Asking for SCSI tutorial

I got a used machine that apparently was some sort of power machine. It has a scsi card in it connected to two CD players. Not sure why he had that configuration but? Anyway we intent to pull the card and put it in another machine to run with one of the scsi cds and a scsi hard drive. The problem is I have never done anything with SCSI before I have tried to read up but get lost in terminations etc. Can anyone direct me to a childs guide to SCSI or explaine here step by step how to do this changeover of components?

 

First thing first... Do you have the driver instalation disk for the card?

 

I don't have anything on the machine. I am confident that I can get the nomenclature from the card and get the drivers. What I don't have any confidence in is setting the machines so the card recognizes them and they operate correctly. The termination and power termination I can't find clear guidance on.

 

OK, You will need drivers. I must admit that I've never installed a SCSI card so I'm not going to pretend to be able to sit here and give advice. However, I may be able to help get you started.

First, does the machine you are taking the card out of run? If so, install Everest . It should be able to give you much info on the card.

Second, if the machine dosen't run.

Take any info from the card you can get. If the manufacturer is stamped on it that would be great. Also get the FCC ID number and model number if there.

Go to Drivers Guide and enter the info. You should come up with drivers but the main thing your looking for is the manufacturer and model number if not on the card.

Go to the manufacturer's site and try to find their drivers and install info.

 

Thanks Jaylach, I will do that and I am sure that the drivers are readily available. I have had to look for drivers a lot working with old machines. But, like you I have never installed a SCSI component. I am alright, I think, with setting the device number but power termination I am very uncomforatable with my level of lack of information. Well would not turn away more info on the device ID either. But have a lot of confidence in this board. I am sure there are some experts out there. Hopefully they can bring me up to speed.

 

Haven't seen a good on-line guide recently, but I will look around.

Here is some basic info on SCSI:

1) Similar to IDE but quicker and allows for more devices to be attached to the chain, depending on the flavour that you have. Number of devices is 8 to 16 with numbering starting at 0 and the SCSI card itself using the highest number available. Each device must have a unique number, usually set with jumpers or switches. There is no Master/Slave relationship as in IDE.

2) Both ends of the chain must be terminated. The card will be one end, unless you are using external devices, and usually is able to figure out if it should have termination enabled. The last device on the chain (not necessarily the one with the highest number) MUST have termination enabled and all devices not on the ends MUST NOT have termination enabled.

Hope this helps to get you started. SCSI is actually quite simple once you know these basics. Make sure you have the drivers for the card and go for it.

DRD

 

Along with that base information. The manufacturer of the SCSI card should have information about setup. If not visit the Adaptec (spelling?) website, I used the tutorials there.

Find out the manufacturer and model number of the drives and look up their websites. More info.

...don't expect them to work straight off...you may have to do some changing of location and numbering.

Matt

 

Thanks very much guys that kind of clears it up for me. I will pull the numbers on the devices and see what the current setup is then try and make one that works for the new configuration. I will let you know if everything works and let you know if I need more guidance. Thanks so much, back in a couple of days.

 

Progress. I am now educated enough to verbalise a pertinent question. On the each scsi device there is a place for power termination and scsi termination. What is the difference and in an installation with the cd player in the last connector on the cable and the HD in a connector closer to the card with both the CD and HD powered by their own power connectors what would be the jumper connections on each device? Hope this question is clear as the answer will clarify my confusion on this issue.

 

It would be a good idea to post the manufacturer and model number of all of the devices involved.

DRD

 

I have purposly not used specifics as I am going to be doing this evolution using various parts over the next few yeaars and want to understand the technology of the matter not how to implement it on a specific device. Teh issue of power termination vice scsi termination is what confuses me and I am beginning to think it may be terminology byt the answer to the above question I think will resolve the confusion in my mind. Thanks for all input on this.

 

robwhite,
Here are two places you may find helpful.
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/tutorials/36/1/
SCSI Tutorial
http://www.scsita.org/aboutscsi/SCSI_Termination_Tutorial.html
SCSI Termination Tutorial

 

General information is fine, but at some point you have to look at the specifications for the hardware.

DRD

 

Roger that net doc and I have read the specs. They tell me how to terminate the devices but not what to terminate except in the case of the scsi and I have that down now but the thing I have not been able to determine is what is power termination. I believe based on what I have found that the semantics of that are not precise and in fact what you are doing is porting power from the device to the chain and power terminating all the devices would be a good thing but still without the answer to the above question I am not sure that is true. Still hunting but getting closer.

 

robwhite, I have only "played around" with SCSI to see if I could make it work .
Large corperate systems run SCSI and have large banks of drives.
Because those systems do not run from the governing computer's power system, you may find that "terminating power" refers to a large multi-drive system.

Only my "guess ".

Matt

 

robwhite,

Here’s some more info with regard to SCSI Terminations: The one you may be inquiring about (mind you I said May Be) are what is called Active Terminators. Some Active Terminators use built-in voltage regulator IC’s combined with 110ohm resistors. An active terminator actually has one or more voltage regulators to produce the termination voltage, rather than resistor voltage dividers alone.

SCSI Terminators available are 1) Passive 2) Active 3) Forced Perfect Termination 4) HVD Termination 5) LVD Termination.

BTW, I hope you are aware there’s more than one type of SCSI with different speeds and each with it’s own specification from cable type to connector type, and distance requirements.

Also it's pretty difficult to try and furnish any more information without knowing what type of SCSI we're talking about.