Recommended Card Readers

Living Bate:

I wouldn't spend that much money for CF reader, and it is not even internal CF card reader. Especially, you have 2000XL, which has an internal IDE port, and you can install a CF card reader for less than 30 bucks. It's not hot-swappable, but I think it is far more convenient than having external data storage unit.

And, Stratos Technology sells SCSI internal CF reader that is compatible with 2000XL, which seems better option, and cheaper.

But, I see your point that you want to avoid opening MPC and install. But with around $300, you might be able to get another MPC.

Nothing special about installing an internal CF card reader... really.

The only thing you have to do is install OS1.2, unscrew and disconnect the floppydrive (4 screws and 2 cables)

Get your CF-reader, connect the 2 cables, drill 2 holes (or more if you want) in the CF-reader mount, and connect that to the casing with the screws from the floppydrive.

Use a 1GB sandisk card and you're done.

why are the external drives so ridiculously expensive?

where does the MPC Stuff bloke get them from?

Living Bate wrote:why are the external drives so ridiculously expensive?

where does the MPC Stuff bloke get them from?

Because they are external SCSI drives, and native SCSI drives are either not cheap, or they use a SCSI-IDE/ATAPI bridge in the external case connected to an IDE/ATAPI card reader, and again, the SCSI-IDE/ATAPI bridge is not cheap.

Plus, they are running a business, so have to factor in business overheads and profit margin to the price.

sjeff wrote:Nothing special about installing an internal CF card reader... really.

The only thing you have to do is install OS1.2

OS 1.20 is only required if the card reader is an IDE-CF adapter, if it is one of the few available IDE/ATAPI card readers which are compatible with the MPC2000XL, then you can use either OS 1.14 or 1.20.

Please excuse me if this one has been asked/answered already (I'll scroll all of the comments to see if the answer to my question already exists).

I just ordered a multicard drive from eBay. The seller's ad said that it is indeed hot-swappable and will include all cables I need. I been waiting on one for a while and putting up with these zip disks until I could find one for a price I could accept.

Can a CF, SD, or any other card be used as a READ ONLY source if the capacity is larger than 1GB? I'm hoping this is so, so that I can put my whole sample library on 1 or a few large CF cards from which I pull sounds to make my beats from... Then once done with a beat, I save my work to a 1GB CF card?

If I have to ONLY use 1GB sandisk CF cards, I'm good with that too. That would be better than my shoeboxes of ZIP disks...

logick wrote:sbaugnies i got a card reader a few months back from Digital Era an it cost me £11.49 GBP, im not sure if they still have them but i found a link to the same CF reader im usin its not hotswappable in the mpc 2000xl but it has hotswap function on a PC it came with a driver disk.

mine works great on my 2000xl and it was cheap.
the reader will only read a Sandisk CF, i got a 4gb card but it will only read 1048.2mb just over a gig.
i recommend this reader the link is below, hope this helps you out.

one more thing to use it as a master that the 2000xl requires set the jumper to pins 2+3 .

http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/101 ... rives.html

Wait, is this to say that although the card reader does not SHIP hot swappable, there is a driver disc that I can use to MAKE the card reader HOT SWAPPABLE??

SimonInAustralia wrote:

sjeff wrote:Nothing special about installing an internal CF card reader... really.

The only thing you have to do is install OS1.2

OS 1.20 is only required if the card reader is an IDE-CF adapter, if it is one of the few available IDE/ATAPI card readers which are compatible with the MPC2000XL, then you can use either OS 1.14 or 1.20.

Hi Simon,

Is there a list of these readers which is compatible with 1.14?

I have recently come into ownership of one of the blue 2GXLs, with a zip drive installed internally. I cannot get the zip drive to write to or read the zip disk I have. The MPC recognizes the ATAPI drive, it just says "No Disk". I have ordered a bunch of discs from ebay to further test this.

I am fairly certain that the drive is not suffering from the "click of death". It clicks twice when I first insert the disk, but never there after. The MPC can see the atapi drive in the save/load screen, it just will not do anything with.

I was prepared to just use floppy disks or zips, but if there is a CF reader that will work with my OS1.14 perhaps I should just do that?

Wallace wrote:

SimonInAustralia wrote:

sjeff wrote:Nothing special about installing an internal CF card reader... really.

The only thing you have to do is install OS1.2

OS 1.20 is only required if the card reader is an IDE-CF adapter, if it is one of the few available IDE/ATAPI card readers which are compatible with the MPC2000XL, then you can use either OS 1.14 or 1.20.

Hi Simon,

Is there a list of these readers which is compatible with 1.14?

I have recently come into ownership of one of the blue 2GXLs, with a zip drive installed internally. I cannot get the zip drive to write to or read the zip disk I have. The MPC recognizes the ATAPI drive, it just says "No Disk". I have ordered a bunch of discs from ebay to further test this.

I am fairly certain that the drive is not suffering from the "click of death". It clicks twice when I first insert the disk, but never there after. The MPC can see the atapi drive in the save/load screen, it just will not do anything with.

I was prepared to just use floppy disks or zips, but if there is a CF reader that will work with my OS1.14 perhaps I should just do that?

It sounds like only the zip disk you have is bad and that the zip drive is working just fine. Honestly? I would still use 1.20 even on a zip drive, and keep my files only 8 characters or less so that I can back the zip disks up on my computer. As a general rule, I advocate using OS 1.20 for running any ATAPI drive.

auscience wrote:
It sounds like only the zip disk you have is bad and that the zip drive is working just fine. Honestly? I would still use 1.20 even on a zip drive, and keep my files only 8 characters or less so that I can back the zip disks up on my computer. As a general rule, I advocate using OS 1.20 for running any ATAPI drive.

The only zip disk I have is one that came with the machine. It is a midi mark os 1.2 disc. I guess it's just busted. I should have some more delivered in a few days.

I don't think I have the facilities to back up discs. I only have an imac and an airbook.

ddrumguy wrote:

W. Steele wrote:+1

Would've saved me some cash cause I just got one from MPCstuff the other day for $100 to find out these $28 ones do the same job when I read this today .

Should've done some research before the impulse buy .

I completely understand where you are coming from... Time is a real issue for many people, myself included - sometimes people find it easier to spend the extra just to get something working - for me this was gonna be my last go round, if this reader didnt work I vowed to just sell the damn thing and go buy a maschine... I just dont have time to mess around with stuff like this anymore... dont feel too bad though, i had to buy two readers and another card to get a working solution oh and more (valuable) time trolling through forums to find out a card reader that actually worked....

OK so far we have

Dec 2010/Jan 2011

Addonics AEUDMACF - does NOT work
tried with the Sandisk ultra II 1gb card and also a Viking 512mb card
price paid (reader) $20.00, card (sandisk) $20.00 ebay

Addonics ADIDECFB - does work
tried both Sandisk ultra II 1gb card and also Viking 512mb card (both worked)
Price Paid -(reader) $20.00 ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/Addonics-ADIDECFB-I ... 3364b6f00d

ADIDECF & ADIDECFB both work - which card/s ?

MPCStuff reader (any part numbers on it?) Cards/s ?

just wondering if it would be helpful to list what we paid

So does the IDE PRO not work at all or just the hot swap capability?? I bought my 2kxl from a pawn shop and it's missing the power cord to the floppy drive.... so the only thing i could find is a floppy to molex.... the IDE PRO is powered by the molex. (so it reads) I can't find the floppy cord at a reasonable price, so I was hoping this was the answer to my storage issue.

ramosdjr wrote:So does the IDE PRO not work at all or just the hot swap capability??

Addonics AEUDMACF (IDE PRO) - It does NOT work at all. It won't even mount files and MPC-2000XL will stuck at booting phase.

I still have the AEUDMACF unit, unused...

I have an AEUDMACF and it does not work with my MPC 2000 XL. It may work with some as it appears some MPC's can work with it. I got into the firmware and after exhaustive testing the controller on the reader is actually a beta version that is actually an engineering sample. I bought it because I have an multi card addonics with the same controller that is able to work on my 2000 XL using Sandisk Ultra 2 gig cf cards. It will not format the cards however, but hot swap does work.

brandb wrote:I have an AEUDMACF and it does not work with my MPC 2000 XL. It may work with some as it appears some MPC's can work with it. I got into the firmware and after exhaustive testing the controller on the reader is actually a beta version that is actually an engineering sample. I bought it because I have an multi card addonics with the same controller that is able to work on my 2000 XL using Sandisk Ultra 2 gig cf cards. It will not format the cards however, but hot swap does work.

Interesting. There might be a different firmware that is compatible with XL. But, I don't know if there is firmware updater available for AEUDMACF.

The actual controller chip is a different revision on the AEUDMACF. I have a feeling it will work on a blue mpc 2000xl that came with an mcd or an mpc that was shipped with a zip drive. I went above the **** support at addonics who sent me a 0 byte firmware to flash... addonics is just a re-seller who implements reference specs from the actual controller developer.