Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!thad
From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Tape drives
Message-ID: <37396@cup.portal.com>
Date: 30 Dec 90 15:15:59 GMT
References: <1990Dec30.220423.3860@csc.anu.edu.au>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 41

mlw100@csc.anu.edu.au in <1990Dec30.220423.3860@csc.anu.edu.au> writes:

	I wonder if anyone has managed to use an Archive quarter inch
	cartridge tape drive (model 5945C) on a GVP SCSI controller (new or
	old). I have the latest revision of the GVP ROM chips and neither
	GVP's own TapeStore program nor the public domain BetterThanNothing
	tape-handler/TAR programs can access it. It is possible that I have a
	hardware problem, but the tape unit was previously working on a
	different type of computer.

	When I mount the BTN handler the machine just guru's when I use TAR,
	and when using the other handler by Markus Wandel, TAR just doesn't
	see the device and assumes TAPE:r means a disk file. I'm using the
	suggested mountlists for each and the SCSI unit number is correctly
	set. GVP's TapeStore program just says the Tape unit is not ready.

Uh, I hope you're sitting down when you read this, because I have some really
bad news for you.

The 5945 series is Archive's QIC-02 line.  The fact it has a 50-pin edge
connector does NOT mean that it's a SCSI drive.  I use the EXACT same tape
drives on my 3B1, Britton-Lee, and other systems.  The normal outside-world
interface is with a D37 connector to an Archive 37-to-50 pin adapter which
then is cabled to an interface card and then to the drive itself (all with
50-wire flat ribbon cable and EDGE connectors (not the usual 2x25 SCSI stuff)).

The Archive SCSI tape drive (also using the 3M DC600A or SONY QD-600A tapes)
is the model 2060S (and this will work on the Amiga).  Superficially the 2060S
appears the same as the 5945 except it has the 2x25 SCSI connector, and jumpers
for SCSI ID selection, parity enable, TERMPWR, etc.

For your sake I hope you didn't zap either the tape drive or the interface.

You may want to call Archive and see what can be salvaged; they can be reached:

	Archive Corp.
	3540 Cadillac Avenue
	Costa Mesa, CA  92626     714 / 641-1230


Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]