waynestewart
Well-known member
The Mac Plus doesn't supply term power. Is the drive supplying it?
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SD card reader with Mac Quadra
- Thread starter danielb
- Start date
register
Well-known member
Just in case someone stumbles across a SCM PCD-60B multi card reader: this device has been manufactured in different flavours, for read only purpose and for read and write access. I bought one that was pulled from a self service photo printer. It came with firmware version 01.13, which does not permit write operations. I checked the operation with an old PC running Win NT 2000. With this system any LUNs are independently accessible, with the following results:
LUN 0 PC Card
LUN 1 CF
LUN 2 SmartMedia
LUN 3 SD Card
LUN 4 Memory Stick
LUN 5 xD Media Picture Card
A firmware update tool is available to flash the devivce to firmware version 01.28. This firmware flash tool is a Windows application, what is another reason for me to keep that old Pentium III server with SCSI host adapter. It is most useful to run some tools like this firmware flasher. After a succesful update to firmware 01.28 the multi card reader is completely operational under Win NT 2000, accessing each LUN separately.
On a beige PowerMacintosh G3 DT running Mac OS 9 the results are inconsistent, yet. The G3 boots from a HFS+ formatted CF-Card in a PCMCIA-CF-adapter using LUN 0 of the card reader. SCSI Probe then detects and mounts media in other slots, also. Drive Setup does not support the card reader. HDT 2 seems not to like the device at all. So I would not call this a full success at the moment.
However, booting from the internal IDE drive (in this case an 8 GB flash disk on module, which contains a differently configured Mac OS 9) renders the card reader unusable. The system reports the media in the PC-Card slot as faulty and SCSI Probe tells simply "LUNs not supported". In consequence I suspect the operability of the card reader is not connected to the hardware or to the installed OS in general but to some particular software configuration I have not the time to figure out right now.
If someone knows which configuration is necessary and what to avoid in the System folder, please let us know.
P.S.: the SCM PCD-60B has a jumper to enable or disable termination power
LUN 0 PC Card
LUN 1 CF
LUN 2 SmartMedia
LUN 3 SD Card
LUN 4 Memory Stick
LUN 5 xD Media Picture Card
A firmware update tool is available to flash the devivce to firmware version 01.28. This firmware flash tool is a Windows application, what is another reason for me to keep that old Pentium III server with SCSI host adapter. It is most useful to run some tools like this firmware flasher. After a succesful update to firmware 01.28 the multi card reader is completely operational under Win NT 2000, accessing each LUN separately.
On a beige PowerMacintosh G3 DT running Mac OS 9 the results are inconsistent, yet. The G3 boots from a HFS+ formatted CF-Card in a PCMCIA-CF-adapter using LUN 0 of the card reader. SCSI Probe then detects and mounts media in other slots, also. Drive Setup does not support the card reader. HDT 2 seems not to like the device at all. So I would not call this a full success at the moment.
However, booting from the internal IDE drive (in this case an 8 GB flash disk on module, which contains a differently configured Mac OS 9) renders the card reader unusable. The system reports the media in the PC-Card slot as faulty and SCSI Probe tells simply "LUNs not supported". In consequence I suspect the operability of the card reader is not connected to the hardware or to the installed OS in general but to some particular software configuration I have not the time to figure out right now.
If someone knows which configuration is necessary and what to avoid in the System folder, please let us know.
P.S.: the SCM PCD-60B has a jumper to enable or disable termination power
register
Well-known member
Yes, that's what I found in some Mac configurations on one hand. On the other hand with another Mac OS configuration on the very same machine SCSI Probe mounted three different volumes on three media using three different LUNs (using a PowerMac G3 with SCM PCD-60B). Both configurations used Mac OS 9. The use of multiple LUNs worked after booting off LUN 0 (PCMCIA), afterwards mounting a CF card and a SD card. At least it is possible to address multiple LUNs using a Mac.As I have to move in few days, my computers will now rest for a while in cardboxes. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to get a Mac to take better advantage of the multi slot card reader, later in the year.
Hi all,
I've been playing with mine a bit more and I can confirm my previous results:
- It works well and reliably in the Quadra 650 with System 7.6.1. It can read, write and boot. The only software I have that is able to format it is HDT 1.3PE. Everything else refuses. Only LUN 0 works. The others are recognized by SCSIProbe, but is "not a Macintosh volume". I have no machines that have SCSI that can run System 9, so this is as far as I can go.
- The Quadra 700 could read from the disk but when I tried to write to it, the result was flaky behavior and in the end a hosed disk. It could boot from it as long as the OS was installed by the Q650. I have no idea what the reason for this is. Everything else on the Q700 works. The only minor quirk is that the internal HD is on SCSI ID 3 rather than 0.
- It doesn't work at all with the Mac Plus, and we have established that this is due to lack of SCSI termination power in the Plus.
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I've been playing with mine a bit more and I can confirm my previous results:
- It works well and reliably in the Quadra 650 with System 7.6.1. It can read, write and boot. The only software I have that is able to format it is HDT 1.3PE. Everything else refuses. Only LUN 0 works. The others are recognized by SCSIProbe, but is "not a Macintosh volume". I have no machines that have SCSI that can run System 9, so this is as far as I can go.
- The Quadra 700 could read from the disk but when I tried to write to it, the result was flaky behavior and in the end a hosed disk. It could boot from it as long as the OS was installed by the Q650. I have no idea what the reason for this is. Everything else on the Q700 works. The only minor quirk is that the internal HD is on SCSI ID 3 rather than 0.
- It doesn't work at all with the Mac Plus, and we have established that this is due to lack of SCSI termination power in the Plus.
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register
Well-known member
On the page advertising a SCM PCD-50B SCSI Card reader there are some hints given regarding the SCSI bus termination.
That page tells: "APPLE USERS: Some old Apple II scsi cards do not support luns or termination power. you may need to hack a diode for term power. If your controller does NOT support LUNs, I recommend you to order the kit with the PCMCIA to CF adapter. It will allow you to address it as device 2 etc with no LUNs needed." (Note: probably it should read "device 0" or "LUN 0" ?)
Did someone already retrofit term power using a diode?
That page tells: "APPLE USERS: Some old Apple II scsi cards do not support luns or termination power. you may need to hack a diode for term power. If your controller does NOT support LUNs, I recommend you to order the kit with the PCMCIA to CF adapter. It will allow you to address it as device 2 etc with no LUNs needed." (Note: probably it should read "device 0" or "LUN 0" ?)
Did someone already retrofit term power using a diode?
waynestewart
Well-known member
The Term power mod was quite a common Apple II SCSI card mod. In this case the SCM PCD-50B can supply term power. I'm presently using one on a IIgs.
