Creating a custom PCMCIA EPP Parallel port may be pretty easy looking over a basic description. Although I wonder if PCMCIA->SCSI->Parallel is possible, to remove the device sharing limitation.

the3dfxdude wrote on 2021-11-25, 16:43:

Creating a custom PCMCIA EPP Parallel port may be pretty easy looking over a basic description. Although I wonder if PCMCIA->SCSI->Parallel is possible, to remove the device sharing limitation.

yeah I built one up on a breadboard but it was not detecting by the HP200LX, so I had been waiting for somebody to send me a dump of the CIS off a card that works.

lolo799 wrote on 2021-11-25, 14:51:

Great video! You showed your scsi chain setup finishing with the Iomega Zip drive and doing it in connection order afterwards, […]
Show full quote

Great video!
You showed your scsi chain setup finishing with the Iomega Zip drive and doing it in connection order afterwards, I think one time may have been enough.

The spp100 driver can be loaded as a device statement in config.sys directly.
Ethernet adapters for the parallel port exist and are most likely easier to find than the Accurite DoubleSlot device...

Tried that, spp100 driver in config.sys and won't work, dos throws an "invalid file type" error. Thats why I had to go the devload route...
Maybe you've got a different version ? If so, can you share ?

Also, I'm aware of parallel port NICs, there are quote a few of cheap 3coms on ebay, but that would defeat the whole benefit of the SCSI setup. If i can get a SCSI network adapter working, I have the whole bus full of devices,
instead of just an oversized, slower alternative to my accton PCMCIA ethernet card...

Radiance

I could finally locate standard (not 200LX) DOS drivers for the SPP-100. There is both sys and exe versions.

Bondi wrote on 2021-11-25, 19:31:

I could finally locate standard (not 200LX) DOS drivers for the SPP-100. There is both sys and exe versions.
spp100_dos.exe

That's great 😀 Where did you find this ?
The enabler I found specifically for the 200lx on that Japanese site has only the executable in the archive...

I'll test them, but I've a feeling they won't work on the 200lx, otherwise the author who made the 200LX version wouldn't have had a reason to make the version i found for the 200LX...

Thanks,
Radiance

Here's the LX version of the SPP100 drivers.

Odd. Filesize is slightly different, yet both have the same string mentioning the same version of v2.02 'SPP-100 Client Driver, Version 2.02' same in .sys files and .exe files.
Both also mention 'Requires HP 100LX family machine'
Did someone forget to update the version number or ... ?

I found the drivers on the archived Quatech website within discontinued products. Funny that the files for actual products are missing.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130722143236/ht … iscontinued.php#

radiance32 wrote on 2021-11-25, 19:08:

Tried that, spp100 driver in config.sys and won't work, dos throws an "invalid file type" error. Thats why I had to go the devlo […]
Show full quote

Tried that, spp100 driver in config.sys and won't work, dos throws an "invalid file type" error. Thats why I had to go the devload route...
Maybe you've got a different version ? If so, can you share ?

Also, I'm aware of parallel port NICs, there are quote a few of cheap 3coms on ebay, but that would defeat the whole benefit of the SCSI setup. If i can get a SCSI network adapter working, I have the whole bus full of devices,
instead of just an oversized, slower alternative to my accton PCMCIA ethernet card...

Radiance

The driver is from the Palmtop archive, it's mentioned you have to load it after the double clock mod in the instructions at:
https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/31/31000033.htm

Good point about the scsi speed benefit, and using every device on the chain at the same time.

There may have been a scsi pcmcia card with an enabler for the 100/200lx, the Visual Media from New Media Corporation, I can't find any Palmtop sepcific enabler for it.
The card is mentioned at https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/31/31000033.htm

lolo799 wrote on 2021-11-25, 22:57:

The driver is from the Palmtop archive, it's mentioned you have to load it after the double clock mod in the instructions at: ht […]
Show full quote

radiance32 wrote on 2021-11-25, 19:08:

Tried that, spp100 driver in config.sys and won't work, dos throws an "invalid file type" error. Thats why I had to go the devlo […]
Show full quote

Tried that, spp100 driver in config.sys and won't work, dos throws an "invalid file type" error. Thats why I had to go the devload route...
Maybe you've got a different version ? If so, can you share ?

Also, I'm aware of parallel port NICs, there are quote a few of cheap 3coms on ebay, but that would defeat the whole benefit of the SCSI setup. If i can get a SCSI network adapter working, I have the whole bus full of devices,
instead of just an oversized, slower alternative to my accton PCMCIA ethernet card...

Radiance

The driver is from the Palmtop archive, it's mentioned you have to load it after the double clock mod in the instructions at:
https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/31/31000033.htm

Good point about the scsi speed benefit, and using every device on the chain at the same time.

There may have been a scsi pcmcia card with an enabler for the 100/200lx, the Visual Media from New Media Corporation, I can't find any Palmtop sepcific enabler for it.
The card is mentioned at https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/31/31000033.htm

I'm actually quite happy with my setup as it it...
The speed is very good, you can use it as a daily work machine (offcourse it's not "portable" anymore), the speed of reading from a SCSI2SD drive is about 75% the speed of reading off a CF card in a CF -> PCMCIA adapter in the palmtop...
And, with having the scsi adapter being parallel port based, I can still add a parallel sound card, which would'nt be possible with a PCMCIA SCSI card...

Anyway, I'm actually happy with having all the drivers in the autoexec.bat, as it's better. I can add a simple switch at the top and then conditionally load either the SCSI drivers or the ACECARD3 driver if i want to take my palmtop on the road with a CF -> PCMCIA card. batch files are much more flexible than config.sys files (at least in DOS 5.0, which lacks the startup choices for config.sys files introduced in DOS 6.0)...

At this point, the scanner is connected and works 😀
And, I'm just waiting for a set of HD50 -> DB-25 cables to add the SUN SCSI CD-ROM enclosure to have a CD-ROM drive. Any leftover SCSI IDs i wlll create additional 2GB hard drives for on the SCSI2SD, just to fully utilize the bus 😀

The only thing i'm worried about at this stage is that adding another 1 meter db25 to db25 cable for the scanner, and 2 more one meter HD50 to db25 cables might make the Bus too long... It's low voltage differential SCSI, which has quite limited bus lengths, especially when most of your cables aren't differential (eg 25 pins instead of 50pins)... I guess we'll have to see when those HD50 scsi cables arrive next week.

I'm keen on doing a 30 minute video with just a full demonstration and all kinds of software demos, speed tests etc as the Part 2 video.

Cheers,
Radiance

radiance32 wrote on 2021-11-26, 01:50:

The only thing i'm worried about at this stage is that adding another 1 meter db25 to db25 cable for the scanner, and 2 more one meter HD50 to db25 cables might make the Bus too long... It's low voltage differential SCSI, which has quite limited bus lengths, especially when most of your cables aren't differential (eg 25 pins instead of 50pins)... I guess we'll have to see when those HD50 scsi cables arrive next week.

I'm not certain about what scsi card you have,
though that doesn't matter since you're using a scsi2sd, a device which is neither LVD scsi nor HVD scsi.
It's just SE SCSI and SE SCSI has a maximum cable length of 6m.

weedeewee wrote on 2021-11-26, 08:02:

I'm not certain about what scsi card you have, though that doesn't matter since you're using a scsi2sd, a device which is neith […]
Show full quote

radiance32 wrote on 2021-11-26, 01:50:

The only thing i'm worried about at this stage is that adding another 1 meter db25 to db25 cable for the scanner, and 2 more one meter HD50 to db25 cables might make the Bus too long... It's low voltage differential SCSI, which has quite limited bus lengths, especially when most of your cables aren't differential (eg 25 pins instead of 50pins)... I guess we'll have to see when those HD50 scsi cables arrive next week.

I'm not certain about what scsi card you have,
though that doesn't matter since you're using a scsi2sd, a device which is neither LVD scsi nor HVD scsi.
It's just SE SCSI and SE SCSI has a maximum cable length of 6m.

I'm not just using a SCSI2SD, but also a Zip drive, CD-ROM drive and scanner ... (the latter two are for the upcoming part 2 video)
Have you seen the photo of the setup in the video with all the cables?, it's already approx 3.5 meters long, and i'll need 3 meters of cables to connect the additional devices for the 2nd video...
I'm scared adding another 3m of cables will be too much, but, i'll try nonetheless to see if it works...
Also, it's really hard to buy any scsi cable you want here in NZ, and I was luck to find some old HD50 to amphenol cables, which i can daisy chain onto my amphenol to DB-25 cable, And i'm not going to ship cables from the US as that would be extremely expensive. Ayways, it could be too long...

I got LVD mixed up with SE, it's been like 2 decades since I last used SCSI 😀
I used to administer a large amount of Sun UNIX workstations and servers for 15 years as a contractor for SUN belgium, starting in the 90's and we used Ultra2 SCSI by the end of that period on the Sun Fire platforms, and I got used to it, but I do know SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Wide SCSI-2 etc... (until Ultra2) were single ended only. anyways, long time ago, i quit in 2004.

Radiance

I just used the SCSI2SD device as reference, since any SE device on a differential scsi bus will bring the whole bus down to SE level.
And since the bus is SE, you might as well try to make your own short cables, nothing special about those.

weedeewee wrote on 2021-11-26, 09:26:

I just used the SCSI2SD device as reference, since any SE device on a differential scsi bus will bring the whole bus down to SE level.
And since the bus is SE, you might as well try to make your own short cables, nothing special about those.

I really don't have time to make my own cables 😀
It's probably more difficult finding a HD50 connector than an HD50 connector to DB25 cable here in NZ.
We can't just pluck stuff off ebay and have it delivered for free...

I just want to finish the 2nd part ASAP, so i can get on to my next video, building a minix kernel with some modifications to get the serial port working (i found some patches on the wayback machine) on the 200LX so i can set up a slip link to a raspberry PI, and then write a small httpd server using select(3), to build a unix-line webserver on the 200lx. That would make another cool video 😀

Radiance

lolo799 wrote on 2021-11-25, 22:57:

The driver is from the Palmtop archive, it's mentioned you have to load it after the double clock mod in the instructions at: ht […]
Show full quote

radiance32 wrote on 2021-11-25, 19:08:

Tried that, spp100 driver in config.sys and won't work, dos throws an "invalid file type" error. Thats why I had to go the devlo […]
Show full quote

Tried that, spp100 driver in config.sys and won't work, dos throws an "invalid file type" error. Thats why I had to go the devload route...
Maybe you've got a different version ? If so, can you share ?

Also, I'm aware of parallel port NICs, there are quote a few of cheap 3coms on ebay, but that would defeat the whole benefit of the SCSI setup. If i can get a SCSI network adapter working, I have the whole bus full of devices,
instead of just an oversized, slower alternative to my accton PCMCIA ethernet card...

Radiance

The driver is from the Palmtop archive, it's mentioned you have to load it after the double clock mod in the instructions at:
https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/31/31000033.htm

Good point about the scsi speed benefit, and using every device on the chain at the same time.

There may have been a scsi pcmcia card with an enabler for the 100/200lx, the Visual Media from New Media Corporation, I can't find any Palmtop sepcific enabler for it.
The card is mentioned at https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/31/31000033.htm

Where does it mention the PCMCIA SCSI card (in that link you posted) ?

I have a panasonic SCSI external CD-ROM, it's in the form of a portable CD player, eg like a Sony DiscMan,
it has only one micro50 SCSI port, no passthrough port (so it can only be used by itself),
but it comes with a PCMCIA SCSI card to use it on a laptop.
I'll have to dig aroud in my garage to see if i can find it, maybe that PCMCIA SCSI adapter could be made to work on the 200LX...
I'll have a look on the weekend if I can find it.

Cheers,
Radiance

radiance32 wrote on 2021-12-14, 07:23:

Where does it mention the PCMCIA SCSI card (in that link you posted) ?
Cheers,
Radiance

Sorry I messed up the links, it's down this page:
https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/13/pt13001b.htm

lolo799 wrote on 2021-12-14, 10:39:

radiance32 wrote on 2021-12-14, 07:23:

Where does it mention the PCMCIA SCSI card (in that link you posted) ?
Cheers,
Radiance

Sorry I messed up the links, it's down this page:
https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/13/pt13001b.htm

Thanks, i'll check it out, but after an initial viewing, I can't find any reference to New Media PCMCIA cards on google at all...
I'll have to do more searching 😀

Thanks for the link 😀
Terrence

radiance32 wrote on 2021-12-14, 19:20:

Thanks, i'll check it out, but after an initial viewing, I can't find any reference to New Media PCMCIA cards on google at all.. […]
Show full quote

Thanks, i'll check it out, but after an initial viewing, I can't find any reference to New Media PCMCIA cards on google at all...
I'll have to do more searching 😀

Thanks for the link 😀
Terrence

Here's the link to the archived version of New Media Corp's website:
https://web.archive.org/web/19961112082427/ht … wmediacorp.com/

lolo799 wrote on 2021-12-14, 19:46:

radiance32 wrote on 2021-12-14, 19:20:

Thanks, i'll check it out, but after an initial viewing, I can't find any reference to New Media PCMCIA cards on google at all.. […]
Show full quote

Thanks, i'll check it out, but after an initial viewing, I can't find any reference to New Media PCMCIA cards on google at all...
I'll have to do more searching 😀

Thanks for the link 😀
Terrence

Here's the link to the archived version of New Media Corp's website:
https://web.archive.org/web/19961112082427/ht … wmediacorp.com/

I forgot about the wayback machine 😀
I'll check it out 😀

Cheers annd thanks a lot!,
Radiance

lolo799 wrote on 2021-11-25, 14:51:

Great video! You showed your scsi chain setup finishing with the Iomega Zip drive and doing it in connection order afterwards, […]
Show full quote

Great video!
You showed your scsi chain setup finishing with the Iomega Zip drive and doing it in connection order afterwards, I think one time may have been enough.

The spp100 driver can be loaded as a device statement in config.sys directly.
Ethernet adapters for the parallel port exist and are most likely easier to find than the Accurite DoubleSlot device...

Thanks 😀
I've got a working CD-ROM and a flatbed scanner that connects / works but I can't find any software for it that will run on Windows 3.0 in real mode 🙁
Anyways, I'm going to wrap up everything and release the part 2 SCSI video after christmas, in 2 days or so, showing the final/complete setup,
so I can move on to my next project, finishing the minix webserver and my raytracing on the 200LX video coming out in a few months (when it's done raytracing the image 🤣)

Radiance