May 18, 2012
Akai s3000xl scsi to ide cf mod
Here are pictures of my S3000XL with cf card inside as hard disk.
I used IO-Data scsi to ide adapter from ebay, Ide to cf adapter, 2gb sandisk card, and some molex cables.
I mounted IDE-to-CF adapter on the bottom by using 3 screws. It fits perfect
I also modded power plug as you can see on the picture to get 5v and 12v.
I have 16 partitions, about 500mb available.
About Author
Martin
15 Comments
Hey Dude!
Very nice man! very nice indeed!
I’ve been sourcing out old computers n stuff to install a old scsi hardrive into my s3000xl but hey I think Ive been wasting my time…
Might have to give your mod a shot, see how I go?
Mmm…
Good stuff! Great to see peeps still messing with this vintage gear, keep it up…
Cheers,
Steve, Perth West Australia.
Thank You! :)
I think that is possible to install old scsi hard drive inside s3000xl.
Probably on the back, near power socket. You must drill two holes or use some kind of metal adapter.
Most of scsi harddisks are very noisy. So i suggest to install
ide to cf as i installed, or something like this:
http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=66_73
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-PCD-60B-50Pin-SCSI-2-Media-Card-Reader-20R3441-/370618275859?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item564a921813
this is scsi cf card reader
Software chicken sys translator for converting samples to akai format
will be very useful too
Hi!
You mention the translator.
But, I guess Akai can’t read any PC/Mac-formatted disks?
I have an s3200 with a CF reader and it doesn’t read a disk if I format it with my Mac. Any tips for that?
right, akai cant read pc/mac-formated disks
but you can format cf disk in akai format by using chikensys translator
chikensys translatror has ability to format cf-cards in akai format and then you can convert samples, other programs to akai format
Hi Martin,
Thanks for this very useful information and the clear explanation. I will give your mod a try!
Thanks again.
Regards,
Siegfried
I have a S2800 Pro that has the SCSI board installed. I already have a CF IDE adapter and managed to score an IDE SCSI adapter off of ebay for $15. Since the S2800 has no internal SCSI header, I’ll just mount the CF reader in an external case. I’m curious, have you tried addressing you sampler CF cards directly from a PC or Mac? Swapping the CF card between the Akai and PC or MAC with a cheap CF card reader would seem to be a good way to quickly transfer samples.
Thanks
Hello!
You need chickensys translator
http://www.chickensys.com/products/sw_iteminfo.php?sw_name=Translator+Pro
This tool can read cf cards formatted by akai
and convert many other programs to akai and vice versa
very very useful, must have for akai owner
you need cheap usb card reader for your pc also
Dear Martin,
Thanks for posting this info on here, which gives me some hope in solving my troubles when it comes to upgrading my akai s- xl’s to cf reader and os2.0.
First I got a working s3200xl with cf reader and os1.5 installed. The sampler reads the cf card as hard:a, with one partition. However, after swapping in a os2.0 EPROM, the sampler fails to recognise the cf reader and I cannot get it to format the card. Now the bootup is stuck in hard disk not ready skip…
The cf card worked fine before the EPROM change. Any idea how I can resolve this?
My utmost appreciation.
Patrick
Hello!
Probably your new os has different id scsi settings for hard disk
1. find out what scsi id number your cf reader have
2. go to the scsi page and set correct scsi id for hard disk then try load something
default settings for harddisk is id=5 but probably you have different id
Why it worked before?
You loaded os from disk? Right?
When you have os on disk, not on eprom
you can write different scsi id setting to disk together with os file.
With eprom os you can’t do this.
So if you have harddisk on id other than 5 you have to set it every boot
If it will not help let me know
and tell me please what cf reader do you have
Very interesting! but why do you need to relocate the brown wires? and if that really is necessary can you tell me what brown wire goes where on that connector? and show the corresponding wires which go to the main PCB.
Thanks
J
Scsi to ide adapter needs power, 12v and 5v
thats why i connected SCSI2IDE adapter to brown cables at main power plug.
Ofcourse i checked voltage before.
You can make connection to floppy power connector also,
but i decided take power directly from power supply board and then route it to SCSI2IDE and IDE2CF by popular molex and floppy cables
Hi Martin, first of all thanks for all your precious info, which helped me getting more and more addicted to akai’s :-) I just bought a superb s3200 on ebay which came without display. Well plugging the headphones and playing the main tone it works fine… So far so good! Now I’m stuck with my workflow, trying to get a display for my new tool. There seems to be noone out there who can help me but people selling backlights for the display. Are you able to help me?
Hi Martin,
Just out of interest what brand(s) are the SCSI-to-IDE and the IDE-CF adaptor boards?
I work with digital gear a lot so know my way around bits and bobs, didn’t know if there was any specific firmware revs about the SCSI-IDE part though?
Cheers,
Lee
there are many scsi to ide adapters
not matter which one you use, jut make sure you have correct socket or cable adapters :)
i have many different adapters in my gear, everything works
Salve, ho un Akai S300Xl e vorrei fare la solita modifica, mi daresti il link di amaro o ebani dove acquistare il lettore ?? ed il cavo per collegarlo alla corrente