My CF Reader install story

well not quite a story but a quick break down:

So all who need info todo it, believe me it's in here ....search.
Any prob you are likely to encounter.... search
pti
So my install failed, as in the MPC cant seen the drive, no APTI for me.

I updated the OS to 1.20
I switched the jumpers,
inversed the IDE cable in all possible combinations
tried the IDE cable and the card reader and card on a PC and they all worked.

Basically lots of eliminating all probables.

So my final diagnosis comes to the card.

Its a 2 gig Silicon Power card.

At this stage I cant think of any other possible reason this wouldnt work on the MPC other than the MPC doesnt like the card brand or possibly the size. Though there seems to be lots of dispute over which card size works (1 gig and under vs over 1 gig)

Im going to try and find a smaller card.

ha, it was unreal how hard it was even to find a 2 gig card. They were all 8+ gig. When I enquired about a 1 gig card people looked at me like they were George Jetson and I was Barney Rubble...so it looks like scrounging about is required to find a small card in my neck of the woods

If anyone has any ideas I should try to get the 2 gig working feel free to drop a post in here. Other than that I thought peeps may find it interseting to now about the Silicon Power cards

1 gb kingston CF and 1 gb sandisk both worked in my machine.

so I got my hands on a 2nd hand Kodak 256MB card to try and sure enough it works.

The hardset part currently is rigging up a an old floppy drive to house the card reader.

heist wrote:so I got my hands on a 2nd hand Kodak 256MB card to try and sure enough it works.

The hardset part currently is rigging up a an old floppy drive to house the card reader.

truth right there.. cosign



it took like a half a role of electrical to make a proper mount for the cf reader... but it beats spending 100+ bones on one of the overpriced ones. looks < functionality.

yeah its becoming a struggle to line up all the relevant screw holes and still allow the bottom of the mpc to be put on without anyscrews in the way from the card reader..all of this while trying to get so the card is accessible and can be pulled out easily

word to the tape.

I may have to try that approach.

how did you deal to it with tape if you mind trying to explain...?

That's why I went with the Addonics with the included drive bay.

About CF cards, I went through a few till I found a 256mb Ridata card that worked. Oddly enough, I formatted the card on my PC and it said it was just 120MB...I formatted it on the MPC and it then read what it was supposed to be when I checked it back on the PC.

I also found out that if you put the card into the PC and then go to Computer Management to format you get different options than just inserting and trying to format from My Computer. I wonder if this would have made a difference with the first 1GB Delkin cards I tried.

happyhour wrote:That's why I went with the Addonics with the included drive bay.

yeah but how much did that cost you?

my card reader was $1.29 including shipping.


i made a support inside the shell of the floppy drive and i used tape to fasten it down by the part where the ide cable plugs into the adapter. the front of the floppy drive (the old slot) holds the front in quite firmly... and before putting that into the mpc i taped around it so it wouldn't slip around... it is solid. you cant see any tape from the outside.

Thanks guys,

interesting point about the card being formatted via computer management. I may try that. Otherwise I have spent twice as much on a card (that I cant use) than everything has cost to set this up.

so the tape....

you use this instead of screwing the card reader to the floppy enclosure ? I think this could be the way to go. Initially I was concerned about the floppy bit not closing when I took the card out cause I thought dust and stuff may get into the MP. ...but overall I think it should be okay.

Other than the card that I dont need...at the most I have spent approx $40 US . This includes the card reader, a new card , an old floppy enclosure, screws and all the small things. In hind sight i think it coould be done even cheaper..but the cards are the big cost. Better than anything else though IMO

mr_debauch wrote:yeah but how much did that cost you?

my card reader was $1.29 including shipping.

It was around the $30 mark. I did read the entire "cheap CF reader" thread, and it was tempting to go that route. Unfortunately, I don't have access to many tools at the moment so I wasn't up to experimenting with how to mount a bayless reader. Matter of fact, the drill that I used for 2 holes I bought and returned to Wallmart the next day. My ordeal was complicated anyway because I ended up needing to find and buy a damn compatible floppy drive and that would have been the case regardless of what reader I copped.

It was all worth it though.

well that's good... i had the floppy drive lying around... it didn't even work. I didn't screw the reader into it because there were no holes to screw into..

te cf reader i bought was purchased before the cheap cf reader thread was made.. so I didn't want to spend 30 bucks to find out it wouldn't work. I wasn't sure what the specs required were so I took a 1 dollar chance and it worked.

it doesn't look as good as te company manufactured ones... but it works just as well... if i could have gone scsi i would have, but that was not in my price range.