Recommended Card Readers

SimonInAustralia wrote:

LADiego wrote:I use one of those external compact scsi carders which is hot-swap and use both cf and sd cards from mpcstoragesolution. The pcmcia slot is the only one that works of all slots shown so a pcmcia adapter card is needed. It is the pcd-60b model.

Everything is expensive and scsi has become rare but can still be found.

Stratos Technology/Artmix RaizinMonster SCSI CF card reader is now available, new, at approx $129US + $16US shipping.

That would be the current best choice for an easily found SCSI CF card reader.

Hi Simon,

Can you tell me if the Raizenmonster will also accept SD cards or microSD cards? This would be nice. I will contact the folks in Japan.

I see a lot of folks lately bringing their sounds on SD and microSD cards to sessions. I guess a card reader that accepts variety of flash cards would be ideal.

Please let me know as I respect your opinion and expertise.

Thanks.

The RaizinMonster only has a CF slot, it is not a multislot reader with SD as well as CF slots.

You can buy CF-SD adapters, not sure if they work with it, or not.

Hello - I'm a new MPC2000 user, and am trying to get a SCSI flash card reader to work. I purchased this from MPCstuff.com, and I can't get any further than getting stuck in "WAIT......." mode when I try to call it up in the 'DISK' window. All buttons are useless at that point, and I have to power down & up again to get unfrozen. I've tried all 16 different J4 jumper pin combinations, still nothing. Anybody else have experience with this particular SCSI memory reader? (or any other SCSI reader that WORKS?)

http://www.mpcstuff.com/scsi-compact-fl ... -mpc-3000/

Thanks!

Muki-D wrote:Hello - I'm a new MPC2000 user, and am trying to get a SCSI flash card reader to work. I purchased this from MPCstuff.com, and I can't get any further than getting stuck in "WAIT......." mode when I try to call it up in the 'DISK' window. All buttons are useless at that point, and I have to power down & up again to get unfrozen. I've tried all 16 different J4 jumper pin combinations, still nothing. Anybody else have experience with this particular SCSI memory reader? (or any other SCSI reader that WORKS?)

http://www.mpcstuff.com/scsi-compact-fl ... -mpc-3000/

Thanks!

Have you tried emailing Mike at mpc-stuff?

Thanks for the reply. Actually, Mike is exactly who I'm going back & forth with about this issue. He's been super-helpful in suggesting solutions, and now we're at the point of checking the N25 fuse in my MPC to see if it's blown or defective. Next step is sussing out someone in my area who does that kind of trouble-shooting. I'm also curious to know if anyone else has used one of these readers successfully and what they think of it, as well as what other good and fairly-priced SCSI readers there may be on the market.

SCSI termination power is on pin 25 of the external DB25 connector on an MPC2000.

You can test that pin for power with a voltage/multi-meter.

Just be very (VERY!) careful not to short that pin to ground with the meter probe, as that will blow the SCSI termination power fuse, if it is not already blown.

SCSI cables/devices should be changed/swapped/removed/connected with the power off, as it is very easy to short that pin to ground when removing and plugging in the cable, which is what causes the fuse to blow.

If the SCSI device has two connectors, you can use another SCSI device that supplies it's own termination power to the SCSI bus after the device with the blown fuse, or you can use a passive SCSI terminator plug on the second connector, to terminate the SCSI bus.

The card reader supplied by MPCstuff looks like it is from Artmix/Stratos, I think I read that with no jumper in the T position that SCSI termination is enabled, so if that is the only SCSI device connected, you could leave all jumper positions empty/not jumpered, and it should be set to SCSI ID 0 with SCSI termination enabled.

If your SCSI fuse is blown, other SCSI devices will not work either, unless they provide their own SCSI termination power, or unless you connect another device that supplies it's own SCSI termination power after it in the SCSI chain, or use a passive SCSI terminator.

Thanks, Simon. Can you describe how to go about testing the 25-pin with the voltage meter? I'm not even sure what to connect the meter to or what mode to set the meter in, and don't want to risk blowing something up if it hasn't been toasted already.

On the 'DISK' window, it freezes up before I can even set the SCSI ID on the MPC.

So far, I haven't attached or unplugged the card reader when power was on. At this point I'm leaning toward the issue being with the MPC.

Yo, I need a CF reader and I've been reading up on some stuff posted here and now I want to purchase and install one in my 2kxl.
Can someone confirm (or tell me what I need more) that these are the materials I need to make this happen...!?

- IDE- CF adapter (with 3'5 frame)


- 4 pin IDE powercable (molex - mini molex)


- IDE 40pin flat ribboncable


- and ofcourse a CF-card

Thanks in advance!!

Gr. Sjeff

I dont believe you'll need that power adaptor cable since the one inside the MPC for the floppy drive will fit.

As far as the ribbon cable is concerned, you'll need a female to female cable. The one you showed us is a male to female.

Thanks Distorted tekno for the info!

No problem sjeff. Let us know how it works out.

Does anyone know if a 50-pin laptop to SCSI adaptor will work when modding an MPC2000? I found a few online as well as 50-pin laptop CF drives. I'm guessing it should. But I'm curious if anyone tried it yet.

distortedtekno wrote:No problem sjeff. Let us know how it works out.

Will do!

Its working.

Got the card reader from Conrad. (don't know which brand.. it looks like the addonics one, but I think it's made by Conrad itself)

Installed OS1.2, hooked the female to female IDE cable and the original powersupply from the floppy drive up to the reader.

Used a Sandisk Ultra 4gb, 25mb/s CF card (Couldn't find new ones with 1 or 2gb.
And since there are a lot of fake ones I ordered this one new.

Powered up the MPC and it worked right away...

Only thing that I need to do now is, drilling some holes in the bracket and secure it to the MPC casing. Since it's floating around now ghehe

yes yes....

I am finally deciding to ditch the zip disks and move into the modern era....

Basically I am thinking of getting the http://www.mpcstuff.com/akai-mpc-2000-c ... swappable/

because it looks the most straightforward and reliable.....plus I know if I start opening up my MPC and mucking about I'm going to fug something up and hate myself.

Its stupid money for what it is, but I cant help thinking I should just get on with it and pay it to avoid the hassles some people on here are dealing with.

Any thoughts?......

I've got the 2000xl