Downgrade from ZIP to Floppy

Hi guys,

I want to downgrade from the internal IDE ZIP to SCSI Floppy, and make the 2000xl stock again. My internal ZIP died and I read that most ZIP drives die over time. I'm planning to use a external ZIP from now on.

I alreay found a SCSI floppy drive that's from a mpc2000/s2000. So that should work. It is delivered with the correct flat cable, so I guess I'm good.

The only thing is, how should the correct power cable look like? I really don't want to pay a mpc stuff for a simple cable I can bring back in original state.

PS, no I don't want to use CF. Maybe I'll buy a 2500 in the near future

Kind regards!

Lazy Ray wrote:Hi guys,

I want to downgrade from the internal IDE ZIP to SCSI Floppy, and make the 2000xl stock again. My internal ZIP died and I read that most ZIP drives die over time. I'm planning to use a external ZIP from now on.

I alreay found a SCSI floppy drive that's from a mpc2000/s2000. So that should work. It is delivered with the correct flat cable, so I guess I'm good.

The only thing is, how should the correct power cable look like? I really don't want to pay a mpc stuff for a simple cable I can bring back in original state.

PS, no I don't want to use CF. Maybe I'll buy a 2500 in the near future

Kind regards!

THIS WAS WRONG! YOU NEED this cable.

Thanks mate! So, the 2000xl didn't have a SCSI floppy drive as stock?

Lazy Ray wrote:Thanks mate! So, the 2000xl didn't have a SCSI floppy drive as stock?

No Floppy was IDE

Really?

So I can grab any IDE floppy drive? Hmm.. Great?!

What was the internal SCSI for then? I mean, officially Akai didn't support internal ZIP and the CF just came years later.

Lazy Ray wrote:Really?

So I can grab any IDE floppy drive? Hmm.. Great?!

What was the internal SCSI for then? I mean, officially Akai didn't support internal ZIP and the CF just came years later.

Any internal floppy drive will work. The MPC 2000XL has ribbon connector for ide and scsi inside.

Great. So the power cable is just a standard cable like in every 'old' computer? Because I can see on the photo in this topic viewtopic.php?f=1&t=168898 that there are only two wires in the power cable. Not four.

And, I'm still curious: what was the purpose of the internal SCSI, since CF in the blue 2kxl came years later.

Thanks!

Lazy Ray wrote:Great. So the power cable is just a standard cable like in every 'old' computer? Because I can see on the photo in this topic viewtopic.php?f=1&t=168898 that there are only two wires in the power cable. Not four.

And, I'm still curious: what was the purpose of the internal SCSI, since CF in the blue 2kxl came years later.

Thanks!

Corrections:

Great man, thanks! I'll let you know if it works

the internal scsi was just what it sounds like - so you could put an internal scsi device in if you wanted. hard drive, zip, w/ever. zip was official eventually, i believe.

and not most zips will die, ALL zip will die, get away while you can.

i cant remember if it was 2 or 4 cables but either should work. you should open it up and see where its getting power from right now - it is a standard connector. i hate to muddy the waters here but i dont think the cable posted is correct. the spot where you get power from the motherboard is not molex like that, it is smaller and flatter, look at the one in the mpc-stuff page:
https://www.mpcstuff.com/mpc-2000xl-flo ... bles-used/


i could be wrong, or maybe there is another place to tap power, but as i recall, i had to fabricate a cable like the one posted, because the stock floppy power cable did not have that bigger connecter. maybe some floppy drives do use that bigger connector. i'm also not entirely clear if ANY drive will work, but yes, i think it is pretty agreeable.

another solution if you'd like to half-upgrade, a floppy emulator is cool cause it still works just like floppies, you just only need one sd card.

tapedeck wrote:the internal scsi was just what it sounds like - so you could put an internal scsi device in if you wanted. hard drive, zip, w/ever. zip was official eventually, i believe.

and not most zips will die, ALL zip will die, get away while you can.

i cant remember if it was 2 or 4 cables but either should work. you should open it up and see where its getting power from right now - it is a standard connector. i hate to muddy the waters here but i dont think the cable posted is correct. the spot where you get power from the motherboard is not molex like that, it is smaller and flatter, look at the one in the mpc-stuff page:
https://www.mpcstuff.com/mpc-2000xl-flo ... bles-used/


i could be wrong, or maybe there is another place to tap power, but as i recall, i had to fabricate a cable like the one posted, because the stock floppy power cable did not have that bigger connecter. maybe some floppy drives do use that bigger connector. i'm also not entirely clear if ANY drive will work, but yes, i think it is pretty agreeable.

another solution if you'd like to half-upgrade, a floppy emulator is cool cause it still works just like floppies, you just only need one sd card.

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you are correct. This is the right one, the other came hard drive in my other mpc 2000xl

CharlesRandolph wrote:The cable I posted came from an unmodified, OEM MPC 2000XL's

maybe it had an upgraded floppy drive - all the floppy drives i've pulled out of samplers used that smaller connector.

we could both be right - most every sampler i've modified i definitely had to fabricate that cable because the floppy drive had a different kind of connector, not molex



not saying yer wrong, but whoever is doing this upgrade needs to make sure to get the right one.

tapedeck wrote:

CharlesRandolph wrote:The cable I posted came from an unmodified, OEM MPC 2000XL's

maybe it had an upgraded floppy drive - all the floppy drives i've pulled out of samplers used that smaller connector.

we could both be right - most every sampler i've modified i definitely had to fabricate that cable because the floppy drive had a different kind of connector, not molex
not saying yer wrong, but whoever is doing this upgrade needs to make sure to get the right one.

You are 1000000000% correct!

Lazy Ray wrote:Great man, thanks! I'll let you know if it works

As TAPE DECK POINTED OUT! That was the wrong cable for your floppy drive. You need this one.

thanks for confirming - you def want to check what kind of cable your drive needs.

also just for some education, if you are making your own cable, the yellow and red wires are for different voltages, and you need to make sure you get the right one. one is +5v and the other is +12v. you can check which is which easily with a voltmeter - wit the cable plugged into the mpc motherboard, and the mpc powered on, put the ground of the voltmeter on the black wire and the other probe on either the red or yellow wire...you will get either 12 or 5 volts.

the floppy only uses one of these.