Help Building External Card Reader for 2000XL

I have seen numerous threads for cheap do it yourself card readers to be internally installed in the 2000XL but wnated to get input on going about this a different route.

I am going to try and build an external SCSI card reader. I went and oredered one of the cheap CF card readers that was shown in another thread off Ebay for $1.50 and have an old external SCSI CD drive and casing that the CD motor is broken on. I know the SCSI CD drive connections etc. are compatible with the 2000XL because I used to have it hooked up and used it before the tray broke.

Here is the SCSI CD drive I have (something very similar at least:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Plextor-PX-40TS ... 5196301e5a

Here is the CF card reader I ordered:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/280414537798?ss ... 1439.l2649

Here are the questions I have in making this work:
1) I this possible? (I haven't seen anything about it anywhere on the boards here)
2) Since it is an external drive do I need to update the operating system and/or which operating systems would work with an external SCSI CF card reader?
3) Will the connection wires (power, etc.) that were hooked to the CD drive fit and work connecting to the CF reader or are they different (number of pins and sizes etc.)?

I know some of these questions may be a little vague and lacking exact details, but whatever input you all could provide would be great and I think would help not only me but many others possibly explore this option for connecting a card reader to their MPC. Thanks!

Well, aside from the pins of the connectors being different, You have a SCSI enclosure in which you are trying to fit an IDE compact flash reader. So you are going to need an IDE to SCSI bridge and possibly an adaptor to make the connections.
You may also need to adapt the molex (power) connector to a floppy connector as that is what the card reader needs.
I am in a similar boat atm except I have a SCSI card reader that I am trying to fit in a SCSI enclosure. My main problem is that the internal ribbon is too short, so I may get mine finished before you, but I would be interested to hear how you get on.

yeah I dont know if those scsi bridges or scsi to ide adapters actually work in the xl... would be nice to find out though.

Damn I just looked up the IDE to SCSI bridge and adapters and the few I found were quite expensive...

So should I just look for a SCSI card reader to put in the enclosure. Would that cost less and make more sense? No big loss on the $1.50 IDE card reader

get the addonics card reader suggested on the sticky (no homo) i bought that fly ass shit and hooked it up no fuss. rather than cheap out on some $1 joint just pay $20 or so and get that one cause it works with minimum fuss.

The MPC doesn't know the difference between an external SCSI drive or an internal one.

The reason why you haven't seen a "cheap" external SCSI card reader because there really isn't one unless you can find used or surplus parts.

You should not have any problems using bridge adapters in the MPC 2000XL. One source for a bridge adapter would be from the Akai DPS12i

Also, some external SCSI CD-ROMs have bridge adapters in them; this is where the Yamaha V769970 adapter comes from.

Here are some other options:

This may be vaporware, as I haven't seen one anywhere. But the price is interesting at ￥9,900.

http://www.artmix.com/CF_AztecMonster.html

The latest incarnation from the SCSIforSamplers people are selling external SCSI Card Reader drives on eBay for $165 shipped. I haven't seen inside on of the units, but I would expect there to be some kind of bridge adapter.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0896104859

If you have to go the external route, this would likely be the cheapest unless you want to troll eBay for parts and hope to get lucky.

Thanks for all the input. Real good information there MPCHunter!

I didn't really understand before that the MPC sees internal and external drives the same way. I was just reading through some other thread and was OHHH! the MPC sampler is seperate from the sequencer and basically communicates with the sampler the same as it does midi devices, so makes sense it sees data drives as the same too just different paths.

Just always took it for granted and knew what the machine could do but never really thought about how it does what it does.

Hi, it would be interesting to find out how you guys got on with your external cf readers.
I recently bought this scsi enclosure:
http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a56 ... ecb538.jpg

The IDE cable on the inside is 50 pin, not slanted like a scsi connection.
Personally I'm planning to make a external scsi hard drive for my mpc 2000.
But the 50 pin ide doe's not fit the 40 pin ide on any of the hard drives i have.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on how I should proceed with this?
Would a cable adapter such as this work?
.
Or something like this:

Or I could buy a hard drive that has a 50 pin socket.

Eventually I would like to to make it into a cf card reader, but for the mean time a hard drive will be fine.
ide bridge adapters seem to be to pretty expensive, so I'll put the whole Cf reader thing on the back burner for a while.

Anyway, any advise would be appreciated.

The internal 50 pin ribbon cable is not IDE, it is SCSI.

You can not connect an IDE drive to that cable, you can only connect a SCSI drive to it.

To use an IDE drive in that case, you need to use a SCSI to IDE bridge, such as the Acard AEC-7720U, to convert the SCSI protocol on the SCSI cable to the IDE protocol that an IDE drive uses.

I see, thanks man.

I'm just going to buy a scsi hard and fit that into the enclosure for now.
I think something like this is what I'm after:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compaq-127977 ... 3a94f52306

I'm just not sure what these type of connecters are called.

Is that particular type of connection called '3.5"' ?
A 'wide ultra 2 scsi' ?
Or a 50 pin scsi ?
Or all of the above?

I've read that 9.1gb is the maximum a mpc2000 can recognize. So I'm looking for a 50 pin type one of those.
So far it's cost about £25 for the enclosure & scsi cable, so it's going well.
Thanks for the help.

I've read that 9.1gb is the maximum a mpc2000 can recognize. So I'm looking for a 50 pin type one of those.

Actually, I have used a 9GB and 18GB scsi hard drive (both 68 pin) with my MPC2000 (1.72OS) and partitioning the drive with the sampler. The loud noise could be a problem (sounds like a jet). Also, make it a habit to backup your work because drives can also fail.

The scsi case you referenced will work. I see the internal ribbon looks to be 50 pin. Cannot tell if the case has a cooling fan or vents which I would recommend because the hard drives do spin at high rpm and generate heat. I have used a 'compatible' 50 pin and 68pin (with 50/60pin adapter) with my MPC2000 in the past. The challenge is to find a drive that is "compatible" and "recognized" by the MPC2000 .

Never used a Compaq, but may work but not sure, so you have to try for yourself. I have used IBM DNES-309170 9 GB with 68 pin and simply used a 68pin-to-50pin to connect to internal 50 ribbon cable and it has worked fine for me. The drive is now a little expensive now but I remember when they were $15 apiece. Good old days.

I know the card readers are a little expensive but you should reconsider get one of these at some point in time.

Peace.

hok-2 wrote:I'm just not sure what these type of connecters are called.

Is that particular type of connection called '3.5"' ?
A 'wide ultra 2 scsi' ?
Or a 50 pin scsi ?
Or all of the above?

50 pin internal SCSI is probably closest to what it is called.

The cable might be called a 50 pin ribbon cable.

The connector is called IDC, Insulation Displacement Connector.

LADiego wrote:

I have used a 'compatible' 50 pin and 68pin (with 50/60pin adapter) with my MPC2000 in the past. The challenge is to find a drive that is "compatible" and "recognized" by the MPC2000 .
I have used IBM DNES-309170 9 GB with 68 pin and simply used a 68pin-to-50pin to connect to internal 50 ribbon cable and it has worked fine for me. The drive is now a little expensive now but I remember when they were $15 apiece. Good old days.
.

Thanks for the advise man.
Yeah the Compaq one I was looking at turned out to be a 80 pin scsi and I've read they are not what I'm after.
After a bit of research I concluded that a similar Ibm 68 pin model to the one you suggested was a safer bet, then using a 68 to 5o pin converter, but I was still pretty unsure.
So I really appreciate your advise.
I've spent a couple of days zooming in on photo's of old scsi drives and reading all I could find and frankly it's incredibly dull
Hah haa

So I think I'll just keep looking around until find the model you suggested ( IBM DNES-309170 9 GB with 68 pin ) at a reasonable price, I'm sure if I'm patient one will turn up.
But like I say, hearing first hand experience of a model that works, is extremely beneficial, so, nice one.

No one seems to be repping the external hard drive solution on this Forum, but I sort of thought "well, If I learn how to construct one of those, then I can try to tackle a different storage medium, cf card reader or whatever"
And at least I'll have the caddy and a few bits an bobs to start with.

My enclosure does have a fan too
It seems brand new in fact.
http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a56 ... 56a300.jpg

I'm a bit worried about this "Jet Engine Noise" thing but I spose I'll tackle that when I get to it.

Big up.

50 pin internal SCSI is probably closest to what it is called.

The cable might be called a 50 pin ribbon cable.

The connector is called IDC, Insulation Displacement Connector.[/quote]


Thanks bred.
Yeah I've been looking for hard drives with 50 pin internal SCSI on them, but they seem really scarce or just obsolete I dunno.
Which is weird because that is exactly the type of connection that is on the inside of my Akai S3000i.

I've heard that Akai never gave out much information about the hard drive thing?
My S3000i has a blatant space with screw holes and a metal frame next to the Floppy Drive for where a hard drive can be fixed.

Maybe this 50 pin SCSI socket was a short lived thing in the evolution of scsi....I dunno man.

I'm going to try a 68 pin SCSI hard drive, wth one of these type things
http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a56 ... e32e8d.jpg
Like the other dude suggested.

It's just my Floppy Drive is so temperamental, I don't even bother to make a beat
But that is probably do due to my own human error.
Hopefully this set up will work for enough time to make some nice beats.
Narrm Saying.

ONE.

hok-2 wrote:Yeah I've been looking for hard drives with 50 pin internal SCSI on them, but they seem really scarce or just obsolete I dunno.

Yes, SCSI in general is just obsolete, old and outdated technology in computer terms now days.

You are probably not going to find much new for it, mostly specialist/small manufacturers like Stratos/Artmix who are making products especially to support these sort of old platforms.

You best bet would be something like the Stratos RaizinMonster CF reader, or a 2nd hand Acard SCSI-IDE/ATAPI bridge with an IDE or ATAPI card reader.

While you might find an old 2nd hand SCSI hard drive that is compatible with the MPC, it is probably so old that I would be suspect of it's long term reliability.