Re: ZIP on GS (was: question on Standards for files)

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Pim Blokland <nipp@nipp.nl> wrote:

>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>
>> What seems to be the problem?
>
>Don't know what the problem is. When I first got the ZIP drive and 
>hooked it up to the GS, it simply couldn't see it. I thought it was a 
>SCSI conflict or something, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't get 
>it to work. The I heard something about the High-Speed SCSI card not 
>fully supporting the ZIP drive. And I had already found out that I could 
>hook the ZIP to the Mac and access it from the GS (through AppleTalk) 
>with no fuss whatsoever, so I gave up trying to make it work on the GS.
>Saved a lot of wear and tear on the connectors as well, keeping 
>everything plugged in instead of constantly switching the cable between 
>the two computers.

I too have an Apple High Speed SCSI card and it works with the
Zip drive perfectly.  Literally plug and play.  The High Speed card
sees the Zip as a removable hard drive.

The reason it worked for me and did not work for you, I believe, is
because the High Speed card does not provide termination power.
Termination power is what energizes the SCSI terminators.
Without it, SCSI does not work.  In my case, I have a hard drive
in addition to the Zip.  Hard drives almost always supply term
power.  I also have a CD-ROM drive that provides term power.
Thus, when I attach my Zip drive to the High-Speed card, it gets
the necessary power and the Zip drive appears.

My recommendation is to find a cheap external hard drive or a
CD-ROM drive, connect the Zip to that drive, then connect that
drive to the High Speed SCSI card.  Make sure the Zip drive's
termination is activated and no two SCSI IDs overlap, then
power up the IIGS.  The Zip drive should show up.

You can modify the High Speed card to provide term power if
you must have only the Zip on the chain and no other drives.
The instructions are on ground.  I don't remember the exact
URL to the text file, though.