Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By beat around the bush Tue Mar 18, 2014 11:00 pm
would the addonics ide to sd card reader work as well as the cf reader, do any of yall know? i could actually back things up / import from my computer easily if i could get an sd card working
i just got a 2000xl with no drive in it at all and running 1.11, and am having a huge pita getting floppies to even read, trying drive after drive, disk after disk. idk if ill ever be able to put 1.20 os on there.
i do have an old 1.2GB ide laptop hd, would the right cable to connect it to the internal atapi/ide port and maybe a molex power too be a viable storage option under 1.11?
thanks for any more help, just reading the thread already has given me some hope that some day this box of frustrations will be a working musical instrument
User avatar
By ziran Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:33 pm
would the addonics ide to sd card reader work as well as the cf reader, do any of yall know? i could actually back things up / import from my computer easily if i could get an sd card working
i just got a 2000xl with no drive in it at all and running 1.11, and am having a huge pita getting floppies to even read, trying drive after drive, disk after disk. idk if ill ever be able to put 1.20 os on there.
i do have an old 1.2GB ide laptop hd, would the right cable to connect it to the internal atapi/ide port and maybe a molex power too be a viable storage option under 1.11?
thanks for any more help, just reading the thread already has given me some hope that some day this box of frustrations will be a working musical instrument


let me know how you get on with this, i'm trying to sort out a hot swappable reader for my 2000xl, everyone i've contacted about these through ebay and various mpc sites want £150 for a non hot swap kit, would rather do it cheap for myself, but it seems like the readers arn't out there). even a non hot swap that can deal well with 4GB cards well/reliably would be good. i'm just keeping glued to this thread as ive got through 2 zip drives and a jazz drive, sick of that ish!!! . good luck with yours
By beat around the bush Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:53 pm
it wont be hot swap and i think sd only goes up to 2GB, and higher capacity cards are sdhc, which idk if the mpc firmware would even work with. finally managed to upgrade to os 1.2 yesterday after so many leaps, hurdles, and bounds
but i have ordered the ide->sd adapter and hopefully it will be here this week. have 2 tested and working ide cables and a regular 1 gb sd card so im hopeful. if it all works out right hopefullly ill be able to drill the holes in the case over the weekend and have it all in one piece banging out beats come monday*






*no i wont sample jimmy buffett
By Nebakanezzer Wed Mar 26, 2014 12:27 am
so I just threw 1.20 OS on a zip disk, updated the OS and tried the drive again

it works BUT I still get that weird screen skew when I have the jumper in the correct settings:

Image


seems to recognize it as some sort of atapi hard drive (I have an 8gb ridata compact flash loaded, formated as FAT, with 1gb partitions).

I will try it with different cards and cables now that I know the OS was partially the culprit.
User avatar
By SimonInAustralia Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:10 pm
ADEMIKS wrote: Hello,
I am wondering if the Microtech PCD-50B is compatible with the MPC2000XL?
It is a multicard SCSI reader.

http://www.psism.com/scsi50band60b.htm

I think they might be, though not sure if all slots would be available, I think that they might only work with a PCMCIA-CF adapter for a CF card in the reader PCMCIA slot.

No idea if a PCMCIA-SD card adapter is available and would work in the same way, or not.

I think this is because they assign the PCMCIA slot to the first LUN (Logical Unit Number), and the other slots to successive LUNs, on the one SCSI ID, rather than the slots being assigned to different SCSI IDs, and the MPC does not use LUNs.

Most of the PCD reader models are no longer readily available, though the PCD-60 is being sold in external cases on eBay, and is listed by the seller as being compatible with the MPC2000 and MPC2000XL.
User avatar
By distortedtekno Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:34 pm
From everything I've read so far, I'm assuming that it's too costly to do anything with an MPC2000 classic. I was considering building an external unit, so that my friends can bring CF cards with their samples. But I can't find anything at a reasonable price.
By LADiego Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:42 pm
distortedtekno wrote:From everything I've read so far, I'm assuming that it's too costly to do anything with an MPC2000 classic. I was considering building an external unit, so that my friends can bring CF cards with their samples. But I can't find anything at a reasonable price.


you are right, it is costly to do anything (internal) with the mpc2000. it sounds like building an external unit might be best especially for the purpose sampling from your friend's cf cards on your sampler. also it sounds like a hot swa unit would be best when your friends bring all their cf cards over for a session.

what is reasonable price for a hot swap cf card reader ?
By beat around the bush Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:48 pm
i finally got the damn ide coldswap sd drive but now os 1.2 wont even look for ide/atapi device
ive switched jumper to master, slave and back
on 1.11 ide/atapi showed up as an option
should i just go to 1.14 and see if thatll work?
i am at my wits end with this machine
By beat around the bush Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:04 am
o k
had to reaseat the cables and move the jmper back to master
formatted easily
fully writing and reading!
Image
not fully put together but ill drill out the case to make it fit nrct week and hopefull good enuf at desolderin to replace the mv slider and some buttons
By beat around the bush Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:50 pm
yeah i gotta drill holes in the addonics case to mount the drive, get enough screws to hold the bottom on, and probably move the bloodstained rag where i cut myself havin to break back in the house, havin got myself locked out while burnin a j outside lol
User avatar
By distortedtekno Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:39 am
LADiego wrote:
distortedtekno wrote:From everything I've read so far, I'm assuming that it's too costly to do anything with an MPC2000 classic. I was considering building an external unit, so that my friends can bring CF cards with their samples. But I can't find anything at a reasonable price.


you are right, it is costly to do anything (internal) with the mpc2000. it sounds like building an external unit might be best especially for the purpose sampling from your friend's cf cards on your sampler. also it sounds like a hot swa unit would be best when your friends bring all their cf cards over for a session.

what is reasonable price for a hot swap cf card reader ?


I'm thinking around $50 would be reasonable. But I doubt I'll find anything in that price range. Last that I checked, they were around $150 and up. I'm not sure if I'm looking in the wrong places. But I haven't found shit, aside of the more expensive readers that are already assembled and working. Hopefully, I step in shit again, like I did with the MO drive. But it might take a while before that happens.
User avatar
By SimonInAustralia Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:51 am
MPC2000XL has an internal IDE/ATAPI port, which makes it much cheaper, as you just need the card reader, and if you don't want hot swap, they can be as low as $5-10.

MPC2000 has only external SCSI port, so you need to find a SCSI card reader, which are not easy to find, or a SCSI-IDE bridge with an IDE card reader, and the bridge is the expensive part.

But keep an eye out for cheap 2nd hand SCSI-IDE bridges, that would be the way to go, chuck it in a cheap case with a cheap card reader.