Are old SCSI tape drives not all created equal?

[Mike Stein]

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
> 
> 
> 
> 
>