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While impressive, it would have been a lot easier to just use a SCSI connected Ethernet adapter. Correct SCSI termination would have required sacrificing a chic

While impressive, it would have been a lot easier to just use a SCSI connected Ethernet adapter. Correct SCSI termination would have required sacrificing a chicken and drawing a pentagram in blood, but still easier than this project.

greenbit 4y ago
Yeah, but when you get that termination working, you get to turn to the 4th wall and shout, "It's alive! Alive! Oh, now I know what it feels like to be Woz!"
scarface74 4y ago
I never had those issues with SCSI. By 1996 I had a Zip drive, a Jaz drive, an external CDROM drive and two external hard drives connected to my PPC 6100 without issues.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Pure luck. Seriously. I wished I could get back all the hours I spent tracking down termination issues. And don't get me started on 10base-T.
  - macintux 4y ago
    10base-T or 2? I had ongoing nightmares with the latter, BBN R&D used it extensively and we’d have entire network segments flood with noise when someone bumped an AppleTalk repeater in the data closet.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      Well, to be fair I was thinking of repeaters and hubs before switched became the norm, but now that you mention it, I do have a couple of horror stories regarding 10base2 as well. In particular, to stay 'on topic' regarding termination, or lack thereof. And those neat insulation piercing taps :(
bodyfour 4y ago
Eh... I had many, many battles with parallel SCSI. However, once active terminators became widely available and affordable (late 90s-ish) it was practically plug&play (just mind the ID switches) The trickier bit would be to find one of those old SCSI-attached ethernet devices (Asanté, DaynaPort, EtherMac, ...) since they're coveted items in the retro scene. Although it looks like at least PiSCSI can emulate a DaynaPort https://github.com/PiSCSI/piscsi/wiki/Dayna-Port-SCSI-Link https://github.com/PiSCSI/piscsi/wiki/Dayna-Port-SCSI-Link

greenbit 4y ago

Yeah, but when you get that termination working, you get to turn to the 4th wall and shout, "It's alive! Alive! Oh, now I know what it feels like to be Woz!"

scarface74 4y ago

I never had those issues with SCSI. By 1996 I had a Zip drive, a Jaz drive, an external CDROM drive and two external hard drives connected to my PPC 6100 without issues.

jacquesm 4y ago
Pure luck. Seriously. I wished I could get back all the hours I spent tracking down termination issues. And don't get me started on 10base-T.
- macintux 4y ago
  10base-T or 2? I had ongoing nightmares with the latter, BBN R&D used it extensively and we’d have entire network segments flood with noise when someone bumped an AppleTalk repeater in the data closet.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Well, to be fair I was thinking of repeaters and hubs before switched became the norm, but now that you mention it, I do have a couple of horror stories regarding 10base2 as well. In particular, to stay 'on topic' regarding termination, or lack thereof. And those neat insulation piercing taps :(

bodyfour 4y ago

Eh... I had many, many battles with parallel SCSI. However, once active terminators became widely available and affordable (late 90s-ish) it was practically plug&play (just mind the ID switches) The trickier bit would be to find one of those old SCSI-attached ethernet devices (Asanté, DaynaPort, EtherMac, ...) since they're coveted items in the retro scene. Although it looks like at least PiSCSI can emulate a DaynaPort https://github.com/PiSCSI/piscsi/wiki/Dayna-Port-SCSI-Link https://github.com/PiSCSI/piscsi/wiki/Dayna-Port-SCSI-Link