Solid-State Hard Drive Mod:How-To

@tactik

good question! any idea?

would this card be ok?

again, now matter how "GOOD" or "FAST" a cf card you get
you are limited by the original MPC 1000 parts (usb)

So really just get the size you want which probably goes at a good speed and you should be fine.


this post is great and it makes me wonder how much engineers at mpc get paid
to not put in flash cards vs. hard drives...

or why they never thought of it?

yes indeed, and why do notebooks and pc´s work with harddrives? isnt it the oldest technologie on earth?

greetings

update:

thanks again for this really good "how to", it seems to work for me!

i´ve written a similar tutorial in german, where you can also see, how i made it:

http://www.britcore.net/wordpress/mpc-1 ... grade-kit/

one question: i´ve connected the mpc via usb and copy 4 gb samples onto the 16 gb card, for 4 hours now, is that normal, that it is so slow?

greetings

alex





Update: I´ve uploaded a little video for this "how to" with a link to this board and my website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70fw7GhINZA

Excellent mod! I'll have to try this when I receive some extraneous funds.

djhighfly wrote:
one question: i´ve connected the mpc via usb and copy 4 gb samples onto the 16 gb card, for 4 hours now, is that normal, that it is so slow?

Yep, sure is. Thats the "advantage" of USB 1.1. Anyone working on a USB 2.0 mod, or do I have to take that reign?

::edit::

I did some research, and this is what I found.

Has anyone looked at what needs to be done, if anything, to support
USB 2.0 in the USB slave package? I noticed that only 1.1 is currently
supported based on the defines for supported version


#define USB_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_USB11_LO 0x10
#define USB_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_USB11_HI 0x01


Would supporting 2.0 be as simple as adding another define for 2.0? I
am not intimately familiar with USB, but if there is anything I can do
to help, I would be interested as we are looking at using eCos for an
internal board we are developing.

Thanks,

slide



Yes, if your hardware is 2.0 compatible, you can simply indicate that in your device descriptor. (Yeah, we should probably add those constants to the USB header). If it's a Full Speed device, that's probably all you need to do. If it's a High Speed device you may have a little more work to do to implement and/or debug the high speed enumeration. I don't believe that any of the existing USB device drivers are for high speed devices, so there may not be any implementation to negotiate into high speed.

Frank

Anyone come up on any deals on cheap 32gb CF Cards?

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)

My MPC Harddrive only moves while I'm accessing to it (save, load). After that (returning to main) it sleeps -> no heat, no fail, no shocks and 130GB of Space for 60€.

Great mod!! Thanks 4 the tip

Installed it today with this adapter http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040705&p_id=4623&seq=1&format=2 and a Kingston 16GB 133x card

Works perfectly

Maybe some dudes need 80 or 100GB for storing samples, but I don't think I'm gonna outgrow my 16 gigs too soon

still looking for a good deal on a CF card!

b.read wrote:still looking for a good deal on a CF card!

Cheapest I found was around 100AUD / 90USD for a 32GB so I ended up settling for the 16GB

got a link?

b.read wrote:got a link?

Not sure how you feel about Kingston, but this is on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/KINGSTON-ELITE-PRO-COMPACT-FLASH-CF-32GB-32G-MEMORY-NEW-/300395420555?pt=AU_Electronics_Memory_Cards

These guys looked good for me, cause they're in Australia - still i reckon they'd ship to the US if you asked them nicely
http://www.cheapchips.com.au/memory/compact-flash-cards_32gb-compact-flash.htm

Also found this:
http://www.ptiglobalusa.com/pr32cfca23.html

Prices aren't that cheap, so I suppose we could wait and see if they come down now that 64gig cards are out there. I wanted something to get me up and going straightaway, so went with the Kingston 16Gb

This is where I got my Kingston from. It was the cheapest I could find for 16GB and it's local so I didn't pay for shipping. Might be worth keeping an eye on them - they've always got stuff coming in and going out. Prices are VERY competitive for Australia, but might not be for you once you factor in shipping. Anyways, worth a look ....
http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=2

Thanks for the info!

My 8GB KINGSTON works like a champ. Never had a single hiccup out of it. And there are others are this site that swear against it. So everyone has there own experience.. But I remember when I first found that ATA to CF adapter(the one from Monoprice w/ the mountable screw slots, in this very thread I think) and set it up with the 8GB Kingston in the HDM10. I had no problems. I worked like champ.
The load times of actual samples and projects did not really improve any if at all. But I can definitely say that when pressing Mode+Load, there is NO lag for the Folders on the CF to populate and be selectable, like there is with the HD doing the same thing.

I mean Im talking like 3 seconds here. But still, if you constantly switch between Program mode and load, its such a relief to not have to wait for the HD to spin up. Even going from Load back to Main window takes a couple of seconds via HD, but via the CF card, even just in the CF card slot, there is no lag going into load, or coming out of load back to Main window.

Im not actually using my 8GB CF card in place of the HD currently. I still have my HD installed and save all my Projects to it to save space. But I use the 8GB CF card to import all my samples and sounds from between the PC and mpc. Im not a fan of the USB interface between mpc/pc. Far too slow for my tastes.

for anyone out of country this wont help, but B.read have a look at this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

and here is the CF Adapter that I discovered last year.... Mountable directly to the HDM10 HD tray just like a HD
http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2

also Im not 100% who wrote this But I would definitely be interested in seeing if this is possible.

Has anyone looked at what needs to be done, if anything, to support
USB 2.0 in the USB slave package? I noticed that only 1.1 is currently
supported based on the defines for supported version


#define USB_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_USB11_LO 0x10
#define USB_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_USB11_HI 0x01


Would supporting 2.0 be as simple as adding another define for 2.0? I
am not intimately familiar with USB, but if there is anything I can do
to help, I would be interested as we are looking at using eCos for an
internal board we are developing.

Heads up, fam. I just got three of these SSDs at $62. a piece. They're SLC so they're pretty much bomb proof. the dude has 13 left: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0209495111