#Xetec CD Rom Drive
27 messages in this thread
Here is an update on interfacing my Xetec CD Rom drive to a Bridgeboard for
those of you who may be interested. Does it work –YES and very well. All
you need to do is purchase the Chinon SCSI controller for the IBM side, run
the install software, and you are all set. The Chinon package from Xetec is
about $50 and includes the controller, software, and a Sampler CD Rom. If
you have the CDX-650E (External) drive, you will need a special cable to go
from the Chinon controller to the drive because the controller uses a weird
37 pin SCSI connector for external drives. It's about $35 from Xetec, and
be sure you mention that you need the cable when you order the Chinon
package because it's not included. I've got the drive setup to go through
an A/B switch so when I want to use the Xetec drive on the Amiga/IBM side
it's just a matter of flipping the switch. Works well but I wouldn't
recommend trying to switch while the Amiga's power is on. I've only got 2
IBM CD's to play around with right now, but will getting a few in a bundle
deal I've ordered so I'll let you know how they work out. The Sampler CD
works fine, but it does check to see if you have EGA, and if not, it
doesn't run all of the demo. I believe the Janus software only supports
CGA. Has anyone heard whether or not the new Janus software will support
EGA? Anyway, I think you would be better off putting in a VGA card in your
IBM side for the CD Rom stuff. But since I have a 3000, my 2 IBM slots are
full, so unless I can figure out a way to extend the IBM side, I'll have to
stick with the software emulation for the Video. So that's the latest. Next
project is to get Amax and try setting up my CD drive on the Mac
side….Hehe "Only on the Amiga" 8^)
DO you know if Xetec CD driver works with Toshiba XM3301 CDROM and GVPII
controller? I have the Hypermedia's driver and above package. Now I found
out,after purchasing the drivers, that my GVPII (nor my Supra WORDSYNC)
controller is not supported by Hypermedia's driver.
Also would you know if its possible to buy the Xetec driver seperately?
Raman
Raman, although the Xetec driver does work with the GVP Series II and the
Supra Wordsync, I'm not sure if it would work with the Toshiba drive. The
drive that is used with the Xetec is a Chinon 450, so maybe their software
will only work with that drive. Also I'm not sure if they sell the driver
seperately. You might try calling their BBS (913)-827-1974 and ask them
directly. Or if you would like, I can post the questions for you.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
Thanks John…
I will call them myself as I have few other questions I want answered.
Raman
That's great… keep us informed on your progress.
Do you subscribe to this CD user group newsletter? What's in it? What
sorts of CDs do you have now?
Fred has not really set up a subsription to the newsletter yet. For the
time being it is sent free to anyone interested in CD Rom's, and anyone who
order's some CD's from him is automatically a charter subscriber. He has a
bundle of CD's for $69 which includes seven discs.
1. Complete copy of the KJV Bible, plus several small demo files including
a
movies database, and a stamp catalog to demonstrate the Romware search
software.
2. The SIGCAT Software Showcase, a comparison of twelve CD-Rom search
engines.
3. A recent issue of a quarterly commercial software demonstration
service,
Selectware.
4. A multimedia introduction to CD-Rom technology by Discovery Systems.
5. The CARRS-1 225 MB Shareware disc.
6. The sixth is the first issue of the quarterly Architectural CD magazine
on a
disc.
7. The September 1990 issue of the quarterly subscription service, Front
Page
News.
Nothing spectacular, but probably worth the $69 just to get acquanted
with CD Rom technology. Fred also describes some of the government
CD's that are available. For example, the massive Congressional
Record for the 99th Congress (2 discs) costs $40 from the Government
Printing Office. Although I couldn't imagine anyone who could stand
to read that garbage 8^) Fred also sells a CD Rom he has put
together called the "Gigabyte Shareware" disc. It contains 6000 ZIP
packages, each containing up to 150 individual files. Among the
offerings is 77mb of Windows programs/utilities, 29mb of 421 PCX, 287
Gif, and 330 Mac images. 44mb of Games and Entertainment, 58mb of BBS
related, 22mb of Communications programs/utils, 16mb of Language
categories, 29mb of Business, 16mb of Graphics programs, and 50mb of
several Utilities categories. The price of the Gigabyte disc is $99.
He also has articles on a recent CD-Rom expo, reviews certain CD's,
etc. Then at the end he has a list of used/new CD's he has for sale
or trade. Go ahead and give Fred a call John. He will send you out a
free copy of the newsletter as well as talk your ear off. He does
love to chat 8^) For those of you who may read this thread, I posted
a note to John in the CDROM forum, and he is replying to it here. So
for others, contact Fred Bellomy of the CD Rom users group at
(805)-965-0265 or FAX (805)-965-5415.
I did call him, before I read this posting. I ordered the $69 deal right
away, he said it was an easy sell. 🙂 I had the EduCorp catalog, and
called the Bureau of Electronic Publishing for one, too. Last night, I
visited a good friend who used to work at the CD ROM mastering plant in the
north woods of Wisconsin, and brought home a stack of completely unreadable
pre-ISO, pre-Sierra disks, plus the last few Apple developer CDs. He
doesn't have a CD ROM drive, actually, so he's not missing them. I may
loan him my drive for a while. Geez, playing with CD ROMs can waste time
severely… I lost two hours looking at just one Apple disk. They issue
developer disks, what, quarterly? And Amiga Mail comes out and it's full
of BS about … oh, don't get me started. 🙂
Now what are you going to do with those pre-ISO CD's John? Use them for
coasters around the house 8^) He has some other interesting CD's listed in
the newsletter, such as "Between Heaven & Hell II", which I have no idea
what that is. Maybe a CD in purgatory 8^) Also has a "Nasa Sampler" which
is supposed to contain a bunch of spacey pics. And then he has one called
"Terrorist Profiles", wonder if the CIA knows about this? They probably
created it! And then a 10 disc pack called "Voyager Planets". Sounds like
we can spend the next 5 years just going through those CD's.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
John,
When I was last up at JPL, the librarian indicated that the NASA would
be publishing ALL of its planetary pictures on CD. I sure hope those
"Voyager Planets" CDs are the start of that project. How much do they
cost??
Vic, don't have the newsletter with me right now, so not sure on the price
of the "Voyager Planets". I think it was something along the lines of $350
for a 10 CD Rom set. I'll look it up tonight and make sure. By the way, I'm
going to be late with my C homework for the first class. I didn't get the
lecture downloaded until Sunday, and been busy this week. Will probably get
it done tonight. OK, I'll stay after school and write a C program to
generate "I will not be late with my homework again" 1000 times to a disk
file 8^)
John
I've a couple CD-ROM set of images from the Einstein Observatory X-Ray
observations of the sky, as well as a 'sampler' astronomy images disk from
a variety of sources. Have seen the images on the Mac (8 bit board) and
they looked real nice. Am waiting till I get my CD-ROM drive for my ami to
try and use here. Sure hope I can get them going.
Most astronomical-based data is now being released on CD-ROM (rather than
distributed databases), in a FITS data format. And the best part is, it is
real cheap for tens of thousands of good images/data, cause the various
observation centers want everyone who asks to have their data. Science is
wonderful…. data sharing.
–jp–seattle–
John,
How are these viewed on the Amiga?
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
Heck, I don't know 🙂 I've only seen them on the Mac, at an Astronomy
conference. I do have the FITS format specs, however (what there are of
them — the 'white paper' of 89 or so), and plan on giving it a college try
when I get my CD-ROM drive (dreammmmmmm)
My understanding is that most all observatories and research centers are
releasing their data on CD-ROM as time goes by (joining the wave) and that
it is in the FITS format. FITS as a format allows for strait text data,
tabular data, image data in various resolutions, etc…. therefore a good
format for the astronomy circles….
I'd certainly post here when/if I ever 1) get a CD-ROM drive, 2) am
successful at getting a reader/viewer going…. don't hold your breath 🙂
–jp–seattle–
I think I'll wait until either a.) Commodore releases a CD-ROM drive that
is CDTV compatible, or b.) a reputable (such as GVP) manufacturer releases
one that is guarenteed 100% CDTV compatible. I saw some neat CDTV titles
in the store but heck if I'm going to buy that $800 keyboardless TV video
contraption that you have to buy to play them on.
———————————————-Don- via Whap!
I hope you are right about someone (ANYONE) releasing a 100% compatible
CDTV/CD-ROM drive for the Amigas…. but from what I've heard and read….
Commodore has built a screwy way to allowing a disc to check if its running
on a CDTV device, so that mfgs can lock out other users. (ie. CD-ROMs)….
Fortunately it doesn't look like many developers are using the check, but
it might forestall 100% compatibility?
Since this would seem to be a hot question for potential CD-ROM purchasers,
I would hope that some mag would run an article REAL SOON about CDTV/CD-ROM
compatibility…. 'all you ever wanted to know ….'
I'll have to check if it's in the Amiga version, but a FITS conversion
utility is part of the Unix PBMPlus package (Portable BitMap). Also the
FITS package source code is available over the Internet, so people can
write direct FITS-IFF viewers if they like. <<< caveat – I haven't done
this – I just know that the code is available 🙂 >>
Mike
Thanks, I'll check that out. My understanding is that the FITS 'standard'
is still very loose, and developing (ie. no one document or standard to
guranantee the correct way to write/read)…. still, from what I have seen,
it doesn't look that tough a format.
The Univ. of Colorado's space science department sells a 10 disk set of
Voyager for just ninety dollars. I called to get info on this, and I'll
post it when it arrives. Incredible price. On the other hand, they said
the info might take a few weeks, because the department is moving from one
place to another. There's the difference between a *business* and a
*university*.
[ continuation ]
out a free copy of the newsletter as well as talk your ear off. He does
love to chat 8^) For those of you who may read this thread, I posted a
note to John in the CDROM forum, and he is replying to it here. So for
others, contact Fred Bellomy of the CD Rom users group at (805)-965-0265 or
FAX (805)-965-5415.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
Forgot to mention what CD's I have now. Not many really. The Fish & More
volumes I & II, the BuckMaster Ham Radio CD, World Vista CDTV, American
Heritage dictionary CDTV, and the CD Sampler that came with the Chinon
controller. I went ahead and ordered Fred's bundle deal and the Gigabyte
Shareware disc, so should have those next week.
Yes, great, but…
Since the ATonce can access ALL Amiga drives as though they were IBM
devices, can it access the CD-ROM? Can anyone beta test this theory out?
Anyone proximal to central NJ with a 2000 and a Xetec? I'll travel to try
it out. Leave msg to me here or mail to 76324,3374 ERIC
You'll probably need Microsoft's CD-Rom extensions installed at boot up at
least.
BEN:Leigh's Computer's
Eric, I would say that since you can access all Amiga drives as IBM
devices, then there may be a possibility that you can access a CD Rom drive
with ATonce. The ONLY way you are going to find out is to find somebody
with a Xetec drive and try it out. You might also try calling Xetec and see
if they have done any work with the ATonce.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
Very Very Interesting John! I am planning on setting up a mini Novell
Network and one of the configs I will experiment with will be to have the
Amiga BB as the server. In a 2000 with an AT BB and a PC side HD controller
and a VGA card would there still be room for the chinon controller ? Russ
– via Whap!
Yep, I think you would have 1 slot left for the Chinon controller Russ.
It's a pretty small 1/2 card also, so it should go in without too much
trouble.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!