6 Hard Drives to USB STEREO

**spudgunblunder** · 09-28-2005, 05:13 PM

Hi all.
I bought a H&B CA-5555 Car MP3 stereo which has a USB on the front for about £85 from pixmania.

H&B say it will ONLY support USB memory sticks but through a IDE to USB adapter (HD enclosure) it will read folders and MP3s great - and with out any skips! unlike CD's.

So I wanted to have my whole music collection in my car (escort van

).

BUT, it will only read 500 MP3s MAX. even if they are different folders or partitions or what!

1st question is why is this so? - memory in the stereo / set limit but the engineers?(seems stupid)

So i thought I'd have six 4GB or so Hard Drives connected through a switch into the IDE to USB adapter going then into the stereo.

Here's a pic of what I came up with....

6 HDs of different size and make all set to MASTER all on one custom 40 wire IDE ribbon. (all connector work with all hard drives separately-1 at a time)

All hard drives are Ground at all times. I bought a rotary switch from maplins which has 2 inputs which feed to 2 lots of 6 outputs, so I can switch the power (+12v & +5v) between HDs and therefore turn one ON at a time.

It works with only certain arrangements of drives - some don't like each other I think. I've had it working with about 3 on the same ribbon.

What could be the problem?

Could I switch between them by using a wire or 2 from the IDE ribbon to controll which is seen as the MASTER and so all others are not seen or connected? I think one wire does controll this.

The HD's that work together at the Mo are:
FUJITSU - M1638TAU (2.57GB)
MAXTOR - 81750A4 (should be 4 but only shows as 1.6GB no matter how many formats?)
FUJITSU - MPC3043AT (4.32GB)

Would REALLY REALLY apreciate any feed back on this as I've been trying to make this beggers PIMP MY RIDE work for a month or two now with only the success of 1 4GB HD with 500 MP3s on it.

Cheers for any help.

PS. remember I'm skint and I know what Phatnoise is. (give me one please)

**spudgunblunder** · 09-29-2005, 03:15 PM

*No replies hey?

Well I think I figgured it out!

Thanks to a fellow xbox modder, I read a post on installing a switch to change between 2 xbox hds.

So all I needed to know was to switch between hds, install a switch on wire No.23 on the IDE ribbon between all hds. Switch power on and off between switches and rice and pea, there you go a 6 HD switchable incar MP3 system.(for pennyless hobos like myself)

*Just a hello would have been nice

**strohj** · 09-29-2005, 04:39 PM

hello

**Tidder** · 09-29-2005, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by spudgunblunder

*No replies hey?

Well I think I figgured it out!

Thanks to a fellow xbox modder, I read a post on installing a switch to change between 2 xbox hds.

So all I needed to know was to switch between hds, install a switch on wire No.23 on the IDE ribbon between all hds. Switch power on and off between switches and rice and pea, there you go a 6 HD switchable incar MP3 system.(for pennyless hobos like myself)

*Just a hello would have been nice

I was going to suggest that. LoL, would have been funny to see you try and hook up a USB switch and have like 6 usb to ide things, would of loved to see that, oh well.

Now, to switch power off, what you gonna do there? I dunno if it would work, but maybe a couple of DPST switches to throw power and pin 23 at the same time?

**Tidder** · 09-29-2005, 05:24 PM

Wait, I want more info on that "rotary switch from maplins". What are it's specs? I think I could use that for somethin...

I just dunno man, I figure a rotary switch for an application like that would wear out pretty quick, plus you're gonna be switching power too? So if you run thru the switch, all the drives are gonna get power for just a tiny bit, wouldn't that be bad? I dunno, I don't flip on and off my computer, and don't want to find out what happens...

**spudgunblunder** · 09-29-2005, 05:39 PM

hello strohj!

I think it could be bad for the hds Tidder, but i don't care enough when risking 6 old crappy 3 or 4GB hds. So i'm gonna wire the 12 and 5v and switch the grounds on the spare input (to 6 outs). Why would a short (time) power supply damage the hds? i don't know.

Any1 got an Idea why the stereo would be restricted to 500MP3s? Memory/Bios?

Thanks for the replys Tidder,
cheers

One thing I forgot. how could I quickly switch the power (+12v) on and off the the IDE to USB adapter (which is required for the stereo or PC to read the next drive) without having a separate switch?

**spudgunblunder** · 09-30-2005, 10:14 AM

i have another Q!

can an ide ribbon be wired in series rather than parallel? eg having the mobo in the centre of the ribbon and hds at the ends.

**Rob Withey** · 09-30-2005, 10:41 AM

That is not series instead of parallel. IDE is a bus, and devices are always in parallel on that bus.

But yes, you can probably put the mobo in the centre and have devices on the ends if you like. It is still parallel.