*DESPERATELY* looking for a PCMCIA>USB adapter for my 1616M ADC

[isamu99]

Hi guys. No sure if you guys are aware, but there is good news for those of us who own an old E-MU 1616M/1212/1820/etc audio interface unit. Some fine folks from the community has developed drivers and a workaround that(with a bit of tinkering) can allow these audio interface cards/docks to work on Windows 10/11, as reported in this thread....

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=529349

As someone who owns the 1616M unit, I was very excited to discover this. Unfortunately, the 1616M is a PCMCIA card and my laptop does not have a PCMCIA slot(nor does it have a PCIE slot obviously). Which brings me to my problem...

I'm looking for an adapter that will convert any PCMCIA card to USB. Yes I realize there are plenty of these on Amazon but...and I could be wrong...they appear to be memory and data reading only adapters. I need one that is capable of working with pcmcia sound cards. Do any of these exist? If so, can someone point me in the right direction? Here's one that's available on Amazon but like I said, I'm pretty sure these types are incompatible with sound cards....

https://www.amazon.com/PCMCIA-Reade...+usb+adapter&mfadid=adm&qid=1759657842&sr=8-3

 

[voodooless]

My guess would be that the best bet would be PCIe bus adapter to a USB-c/thunderbolt to PCIe adapter. None of this will be particularly budget friendly, though.

It might be best to burry the dinosaur and get something a bit more modern

 

[isamu99]

My guess would be that the best bet would be PCIe bus adapter to a USB-c/thunderbolt to PCIe adapter. None of this will be particularly budget friendly, though.

It might be best to burry the dinosaur and get something a bit more modern

Hi Voodoo. The PCIe bus adapter to usb does me no good, since the card is a PCMCIA card. That's the issue.

 

[voodooless]

Hi Voodoo. The PCIe bus adapter to usb does me no good, since the card is a PCMCIA card. That's the issue.

You can buy another card, can’t you?

Otherwise, there are PCMCIA to PCIe cards.

 

[somebodyelse]

https://arstech.com/usb2-products/40-usb2pcmcia-r.html

 

[isamu99]

https://arstech.com/usb2-products/40-usb2pcmcia-r.html

@somebodyelse ....dude....you were SOOOOOO close with one! I was so happy after clicking on that link because it appeared we hit the jackpot! However, one little thing has ruined the party. That adapter does not accept PCMCIA cards with a 32bit card bus, which is what the E-MU 1616M is. Damn...so close. If you find another one that's similar but accepts a 32bit card bus please post it here. The search continues...

 

[somebodyelse]

When you said PCMCIA I assumed you meant the 16 bit standard - the 32 bit one was PC-Card and was backward compatible with PCMCIA. At least that's how I remember it - it's been a while since I used it. I was intrigued recently by people making ISA and PCMCIA compatible devices using the Pi Pico W to add WiFi to old machines, and happened upon someone using that one with a normal Pi.

Edit: I conflated the name change to separate the name of the card from the name of the organisation, and the slightly later change to 32 bit which was CardBus. Making a generic USB CardBus adapter was impossible until USB4 because earlier USB lacked DMA. It's now possible in theory, but it's probably going to be up to hobbyists to make it reality, or chain USB4 to PCIe then PCIe to CardBus - maybe with an intermediate PCI step.