Artmix/Stratos Technology - Storage Solutions

3K. wrote:My combo of both SCSI Adaptor and CR Reader came in yesterday

What was the total cost for this combo, as in the 2 items plus shipping costs?

€153,26 for both plus €26,58 customs duty.

I had mixed results with the cards at hand, I'm not complaining as this can be read here and in the manual. A list of cards known to work could come in handy, please contribute:

Confirmed working:
- SanDisk Ultra II 1GB (SDCFH) used

Not working or not recommended:
- Transcend CompactFlash 133x 4GB (TS4GCF133), new. Inserting the card immediately activates the red light just before the green one. The card won't be useable. However, when turning on the MPC with this card inserted, the card operates 100%, you just can't hotswap it as it goes back to the red light state.

Ran all sorts of tests on the cards I have access to, reading/writing/formatting/swapping and so on, as well as a scsi device copy of a ZIP disk and although this would be nifty in transferring old work, it does print the partition scheme of the ZIP as well. I ended up with 3 thirtysumptin' MB partitions on a 1GB card—not so clever at all. When copying stuff over from a ZIP, you'll likely forget to re-enable SCSI multi sector transfer mode, in which case loading ie. a 30MB project takes ages. If in any case you've f**ked up your CF card rendering it not-accessible when setting it active, and it just won't do anymore: Directly software format the card and don't set its ID before doing so, not making it active before the formatting procedure. Formatting it successfully renders it useable again. I've only found out about this after replacing an actually not-blown SCSI fuse (it was still conductive), but the good point was that I replaced it with a self-resetting type.

I'd love to read whether you folks left the active termination activated or set the jumper for termination on and if doing so (or not) had any effect. I remember an article about the now old skool way of implementing an internal ZIP on http://mpc3000.com/zip_install.htm

The termination turned out strange. The only way I could get the contraption to work is if the Zip drive was terminated, which is in the middle of the chain. Go figure.

I can't be arsed to open up the buddy again at this time and investigate further, I'm off using the MPC now as intended …

Thanks 3k,

So it's a bit cheaper than going the acard route. We have people selling cf kits with the acard for £220.00. We will see if the artmix stuff has any impact on that price. I think the majority of the cost is for the acard bridge itself.

Personally I prefer to use external cf and maintain access to floppies.

Got to install mine this weekend.
I had the checksum or allocation error when saving, turned off the multi-sector transfer and its working like a charm now !
My SCSI 26 to 50 pins dosent fit perfectly flush on the board even after rerouting some cable but thats not a big deal.

Im using some Sandisk Ultra II formatted in hybrid partition under Vailixi 3.50, no issue so far.

God these are sexy! Me want!!! I had a guy I met through ig showing me a flash drive mod he got working on a 2000 ..said he could be it on a 3000...anyone heard or done that? Im looking for this to be my mod of choice but I thought the flash drive thing was pretty cool.

The new designs are great news for the future, shame the drive faces look cheap and nasty, having the card poking out that far is also less than ideal.
I know what I prefer.

IIRC past CF reader kits from various sources featured multiple slots, of which only the CF slot was functional. Subterraneanly ugly in terms of design, but that was never an aspect of the conversions I guess. Fortunately something nice is only two Torx screws and your imagination away. An eject mechanism would indeed look nice, but would also add up in total costs and could possibly fail somewhere in the future. I'm only bothered by the yellowish buttons my 3k has, but those who have spares can't be bothered to sell them …

The kits I now use and supply are black hotswap single slot cf drives that look fantastic. I have also designed an all in one scsi cable that removes the need for any adaptors/ extra pcbs or brackets. This also allows for an external port to remain functional.

The availability and cost of these new drives is fantastic news for most people and whilst the function is equal the black hotswap single slot drives look so much better.

I am not at all dissing this product, I just personally feel that a lot of work has not been given the cosmetic finish it deserves and that the little pcb adaptor is almost a lazy choice for someone who could easily design the perfect product.

Not a storage solution, but it's definitely Stratos
Got it yesterday after a 3 week long journey from far Japan:

Other than swapping cards and saving "All seqs & songs" + "All programs" onto another CF card, what other automated backup strategies are suggested, when there is only one CF reader available? The "Copy a SCSI hard disk" function is one hell of a nice feature IF there's another SCSI based medium available, but I'd rather use some block-level based Linux/OS X/Windows tool than propping the ZIP drive (I'd rather sell anytime now) for that purpose. Pity is, there isn't a copy scheme like "Copy a floppy disk" for our CF readers.

Edit:
Might as well try it with 'dd'.
Determine the block size by calling "diskutil info /dev/rXX#“, then call "dd bs=BLOCKSIZE if=/dev/rXX# of=/some_dir/CF_Clone.dmg conv=noerror,sync". Linux and OS X, can't say anything for Windows based PCs.

I just came across this. Sounds great. Do you have to buy the cf drive and a separate kit?

Thanks,
Matt

mhussey77 wrote:I just came across this.

Read any of it?

There a lots of variations from Artmix, mostly sold in modular form or plug n play kits.

Lol. both

I was wondering if buying the cf raizinmonster came with the cables needed to hook it up internally as part of the package? Or do you need the mpc 3000 connection kit too?

I made the purchase off ebay fight now for just the CF raizinmonster and asked the seller if I needed the additional cables.

From what I've read, you can only use the PowerMonster with the BakMonolith and not the RaizenMonster? I would prefer my CF reader to be external but you cannot hot swap with the PowerMonster. Has anyone has issues with this setup, specifically not being able to hotswap?