Hard drive and CF in the 2kxl?

Lampdog wrote:he he he.

hahaha

Von wrote:JUKE 179r please feel free to chime in..

JUKE chiming in...

Aight... my setup for my SCSI card reader (*CR) & IDE internal 9GB laptop HD working together is SCSI... sort of... so let me explain the whole procedure...

First I had to modify the power cable from the MPC circuit board for 2 connections of all 4 pins of the molex connectors for the CR & the SCSI to IDC50 converter board.
Starting from the internal SCSI port on the MPC circuit board, I got a 2 drive (3 connection) IDE-50 SCSI ribbon cable


connected to my Microtech PCD-47B SCSI CR,

* Good luck finding these anymore. I paid $32 on eBay in '04 and they go for $150 now.

The 3rd SCSI connector on the ribbon cable I got connected to the 2.5" SCSI to IDC50 converter (refer to http://www.mpc2000xl.com/Internalhd.htm),
which is connected to the IDE to SCSI converter unit,
which is connected to my 9Gb IDE laptop HD. I got it all velcroed to the inside so it won't move.
I was going to drill holes in the bottom for air flow but the smaller laptop HD doesn't really get that hot when in use.

My 2KXL is running OS 1.14C which I am able to use all 3 slots on the card reader and the OS1.14 (OS1.2 WILL NOT WORK!!!!) partitioned the 9GB HD into 9 partitions (A-I) of 990Mb's each.

The hardest part of all of this was the damn Microtech CR. I had to figure out which jumpers settings allowed each slot to be noticed by the MPC as it's own SCSI ID#.
Also I had to upgrade the firmware to allow the CR to not just just read but also write to a compactcard.
And before someone asks... Yes... the external SCSI port in the back still functions for use of my SCSI CD reader.

The Pro's of doing this...
All it really is is an extended-crazy-azz-supercharged version of the flash ROM's 8Mb's vs HD of 9 partitions of 990 Mb's is right there for you to use.
Since the CR has 3 card slots, it's like having 3 more HD's.
It's a hell of alot faster saving/loading my samples and .pgm's.
More portable, but yet still bulky.
Plus I wanted to see if I could make it all work together.

The Con's...
If the HD dies, I'm FKd, but... I save everything to compactcards and backup to my external HD.
Saving to the HD is done only by loading from flashcards or sampling directly into the MPC. No connecting the MPC to a PC via SCSI and retrieving/loading samples to/from HD. It won't work.

Next up...
I want to reposition the green LED on the IDE to SCSI converter unit to the top of the MPC. It's just a visual to show that the HD is being accessed.
Also to maybe add a double pole/double throw push button switch to turn the power off to the HD when I'm working on a track and not using it. It's not loud but I would want to cut down on wear and tear of the HD since it is old.
I got plenty of time to work that though...

scsiforsamplers.com wrote:You might be able to use an 8GB CF card (if your card reader supports cards that big) but the MPC2000 Classic and XL will only format and use 1GB of the card. That is a built-in limitation of the operating system on removable media.

how is that possible?
when the cf card is fitted in a compact flash adaptor, wich is connected to the ide to scsi, wich is connected to the scsi that has no problem reading up to 9 gb?does the card tell the machine "hey, I`m removable !" ??

JUKE 179r Thanks for that post you rocked it

Can you explain how you updated the firmware so you could write to cf with 1.14.
scsi for samplers has the same card reader so I might pick that one up unless I can find one cheaper
Have you ever thought of replacing your HD with a cf card like Maxillaa was saying
that seems like the matrix $hit right there! All compact flash no heat\moving parts..

If you brain's figure out how to do that please let me know! That's what I'm shooting for.
Thanks!

Seems like the plug & play of ndisk + zip is the easier & cheaper way to go for those that don't mind the zip disk. A lot of heads are still using zip even some of the big name's.
Thanks for that option dj Wilson.

I can tell you how JUKE 179r's card reader is working in 1.14: it is a SCSI card reader. Those work with any version of the MPC operating system and there is no firmware update required (unless he is speaking of the PCD-47B firmware update to 3.2 which yes, you probably would need, but our PCD-47Bs come with that installed standard). It's only the IDE card readers that insist on having the MPC operating system 1.20 installed before they will work. The Spyrus RD300 would also work, as it is also a SCSI card reader.

Von wrote::shock: JUKE 179r Thanks for that post you rocked it

Can you explain how you updated the firmware so you could write to cf with 1.14.
scsi for samplers has the same card reader so I might pick that one up unless I can find one cheaper
Have you ever thought of replacing your HD with a cf card like Maxillaa was saying
that seems like the matrix $hit right there! All compact flash no heat\moving parts..

To upgrade the firmware on the PCD-47B to 3.2 (for WinXP), I had an Adaptec SCSI PCI card on my desktop and hooked up the CR and upgraded it that way.
If SCSI4Samplers has the latest 3.2 version installed already, then they are good. If not, I found the 3.2 version and asked Mr.Goins to add it on his website under "Firmware Issues".
http://www.midicase.com/card_reader_guide.htm

I've thought about trying out Maxillaa's option awhile ago, but my HD is doing fine so I'm not to going to fk with it now.

scsiforsamplers.com wrote:I can tell you how JUKE 179r's card reader is working in 1.14: it is a SCSI card reader. Those work with any version of the MPC operating system and there is no firmware update required.

At least for my SCSI card reader, only OS1.14 works for partitioning memory cards bigger than 1Gb. OS1.2 doesn't give any option for partitioning... you are stuck with only 1Gb on a 2 Gb card.
I've heard that it's the same for the IDE card readers, that OS1.2 didn't work for partitioning over 1Gb either.

Dopeness !

So if I got this right I can install SFS's PCD-47B then copy JUKE 179r's SCSI mod but instead of SCSI to IDC50 go like Maxillaa's idea "cf card is fitted in a compact flash adaptor, wich is connected to the ide to scsi, wich is connected to the scsi that has no problem reading up to 9 gb"
A scsi chain that's all cf card's..

And then I'm right where I want to be all SOLID STATE!

RIGHT?

Von, I have a complete all-SCSI flash memory setup available as well right out of the box - no looking for parts. Mine consists of the Microtech PCD-47B card reader and the NDISK w/flash memory option which will give you 8GB of partitionable space (8GB instead of 9GB because they don't make a 9GB CF card). This is easy to install but is rather costly, due to the kinda expensive PCD-47B and the cost of the 8GB CF card. I will put whatever brand of CF card you want in the unit, so you can control that part of the cost.

Contact me via my webesite if you'd like to get a complete price for this rig. You will have the nicest flash storage setup around when you are done.

Please check your pm

Thanks

so I`m right....

hehehe....