Roland MC80 and CF Card Drive

Hi. Can you give more details? What CF Card Adapter have you used? You say you've connected it correctly, can you say exactly how you've connected it? I'm asking these questions because I'm in a similar situation to you - except I'm trying to install a CF Card Adapter to replace the internal hard disc which has died. I'm not suggesting I have a solution for you, I'm just pleased that I'm not the only person out there who's trying to keep an MC-80 working and maybe (just maybe) between us we can make some progress. I'm starting to think that the CF Cards themselves are the issue since, using the CF Adapter, I can't even see them on my Mac. And we have to remember that the internal hard disks are 2.5 inch IDE drives whilst the Zip drives are SCSI and require a different setup.

Hi ,I just removed my working Zip 100 drive and connected the CF Cards Drive ( similar to StarTech.com 3.5-Inch Drive Bay IDE to Single CF SSD Adapter Card Reader ) The CF card drive is not recognized by the MC80.I have tried with and without connecting the IDE Power Cable but no luck .
I have also disconnected the Floppy drive but still the CF Card drive is not recognized !!
I have 128mb and 256 mb Cards ,i'll try to get a 1 or 2 GB card and see if this makes a difference .
i wanted to use a CF Card drive because the Zip Discs fail sometimes when i use the sequencer on stage which is very embarrassing !
sorry that i can not be more of a help.
Regards dhm75

Hi. I've read your reply and I think (?) that you're trying to connect an IDE device (the StarTech style Adapter) to a SCSI system (the Zip connector). Have you tried connecting the Adapter directly to the IDE 40-pin connector on the main board? That may help (it may not). I don't think buying higher capacity CF cards will make any difference. Remember, the MC-80 can only address 2.1Gb regardless of the size of the drive and Zip 100 drives only held 100Mb anyway. Have you seen the other thread regarding MC-80/CF? Its under 'Other Roland Gear.'

https://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic.php?p=340313#p340313

In the past I've tried to connect a Kingspan 8Gb IDE SSD and a Dual CF Card IDE Adapter to the MC-80. I've had no success. I haven't tried to connect the Kingspan 8Gb directly to the board though, I ran out of patience. I've been trying to find a solution for about four years on and off as I know that traditional rotational HDs eventually die, which mine just did. I haven't lost any files though because I backed the HD up to my Mac whilst it was still working, three years ago. The MC-80 then lay unused for three years while I moved home and country. I hooked it up last week and the HD had finally died. Nothing will read it, its gone. But... having scoured the internet for days I finally found a Toshiba 4Gb hard drive (the same spec as the original) for £50 (US60). I installed it, formatted it (takes almost an hour) and copied all my files from the backup on my Mac. I copied them using a USB stick through the Gotek USB Floppy Adapter (they work BTW) that I installed years ago. Its all working perfectly but I'm still interested in fitting some sort of solid state drive 'cos I know the 'new old stock' HD I've just fitted is probably twenty years old already.

I'm curious, are you guys updated to the latest firmware (1.15)? You can check by holding Rec+Chain Play+Arpeggiator while powering on.

Here's a video on how to update the firmware: https://youtu.be/FhQG2_a9_Mg

There are no patch notes for this firmware so I'm wondering if it just included additional disk compatibility fixes. Might explain why some people on these forums get CF or SSD working with the MC-80 and others don't. Also I think its uncommon that anybody updates their firmware on this unit because it doesn't explicitly add any new features.

Well, looks like I'm in the same boat as the rest of you.

I purchased an MC-80 off of Reverb recently, and I'm trying to get a CF card to work in it.

I have updated the MC-80's firmware to 1.15.

I'm using the StarTech.com 3.5in Drive Bay IDE to Single CF SSD Adapter Card Reader (35BAYCF2IDE).

I have the adapter set to MASTER.

I am using a Sandisk 2 GB CF card.

I took out the built in hard drive adapter (which is for the Roland HDP88 hard drive, I believe) from the MC-80 and have hooked up the CF adapter to the motherboard using the IDE cable that was previously attached to the adapter for the HDP88. I have also attached the power cable that was previously attached to the HDP88 adpater to the CF adapter.

The MC-80 doesn't recognize that the CF adapter is there. It does still recognize the floppy drive, though.

I had a chance to do some more experimenting today.

In my previous post, I said that the MC-80 wasn't recognizing the adapter. Turns out that's not entirely true.

When I boot up the MC-80, I *am* getting the hard drive symbol mentioned on pg 102 of the manual. I do *not* see that symbol if the power is disconnected from the adapter, so I think disconnecting the power will not fix my issues (at least with this type of adapter).

I have three CF cards. A 2 GB Sandisk that I just bought, a 128 MB Sandisk that is at least 15 years old, and a 8 MB Cannon which is possibly even older. None of them work. However, the MC-80 *definitely* takes longer to boot up when a larger card is inserted (it's almost instantaneous with the 8MB card but takes more like two minutes with the 2 GB card). So, some degree of reading the cards seems to be taking place.

I ordered another couple of cards from Amazon today (a generic 512MB "Type 1" card and a Transcend 512MB "Industrial" card). We'll see if either of those work.

If they don't, I also ordered a couple of cheap, less complex IDE to CF card adapters. I really don't want to pull apart the innards of the MC-80 again, but that will be my next step.

SUCCESS!!!

Apparently the issue is that the MC-80 is super picky about what CF cards it will recognize.

The "Transcend 512MB CF Industrial 100X Compact Flash Card (UDMA4 Mode)" card I purchased was recognized when all of the other cards I tried weren't.



Super excited to have this issue resolved. Now I have a dead-quiet sequencer with enough storage space to last a lifetime.

I also picked up the STARTECH CF IDE card drive, but opted to get the SCSI2SD PLUG OUT DRIVE connected to the backport instead as ANY and EVERY sd card will work.

It would be great if that special ribbon cable that connects to the VS4S-1 card could be adapted to connect directly to an internal SCSI card reader instead. It would probably need a custom cable that is a ribbon on one side and has the SCSI standard internal connector on the other.

The SCSI bus is less picky and always works.

Anyway, congrats on the success!