CompactFlash in a Compact Mac

[duxbridge]

Since it was Macintosh's 28th birthday yesterday, it got me thinking about the Compact Mac line. I stumbled upon this project by Roberto Barrios, where he places a CF into his Korg Trinton.

This post was inspired by Roberto's project. I thought: "I wonder if the same could be done in a Compact Mac?" :approve:

I did a quick search of this forum and found where similar ideas have been discussed in the past:

CompactFlash in your Mac

Compact Flash in se/30

I know that technically it is possible, since, successfully booting up with CF is possible. The only drawback my current CF setup is that it is quite an effort to remove the CF card, though I think Roberto has a much more elegant and integrated approach.

I bit of investigation lead me to this vital part from Startech CF IDE Adapter

So the plan is to replace the FDD with this Startech 3.5" CF IDE Adapter, use I-O DATA R-IDSC SCSI to IDE adapter to connect back to the SCSI bus.

What do you think?

 

[MacJunky]

I think you should just leave the CF card inside or connect it externally and keep the floppy drive where it is. >_>

Not trying to be a downer, it is just that with a computer this old the floppy drive is generally handy.

 

[Bunsen]

In theory, one could run the floppy lead to a rear port (or hidden under the base) and plug the bare floppy drive in when needed. The one cable carries both power and data.

 

[bbraun]

This was my solution:



I drilled holes in the floppy drive bracket, used nylon spacers, and mounted the IDE-CF adapter at the right height within the floppy bracket to allow access through the floppy bay. I was then able to cram the R-IDSC-E SCSI-IDE adapter in the remaining space of the floppy bracket, so it's basically a self contained system within the floppy bracket. Since there's two floppy openings, there's still one usable floppy drive in the system, and an externally accessible CF slot. And the activity LED is visible (although recessed). This particular system is an SE/30 in a dual-drive SE case.

 

[Mk.558]

^ There you go!

Any info on the SCSI > IDE bridge you have? The only thing I find is a $280 model on eBay.

Any benchmarks?

 

[bbraun]

This is all from about 2 years ago, and I documented most of it here, including links to information about the R-IDSC-E.

SCSI-IDE benchmarking seems to be a never ending saga in these forums. However, all the benchmarks will confirm: 25 year old equipment is slow.