Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By destruktiv Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:40 pm
some information for the power.

for the power i take the connector on the mainboard. when you press on the contacts with a screwdriver you can pull out the cable. then i take the red cable (5v) and the black (gnd) and solder on it the red and black from a 12v pc power connector. then i put it back in the connector.
use a voltmeter to test it.
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By Peter Project Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:06 am
Hey destruktiv.
I just finished this mod and it actually works!
The hardest part is stomaching the fact that you've got to take your MPC completely apart. The rest is just having a REAL steady hand and paying close attention to the Pinout. I had to use an internal Zip as it's all I could find, but I'll probably upgrade it to a card reader since the hard part is done. The zip was a bit big, so I didn't put the 2 rear screws in it as it was almost resting on the board. I also had to run the SCSI cable under the main board. I'd advise anyone else doing this to get a nice long cable that can run over the board. As for power, I used the power cable from the floppy drive. It works great.

Thanks a lot destruktiv! This was a super informative thread and I have one less piece of junk to carry around to gigs. :D :D :D

-PP
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By pt3r Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:34 am
Props! I was wondering whether a scsi-ide bridge might work if you were to try to connect an IDE card reader to the internal scsi port. A bit in the same way as this mod was done: http://www.mpc2000xl.com/Internalhd.htm
That might be a solution to get an ide card reader in the 2k classic.
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By Peter Project Wed Mar 07, 2007 1:50 pm
I was thinking about that too. Those converters arent cheap though. After you buy a card reader, and that converter you're looking at about $200.00 And that's assuming you install it yourself.
Though this mod cost me about $25 bucks, but took about 4 hours.
I like the idea of an internal HD though.
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By destruktiv Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:49 am
hello,
a internal hd runs. i tested it, but i think a card reader is a better way. because the card reader is silence. and i use for one song one partition and when i use a 1gb cf card, i have 37 mb big partiton

@peter project

the card reader was also to big/long and i use only to screws and the end of the reader lie on the ad/da converter. but it runs.
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By Peter Project Fri Mar 09, 2007 2:19 am
I was thinking an HD in Addition to the scsi. i think you could mount one to the bottom of the metal chasi that holds the controller pads. I think this might be getting a bit excessive though. But COOL!

By pckt Fri Mar 09, 2007 4:23 pm
oh dear lord, if i have to do this i will break me box, im sure

I just bought an ATAPI card reader (in the mail currently)
Its a IISDMC not PCD-47b. This procedure is for the Microtech type of drives only... right? pls say YES.
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By mikemix Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:13 am
Image
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By Peter Project Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:14 pm
pckt wrote:oh dear lord, if i have to do this i will break me box, im sure

I just bought an ATAPI card reader (in the mail currently)
Its a IISDMC not PCD-47b. This procedure is for the Microtech type of drives only... right? pls say YES.


I got some bad news dude.... This is for ANY SCSI device you want to mount in a 2k Classic. If you've got an XL, your good. Otherwise you'll have to do this installation.
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By mikemix Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:38 pm
That's right.
Classic: only SCSi is possible with mod.
XL: got IDE and SCSI socket on the motherboard allready.
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By mikemix Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:43 pm
dstruction wrote:
how long did it take you?


Modification took me about one evening.
Next day was an off day for my eyes :?
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By Peter Project Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:50 am
Yea, about 3-4 hours. Most of the time is spent taking the MPC apart and putting it back togeather as well as setting up the cable so it's easy to id the pin numbers, and trimming back the insulation (50 wires is alot!). The actual soldering only takes about 30 minutes. Just plan it out, and pay close attention. The rule "measure twice, cut once" goes a long way here.

Seriously, it's hard to actually mess up your MPC with this. THere are no chips near the connector, so in the worst case scenario, you mess it up, and you just unsolder everything and put it back togeather having wasted a few hours of your life. That's assuming you dont flat out snap a board or break a connector.

Now that we know that this is possible we just need to get that "new 2K Classic OS" Bumpin, and we're all good! (I wont hold my breath....)

By jbplaya Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:43 pm
Would love to actually try this, but am I the only one confused on how to do this? Those fuzzy pictures don't help either. Would love if Peter Project or MikeMix could explain in detail or even post some pics step by step. Right now I feel like I'm getting bits and pieces.

By jellyjim Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:34 pm
hey this is way cool

seems to boil down to just extending the external scsi port internally and using the internal power supply as far as i can see?

my electronics skills are up to this and i'd be happy to take some pics and knock up a tutorial, but

looks like those scsi card readers are about as common as rocking horse poo? nothing on ebay .com or .co.uk at the mo

can anyone source anything else? i've got a scsi zip drive but then i'd need to get a usb zip for my macbook, a 100mb one at that, more old tech taking up plug sockets, zzzz

there's gotta be some kind of scsi-ide/atapi solution that we could then use any modern card reader with?

anybody?

jim
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By Peter Project Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:30 am
There is a SCSI/IDE Adapter, but it's not cheap (90 bucks US)
I've seen the Card readers go up on ebay, but here's the funny thing; They always result in massive bidding wars. If you check out who's bidding on them, and what they've purchased\sold... THey're all MPC Studio rats!! It's pretty funny.