pwong@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Patrick Wong) (11/28/90)
Hi, netters: As a T1000SE owner, I just want to express my dismay publicly regarding a company called ASI (Applied Storage Information). Since I am interested in getting an external hard dirve for my machine ( With my requirement that the connection has to go thru the 100-pin bus connector ....because I do not want to loose the parallel port or the serial port), the ASI ad on an external SCSI hard drive attracts me. So, I called and yesterday I received the brochures. It is a removable external hard drive system which consists of a SCSI cartridge (that plugs to the bus connector on the laptop at the end and a DB25 connector at the other end), a 25-wire cable, a base (or docking) unit, a removable 20 meg SCSI drive unit, power supply, and some software. The price is $725 for the 20 meg. Since the price is way beyond my financial ability, I was just about to discard the brochures when I discovered from the price list that they do sell the SCSI cartridge ALONE ! Immedidately, my mind told me that perhaps I can just build a cheap external drive by pulling together a SCSI and a casing with power supply and just buy the SCSI cartridge from ASI. So I called them up again and told them my plan on how I am going to use their cartridge. I was NOT surprised when they said it will void the warranty if I used the cartridge on drive not bought from them. I also was NOT surprised that they won't guarantee that their SCSI cart. will work with other SCSI drives. And, I was NOT surprised when they said even if I buy the software from them and use it on my home-brew system, it may or may not work. However, I WAS very surprised that they will not supply the pin-out info on the DB25 connector on the cartridge even if I buy the cartridge from them with the understanding that I will void the warranty if I play around with it. At first, I thought this policy is not as outrageous as it sounds because from a company's standpoint, they would certainly want the customers to buy their complete system package without having to worrying about interfacing related problems. But, on second thought, I begin to think that this isn't right because if they are selling the SCSI cartridge alone as one of their company products, they should at least have the courtesy to supply all the info regarding this product, including the pin-out info. I am not asking them how to build my home-brew system, I just want the pin-out info. Anyway, sorry for wasting the bandwidth ! Any comment or opposite opinion should be directed to me thru E-MAIL. Thanx for your time ! Patrick Wong pcw@squid.graphics.cornell.edu
pae@charon.MIT.EDU (Philip Earnhardt) (11/29/90)
In article <1990Nov27.203300.6085@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> pwong@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Patrick Wong) writes: > [...] Since I am interested >in getting an external hard dirve for my machine ( With my requirement that >the connection has to go thru the 100-pin bus connector ....because I do >not want to loose the parallel port or the serial port), the ASI ad on >an external SCSI hard drive attracts me. [...] A different problem with adding a hard disk to the T1000SE: whether or not your ROM Dand RAM Disks will be accessible concurrently with the hard disk. Systems Peripherals Consultants sells 20 and 40Mb drives that connect to the 100 pin connector on the SE. They provide their own BIOS on this connector, which supercedes the T1000SE's normal BIOS. This new BIOS provides no way to access the ROM or RAM disks on the SE. SPC's documentation did not mention this limitation of their product. After installing it, I voiced my displeasure. They responded that that "would have involved writing some software to accomplish". Since I was paying about $700 for a fairly slow 40Mb disk, I had thought such software would have been included. I have sent the disk back for a refund. To be fair, the lack of the ROM and RAM may not be important to all T1000SE users. For them, this may be a fine product. Personally, I've decided to buy a regular PC and use LapLink to communicate between them. The latest version of LapLink has a driver which provides a redirector--a mechanism to map drive letters to a real physical drive on the remote system (PC/NFS users are familiar with this concept). This allows for transparent access of the remote data. This is how I think the SPC drive *should* work on the T1000SE. Patrick: SPC now has a SCSI interface (announced at COMDEX). You may want to check with them and see if it satisfies your needs. SPC's number is (619) 693-8611. --phil (onecom!wldrdg!pae) I speak for myself.