Korg D1600 CF card mod Part II

Some time back I wrote a piece on my research and findings regarding using solid state flash card storage in my Korg multitrack studio recorder using a CF card to IDE adapter board. Click here if you want to read that entry. But why read ? Some long winded text on my thoughts on CF storage in such devices does not get that adapter neatly fixed into the machine !. That is what this piece is all about.

All you will need are a couple of screwdrivers, small saw, drill & 3mm bit, vile and a pair of pliers. Ow, and some measuring equipment.. I forgot to use some and it shows.

Mounting method
I chose to attach the board to the front panel rather then making a mounting bracket for the slot-in caddy. This has two advantages, firstly you do not need to align the bracket and the front panel and secondly it saves space in the caddy making it possible to consider future additions like adding a SSD hard-drive with a a select switch to choose CF card or internal drive.

Attaching the board this way means the IDE flat-cable and power cable coming out of the machine needs to not only be lengthy enough to reach to the connector but also to make the connection when assembling the front panel.

Now the big molex to small power connector adapter provided with the CF2IDE board made for enough length for easy assembly but the IDE ribbon in the caddy was really short so this had to be remedied.
This is of course no "biggy". With a salvaged IDE cable from some retired PC I found plenty of length for the job.

Modding the caddy

Nothing much has to be done to this piece. First the backside connector of the caddy needed disassembling. This is pretty straight forward and after replacing the cable and reassembling it, attach the power cable adapter and you are done here.

Modding the front panel

The original mock up. CF reader will be mounted lower

In a sudden outbreak of goodness towards all modding sound engineers, Korg thought it nice to make the front panel easily detachable. Just push down the two black bottom slide buttons that lock the thing into place and it comes right off to expose the caddy and the cd drive. The structural elements in this plastic piece make the modification rather easy.
I chose to bolt the PCB to the structural beam shown in the photo.
The PCB would sit neatly flush against the front of the panel locked down with two screws and nuts just about where the red lines are in the picture.

Now measure out where you want the card insert and eject button to be.
After you have marked them, use a drill to get more perforation in the plastic. Use a vile, knife or the drill to get at least 1 bigger whole through which you get fit a small metal saw blade.

>>> DO NOT START DRILLING OR CUTTING YET <<<
I make a rather stupid error in eyeballing the position of the board and this resulted in a very neatly integrated board and panel assembly. Alas I misjudged the clearance with the caddy in the bay and it turned out, it didn't fit ! I had to cut away another strut in the panel and move it some to make it work.
Since I already drilled holes I had to move it considerably leaving me with a unused gash to the right of the card slot. So measure your mod correctly to make it look nicer !
>>> DO NOT START DRILLING OR CUTTING YET <<<

Use the saw to neatly cut out a slot in which a vile can fit. Be sure to grind down to the structural bit where you will attach the board and not further. Try and make a neat square smooth finish with a fine vile.

Mark out the points where the screws go through the board and panel and drill them out. You are now ready to put the whole thing together. Probably the most fiddly bit is getting the nuts to properly find the screws but when that's done, you're solid!. 

Do make sure that when you mounted the board, it does not touch any metal part of the caddy when you insert it. Without the cables you can easily check this. If you think you are all right but want to be on the save side, insulate the metal bits near by.

 Putting it together

Only thing to do now it the trivial job of attaching the panel to the machine.
Put in the caddy and lock it with the original thumbscrews.
Make sure that the residual ribbon cable can easily fold in the caddy.



 

Line both parts up and attach the IDE and power cable.
Now gently press it home until it sits flush with the front of the machine.
Click the bottom clamps up and you are, as we say, Bacon buyer !.
Hook it up and test the mod. Seeing as it is rather simple, not a whole lot can go wrong.



If you wanted to get an extra drive in together with the adapter, perhaps using a shorter cable making your own custom length is advisable. For now this old piece will work just fine.

After thoughts

Apart from the small cock up failing to measure the clearance I'm pretty happy with the hack. Perhaps I'll make a sort of front bezel to fit over the butchered area but that is all cosmetics. What matters is the functionality is there.
Maybe the front bezel will have some sort of protection to make it harder to accidentally push the eject button when the machine is in operation.

The flash card when not fully inserted

Usually I like to make reversible hacks and this basically is apart from the big gaping hole in the front. Luckily It is not that apparent. I am glad that I did not try to mount it on the front as I mocked up earlier. Basically the machine is none the worse for wear.



I'll keep updating the blog with various findings I make from this little adventure, but i predict smooth sailing from now on.


Disclaimer : I can not be held responsible for people who, on basis of content of this blog, damage themselves of their machines.So if you forget to properly measure and cut out the wrong bit of your expensive equipment.. then you are probably me !.