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Two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to pick up an E-mu ESI-2000 sampler (circa 1997) from a local pawnshop for $88 + tax. While it only had 4 MB RAM, it could be easily expanded with 72-pin SIMMs, and already had the “turbo” board installed – giving it some onboard effects, S/PDIF I/O, and another pair of sub outputs. I managed to scrounge up 32 MB RAM for the beast, and put my old SCSI Zip drive into an external enclosure. All was well, but that enclosure had a noisy, noisy fan and it drove me crazy.

An internal Zip drive was originally an option on the ESI-2000 (and ESI-4000), but many people chose the basic version with a floppy drive due to cost. Fair enough! I used the floppy drive to copy a number of sample sets onto the Zip, and then I set out to put my Zip drive inside the sampler. The main problem was finding an appropriate cable. E-mu used to make a particular part, but have since sold off their old B-stock to some other company that doesn’t return my emails. There are two options that I came up with.

1. this cable will probably do the trick if you removed the bracket; I haven’t tried it, but it looks like it should work fine (though it has an extra connector)
2. add a Centronics connector to an existing 50-pin SCSI cable

I was planning to go with option 1, but when I was buying some rack rails (see my DIY rack post) at a local shop, lo and behold they had an IDC 50-pin crimp female Centronics adapter! I actually had an appropriate 50-pin cable (missing the Centronics connector), but I had despaired of ever finding the proper part. That is but the beginning of our wonderful photoessay…

This actually didn’t take very long, perhaps an hour from start to finish. I’ve attached IDC connectors onto ribbon cables before, so I knew what I was up against, and had the appropriate tools on hand.

This is your standard ESI-2000 with a floppy drive.

This is what it looks like from the back with the cover off. You did unplug it first, right? Watch out, the powersupply in mine wasn’t shielded, and you could cause yourself injury. I don’t recommend that anyone do this, insert legal boilerplate here. If you don’t know what you’re doing, just don’t try it.

Internal SCSI cable.

Internal floppy connections inside the ESI-2000

Here’s the cable that I had already. You’ll need two connectors plus a length of free cable, which if you’re doing this to an existing cable, you’ll probably want to have one with three connectors (and then you cut the spare one off. The happy little blue thing next to it is our new Centronics connector. Make sure that the cable will be long enough to go from the onboard SCSI connection to the zip drive to the back of the sampler – and that there are connectors in appropriate locations!

Pop the back off of the IDC/Centronics connector, and very VERY carefully line up the wires of the cable with the little teeth/fingers. You get one chance to do this right, so don’t screw it up. Misalign it, you’ll break the cable in a stupid spot, and possibly wreck the connector while you’re at it. That said, it’s not very hard, just take your time. Once I had it lined up, I used a pair of vise grips to gently crimp each end in place to make sure it held. This picture is in the “partially crimped” state. Also, make sure you have the red strip (pin 1) on the cable matching up with the original SCSI cable from the ESI-2000.

Then I used a real vise to put some pressure on it for a few minutes. Crimping them fully with vise grips sucks, but this does all the work for you.

After that was done, I trimmed off the old connector with a utility knife.

Next, remove the floppy drive, the four screws are accessible from the bottom of the sampler.

You’ll need to plug in the SCSI cable and power (and set your SCSI ID!) to your Zip drive before you put it in place. As you can see, it’s a rather tight fit.

Here you can see the interior with the new cable folded in place, and installed nicely. The original Centronics plug had an integral nut on it, which was quite nice. I just used a 4-40 machine screw, locking washer, and nut on either side, and that seemed to do the trick.

Power it up, and Lo! it works. How about that! Reassemble it, and you’re done. Make sure you put the original floppy and SCSI cable somewhere safe, in case you ever want to replace them. If you experience any problems, or it doesn’t work, either (a) your original 50-pin cable was bad, (b) you plugged something in wrong (though the connectors are all keyed), or (c) your crimp was unsuccessful. It really shouldn’t be that hard, but it might be worth trying again with a new connector – just place it a bit below the old one and give it another shot.

Enjoy!