Are old SCSI tape drives not all created equal?

[js at cimmeri.com]

Hi, Mike.  See further below where I mention Bart Lagerweij's
SCSI Tool Utility (an MSDOS program) with the drive connected
to a PC.

- John


On 8/21/2016 12:34 PM, Mike Stein wrote:
> What are you using to send/receive the commands?
>
> m
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From:<js at cimmeri.com>
> To:<General at classiccmp.org>; "Discussion at classiccmp.org:On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2016 1:12 PM
> Subject: Re: Are old SCSI tape drives not all created equal?
>
>
>>
>> On 8/19/2016 1:08 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>>> On 08/19/2016 09:24 AM, js at cimmeri.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> Where might I find information on how to form SCSI command data
>>>> blocks so as to try the above commands?   I sent just an "01" to the
>>>> TEAC MT-2ST, and it did rewind..
>>> John, what's your working OS platform?  For fooling with SCSI, the ASPI
>>> interface of MS-DOS is pretty straightforward--and easy to use.
>> Chuck, for the purposes of testing the Teac drive, I'm using MSDOS on a 486 PC platform with an Adaptec SCSI interface.
>>
>>
>>
>>> http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/Hardware/ADAPTEC/adaptec/aspi_dos.txt
>>>
>>> ..and if you goof up, just hit the RESET button and you're back in
>>> business in a few seconds.
>>>
>>> A CDB's a CDB, so whatever you learn on DOS can easily be transfered to
>>> other OS interfaces (SPTI, SG, CAM, etc.).
>>>
>>> As far as tape-drive specific commands, there's always an ANSI T10
>>> document, but that's like trying to learn about parking regulations from
>>> a university law library--it's probably all there, but you'll have to
>>> plow your way through a lot of stuff.  FWIW, T10 doesn't refer to the
>>> things as "tape drives", but "sequential access devices".  Here's a T10
>>> draft:
>>>
>>> http://hackipedia.org/Hardware/SCSI/Stream%20Commands/SCSI-3%20Stream%20Commands.pdf
>>>
>>> By far and away, the best place to learn practical SCSI interfacing is
>>> from vendor's manuals themselves.  One I found particularly useful was
>>> the HP 35470 DDS drive OEM product manual.  Very clear writing style.
>>>
>>> Bitsavers is full of product manuals detailing exactly what and how a
>>> product supports.
>> Thanks very much for providing these resource links.
>>
>>
>> So to recap what it is I *was* trying to do, and am *now* trying to do,
>> for any readers that are still curious about this:
>>
>> I was going through various tape drives to see which would be compat with
>> an Emulux UC07 SCSI interface on a PDP-11/34 and also a Microvax III with
>> a CMD SCSI interface.
>>
>> A good -- but not guaranteed -- predictor of which drives would work, is
>> to first see how well the tape drive will talk to Bart Lagerweij's
>> SCSI Tool Utility (an MSDOS program) with the drive connected to a PC.
>>
>> I ran into problems with two drives: an OnStream ADR SC-30 and a Teac
>> MT-2ST 60MB drive.   I was most hoping the Teac would work as it's a
>> pretty cool little device, and is closest in vintage to the 11/34
>> of all my tape drives except for a DEC TS05 and TSZ07.
>>
>>
>> Unfortunately, I could only get the OnStream the work connected to a
>> Windows machine -- with the right driver.  Only with the right driver,
>> will it work with NT Backup or other software.
>>
>> The Teac isn't working anywhere yet, although the drive appears to
>> be functional and is responding to a few primitives.
>>
>> Neither of these two drives is going to work with the 11/34, so that
>> matter is closed.
>>
>>
>> The final matter is that I'd still like to get the Teac to function
>> with some software, just to watch it operate (you have to really like
>> mechanical things to understand this strange fascination).  Having put
>> some time and $ into the Teac, it'd be nice to get some reward, even
>> if only then it gets placed on the shelf afterwards.
>>
>>
>> - John
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>