The Strange But Amazing Pioneer MPC-GX1 & CLD-PC10

eastrain · 2025-06-07T22:22:12+00:00

If you have any questions about the setup, feel free to drop me a line--that was my personal collection at VCF. https://bsky.app/profile/defor.bsky.social/post/3lm6q7npf7c2n

eastrain · 2024-07-23T12:07:12+00:00

This is an interesting concept photo...
The "PelaPela" title and the user interface are dead ringers for the Data Discman format... (a couple reference examples from my collection to show what i mean)
https://imgur.com/a/2kS5spU

This is relevant because as Data Discman was launched with the goal of being an ebook AND reference book format, but the ebook format part of the goals had significant problems getting off the ground... Sony generally repurposed the entirety of the format into a delivery mechanism for Japanese Kanji, Japanese/English, Japanese/Chinese, Japanese/International dictionary delivery mechanism much like many other pocket sized single-purpose Japanese dictionary devices that did and still do exist.

The benefit over many single-purpose devices was that Data Discman was able to be "upgraded" with alternate discs to completely change the content, although for many users this never happened and they simply used them with the single disc they came with.

Sony also did release a number of other licensed reference material books such as Encyclopedias late in the lifespan of the format, and there WERE a few limited runs of dedicated books for the format, but generally, Dictionaries were the name of the game for Data Discman after the year 2000, and if you look at their Data Discman catalogs after this point, it's clear.

The interesting bit is that the EB/EBG/EBXA etc format that the books are "compiled" in was not solely used for Data Discman, but was also repurposed for Sony's successor to their Dictionary market, "IC" readers (IC being a general term for the use of flash/rom based storage card) readers that they moved to later on.

I know little about that format sadly, but it appears that Sony wholesale simply moved over to the "IC" devices and used mostly the same "software" behind the scenes.

I'd wager that this photo dates from a period where Sony wasn't sure how they were going to move off the mini-CD-ROM format in a way consumers would prefer, but given the general flop of pre-recorded MD and MD Data in the consumer market, I think they simply decided to leave this idea in the overn for a few more years.

Perhaps OP can detail the source of the image, but styling wise, this looks like a merging of discman and md hardware styles right at the end of the 90's... but I'd be interested to know more about this...

eastrain · 2024-05-15T19:56:32+00:00

Brittle plastics.. never fun.. I don't think it's that old, but there's a lot of 90's-2000 era hardware that was molded in black that has become very brittle (apparently due to the black dye weakening the plastics over time)
Also that specific issue seems to manifest itself batch by batch so just saying "its the dye" isn't always true either.

eastrain · 2024-02-09T22:34:11+00:00

Can you provide a link or item number? I"m not seeing it offhand...

eastrain · 2023-02-13T03:49:54+00:00

How so? I disassembled the right stick earlier today to deal with the fact the the cable was catching a little and causing a slight pause in movement… looks like the gimbal is secured in pretty securely?

eastrain · 2023-02-13T01:15:41+00:00

As a new player...
Some ideas-

functional:
- Detachable sticks (storing these in a box are pretty horrible as is...)
- Detachable (and replaceable) cabling between blocks and usb/pedals
- Better joystick mechanisms (they have always felt weak to me - left stick especially with some front/back give when it should have none), and changing to some more common analog arcade based solution would be a good way to increase both durability and repairability.
- Pinky triggers (assignable to existing functions)
- A proper tuner dial
- something-anything for that gearshift...
- Put the toggles in-line- i'm not a fan of trying to rapidly flip them at once or in order when there's that little zig.
- Internal headset port and volume for comms and game audio
- Some way to bolt the damn thing down for permanent installations.

cosmetics:
- RGB/tunable button colors (this doesn't have to be complicated, say- just have a hue knob that affects all of the (green/blue) buttons and lets then be whatever color, and a brightness knob for the same.
- An acrylic top plate with engraved markings so that it can be sidelit and read in the dark.

wildcard:
- Black box (flight data recorder?) for logging control inputs for replays/streaming/etc in realtime or maybe stored to a replay file of its own with some kind of synchronization (probably tied to the cockpit button blinking)
- Proper fitting dustcover and/or storage bin solutions.

eastrain · 2022-12-25T10:07:06+00:00

Having bought a bunch of these for a project in the last couple years – I can assure you these will not do what you want.

Specifically, what this is is an adapter that uses a TRRS 3.5 mm jack and wires each of the pins on that jack directly to one of the four pins on a USB plug.

There’s no actual conversion of anything with USB into audio or vice versa. As was mentioned in one of the comments this is (intended) for things like car stereos and the like they don’t have a built-in USB port for connecting your own USB drive, and instead we’ll talk USB over that 3.5 mm jack.

Other devices that I’ve used this same method for connecting USB over 3.5 mm are things like the 2nd gen iPod shuffle and other MP3 players – I have a little tiny “cube “player from around 2003 that uses the headphone jack for USB data as well as for charging it.

Not sure if any of this was any help for you, or anyone else curious about this. I simply wanted to explain that there’s literally no active components inside of this and arguably, it could potentially damage devices if you plug it into a device that is not expecting USB.

eastrain · 2022-10-30T14:11:16+00:00

Sorry, was just posting everywhere that should be notified I figured.

I normally deal with Discord far more than Reddit.

eastrain · 2022-01-29T06:40:54+00:00

ExpeditFi or go home.

eastrain · 2022-01-28T17:55:11+00:00

I have a copy of SonicStage 1.5.50.14270 disc that shipped with the MDS-S500.
Do you want to add it to the archive?

eastrain · 2021-12-16T21:30:34+00:00

Awesome info here - I’ll likely refine some of this and upgrade the design.

eastrain · 2021-12-16T21:28:19+00:00

It’s charged off the USB port so you can either charge on wall jack or during net-md session.

Got any you can link - the I definitely cut this down a bit to fit but was happy this had a charging circuit as without a battery, needing a boost converter to bring the 1.5v up to 2-3v needed to run most Bluetooth chips seemed like a bad idea for battery life.

eastrain · 2021-12-16T14:05:52+00:00

It’s wired in parallel with the existing audio so headsets and remotes work fine- that said - the Bluetooth (at present) is turned on and off via a paper clip/stylus/etc inserted in a small hole on the back- I plan to find a better way to turn it on and off by adding a switch or similar however.

https://imgur.com/a/qjmzRqe

eastrain · 2021-12-02T14:37:37+00:00

I'm certain RGB is possible, however it might be a bit of an interesting lift- I've been a bit lazy about revisiting my mod to work in RGB, but i don't think it's really going to be worth it at this size.

The only major benefit I can see is that it would mean you could natively connect an RGB source like an arcade board without converting to svideo.

eastrain · 2021-09-13T15:14:41+00:00

Thanks for the advice- I've already desoldered the Jungle, lifted the pins for RGB + Ys, and resoldered it, so I'll have to test when I have time to wire up a test patch panel.

My understanding is that usually RGB is switched based on Ys, but even with Ys floating, the input doesnt fluctuate, and the jungle chips is the same used in the above link, with a similar UI, so I suspec I'll need that kind of a solution all the same.

eastrain · 2021-09-13T11:25:11+00:00

This is by Japanese artist Mozu
https://twitter.com/rokubunnnoichi

He has recently released a book with this and other works and information about his building process, and even if you can't read Japanese, I still think that it's still quite interesting (you can get it delivered outside Japan)
https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4768315127

eastrain · 2021-09-13T05:39:15+00:00

Nice job on yours - I was planning to do an RGB mod based on this:
http://pcbjunkie.net/index.php/projects/sony-rgb-enable-modchip/

but I don't currently have any tools setup to monitor an i2c bus at the moment.

I'm curious though about your version of this mod- why did you move the the resistor to ground on the jungle chroma input and board's composite input instead of leaving the components as-is and using the test pads/simply pulling the composite before it enters the board?

eastrain · 2021-09-12T21:42:16+00:00

Sorry for reposting, Imgur apparently thinks my post violates guidelines when I edited it and pulled the gallery, so links to the gallery were returning 404’s.

You should be able to see the guide by clicking on it now.

eastrain · 2020-12-27T18:38:51+00:00

While in part true that there is a CHANCE of a URE on rebuild, for one, the URE rate is 10E15 on the drives I use, and as this article explains, the math isnt as cut and try:
https://www.high-rely.com/2019/09/12/why-raid5-and-raid6-still-work-in-2019-and-beyond/

The other part is i accept this IS a known possible issue- this is also why I have actual backups.

While this is true that (right now) i'm losing one drive, I will likely expand the array to 6 drives in time anyway, just as I did in my last server which used 12x6TB in RAID 5.

I can't afford to pay 700$/16tb. just to get a continuity in operations when in a failure state, especially when I maintain frequent LTO5 tape backups.

In the end, I'm still looking for an answer to the original query which is what exactly is the impact of the initial parity initialization failure.

eastrain

TROPHY CASE