klarich@d.cs.okstate.edu (KLARICH TERRY JAME) (07/10/90)
First of all, I would like to type my thanks to thoses who responded to my questions concerning these tape drives. I got one last Friday and installed it successfully. I have no complaints as yet. Everything works as advertized. The installation was rather borring. But, I feel some people might be interested in what I actually did. I did not order the controller. I am using my floppy card. But, I have two floppies already. Being as I did not want to part with ether of my floppy drives, I decided to see if I could get two drives to be the second drive (fd196ds9 and rctmini in my case). I clamped another edge connector on a floppy cable. The new connector was attached as drive 1 (b). All I actually did is to run the drive select wire for the original and the new connectors through my turbo button om my case. Sence I wasn't using my turbo botton, no problem. Now, the button selects the drive I need (the tape drive or the floppy). It seems to be working fine. Now, I have some questions conserning these drives. Is anyone using the driver from Colorado Memory Systems? Does it work? How does the drive know the difference between the 200 and 300 feet tapes? Thanks for the help. Terry Klarich <klarich@d.cs.okstate.edu> or <terry@unx.ucc.okstate.edu>
klarich@d.cs.okstate.edu (KLARICH TERRY JAME) (07/11/90)
In article <1990Jul9.210634.21093@d.cs.okstate.edu> klarich@d.cs.okstate.edu I wrote >First of all, I would like to type my thanks to thoses who responded to my > questions concerning these tape drives. I got one last Friday and >installed it successfully. I have no complaints as yet. Everything works >as advertized. The installation was rather borring. But, I feel some >people might be interested in what I actually did. I did not order the >controller. I am using my floppy card. But, I have two floppies already. >Being as I did not want to part with ether of my floppy drives, I decided >to see if I could get two drives to be the second drive (fd196ds9 and >rctmini in my case). I clamped another edge connector on a floppy cable. >The new connector was attached as drive 1 (b). All I actually did is to >run the drive select wire for the original and the new connectors through >my turbo button om my case. Sence I wasn't using my turbo botton, no >problem. Now, the button selects the drive I need (the tape drive or the >floppy). It seems to be working fine. I have found a problem with my idea discussed here. When the machine is booted, the floppy is available until the tape drive is used. After this point, the device /dev/fd196ds9 can't be opened. I am assuming this goes for all rfd1* and fd1* devices. Now, I am kind of stuck. I don't want to have to give up on of my serial ports for a tape controller card. I am using irq lines 2, 3, 4, and 5 for serial lines already. It is my understanding that the controller card will use irq 5. Terry Klarich <klarich@d.cs.okstate.edu> or <terry@unx.ucc.okstate.edu>