i just had to share my triumph

just installed a CF-Flash Atapi card reader in my 2kXL (and i just had to share my accomplishments with the fam)

took me a little while to get installed (all day) and also ran into a problem with the power cable (my naivety), but found a simple solution (JD from scsicardreaders.com pointed out my naivety)

here are pics!







got the drive here - $30!
http://scsicardreaders.com/cf-ide.asp

i dont know if this the right forum for this post so moderators bump/move if necescescessceary. im stoned... peace

[quote="mumkai"]just installed a CF-Flash Atapi card reader in my 2kXL (and i just had to share my accomplishments with the fam)

got the drive here - $30!
[url]http://scsicardreaders.com/cf-ide.asp[/url

Congrats! DId I hear right when you said it's ATAPI. DOesn't this mean it is hot-swappable. I heard no CF readers were hot swappable. Maybe I am wrong though.

Congratulations on the install, mumkai! (and pass that thing over here). I will take blame on the confusion about the power plug and I am updating my installation manual today with more pictures that show the two different power plug situations an installer might encounter. So your problem will result in an easier installation for others down the road.

Khaki, there are hot swappable cards readers - they are just hard to find and expensive when you do find one. For instance, I have a Microtech PCD-47B drive available right now on my website and it has three card slots, all of them hot swappable. Most of the Microtech drives support hot swapping, as well as the Spyrus MCDISK and MCDISK-2 drives.

If this kit comes with a power cable and mounting chassis with two screw holes on the bottom, then this is really good deal.
That mounting chassis is hard to drill, the metal is really hard. Plus, you have to make two holes in the precise positions.

For Khaki, the CF reader is not ATAPI, it is non-ATAPI IDE CF reader. Most of ATAPI CF reader do not work with XL.

JVC wrote:If this kit comes with a power cable and mounting chassis with two screw holes on the bottom, then this is really good deal.
That mounting chassis is hard to drill, the metal is really hard. Plus, you have to make two holes in the precise positions.

For Khaki, the CF reader is not ATAPI, it is non-ATAPI IDE CF reader. Most of ATAPI CF reader do not work with XL.

Yes, it comes with all of those things, as well as a 1.2 floppy disk for upgrading the os. If you need a zip disk instead, that is an extra $5.00.

The CF Flash card reader that we sell is definitely an ATAPI card reader. We have compatible 1GB CF cards available as part of a CF Flash package and it comes formatted, with over 1000 killer drum samples in four folders. You can see it all on the website at the link posted above.

scsicardreaders.com wrote:Congratulations on the install, mumkai! (and pass that thing over here). I will take blame on the confusion about the power plug and I am updating my installation manual today with more pictures that show the two different power plug situations an installer might encounter. So your problem will result in an easier installation for others down the road.

Khaki, there are hot swappable cards readers - they are just hard to find and expensive when you do find one. For instance, I have a Microtech PCD-47B drive available right now on my website and it has three card slots, all of them hot swappable. Most of the Microtech drives support hot swapping, as well as the Spyrus MCDISK and MCDISK-2 drives.

Thanks for the clarification! When I heard from somebody else that hot-swappable Cf's did not exist I was really surprised. I guess it's time to pick one of these up.

Khaki

scsicardreaders.com wrote:Khaki, there are hot swappable cards readers - they are just hard to find and expensive when you do find one. For instance, I have a Microtech PCD-47B drive available right now on my website and it has three card slots, all of them hot swappable. Most of the Microtech drives support hot swapping, as well as the Spyrus MCDISK and MCDISK-2 drives.

I know it is not intensional, but it sounds like the IED CF reader you are selling is hot-swappable (it is not, is it?)

scsicardreaders.com wrote:Yes, it comes with all of those things, as well as a 1.2 floppy disk for upgrading the os. If you need a zip disk instead, that is an extra $5.00.

The CF Flash card reader that we sell is definitely an ATAPI card reader. We have compatible 1GB CF cards available as part of a CF Flash package and it comes formatted, with over 1000 killer drum samples in four folders. You can see it all on the website at the link posted above.

Good deal for $30. But I don't think your IDE CF reader is ATAPI.
As far as I know, non-hot-swappable IDE devices are not ATAPI devices, they are ATA devices. The Zip drive on XL is ATAPI drive.
The hot-swappable multi-card reader that Akai used to handle with XL (one that hard to get), it is ATAPI device.
ATAPI protocol was introduced to extend support for removable media like ZIP drives and tape drives.

Sure, that is correct. The drive is not technically ATAPI because it doesn't support swapping media, like a Zip drive. But it is easier to refer to them as ATAPI drives (since they are not SCSI drives) and since the MPC shows it as a ATAPI drive (next to the Device field), I will probably continue calling them ATAPI drives. I don't think most folks will mind.

Fun fact: ATAPI drives actually use the SCSI protocol for all data transfers, with an ATA front end slapped on. ATAPI stands for "ATA Packet Interface" and the packets contain embeded SCSI commands and responses. This allows any device that already has a SCSI command set defined to be used in an ATA appplication and by front-ending it with an ATA electrical interface, you can easily bring that device "onboard".