Date: Mon, 20 Jan 92 09:17:23 EST From: Dwight D. McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V5 #4 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Mon, 20 Jan 92 Volume 5 : Issue 4 Today's Topics: 4/110 SCSI bus home duration record? SCSI-3 boards for sale shoebox disks (S.A.H. V5 #3) +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Submissions: suns-at-home \ @orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu | | Requests: suns-at-home-request > -- or -- | | Archives: suns-at-home-archives / ...rutgers!pur-ee!... | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 18:44 CST From: grs@sacs.com (Gregg Siegfried) Subject: 4/110 SCSI bus To: suns-at-home@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu Hi. I'm trying to attach some new devices to my 4/110, and am having a bit of trouble. I purchased the machine with a single shoebox with a 330MB Atasi drive and 60MB tape drive. I would like to attach another shoebox that I am putting together containing a 300MB Core/HP drive and a Chinon CD ROM drive. When the machine boots, my scsi configuration displays as: sw0 at obio 0xa000000 pri 2 st0 at sw0 slave 32 st1 at sw0 slave 40 sr0 at sw0 slave 48 sd0 at sw0 slave 0 sd0: sd1 at sw0 slave 1 sd2 at sw0 slave 8 sd3 at sw0 slave 9 sd4 at sw0 slave 16 sd6 at sw0 slave 24 I have the new drive configured as ID #1 and the CD ROM as ID #6. I've not had them connected at the same time yet, BTW. When I connect just the HP to the bus, it powers/spins up, and after that, the access LED flashes. The Core people suggest that this indicates the drive is not pleased with its SCSI connectivity, although they could be no more specific. Additionally, when this drive is connected, whether its powered up or powered down, the machine cannot seem to find drive 0, and consequently will not boot. And the CD ROM causes the same behavior when its in by itself.. It will power up, without visible complaints, and seems to prevent the machine from finding sd0. This is very unusual behavior, by my yardstick, and I'm not sure what to do next. Of course, I have no documentation on the SCSI implementation (the "scsi weird" as the sw device is called). Is it possible that the devices in my first shoebox are configured so as to disallow any devices further out on the bus? I'm aware that there are potential problems connecting an embedded SCSI drive to a 4/110 due to the famous "pin 26 ground" botch. It is my understanding as well that if I jumper the drive to provide its own +5 terminating voltage, this should not be a big deal. I'd appreciate any words of wisdom from someone that has been down this road before. Thanks, Gregg Siegfried grs@sacs.com grs@ihspot.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 11:33:34 PST From: Vaughan Pratt Subject: home duration record? To: suns-at-home@coraki.Stanford.EDU My home machine, coraki, a Sun-4, stayed up for 331 days. It was brought down by a power outage that lasted a couple of hours, longer than my UPS was prepared for---very annoying since I was hoping it would stay up a whole year. (So if you're serious about setting records I guess you plan ahead and get a backup generator.) Anyone know of any other long-running home machines? Vaughan Pratt ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 17:12:44 EST From: edp@Kodak.COM (Ed Pendzik -- Sun Consulting) Subject: SCSI-3 boards for sale To: suns-at-home@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu I have 2, Sun SCSI-3 VME scsi boards for sale. These are the part number 501-1217, external connector variety and they standard scsi board VME Sun3's and Sun4's. They are at rev 11, which is the current hardware rev and just came off of Sun Hardware maintenance. Please make me an offer on these boards. The list price for these boards are $1,200 each. I'm not trying to make a fortune here, I'm just trying to move some parts I have accumulated and other hobbies are now eating up my cash flow. Call or email me at the numbers below and we can discuss prices. Regards, Ed Pendzik Home (716) 473-7756 Work (716) 253-9658 edp@sneaks.kodak.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 9:38:32 CST From: Simon Hackett Subject: shoebox disks (S.A.H. V5 #3) To: Suns-at-Home@ecn.purdue.edu If I might follow up the following information briefly: >True, but this warning from Simon Hackett in a >recent sun-managers message bears repeating: > ... I was reminded about something which, while not directly impacting > my situation, is well worth repeating. This is the infamous design > decision(?) by Sun to ground the "termination power" SCSI pin on the 3/60 > and 4/110 models, which means that a straight-through cable from either of > these models to a SCSI drive with termination power supplied tends to blow > the drive up! So while it's safe to plug an ex sun-3 drive onto a new > system, plugging a new drive onto a 3/60 is potentially a problem! It's ok > if you disable "termination power" on the drive, or cut the appropriate pin > of the SCSI cable. > > I since got some more precise information about which Sun 3/60 and 4/110 models have this potential problem. Here's the good oil in terms of revision numbers and build dates: ------------- Sun 3/60's: This problem has been corrected on Sun 3/60 CPU boards with Part Numbers 501-1205-09, 501-1334-02, 501-1322-01 Rev 52, and 501-1345-01 Rev 52 or greater. This change has been incorporated on boards shipped after February 1988. Sun 4/110's: This problem has been corrected on Sun 4100 CPU boards with part numbers 501-1199-09 and 501-1237-09 or greater. This change has been incorporated on boards shipped after March 1988. ------------- So if your system is newer than the appropriate date above, you _should_ be ok. However, I don't take responsibility for the accuracy of this information (although I believe it to be correct). It's your system, it's in your interests to be careful regardless. [Not that I necessarily take super special care all the time :-). What, me with the 2/120 that's got an IBM PC/AT power supply replacing the original Sun monster supply and an Ex Macintosh Rodime hard disk as the boot drive... :-) ] Cheers, Simon {------------------------------------------------} { Simon Hackett, Internode Systems Pty Ltd } { E-mail: simon@internode.com.au } { Phone: +61 8 373 1339 Fax: +61 8 373 4911 } { Mail: PO Box 69, Daw Park, SA 5041 AUSTRALIA } {------------------------------------------------} ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************