste the copy of list (cmd V) into this text document.

Now I have a nice alphabetical list of my files (or in my case of the books or pdf files I have in the folder).

If you don't put it in plain text mode, then the filenames will also have the folder names included.  I just wanted an alphabetic list of the names of files or books that I had.


Friday, January 02, 2015

Getting Yamaha Disklavier Piano and DKVBrowser and Virtual PRC to work with Mac's Yosemite System

UPDATE 2/19/2021:  The DKVBrowser discussion groups are now being conducted at Google Groups.  You can search by "DKVBrowser" to find a place to join for current information. 

The DKVBrowser software written by Kevin Goroway has been revised to meet the needs of users for their Disklavier Mark IV pianos recently.  The software had not worked on my latest Mac laptops due to system updates that were not supported by DKVBrowser.  The software had recently not worked on the latest Windows computers due to changes in system and other updates.  At some point the underlying architecture of DKVBrowser (Eclipse RCP) became unsupported/incompatible.

A new version is currently being tested by members who are part of the Google Group who post info about DKVBrowser and Disklavier.   

I was successful in loading the new DKVBrowser 3.0.2 onto a Mac laptop running High Sierra and one running Catalina.  I have been testing the Mac version of this software and find that it is running successfully for most functions.  It is nice to have the DKVBrowser to run playlists, play tunes at scheduled times and to have all the easy editing techniques and features that Kevin has shared with us.  I certainly hope many will consider the Donate button to show appreciation for his generosity and talents in keeping a means to play our beloved Disklavier Mark IV.

 

Original Article for reference:  https://grannyjoans.blogspot.com/search?q=virtual+prc

 "The Many Avenues to Controlling My Mark IV Disklavier"

 

 

 Original Post from Jan 2015 below:

With every Mac system update, I have to test not only old programs or applications, but also some other devices and equipment to make sure they still function.

The DKVBrowser application I use to edit songs, create playlists, and control my disklavier from my laptop seemed to have a problem after installing Yosemite 10.10.  But, luckily someone posted a solution on the yahoo forum.  Basically, the application needed the Java SE 6.0 runtime module installed on my Mac.

Download of Java can be found here:

After downloading this version (which includes the correct SE 6.0 runtime module), I installed it on my Mac laptop.  The java module can be accessed from the Systems Preferences.  There are some settings that may need to be changed to have another desktop application called Virtual PRC to run properly on your Mac.
Figure 1

After installing the java runtime, DKVBrowser made an excellent attempt to connect to my piano.  Due to the fact that the IP address for my piano changes everytime I lose power or unplug it while away, the IP address had to be corrected in the DKVBrowser settings and tested for connection.   See DKVBrowser application preferences window  (figure 2).

Figure 2

In the past I have been able to type in the DKV##### number for the IP address and usually the IP address is determined automatically.  I then selected test.  The piano was still not found. This time I had to actually find the IP address to put in the edit field.  (It may also be possible that this problem happened due to the fact that my piano had also been disconnected from the airport express box near the piano.) Anyway, I was able to find the IP address eventually and DKVBrowser ran successfully -- my piano is functioning -- playing my favorite playlist.

Next on the schedule was a test of the Virtual PRC java script that puts a virtual remote controller on my Mac screen to use to control the piano - like the real one that comes with the piano.

Figure 3
If you are having problems getting Virtual PRC to run correctly after the Yosemite install:

1) Make sure your piano is connected to the internet.  My disklavier is physically connected to an Apple Express box that is near the piano.

2) Place any previous 'prcstart.php' or 'prcstart.php.jnlp' file you have used into your trash can on your Mac.

3) Click on the DKV##### icon under 'Shared' column on left of the Finder window.  Double click on the 'DNA' folder on the right-hand side of the Finder window. Double click on Virtualprc.html file or open in a browser like Firefox.  (Note: I use Firefox to run this file as I have previously had problems with Safari and Chrome working with this file.)
4) You will need to enter a username (root) and password (prcstart).  Follow the steps below for setting up and downloading a new prcstart.php file for your desktop:
Figure 4

5) After clicking on Save, a file should be downloaded to your Mac. The name of the file should be prcstart.php.jnlp -- if not -- then add the extension .jnlp to filename -- if you see only a file named 'prcstart.php'

 6) If you double click on that file, it should run the virtual PRC (see Figure 3 above).

7) If you get some error message about security blocking the app, then you will need to change the settings in the Java control panel.   This Java control panel can be accessed from Systems Preferences (under Apple icon in menu bar).  Open the Java control panel by clicking on the Java icon in the Systems Preferences panel.  See Figure 1 above.

8) Select “Security” tab from top of panel.   From here you will be able to allow for reduced security and run this java prcstart.php.jnlp file successfully.

Figure 5  

You can add in the IP address for your piano into the Exception Site List edit field.

Figure 6
 

Or, you can change the level of security to medium.  This will still display a security warning before any such files are run, but you can choose to ignore the security message and run anyway. 

Figure 7


 
 I chose to adjust the Security Level to medium as my IP address changes when I unplug from power or have an outage.  All works fine now with Yosemite System update.

Update notes for El Capitan are in the comments below (click on comments).  Please check second comment for info on correct Java 8 Version that is needed to get Virtual PRC to work with El Capitan System for Mac.