Emulator III Compatible with Spyrus MCDISK-2 from scsiforsamplers?

[ditabeardmemo]

Hi everyone:

After nearly five months, my tech in New York City (the superb Jeff Blenkinsopp at EARS) has my Emulator III keyboard functioning again. While the unit's floppy drive and internal hard drive are still operating, my long-term plan is to retrofit the machine with two CompactFlash cards, as many other forum members have done.

In the meantime, however, I'm wondering if the EIII's external SCSI port is compatible with the Spyrus MCDISK 2/CompactFlash reader from scsiforsamplers.com? I already own the Spyrus for use with my Akai S3000XL and Kurzweil K2000, and I'm hoping that it will also work with the EIII as a sort of ZIP substitute. Does anyone here have experience with this configuration? If so, is there anything special I need to know about the EIII-to-MCDISK connection process, such as proper SCSI termination?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Brandt

[ditabeardmemo]

Hi everyone:

So I have an update on this question that may interest many of you:  I was able to successfully connect a scsiforsamplers.com Spyrus MCDISK-2 to my Emulator III keyboard via the rear SCSI port. The compact flash card took about three hours to format, and then I successfully wrote a blank bank and the system software to the card.

1. As with all SCSI devices, you must power on the MCDISK-2 before powering on the Emulator III.

2. As with all SCSI devices, the MCDISK-2 cannot share a SCSI ID number with any other device, including the EIII itself. In my case, my EIII was set to ID 3, and the internal hard disk (a compact flash card) was set to 1, so I set the MCDISK to 5.

3. The MCDISK should have termination set to on (this is the default.)

4. You must use older, slower compact flash cards, just as you must when installing a CF/IDE/SCSI connection inside an EIII. I tried to format a Kingston 1GB card with a 2008 copyright on the back, and the "Verifying Format" stage hung up after about four hours. But two Kingston 1GB cards with 2003 copyright dates worked just fine. Again, formatting and verifying a good card should require no more than about three hours.

Unfortunately, this particular scsiforsamplers.com product is discontinued, although you may be able to find the MCDISK-2 secondhand. But scsiforsamplers.com has a new external CompactFlash/SCSI solution, so I imagine the same principles would apply when connecting it to an EIII.

[dr.c]

Thanks for the info !

[potscrubber]

Just a note, I also have an MC-Disk-2 form Scsi4samplers.  I can get it work just fine as an external drive with the EIII, but no way can I get it to boot from it.  And yes, have followed all instructions regarding saving of banks after formatting etc.  The EIII just scans the scsi right past it, until I turn on the old Quantum drive, then it boots. 

pot.

[ditabeardmemo]

Pot, I believe this is because the Emulator III cannot - under any circumstances - boot from a device connected to the external SCSI port. Even if you copy the operating system to a device connected via the external SCSI, that device will never be a bootable disk. The EIII must boot from a device connected internally: the floppy drive, a hard drive or a Compact Flash card.

Hope that helps.

[potscrubber]

Hi ditabeardmemo

Thanks for your input.  Sir, I must respectfully disagree with you!.  I have here two EIII .. both 2.42, 1 x boot rom 2.0, 1 x boot rom 1.0.  The boot rom 2.0 is definitely booting from an external fixed disk drive (Quantum trailblazer). The internal scsi buss only has a passive line terminator on it.  I haven't tested the boot rom 1.0 machine yet in this respect.

Thing I am yet to establish whether they will have any influence on the booting issue:
- interleave that the desired boot device is formatted with
- the HD300 scsi id setting

FYI I have here a collection of Quantum HD's, fujitsu MO's, and MC-DISK2.  I can use all of them as storage drives, but so far only boot from the Quantums.  And, Sir! externally also (on the rom 2.0.  need to test 1.0).

Thankyou Sir!
pot.

[ditabeardmemo]

Hi Potscrubber:

Wow, that's pretty cool. I stand corrected. I could have sworn I read somewhere (the manual? this forum?) that the Emulator III can only boot from an internal SCSI disk, but clearly that was in error.

As you've probably discovered, the MCDISK-2 can be a very helpful tool if you plan to install a CompactFlash card in your EIII to replace the internal hard drive. If you format the CF card in the MCDISK first, while the internal drive is still connected, you can then confirm that the format worked properly (copy an empty bank to the card, etc.), and lastly pop the finished CF card into the machine.

In any case, it sounds like you have some potentially helpful research underway. Keep us posted on what you find!

[potscrubber]

Just want to add that JD at scsi4samplers is selling a number of CF solutions, one of which includes the recommended Acard IDE-SCSI adaptor, CF adaptor, and slow CF card, all as a package.

http://scsiforsamplers.com/cfcard_ssd.asp

This theoretically should allow me to boot my EIII from CF card, something it is refusing to do with a native SCSI CF card.

Also, this package is significantly cheaper and easier than me finding the bits separately in this part of the world (New Zealand).

Well post how it goes once I receive and install but my hopes are high.  Shout out to JD & scsi4samplers for providing a great comprehensive service.  If you need internal CF I recommend supporting their business, as they support all the old instruments.

pot.

[esynthesist]

Just want to add that JD at scsi4samplers is selling a number of CF solutions, one of which includes the recommended Acard IDE-SCSI adaptor, CF adaptor, and slow CF card, all as a package.

Are you sure this package includes the Acard 7720U IDE-SCSI adaptor ?
JD used to install IO DATA IDSC adapters, which are a lot cheaper and are compatible with most of the samplers too. But some EIII users already said that this adapter is not 100pct compatible with the EIII (it is however compatible with the EIIIX).
My CF-CARD also contains this IO DATA adapter. Today I did a lot of tests with the CF-CARD connected to the EIII and I didn't succeed to make it work. Formatting works, but saving and/or reading fails (scsi hardware error). I also tried very old class 2 (slow) CF cards of 64MB but no had success with it neither.

The picture on the SCSIForSamplers website for the CF-SSD seems to show an IO DATA adapter, not an Acard one.
At the price JD is offering this device, it's almost impossible that he will ship with Acard adapters.

You may check again with JD... to avoid the "after sales" problems which pop up from time to time...

But if the kit really works with the EIII, let us know ! Then I'll order some of them too and install them in some of my other samplers too.

[potscrubber]

Hi esynthesist - thanks for the input.  Well I asked first and JD confirmed that the Acard is one of three configs that he sells.  Also it was confirmed in after sales email that that is the one that will be supplied.  Well I'll cross my fingers for the best I guess.. and report how it all goes.

pot.

[potscrubber]

Update.

 I have indeed received said ACARD 7720U system from JD at SCSI4SAMPLERS, all nicely mounted with a CF adapter, CF card, and power connection in a small tray.  It looks just like the right hand side unit on this page:

http://scsiforsamplers.com/cfcard_ssd.asp

The service was great.  JD even did me a favor combining some postage with some stateside RAM I bought off ebay.

It formatted, verified, received banks first time internally in the EIII.  I haven't yet got it booting off the CF, but I only was playing with it for an hour.  Hopefully next week I will have some hours to get stuck into this and get it working .  I know there are a few hoops to jump through there.

I will report back!!

pot.

[potscrubber]

Update.

RESUUUUUUuuuuuLT!!!

As I said, the Scsi4samplers ACARD 7720U system (which I ordered with 1GB CF card) formatted and verified first time.   Remember you also have to let it finish the verify, and save an empty bank to the newly formatted drive.  However, despite much faffing about with jumpers and termination, it wouldn't boot.  I know JD supplies older slower CF cards so I just assumed it would be ok.  On a whim I popped in a kingston "whiteflower" card.  Boot 1st time!!

This just reinforces how picky the EIII is about the CF card, like beyond the valley of the dolls picky.  Everything else about the scsi4samplers drive is great and it can't be faulted for having a CF card the EIII won't deign to boot from.  The jumper settings it arrived with work, though I think I set the scsi ID to 1.

Check the manual on the acard website . 
http://dl.acard.com/manual/english/aec-7720u&uw.pdf
There are lots of revisions of the ACARD 7720U and they are all a little bit different.

Because the drive came mounted (glued on) to a metal base I had to bend the metal lip back to swap the CF card.

So listen all you Quantum HD PEASANTS!!! go forth and order from here http://scsiforsamplers.com/cfcard_ssd.asp

Scour the forums for confirmed cards that boot (one of which is Kingston "White Flower" 1GB). If scs4samplers can't supply go said card forth and find your own.

Go now!!

pot.