Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By phili blunt Mon May 08, 2006 5:38 am
if theres any on here. im looking to buy an internal card reader and im wondering if theres any stores or someone (that has an extra one layin around) that might carry the type of card reader you need to install in the mpc? id rather cop it same day instead of ordering it online. but, if i have to order it online (didnt find any on ebay) are there any stores online with a good reputation to order from??

need some help please. it would be much appreciated.

By slickslack Mon May 08, 2006 2:32 pm
I looked for stuff in all the grey market computer stores on College St. but had no luck. I have no soldering or electronic experience so I eventually ordered the MCD kit from VST. Worked great and was easy to install, even for me. The only "gotcha" was the heavily photocopied sheet of instructions had one mistake about the master/slave pin set up but this forum solved that and I have been SLOWLY moving my stuff off of a 250MB Zip on to 128 and 32MB CF cards.
slick
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By poast pr Mon May 08, 2006 3:07 pm
hey u can go to http://www.picco.nl/product_info.php?products_id=1542

It's a store in The Netherlands. I'ts a strange thing though... it's like €33,- now... when i copped it a few weeks back it was €24,-.... :shock:

But with shipping costs and paying at the door i had to pay €50,-. (i'ts like €20,- to pay at the door).

For u you it could be less even though u live in the US, they don't charge somuch for shipping, just pay with bank or sumthin before they send...

I know it's a far way from the US but it will do... This one will definitly work!

By phili blunt Tue May 09, 2006 5:14 am
what is vst? whats the site adress? i will order online from an american retailer if its cheaper even if you convert usd to cdn dollars.

By slickslack Tue May 09, 2006 12:29 pm
This is VST
http://www.vstservice.com/
and
This is the link to the MCD kit from VST's webstore
http://1226354.estore.networksolutionsd ... l.bok?no=5

Don't forget you'll also get hit for customs brokerage charges. If I did it again I would try to have FedEx pick it up for me rather than have UPS deliver it as UPS tends to charge way more to get new stuff across the border and their service is less than stellar.

By monumental Tue May 09, 2006 11:54 pm
hey the problem is you are not going to be able to find it in canada enless it's some hole in the wall place, and even then i couldn't get it. I got mine off ebay, always a good bet.

By phili blunt Thu May 11, 2006 2:02 pm
im not looking to get one on ebay as i havent lifited the limit on my paypal. so does anyone know of any online stores in north america with a decent priced internal card reader for the xl?

By slickslack Thu May 11, 2006 2:05 pm
Do people feel that the VST kit is overpriced?
I found it convenient one-stop-shopping and really easy to install.
I know I could have tried ebay and I did for a while but checking constantly got old really quick.
jus' wonderin'
slick

By studio4942 Fri May 12, 2006 3:47 pm
These cardread questions are bountiful around here.

This is what I did as far as buying and installing a cardreader in my MPC2000XL:

VST http://www.vstservice.com sells the entire MCD cardreader kit for around $150.00 plus shipping. Don't buy the whole kit. You can purchase the cardreader drive from the place I listed below. You only need to purchase the IDE data (ribbon) cable and IDE power cable from VST. You will need to call them to order it. The cables will cost you about $32.00, $16.00 for data cable & $10.00 for the power cable, plus shipping. The advantage of buying these cables from VST is that you won't have to do any of the wire cutting and soldering of the power cable that you'll find described in some installation instructions. Their cables are "plug-n-play".

I purchased the MCD(cardreader drive)from Synchrotech http://www.synchrotech.com/products/card-rw_32.html for about $51.00.

With both of these companies the product was shipped immediately and I received them in about 3-4 days.

Suggestion(really a must): Purchase a Compact flash card and another of the types of cards that the MCD reads. You'll want to be able to test both slots after installing the MCD.

Installation instructions:
I know fools already know that you need to unplug the power to your MPC first, right?

Remove the screws from around the edge of the bottom panel.

Remove the two machine screws that are in the valley/indent on the bottom.

Remove the bottom panel

Disconnect the floppy drive's power and ribbon cable from the circuit board. (you'll have to cut the tie holding the cables together unless you want to leave the floppy power cable chillin in your MPC, if you do leave the cables, you also have to disconnect the power cable from the floppy drive).

Remove the 2 other machine screws near the front of the drive, and slide the drive out.

Before you connect the power and data cable to the MCD make sure the MCD drive's jumper is set properly.This is important because the drive will only read and recognize the compact flash slot and ignore the other slot if the jumper is not set properly. Trust me, you'll want to make sure you set the jumper properly before you close your machine back up.

Here's a picture of the jumper:
Image

Note: The back of your drive may not look exactly like this picture but the jumper should be located in this spot.

The jumper is circled. It basically connects two of the pins on the back of the drive. It slides off like a pen-cap (use needle-nose pliers to slide if off and on. And son, it slides off and on easy, so don't be yanking and twisting shit. If you have to wrestle with this little cap then something ain't right. But I'm sure you won't have any problem). There’s 2 pins that it slides onto (it has 2 holes) Slide it vertically onto the two pins closest to the ribbon cable. So it should look like this:

POWER : [:] RIBBON

the : are the pins and the [] is the jumper on the pins. So from left to right its: Power cable, empty pins, jumper on pins then ribbon cable. Now attach the power cable to the MCD drive. Attach the ribbon cable to the MCD drive.

Slide the drive in. Attach the power cable to where the floppy power was connected. Attach the ribbon cable to the socket that the floppy WAS NOT connected to. Connect it to the longer socket to the right (if the front of the machine is toward you).

Test your MCD before you put everything back together. Screw in at least one screw that holds the MCD drive to the MPC, flip your machine up-right, power it up and test the drive. Make sure that it's recognizing both slots.

Put everything back together, but replace the other 2 machine screws in the valley/indent with the shorter supplied machine screws.