So far... nothing!
It's been very frustrating.
I own 2 SP808. One upgraded to EX the other one "virgin".
None of them works with either a HD of a CF Reader.
With the HD I had better results. I found in a store nearby a drawer for 2,5" HDs that changes the socket to standard IDE and it fits in the 2.5" bay of the SP. Plus.. you can extract it and connect it direcly via USB to a computer. To make it work in the SP I had to connect it to an external power source because the SP only provides 6V. The experiment started well: i could format the HD (20GB) but then it wouldn't sample or play the samples. It hangs. I'll try with a smaller HD but it's hard to find.
I've ordered a simple CF reader from E-bay. 99cents... of course it doesn't work... I would be amazed if it did.
Now I got my paycheck so i'll order the one from amazon...
Any suggestions? The HD has been the most successful for now...

I think we need a reader compatible IDE PIO n°3

how about contacting Roland and asking for a little help...?

news ???

news ???

yeah, this is annoying. it should be a simple thing in 2008 to upgrade this beast with a new storage option...

of course Roland is not likely to be helpful (as they want us to buy their NEW gear), but if approached properly, maybe they would give some of the code or whatever to somebody willing to do a OS update that would support an upgrade to CF...? whatever happened to "good will" toward your customer base?

maybe start a petition on rolandclan.info or something...?

Roland is good people, but they won't give such information... in fact, they hardly give out any information about the contents of their machines.

I've asked what kind of drives were in the MV-8800 and all they said was '40Gb' and 2,5 inch ... but that wasn't what I meant, I meant mainly the brand and speeds and so on. :p

I think we could get lucky with a helpful Roland-insider, but chances are pretty slim.

Just ask!

That's right...it never hurts to ask. I would even be willing to pay for such a OS update, and my guess is some other people would be as well...Maybe ask nicely first for a free upgrade, then if there's no response, propose that they do it and offer it for a fee...?

I think we all need to ask,

any body got an email/ phone number they would recommend?

Not got an SP808, but have played around with different media in a VS840 recorder -same case style from the same Roland Zip drive era...

A zip drive runs off 5volts - so does a 2.5" HD and a plain 3.5" to 2.5" IDE drive adapter gives a matching power plug.

Card adapters - The card slot must be set to Master (there probably is a small jumper setting for this on any adapter), same as the Zip drive was.

The CF card adapter I have working in a VS840 is a very simple thing with no intelligence. The brains is in the memory card but these are not all the same. A "basic" card from the likes of Sandisk usually works. Very fast fancy cards aimed a digital cameras often don't. The Zip drive is a fairly slow device so any recent card is going to be faster anyway.

With others who have fitted card adapters to the VS840, we found the best chance of a card working was with the 512MB size (I have some Kingston 1GB working well). Probably most cards made in this size (small by current card sizes), support whatever standard that Roland designed for.

Media size - The o/s may well be limited in how large a disk or card you can use. On the VS-840 it has a maximum of 1GB. It seems it can recognise up to around 4GB, but of this it makes a partition of 1GB and that's the only part it can use. Over around 4GB just isn't recognised at all. There's a chance the SP808 o/s has similar limits.

In a nearby thread, a Roland A8 o/s applied to the SP808 breaks the 1GB limit but obviously doesn't give you a unit with all the 808 features.

Good luck
Jim

Roland does sell so called 'service manuals', but from what I hear they are usually pretty pricey.

If you call Roland, they will certainly put you through to the right department. It's probably best to contact them by email first, perhaps they'll give you a direct number you can call. Saves the time and costs of waiting in line and being re-connected.