Emax

YES there are!

I opened the drive to look and there is a main sticker with the set of jumpers that goes like this:

1:  Disable SCSI Terminators
2:  Option Link 1
3:  Option Link 2
4:  Enable Waitspin
5:  SCSI ID 1
6:  SCSI ID 2
7:  SCSI ID 4

Since I had no idea what the OPTION jumpers are for, I jumpered them one at a time and then both.

Only 'Option 2' on #3 Jumper made any difference by itself and not in concert with the Option 1 jumper.  When option 2 is connected the EMAXII immediately sees the drive, it is not listed as "NOT FOUND" at all now ever.  It comes right up.  Any ideas what that Option is?  Parity maybe?  Narrow or Wide?  I dunno.

There is also a set of jumpers right at the front of the drive near the LED without any markings at all on the PCB, a set of 5.  Those may be similar to any number of SCSI drives I have had in my possession throughout the years, so no telling what they do but I suppose I could jump them as well, one by one, I just would not want to burn out the LED light or short the alternate LED jumper if there is one of those.  Very similar to this diagram:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/jumpSCSI-c.html

I am putting it down for tonight and am going to leave the jumper on the Option 2 as it was an improvement.  Later I will use an active terminator and see if that helps with the drive termination disabled.

--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, Ted Summers <djtbs1@...> wrote:
>
> No idea- are there any additional jumpers on the NOMAI inside or out????
> Glad I could help with the TERM issue though.
> 
> Regards,
> Ted
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 9:01 AM, thenewyorkcowboy <
> thenewyorkcowboy@...> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Hey Ted,
> >
> > Well they say writing is therapeutic and after writing that dissertation I
> > figured I had better recheck what I thought all the way down the cables.
> >
> > I did find that I had the ZIP insider SCSI termination jumper on and the ID
> > set to 5, so I changed this arrangement to OFF and ID 6 and then at that
> > point the entire chain was visible to the EMAX II. So my present arrangement
> > is:
> >
> > EMAXII ----Conner (ID#1) ----- ZIP INSIDER (ID#6) ----- NOMAI 750 MCD
> > (ID#5) ----- ACTIVE TERM.
> >
> > In my experience I have always thought that any terminator that has an LED
> > is Active and those that don't have no LED. I only have one terminator each
> > that actually 'state' on the terminator that they are active or passive, and
> > they both have the LED/NO LED respectively. The others simply either have an
> > LED or don't, and I have a couple that are marked TERMINATOR, and they are
> > actually "pass through" meaning I can put them on the Centronics connector
> > and still put a cable on the other end....interesting..
> >
> > So at this point I was more confident that the EMAXII at least had no ID
> > errors, and I went ahead and successfully formatted 5 ZIP100 cartridges as
> > well as copied the software to them from the Conner.
> >
> > But even in this arrangement now, the EMAXII does not fail in recognizing
> > the NOMAI at any time as it did before but it will still give me the message
> > SCSI: HARDWARE ERROR upon trying to format the NOMAI cartridges.
> >
> > I searched high and low on the internet and found that the NOMAI drives are
> > SCSI-2, and also found this reference on the Adaptec site:
> >
> >
> > http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/scsi/2930/AHA-2930CU/use_prod/scsi_terms.htm
> >
> > Which is leading me to believe now that the ZILOG Z0538001PSC SCSI chip
> > inside the EMAXII is incapable of either A: telling the NOMAI drive to 'step
> > down' to SCSI-1 speeds in timing as a normal PCI controller could in a
> > computer, or that B: the NOMAI drive is NOT backwards compatible with SCSI-1
> > controllers at all and has all of its timings fixed so that the data
> > handshakes and such are 'too fast' for the EMAXII to assimilate as with all
> > the formatting I've done, the EMAXII always displays 'verifying' which would
> > indicate that during formatting there is some CRC going on or similar that
> > is being missed by the timing in the Zilog chip as being 'too fast', similar
> > to why so many CD-ROM drives do not work with the EMAXII because they feed
> > data at above the data rate of the EMAXII or have been designed for SCSI-2
> > timings (most known compatible CDROMS are 1x or 2x speed) even though they
> > have a 50pin connector. This is another mini project of mine as I have an
> > old SCSI 2x CDROM that uses the caddy made by TOSHIBA, but I've never gotten
> > the EMAXII to even identify the drive. Maybe I'll try some more with my 'new
> > knowledge'.
> >
> > Anyone know any way of 'slowing down' something designed for SCSI-2 specs
> > to SCSI-1 timings, besides a 25 foot cable?
> >
> >
> > --- In emax@yahoogroups.com <emax%40yahoogroups.com>, Ted Summers <djtbs1@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > With the type of configuration you have, have you:
> > > checked for termination jumpers on the drives?
> > >
> > > Since you are using a terminator (w/green light), no drives should
> > > have termination.
> > > It should go:
> > > emax ----- conner (id#) ---- next SCSI ID #--- TERM.
> > >
> > > But if term power is on for any of the drives it will mess up the chain.
> > > also- is that an active or passive terminator?
> > > how long are the cables?
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Ted
> > >
> > > On Oct 27, 2009, at 1:08 PM, thenewyorkcowboy wrote:
> > >
> > > Greetings All,
> > >
> > > I have an EMAX II 4mb (2212) with the original factory installed
> > > external SCSI connector (black and to the rear and left of the volume
> > > slider.) I am using OS 2.14 and the floppy works fine. I also have an
> > > external SCSI Conner drive CP-30540 'hard set' to SCSI 1 and actively
> > > terminated with a terminator that has the green light on it when
> > > working properly. I have been able to format and use this Conner drive
> > > fine without ever any problems.
> > >
> > > My problem is every other device I own. I have two different SCSI Zip
> > > Drives (1 external with the ID 5/6 switch, and 1 internal set to ID 5
> > > mounted in a dual external case with the Conner drive, and a pretty
> > > hefty power supply.) I just purchased an external SCSI NOMAI 750.C and
> > > two 540mb cartridges, this device has the 25pin SCSI cable exactly
> > > equal to the EMAX II connector. It can also be set to ID 1 or 5. I
> > > also have 4 different 25-25 cables, as well as probably a dozen
> > > 25-50cn cables I have tried out on all the various setups. I also have
> > > several different 50pin SCSI CD Roms I have tried as well with a EMXP
> > > formatted CD. Just throwing this info in as I can be certain it is NOT
> > > the connecting cable in any fashion, as I've tried like 10 different
> > > cables in all various arrangements and I am frustrated.
> > >
> > > I power up the external devices and wait until they go through their
> > > initialization before I turn on the Emax II. Here's my problem:
> > >
> > > ONLY SPORADICALLY will the Emax II ever identify the 'type' of drive I
> > > am using, such as IOMEGA ZIP 100, and NOMAI 750 MCD. USUALLY the Emax
> > > II displays SCSI # NOT FOUND, and occasionally as well will display
> > > NOT EMAXII DRIVE.
> > >
> > > On the rare times I can get the drive to be at least 'named', I go
> > > ahead and try to FORMAT it and have even tried to simply COPY SOFTWARE
> > > to the drive as I read in other literature (EII, EIII) that ZIP drives
> > > require a special way of 'formatting' by just copying over the
> > > software. In short I have tried everything I know and even the
> > > diagnostics (3629) to find out what is going on with these drives but
> > > no joy. I ALWAYS GET "SCSI HARDWARE ERROR" flashing along with the
> > > ENTER light flashing.
> > >
> > > Basically the Conner works fine but my Emax II does not like any other
> > > device I own, no matter how I hook it up, select the ID, or do
> > > anything with them, and I know that many combinations of hardware
> > > cannot be 'bad' to give "SCSI HARDWARE ERROR" all the time.
> > >
> > > My 'only' thought on this matter is that the ZIP cartridges and the
> > > NOMAI cartridges since they are formatted to MAC/PC respectively among
> > > them have some kind of file system error that will not allow the EMAX
> > > II to do it's format job on them.
> > >
> > > If I couldn't get the Conner to work either I would swear it is
> > > definitely something wrong inside the EMAX II like the SCSI CHIP, but
> > > the fact that the Conner works fine but nothing else does is what is
> > > throwing me. Any help out there?
> > >
> > > Kirk
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>