KnobsNSwitches Report post Posted November 4 This isn't really a conquests post...I mostly wanted to show show a pic of my SCSI switchbox., and figured the picture would make more sense with context. I have a SCSI2SD v5 (in the black 3d-printed box) that I use to move files between my macs, modern and old. I'm using a humble old DB25 (parallel port) switchbox to hook it up to different computers without moving stiff giant SCSI cables around. There is a longer cable with a powerbook 30-pin adapter under the desk that I just pull out when needing to hook up to a PowerBook. It's not a revolutionary system or anything but it works well for me. The keyboard is also shared between the two desktops, by just plugging and unplugging the adb cable Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScutBoy Report post Posted November 6 Nice trackball! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jessenator Report post Posted November 6 That SCSI switch box is nice. Anything to eliminate the constant swapping of cables when changing machines. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pcamen Report post Posted November 7 What a great idea. Glad to hear the parallel switch boxes work. I just found an auction for three for 40 bucks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KnobsNSwitches Report post Posted November 7 (edited) You'll need to have enough DB25 - DB25 cables, of course, but i discovered monoprice sells them at a very reasonable price. I found that the SCSI2SD does need to be powered over USB, it worked intermittently just off the power provided by the scsi cable. Edited November 7 by KnobsNSwitches Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jessenator Report post Posted November 7 (edited) 5 minutes ago, KnobsNSwitches said: I found that the SCSI2SD does need to be powered over USB I've never gotten it to work off of the SCSI bus. Always had floppy power or an adapter on it. Edited November 7 by jessenator Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KnobsNSwitches Report post Posted November 7 ...maybe the color classic's massive power supply just outputs SO MUCH POWER it would work sometimes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pcamen Report post Posted November 7 I find it depends on the machine. My SE/30 yesterday had no trouble powering a SCSI2SD off the external SCSI port. My PB 540c won't, and I have to have a power source. My PB Lombard will power it off the SCSI. I think Mac Pluses are also known NOT to be able to power the devices off SCSI. I have a bunch of power supplies from SATA / IDE to USB adapters that have a wall plug, a transformer, and the end of the cord is typical NEMA PC power plug, which works great for the SCSI2SD devices. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MOS8_030 Report post Posted November 7 I would think there could be some risk of data loss or corruption using that switch box not being designed specifically for SCSI. However, if it works and you're not doing anything "mission critical" then it's a simple, useful solution. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pcamen Report post Posted November 7 I don't think it is a problem at the SCSI speeds these old Macs use. http://www.nullmodem.com/DB-25.htm Quote At one time, Apple used a DB25 connector for SCSI (narrow), but this doesn't allow twisted pairs and is not compliant to SCSI standards. Some companies like Iomega still use this connector on new devices. Such connectors have been noted to have problems on SCSI busses using faster devices such as UltraSCSI (Iomega itself doesn't recommend using more than one DB25 device, but still uses it for Zip drives). The HD50 connector is preferred. Seems like it should be ok since SCSI 1-3 are not UltraSCSI and are slower. SCSI-3 is 20Mb/s and Ultra-2 is 80Mb/s. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KnobsNSwitches Report post Posted November 25 A 6500 has joined the party, displacing the Macintosh-TV-in-a-575, at least for now. I also picked up separately a remote, does any one know if it's possible to remap the play/pause buttons to work in iTunes v2 ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KnobsNSwitches Report post Posted November 25 This 6500 has a couple quirks, I purchased it from a member on here, and the internal video does not work, but it happily displays video via a PCI Rage 128 card. But it seems that the video-in hardware does not work without functioning internal video - launching Apple Video Player will play sound coming in the RCA jacks, but no video window ever shows up. But the case is in marvelous shape. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KnobsNSwitches Report post Posted December 2 Well, my 6500 jukebox project continues. I purchased a cheap IDE-SATA adapter, and copied the 6500's system and 60 gb of mp3's to a 120 GB SSD I had lying around... It boots, but the performance is not great. It takes minutes to boot (sitting on the Happy mac for ages), and seems to be really unstable, as in 'plays one or two songs in iTunes then freezes' unstable. The SSD seems to work fine on my modern mac, so I have to assume it's something with the IDE-SATA adapter. I put the original 6b HD back in and as a whole the system is much more responsive, which is not what usually happens w/ a hard drive vs solid state. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
