Hard Drive Case/Power Supply for MIO?

[+Larry]

I'm thinking of how I can get my MIO back on my computer desk. Years ago, I used a big "shoebox" case for a Seagate ST-251 (5-1/4", half-height, ~50 MB, MFM). Along the way, I've also accumulated some 3-1/2" MFM drives, but they are all full-height (as most of the early 3-1/2" drives were). And I must not forget the bridge board "controller." I no longer have any embedded SCSI drive that works with the MIO. Little bit bigger than a a flash card, isn't it?

 

Space is at a premium on my computer desk which has my PC system + Atari gear. Has anyone come up with any space-efficient solutions to use the old MFM drives?

 

-Larry

[MEtalGuy66]

slam them all in a tower with wheels, and roll it under your desk.. The MIO pretty much has to go directly behind the atari, because you are limited to about 10-14 inches on the PBI bus cable length.. But you can easily adapt the 50 pin SCSI port to a DB-25, or Centronix-50pin external SCSI cable for connecting down to the tower.. The SCSI bus, itself can be pretty damn long.. 10 meters or more.. be sure to observe proper termination practices when configuring your SCSI devices, and you should have no problems..

[+Larry]

I'm thinking of how I can get my MIO back on my computer desk. Years ago, I used a big "shoebox" case for a Seagate ST-251 (5-1/4", half-height, ~50 MB, MFM). Along the way, I've also accumulated some 3-1/2" MFM drives, but they are all full-height (as most of the early 3-1/2" drives were). And I must not forget the bridge board "controller." I no longer have any embedded SCSI drive that works with the MIO. Little bit bigger than a a flash card, isn't it?

 

Space is at a premium on my computer desk which has my PC system + Atari gear. Has anyone come up with any space-efficient solutions to use the old MFM drives?

 

-Larry

 

 

> I've also accumulated some 3-1/2" MFM drives, but they are all full-height (as most of the early 3-1/2" drives were). <

I meant half-height, not full. But we can't edit these posts anymore after 15 minutes, so I'll correct my error with a second post.

 

-Larry

[+Larry]

Well, I got it set up, although not a permanent setup. I used the old "shoebox" with the ST-251/Adaptec 4000a. Boy those old 5-1/4 HD's are noisy -- ditto the 12 volt cooling fan in the case.

 

What fun! Scared me for a few seconds because it boots slower than I'm used to. But after that unnerving pause, there came the MyDos menu and all was well. The MIO didn't like my tricked out 130XE that I use with the Black Box -- couldn't get to the MIO Menu. So I popped in a stock 130XE and the menu came up immediately. Hias' hi-speed SIO patch worked fine with the MIO, also.

 

Checked my MIO board and bridge diodes and my 256K unit is nice and clean. Both mine (#1698 and #1426) came with "mesh" ends, and neither saw a lot of service. Using the AC power supply sure is a good tip, though. Both mine came with DC supplies (5200-types, I think).

 

Hope that the plans for the new MIO features remain do materialize as time permits, and if so, I'll update mine and get it ready for the added goodies.

 

Nice blast from the past!

 

-Larry

[+Larry]

Followup:

 

While trying out an embedded SCSI drive (Seagate ST-157N), I put that drive into a modern half-height enclosure designed for DVD/CD drives. This has a nice small switching power supply, and would make a nice space-efficient case. Unfortunately, the PS won't spin up the drive, so this "space-efficient" solution won't work.

 

This "space" quest has given me a far greater appreciation for the compact size of the modern IDE solutions such as the KMK-JZ and MyIDE interfaces.

 

-Larry

[ataridano]

Followup:

 

While trying out an embedded SCSI drive (Seagate ST-157N), I put that drive into a modern half-height enclosure designed for DVD/CD drives. This has a nice small switching power supply, and would make a nice space-efficient case. Unfortunately, the PS won't spin up the drive, so this "space-efficient" solution won't work.

 

This "space" quest has given me a far greater appreciation for the compact size of the modern IDE solutions such as the KMK-JZ and MyIDE interfaces.

 

-Larry

 

 

I have some SCSI external cases, if you need one. Speaking of CD drives, you might keep your eyes open for an old external SCSI CD-ROM, they were used by Apple quite a bit back in the day, and would have all the correct SCSI cabling as well as a power supply (which would hopefully spin your drive).