emusonacid!

I was browsing the net checking to see if there were any 'scsi to compact flash' adapters however I stumbled up this http://www.acscontrol.com/Index_ACS.asp ... dapter.htm

I wonder if this would work in the emu or of if it could be modded in any way. Those mounting plates look like the size of some the spare ports in the back of my ultra.

Anyone know if it would be possible?

actually i just checked that page out and it seems a really good idea....

your application/platform works with an IDE drive, then it will work with a Compact Flash card and our IDE to Compact Flash Adapter.

Not sure about the back panel size but I'm sure something could be modded. Actually, how about removing the floppy drive and putting that in instead as it says it's a 3.5 inch (i think that would fit)....

That would be cool

I've seen a few of those adapters floating about on ebay for under ?10 so I might take a gamble.

Providing I'm careful inside the emu (anti static wristbands etc) I figure the only damage I can cause would be to the card reader e.g. getting the voltages wrong.

Ezman - Putting it in the floppy port is a nice idea, I only use the floppy for updating the OS so unless emu bring out 4.8 I wont be having much use for that .

Hmm, imagine having a 2GB compact flash card (hot swappable) sitting in the emu - much better than my clonky old Zip drive . I wonder if there'll be limits to size or if there'll be formatting issues. It seems to good to be true, I'm sure someones going to tell me why it wont wont work sooner or later.

LOL! That's the funniest thing I've heard for ages!

illinformed wrote:so unless emu bring out 4.8 I wont be having much use for that .

illinformed wrote:Hmm, imagine having a 2GB compact flash card (hot swappable) sitting in the emu - much better than my clonky old Zip drive . I wonder if there'll be limits to size or if there'll be formatting issues. It seems to good to be true, I'm sure someones going to tell me why it wont wont work sooner or later.

Can't see why it wouldn't work - the compact flash card looks like a transparent IDE drive. It's not too expensive to try it out either. I think I will try it out in a couple of months - if you do anything in the meantime, please post some results.

An update. Haven't ordered the converter yet however was testing a few things out.

I have an old non ultra e6400 (Eos 4.02) which I opened up to see how easy it would be to mount one of those 3.5 inch adapters where the floppy drive is. I unplugged the floppy however the emu refused to boot, it hung at the loading screen. I wonder if this is the same for Ultra models and I wonder if a workaround can be found? Unfortuntely my Ultra is racked up and in an awkward position to take apart at the mo.

If the floppy does have to stay then it looked as if I could mount it where the internal hard drive would go. I think that this would involve getting some longer power and data cables for the floppy. I'll experiment some more this weekend.

My IDE CF adaptor arrived today.

Waiting on some floppy power cables to cannibalise then...

No fancy case mods planned yet, just a silent drive/flash rom alternative for now...

Nice going rod.hull. I hope you can get it all working. I just had a thought, do you know if the floppy power cables are back to front like the HD ones are? When you get it all going make sure to post up brand names and model numbers etc. Oh, and thanks for putting my laziness to shame

P.S. You by far have the best username on this Forum - I crack up everytime I see it, just dont go adjusting any TV aerials soon

Thanks for the warning on the floppy cables, I have been wondering - current thinking is that I'll wire them opposite side over which visually translates to placing the two connectors same side up facing away from each other and then running 4 parallel wires I think. I say this so someone can contradict me before I electrocute myself! Anyway rest assured I'll deliberate long and hard and use a low capacity cf for test one!

Got the CF adaptor on ebay for 6 ukp from the uk bloke in edinburgh (most are from hk and cheaper but I wanted it fast and was prepared to pay the "premium" ). Its the simple type that takes a cf and slots straight into the ide connector, no ide cable needed - power via floppy connector. No good for external access but ok for this test - if anyone spots a cheap cabled one with a blanking plate/drive bay option drop a note in here.

Also won (yahoo) auction on ebay for 5 hd to floppy power cables for about 2 ukp

Going to test with cf that I use with my camera (bytestor 40x brand) before splashing out on something bigger.

All told, presupposing I dont blow up my e5k, it's not a lot of expense...

next a quieter fan so i can hear how quiet the CF is...

No joy

Cables arrived today and I made up a cable as I described above.

First attempt I must have had the ide connector in the wrong orientation as the emu wouldn't boot.

Reorientate ide so the rectangular "bulge" that locks into an enclosed connector is pointing right - at the case side, not in towards the motherboard.

Everything boots fine. The indicator lights on the adaptor indicate power and presense of CF

DISK/BROWSE though shows nothing.

Messed around further trying different cf, lower cf voltage and slave mode but no improvement.

Pulled CF and tested back in a pc memory card reader - no issues - no frying here.

Next when I get time I'll test adaptor in a PC to eliminate faulty adaptor as cause.

Wish I had better news...

Forgot how easy it was to take my dell apart...
5 minutes fiddling and I can confirm the adaptor works in a PC.

Suspect the problem lies in the depths of dma/atapi etc and all the other stuff that comprises the way a device operates over ide. Looking back I note that illinformed's link has info that indicates that CF adaptor offers DMA but only with particular CF cards. It's going to be some little nuance like that that seperates from . I'll persevere, after some research - I hear the MPC community like fitting memory card readers to 2000xls and SP808 owners strive to rid themselves of zip whine...

Now would be a nice time for an EMU employee to step up and reveal the likely criteria that would seperate a good cf adapter from a bad one, I promise I wont be making any warranty claims if it all goes horribly wrong...



Okay, carry on lurking.

After verifying the legending on the mainboard I swapped the floppy power cable for mine to eliminate that as a potential weak link but the floppy works with my cable and the cf still doesn't with the emu supplied floppy one.

dma and blast it...

BTW blaster octopus and more sugar!

Perhaps if I knew Penny Kleinhans' phone number we'd be one step closer to the truth....

One piece of good news.

4.70 seems to tolerate a missing floppy where 4.61 does not, so the floppy bay can be easily used for a working cf adaptor under 4.7. Perhaps I'd be better off with a 750 zip...

Hi guys,

On the topic of silent drives, I did some research on other drive possibilities some time ago and came up with these solid state drives which are usually used for industrial purposes where ordinary drives would not last more than 5 minutes.

http://www.adtron.com/products/S25fa.html

Both SCSI2 and IDE are available. Being industrial equipment they are of course rather expensive but I guess it's all a matter of how much you really want the silence of the drives.

Cheers,
Adam-V

Adam-V wrote:Being industrial equipment they are of course rather expensive

I couldn't find a price for the adtron one, however I did find prices for something called Memtech SC2500 Stinger. I could only find these prices on Googles cache. 128MB starting at $634.23 and 9216MB at $6,585.08. Erm I think I'll be giving those a miss.

rod.hull

I feel your pain. Let's hope that it is something silly like the type of Flash Card. I suppose there's no harm in contacting Emu just to see what they say? That's good news about the missing floppy in 4.7. I too am gonna have a hunt about the newsgroups and messageboards for CF success stories with Roland and Akai.