#Emplant Update 🙁
11 messages in this thread
Ok, here it is, short and sweet:
I got some new System 6.0.7 disks, and have the new Sybil. I am using the
latest Emplant software available (I downloaded it from the UU BBS last
night). The result? I start the Emplant, I give it a Mac boot disk, I
watch as it starts to digest the disk, it crashes and burns…:(
So far, there is no joy in Emplantsville.
Jonathan
Jonathan,
Sorry to hear that, keep us informed, as I know you will.
We're these 6.0.7 disks verified usable on a real mac? We're they
copied using a Superdrive or a DD drive? I have problems with superdrives
writing double density and then being used by real mac DD drives, or my
AMAX and a DD external drive. When I brought my external drive to the
dealer, hooked it to a MAC classic, read the already prepared disk he had
given me in the superdrive and copied it to the mac's hard drive,
reformatted the same disk on the DD drive and drag copied the software
onto it. I was able to use it on AMAX AND a friend's DD MAC II. I don't
know if this has anything to do with your Emplant problem,
Chris
Newest update:
I had a chat with the Emplant folks, and they gave me a few tips. I
learned the following:
1. The Sybil interface really blows chunks, and they don't even think of
it as a reliable way to do floppy I/O. They did not descibe it in glowing
terms 🙂 Most insulting (to my intelligence, anyway) is the inclusion of
a disk calibration utility that they tell me *DOES NOT WORK AT ALL*.
Instead, I am forced to listen to the floppy step its heads, and twiddle a
pot, hoping to hit "just the right setting". No thanks…I can deal with
rough hardware, but this is just plain stupid.
2. The Emplant software still has some *very* rough edges…it crashes
everything as soon as it gets bad floppy data. Since this happens a lot
with the Sybil, this is something that needs some better error handling.
3. The two previous statements mean that the Emplant is doomed to be
"experimental" hardware until UU comes up with something better. How
about a hardware dongle that allows one to plug in a *real* Mac drive?
The DD models can be picked up pretty cheaply, and most software still
comes on DD disks. I would have rather spent $50 on something like this,
instead of their crappy Sybil.
Latest happenings:
1. I twiddled the pot, and found a "sweet spot" setting. It allowed me to
get past the startup screen, and actually get to the Mac Finder…which
told me that it needed to repair the boot floppy. Oh well…I may try
Chris Tolmie's DD fix, and write out some new disks (and format them as
well on an old style DD drive).
Conclusion:
1. It works…really, it does. The main problem, as far as I can see it,
is the need for *reliable* floppy I/O. If I had this, I would have been
up and running tonight! Everything else works.
Bottom line:
Don't buy this thing unless UU has some new developments regarding floppy
I/O. Floppies are not precise things, and they vary too much for the
Sybil kludge. I have two floppies, and they give very different results,
<continued>
which is proof enough for me. However…HD disk support is supposedly
built in. Since I am getting a HD disk, all may not be lost. Sigh…
Meanwhile, my friend Steve is happily Mac'ing away with his Amax II+,
which happily accepts his disks, and happily emulates a B/W Mac…he calls
it his Mac Classic II+ emulator. Folks, this is the way to go…
Jonathan, via AutoPilot // Only Amiga makes
\\// it possible…
Jonathan –
> However…HD disk support is supposedly built in.
Do you know if Macs or Emplants (or Amaxes) can read SCSI flopticals? How
about regular floppies IN a floptical drive? If one had a floptical
primarily for use on the Amiga side, could it also be used on the Mac
side? Maybe actually formatting a couple of 20meg disks on a Mac, and
using them on the Mac side of an appropriately equipped Amiga?
. . . . JimDoc, on AutoPilot
Jim,
As far as I know, there is no reason why either a Mac emulator or a real
Mac cannot use flopticals…they use SyQuests all the time, and they are
the same in principal.
I believe that it might be easier to use removable media with an Emplant
(assuming that you get it running:), since it is supposed to allow you to
mount the Amiga file system on the Mac.
Jonathan
Jonathan,
I use two Syquests and a 150MB Wangtek tape drive with my Amiga, and
during AMAX II operation I use them as MAC formatted cartridge drives and
tape drive without any problems. I do format the drives using a utility
program of a MAC third party provider of hardware, CMS. The utility does a
nice job of prepping and installing the drivers. I use Retrospect for the
mac tape backup.
Chris
Chris,is the formatter a commercial productand does it support the
floptical? Because i 'm not able to use my floptical i don't have a good
formatter program for it. Thanks Michel
michael,
CMS
BBS 1-714-222-6601
Tech support 1-714-222-6617
I just downloaded it from their BBS. It is called UTIL5.6. The newer
version which supports System 7.xx costs $25 US. Apparently v5.6 has some
problems that had to be fixed for it to work with the newer mac OS.
Chris
Sorry to hear that your Emplant isn't working for you. I have a friend who
is running system 6.0.5 on the Emplant with little problem. I think I'll
give him a call and see what his configuration consists of.
-Jonathan
Jonathan,
I would appreciate the information. However, at this point, I believe
that the Sybil simply does not work with my disk drives, and this is the
main sticking point.
Jonathan, via AutoPilot // Only Amiga makes
\\// it possible…