Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By Gemfire Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:31 pm
Hey guys!
First post on the forum.
I've purchased a classic about two months ago from eBay and I've been struggling with the Internal SCSI mod for some time now.
I've decided to go the way that distortedtekno showed in this thread
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=175596
I got all the cables and adapters and what a surprise - it's not working.
I've soldered the wires to the pcb
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Then i connected it all to a MO drive.

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The MPC scans all the SCSI IDs and it's not there.
I've tried different jumper combinations on the drive itself with no luck.
The drive is a Fujitsu MCR3230SS I got from eBay and it's 100% working. I've tested it on a PC.
So I found another MO drive which is a Fujitsu M2513A6U. The MPC gets stuck on whichever SCSI ID I put the drive on while scanning.
At this point I have no clue what to do next. The SCSI fuse was broken when I got this machine so I've replaced it already.
Maybe someone has any suggestions?
If nothing works I think I'd buy another 2000 classic mainboard, if someone has any spare ones
Thanks!
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By JUKE 179r Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:44 pm
Sell the MPC2000, buy an MPC2000XL, install a SCSI2SD card in it and be done with it.
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By richie Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:00 pm
I have a feeling that there is a jumper not set on the MO drive to cause that malfunction.
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By Harmoncj Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:27 pm
Good news is you already did the hard part so I bet you can figure it out!

Maybe dumb questions but I'm just spitballing here

-did you jumper the power cables correctly so that the drive is receiving power?
-are 100% sure the wires are going to the correct #slot on the adaptor? Looks a little messy visually, you might want to verify each one by using a multimeter to do a continuity test.
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By distortedtekno Fri Feb 23, 2018 2:22 am
I'm with all those suggestions. Also, try connecting the drives to the external SCSI connection in order to go through the process of elimination. You'll know by then what's going on with your jumper settings and your internal wiring. I'm confident that you'll get it working since you were able to get this far with it. Let us know what you come up with.
By JVC Fri Feb 23, 2018 4:01 pm
I've done this mod (I posted it here long time ago.) I checked your pictures. Here's what I suggest:

I'd suspect that wiring is not done correctly.

First thing first, you must check all the soldered points. make sure that there is absolutely no shorts.
They are very close to each other, and there is no easy way to check.
I used teflon wires for the project. teflon wires won't melt with soldering irons, therefore less chance of shorting.
It is much more expensive then regular wire, but it was worth it.
There isn't a lot of room between the PCB board and metal enclosure. It seems that those wires were soldered vertically to PCB board.

Therefore, there might be shorts between wires, or that there might be shorts between soldered point(s) and metal enclosure.
Also, you must check the order of each wire. There are 25 wires! It is so easy to make mistake.
I'd put label on EACH wires, so that you won't make mistake.
(I did label each soldered wires.)

As far as I remember, added SCSI port worked right away, it wasn't fussy at all, either it'll work, or it won't.

I remember that it took a whole day to finish the project. (Taking down MPC-2000 classic is a already a lot of work.) I think it was a cool project, but I wouldn't do it again!
I'd just route SCSI connection from the back, to inside the case, using a hole for SMPTE in/out.
(I sold the modded MPC-2000 classic and got 2000XL. 2000XL is easy to open, supports file directory, and screen can tilt, and cheap to add CF reader. XL is much easier to deal with.)
By Gemfire Fri Feb 23, 2018 4:30 pm
Thanks for the advice JVC!

TodayI remembered that i have a DB25 cable so I decided to check the external port of the MPC.
I've connected it to the db25 to 50 pin adapter and it's the same story.
One of the drives is not detected at all and with the second drive the MPC freezes while scanning the SCSI IDs.
So at this point it must be either a bad DB25 to IDC50 adapter or something on the MPC's motherboard I thought.
Then I took the multimeter and strted checking every connection for continuity and shorts and it seems that this damn adapter which I bought for 40 euros sends ground signal to all the connectors on the 50 pin cable. So this must be the problem.
I'm still waiting for the ZIP drive to double check the external port and if it's working then I'll try to resolder the ribbon cable directly to the PCB.
I'll post updates
Thanks!
By JVC Wed Feb 28, 2018 2:49 pm
...
Then I took the multimeter and strted checking every connection for continuity and shorts and it seems that this damn adapter which I bought for 40 euros sends ground signal to all the connectors on the 50 pin cable. So this must be the problem.
...

I think it is normal. You'd get that result. They are NOT isolated when the unit is off. What is why I said that it won't be easy to troubleshoot. It is very unlikely that your adapter is faulty. If you want to test the adapter you have to remove all the wires before you do it.
By Gemfire Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:31 pm
So I took my friend's ZIP and connected it to external port and it works.
Then I tried to connect it to the new internal port and it didn't work. In the end I decided to ditch all those connectors and adapters and took my MPC to a a friend's repair shop and they re-soldered the 50 pin ribbon cable directly to the motherboard, and it works! Should've done this in the first place, could have saved me 50$ and two moths of my life. Now I just need to assemble it all together and find a way to dump the OS to a MO Disk and it's all set. Thanks again for your suggestions. Cheers.
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By distortedtekno Wed Mar 07, 2018 10:53 pm
Glad to see you got it sorted out. As for copying the OS to an MO disk, you'll need to connect the drive to the external connection and have the floppy drive connected internally with the OS disk loaded since the MPC requires reading the OS from the floppy to copy to the SCSI drive. You won't have luck copying the OS to SCSI any other way.
By Gemfire Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:42 am
distortedtekno wrote:Glad to see you got it sorted out. As for copying the OS to an MO disk, you'll need to connect the drive to the external connection and have the floppy drive connected internally with the OS disk loaded since the MPC requires reading the OS from the floppy to copy to the SCSI drive. You won't have luck copying the OS to SCSI any other way.
\
Actually I took the MO drive and connected it to a PC with a SCSI board, formatted it to FAT and and just copied the OS files. Then I put the MO drive back into the MPC and it works flawlessly now. Finally time to make some music.
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By distortedtekno Sat Mar 10, 2018 3:31 pm
Gemfire wrote:
distortedtekno wrote:Glad to see you got it sorted out. As for copying the OS to an MO disk, you'll need to connect the drive to the external connection and have the floppy drive connected internally with the OS disk loaded since the MPC requires reading the OS from the floppy to copy to the SCSI drive. You won't have luck copying the OS to SCSI any other way.
\
Actually I took the MO drive and connected it to a PC with a SCSI board, formatted it to FAT and and just copied the OS files. Then I put the MO drive back into the MPC and it works flawlessly now. Finally time to make some music.

Hey, you're right. I just tested it myself and it works. Years ago I read that only the MPC would copy the OS as I suggested. Maybe it was in the manual or mentioned here in the forums. I even thought I had tried copying the OS from the PC and had no luck. But my memory escapes me. I'm glad to know it works in order to save a lot of time and frustration. Thanks for letting me know. :)