Re: flopticals...

[toddpw@cco.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)]

fmlin@terapin.com (Frank M. Lin) writes:

>I am intersted in gettin the floptical drive from Mass Micro.  The reason is, I
>think it looks the best...  How ever, it doesn't seem to have a "eject" button.

Wrong floptical. Those are really Magneto-Opticals. Insite has a registered
trademark on "floptical", or at least they are brave enough to put (R) after
it on their documentation. The drives that the Ramfast works with use Insite
mechanisms, which all have a real eject button.

>1. Can the RamFAST floptical ROMs ( is it "i" or "j"? ) eject disks by issueing
>a SCSI eject command?

SCSI has _no_ eject command (stupid but true). They do eject disks by using an
extension Insite came up with to the SCSI Start/Stop Device command, which is
not exactly kosher but I don't see as how they had much choice.

It's "j". "i" works but has some nasty bugs that did not endear Drew to me when
I found them. Posting them on GEnie in a rather noisy manner did not endear me
to Drew, either...

>2. Does the AE and Tulin flopticals have a eject button?  I suppose I'll have
>to get one of these...

Yes, they are Insite mechanisms so they have a physical eject button that
always works (no need for unbent paper clip "abortion pins" as with the
Apple 3.5 drive).

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ cco.caltech.edu