Post your questions, opinions and reviews of the MPC1000. This forum is for discussion of the OFFICIAL Akai OS (2.1). If you wish to discuss the JJ OS, please use the dedicated JJ OS forum
By Mekishiko Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:23 am
*Disclaimer* I am not responsible if you break your machine!

In my 14 years in the IT field, I have realized one upsetting truth: Mechanical things sucks. Specifically: Hard Disk Drives.

Hard drives have the benefit of providing tons of storage space. They have their downfalls though:

1) The moving components use a lot of power and generate a lot of heat
2) The Moving parts are going to fail eventually, Laptop hard drives especially
3) They are sensitive to shock/movement (IE: Banging on your Pads)

So with that Idea in mind I decided to Mod my MPC1000 with a Compact Flash Drive Internally to act as the HD.

First you need the Hard drive installation Kit:
http://www.mpcstuff.com/hard-drive-install-kit.html
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Then you need a 2.5" Laptop Hard drive to CF Adapter that fits these requirements: It must be BOOTABLE, have NO DRIVERS NEEDED, and it MUST HAVE ALL 44 PINS and it can NOT REQUIRE A POWER ADAPTER.

This is the one I purchased from China on Ebay for about $4 after shipping:
http://search.stores.ebay.com/e2wholesale_cf_W0QQfciZQ2d1QQfclZ3QQfsnZe2wholesaleQQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsaselZ818968071QQsofpZ0

Next you need a large CF Card, and it has to be cheap in order for this setup to be worth-while. You could use a more expensive card and get better write-speeds, but that's up to you. I used the Adata 32GB CF Card available at newegg for $62 here (Mine was ordered 6 months ago so the label looks a little different):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211244

Here is my Adapter and Flash Card:
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On to the instructions:


-Power down your MPC1000 and remove the Face Plate:
Unscrew the 2 screws under the MPC
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-Unscrew the single flat screw on the front of the face plate next to the CF slot:
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-Take the HD kit and remove the Interface board from the chasis by removing the 2 screws:

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(IF YOU HAVE DOUBLE SIDED FOAM TAPE USE THAT TO MOUNT THE ADAPTER IN PLACE OF THE CARD/PLASTIC: STILL BE SURE TO BEND THE TAB DOWN AND PLACE A SQUARE OF DOUBLE SIDED TAPE ON THE TAB AS WELL)

-Then Get a peice of Plastic (I used an Anti Static Bag) and cut it to fit within the frame, and make it about 2 inches long. I also cut a piece of thin card stock to give further padding in order to prevent the CF adapter board from shorting on the bottom of the frame in case it were to poke through the bag. First I taped the Card stock down, then (this is important) Take your screwdriver, and Press the Screw Tab down (this is done because when the adapter is installed it will scratch the underside of the adapter where a vital trace is located):


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-Now take the peice of plastic you cut, slide it under the left tabe, and lay it OVER the right tab (The one you just bent down) and Tape it down (The arrow points to where the bag needs to be OVER the tab):

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-Screw the HD Interface Board that came with the kit back into place:

-Slide the CF Adapter board oriented ALL THE WAY TO THE RIGHT of the socket as illustrated (The pin sockets on the left will be left open, this is how you want it) and then slide your CF card into the Adapter:

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You are almost done! Slide the HD tray inside the MPC1000 and screw it in, install the Faceplate, and power on the machine. Press MODE+PAD2 and use the arrow keys to go to the HARD DISK and press WINDOW and F2 to Format your new 32GB Solid State Flash Drive! (It will show ~31GB because of drive geometry)

Now you never have to worry about your Hard Drive Crashing, and your MPC will run much cooler as well!

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Last edited by Mekishiko on Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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By mister k Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:02 pm
nice...
i wanna see some more hack-a-day style mods for the mpc.
wish i hadn't forked out for a hard drive now... how much was the cf card?
By Mekishiko Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:45 am
60 bucks, you can get a really fast one for about 80$ for 32GB but they are currently soldout at newegg.com

(Ridata)

im glad yall appreciate my experimentation.
By Mekishiko Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:10 am
The write speeed is bottlenecked by the usb 1.1 interface.so the write speed of your regular hdd is slowed by the usb.

The flash card in this tutorial writes significantly slower than the usb standard, so yes, if you got a faster card, you'd get better writev speeds (but not faster than a regular hdd)

And yes this works with jjos3.08 and jjos1 4.99 etc..
By Mekishiko Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:56 am
FredFrank wrote:is this faster or slower than the regular cf slot on the 1000?


Here is the Low down as far as speed and transferring files goes.

-The MPC1000 is fixed with a USB port that is either USB1.0 or USB1.1 (I am betting it's not USB2.0 because it seems to be transferring closer to the 12 Mega bits per second USB1.1 Specification) which is about 1.5 Mega Bytes Per Second

-When you are transferring to the MPC Hard Drive via USB the HD (Using a Quantum Fireball 20GB 2.5" 4500RPM as an Example) it has a transfer speed of about 100 Mega bits/Second (12.5 Mega Bytes/Second)........So in this case, the USB bus would be bottle necking the speed.

-When you transfer data to the CF slot via USB, the write speed of the card itself mainly dictates the speed, For Example a really cheap CF Card can write as slow as 4-12Mbps which is well in range of the USB1.1 Standard, but if you get a super cheap one that is lower on the spectrum (Say one that falls in the 4 or 5Mbps range) then you won't even be utilizing the full speed of the USB port. So in that case the Card itself would be dictating the speed.

-If you buy a good brand CF Card the write speeds can be upwards of 30-60Mega bits/second (7.5 Mega Bytes/Second) so in This case, the Cards faster speed would be bottlenecked by the USB bus of the MPC1000.

That is the general Idea, and I can't say I'm 100% positive that the USB port is USB1 or 1.1, but I am 90% sure, simply because of the overall slow transfer speed, and the fact that the Manual does a great job of leaving out the actual USB specification.

"USB Slave connector x 1, USB MASS STORAGE CLASS support
(You need Windows 2000/Me/XP or later version, or MacOS 9.x/10.x or later version. )"
By Mekishiko Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:55 am
FredFrank wrote:does that mean that the cf slot that is already on the 1000 is faster or slower than the internal mod cf slot with the same cf card?


the bottle neck is the USB port.

I don't know the actual speed that the CF adapter or Factory CF Port can transfer data, but I am sure it's well above the limit set by the USB port.

Which is why it just depends on what device you have plugged into the port (Either a hard drive, a cheap CF card, or an expensive CF card)

I know people hate to hear this, but it "Just depends"

go back and read my post regarding the speed differences if you want more background as to why it "Just depends"

:)
By xibalba1875 Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:36 pm
holy shite ballz hahaha dude this is so fking rad. im def giving this a shot with my mpc 1000.
By dtaa pla muk Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:54 pm
excellent work!!! no more spin up, spin down! cutting out moving parts is fantastic. i back up my stuff constantly and i haven't had a laptop hd fail in my mpc yet, but this is so much better of an idea.

my hat goes off to you, man.