Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By Harmoncj Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:58 am
http://www.mpcstuff.com/cf-scsi-cpt.html
Image
this new? I can't believe I've never seen this before. It's about the same price people are asking for the scsi-ide bridge alone, and looks like a lot less hassle to install (but very ugly in comparison :lol: ).
Non-hot-swappable, ok whatever I can deal with that. I don't see much more info but I'm hoping:
A) it is somehow powered off the SCSI connection alone?
B) you can still use the floppy drive?

Anyone used this product?
By MPCHunter Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:33 am
distortedtekno wrote:That must be new. It's the first time I've seen it. I'm not sure how it's powered. But I'm sure you'll have no problem using the floppy drive.


Likely powered by the 5V Termination power line through the SCSI connector. That's why it's not "hot swap"

Looks similar to those CF to SCSI adapter boards that are used to replace SCSI Hard Drives in legacy servers.
By LADiego Tue Feb 18, 2014 3:59 pm
MPCHunter wrote:
distortedtekno wrote:That must be new. It's the first time I've seen it. I'm not sure how it's powered. But I'm sure you'll have no problem using the floppy drive.


Likely powered by the 5V Termination power line through the SCSI connector. That's why it's not "hot swap"

[quote]


I second that. I have never seen this either but looks pretty cool. But looks pretty ugly hanging outside the sampler. If it depends on the 5V termination power, that could be a problem with some of the MPC samplers out there that have the "missing" active termination power. I once had a spyrus drive (the one with the external power supply) connected to an mpc2000 and it did not work. But then found out that my mpc2000 was not supplying the 5v active termination. I found out that the spyrus drive (peripheral) required active termination from the sampler (host) to get it working. . . think I got that right? My sampler appeared to work fine until I found that any active termination dependent drives was connected and then the problem appeared.

So, if this "portable" reader follows the same idealogy as the spyrus drive that required 5v active termination and the sampler is not providing the active termination, then I believe reader will not work.

I had the same problem with an MPC3000. The active termination was missing in this sampler also. I had the sampler fixed and then the spyrus drive worked perfectly.

Just giving the heads up. It will be a big gamble with this portable reader if the sampler has this hidden and unknown problem.
By MPCHunter Tue Feb 18, 2014 9:11 pm
I knew that I saw this somewhere before and just realized where

http://www.artmix.com/CF_powermon_II.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-PowerMonster ... 3cdcc37ab6

and the adapter

http://www.artmix.com/BakMonolith.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stratos-BakMono ... 461ad18750

It is indeed powered off the Termination power but the there is an option to plug in an external power supply.
By Ron-Jay Wed Feb 19, 2014 5:21 am
i have just been wondering about a high capacity storage device that won't crash and burn like my 2 zip drives have. i have been jealous that the xl gets a cf reader. i need that. cuz i am knee deep in floppies.
By LADiego Tue Feb 25, 2014 2:42 am
Serattic wrote:Someone please explain to me again what the hot/nonhot swapable thing is?


hot swap == cf cards can be inserted and removed anytime without powering down card reader. This is beneficial if your files are spread across several different cf cards and you can work without interruption.

non hot swap == cf card must be inserted into card reader before powering on and cannot be removed until reader is powered off. this can be a problem if your work is spread across several cf cards. since cf card cannot be removed, all your files must be on that one card so you can work on your stuff without interruption.

hope this helps a little.
User avatar
By Universal Slanguage Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:49 am
I purchased this card reader from MPCStuff quite a while ago and haven't yet been able to get it working. I've tried bypassing the 5v active termination by using a compatible power supply, I've tried various cf cards, but I have made no progress. I've read that it requires a "fixed" cf card rather than a removable card, and I reckon there's a readable storage limit. If anybody out there has one installed and working I would really appreciate some advice.
By LADiego Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:07 pm
"bypassing 5v active termination by using a compatible power supply"

this will not work.

if you have a scsi zip drive handy, try daisy-chaining the scsi zip drive, the board, and mpc2000 to see if the board is recognized by the sampler. the scsi zip drive has built-in active termination and provides it to the scsi bus so everything on the bus gets active termination. i had a similar problem years ago with a card reader and my mpc2000 and tried this idea suggested to me by mpcstoragesolution.com and the card reader worked as long as i had the zip drive in the set-up. try it as a test to see if the board works. if the problem is active termination, then you know the board requires active termination and your sampler is missing active termination to provide to other attached scsi drives that require active termination.

since then i have tried other card readers that work perfectly with mpc2000 with missing active termination. some examples are the microtech pcd47b, scm microsystems pcd60b, microtech pcd25b, adtron card readers. i have tried all these card readers with success. the spyrus drive did have active termination issue and required scsi zip drive in setup to get it to work. the spyrus mcdisk 2 did not have issue and worked fine.

but do try this test to see what results you get.
User avatar
By Harmoncj Wed Sep 06, 2017 3:36 pm
Universal Slanguage wrote:I purchased this card reader from MPCStuff quite a while ago and haven't yet been able to get it working. I've tried bypassing the 5v active termination by using a compatible power supply, I've tried various cf cards, but I have made no progress. I've read that it requires a "fixed" cf card rather than a removable card, and I reckon there's a readable storage limit. If anybody out there has one installed and working I would really appreciate some advice.

What is the problem exactly? Is the card reader even recognized? Didn't it come with a 1GB card? Are you sure you 2k is terminated? I have 1 leftover SCSI fuse if you need it.
User avatar
By Universal Slanguage Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:12 am
This is my correspondence with support from mpcstuff.com:

Me- Hey, I received my SCSI external compact flash reader (https://www.mpcstuff.com/scsi-compact-f ... -mpc-3000/) but the card that came with it is not detected by my AKAI MPC 2000 Classic. Is there another card I should be using? Are there any useful tutorial links? This product is fairly undocumented in help forums online.

MPC Stuff: Did you ​format the card?

Me: I'm unable to format it within the MPC because it's undiscoverable. I boot my MPC via Floppy, then go to disk, and upon selecting the device field, and rotating counter clockwise my MPC just says "wait....

MPC Stuff: Sounds like maybe your SCSI fuse could be burnt out. Have you tried any other SCSI drives with it?

What SCSI number are you on when it says wait?

Me: I just discovered that issue upon doing further research last evening. Thank you. My zip drive is also unrecognized, so youreally likely correct. The mpc is set to search for scsi ID 7. I'm going to open her up today to check the fuse.

MPC Stuff: Likely the issue!
I have heard but not confirmed. A customer told me he had a dead fuse and was able to use a power supply with it to get it to work. Do you have the instructions it shows how. We sell the adapter for $28.00

-END correspondence

To my current understanding I should be able to boot my MPC via the SCSI CF Card Reader without a disk, using the cf card provided with. I'm unable to boot my OS without the floppy boot disk. When booting without the disk, or even the SCSI CF Card Reader I get a message that says "SCSI 7." I opened the machine up and checked the fuse in question and it looks fine. The MPC doesn't even recognize the zip drive when the drive is powered by the iomega zip adapter. I tried daisy chaining the card reader onto the disk drive, but I still can't boot it, or get the machine to recognize it. I'm lost.
User avatar
By Harmoncj Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:42 am
Universal Slanguage wrote:
To my current understanding I should be able to boot my MPC via the SCSI CF Card Reader without a disk, using the cf card provided with. I'm unable to boot my OS without the floppy boot disk. When booting without the disk, or even the SCSI CF Card Reader I get a message that says "SCSI 7." I opened the machine up and checked the fuse in question and it looks fine. The MPC doesn't even recognize the zip drive when the drive is powered by the iomega zip adapter. I tried daisy chaining the card reader onto the disk drive, but I still can't boot it, or get the machine to recognize it. I'm lost.

But you did change the fuse? Are you sure you're looking at the right fuse? It will show no signs of damage when it's dead, it looks exactly like a transistor with 2 pins. A good way to test is remove all scsi devices, boot from floppy, go to disk menu , select an scsi drive , the mpc will freeze if the fuse is blown.

Once you have it recognizing scsi drives... the last little detail is it seems you can't copy OS from your computer so be ready for that. You can boot from scsi like you want but you'll just need to copy the OS from floppy first.
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By richie Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:04 pm
Is terminate set/turned "ON" with the external zip drive?

Also, you can format the card to FAT on your computer, and copy the 1.72 sys file to the CF card. If the card is detected, it will boot fine.