Re: Questions on AE Vulcan

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

John E. Nolley II (exerda@vt.edu) wrote:
: I recenlty dug into my Vulcan and found that it uses a 5.25" Seagate
: ST-125A drive (20 M)... invariably, this drive is pre-ide, but what
: interface is it?  (I'm still surfing to find out...)  I did recall
: an ad in Comptuer Shopper selling all sorts of old, pre-IDE drives,
: most of them similar to the Seagate.  Would it be possible to replace
: the one in the Vulcan with a larger (say, 50-100 meg) drive?  And
: what about the drivers - I suppose that AEHD only works with certain
: drives.

(Note:  This won't answer your question.  Sorry!)

Gee, my Vulcan-20 turned out to be a 3.5"...ummm...I think it was some
kind of Quantum drive.  And mine IS an IDE drive.  I had to swap cards
with another Vulcan owner to put the drive into my ][e, but what I did was
this:

a)  Remove Vulcan mechanism from case.  Install 3.5" 250Mb SCSI drive in
    Vulcan case.  Notice that the IDE drive mounting-screw pattern is
    different from the SCSI pattern.  Odd!

b)  Construct DB-25M -> 50-pin SCSI cable with DB-25F connector.  Female
    DB-25 attaches to IIgs back panel; male DB-25 connects to Apple HS-SCSI
    card; 50-pin header connects to drive.

c)  Install Apple HS-SCSI card in IIgs.

d)  Drill four holes in the base pan of the ][e, just ahead of the
    motherboard, lined up with the holes in the bottom of the old Vulcan
    drive.  Using screws and stand-offs, attach 20Mb Vulcan mechanism to
    ][e base pan.

e)  Cut the end off of a hard-drive power cord extension, and solder the
    leads to the underside of the power supply connectors on the ][e 
    motherboard.  I also installed a heavy-duty ][e power supply (from
    Jameco).  Attaching the drive power leads to the motherboard means that
    changing power supplies doesn't require any changes to the connecting
    cable.

f)  Install Vulcan interface card in ][e; connect the power supply lead to
    the drive; connect the drive interface to the drive.

When I first tried this, I was unable to get the drive to work in the ][e;
I found out the hard way that the Vulcan-GS card is different from the
Vulcan-][e card.  But I now have a Vulcan ][e card, and the system (drive
reformatted and now named /RAVEN) works just great.  I'm thinking about
adding an internal cooling fan, though...perhaps a 120v fan right in the
power supply...


Not that it answers your question, but it's what I did with MY Vulcan... 8-)

--Dave Althoff, ][.
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