#Switchbox safe?
26 messages in this thread
Can anyone tell me if it is safe to hook up a printer to a switch box on
an A2000 and switch between devices while the system is still up?
Thanks,
John G. Ata
Sterling, VA
I use a switch with no problems… (Knock on wood!)
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
I'm not sure, one switch box worked like a charm, and another crashed my
2500 and eventually blew the 8520. I checked, and as far as I could tell
#2 was break before make. I have a new GVP board (seems slow) that I use
for the printer, does anyone have any experience with GVP parallel ports?
-ash
I've heard of the break before make switches having problems… It knid
of makes you wonder whay they would build them that way.
Want to hear something strange? I've never blown an 8520 with any of my
Amiga's! I'm on my 4th one. 🙂 (Not that I haven't had any problems!
I've blown a couple motherboards by stupidity alone…)
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
Well, I've blown a couple of 8520s and a buffer chip but no mommyboards.
I have great respect for them, especially now 😎
DJ
🙂
The motherboards were only 500's and I always had a spare. 🙂
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
>I've heard of the break before make switches having problems… It knid
>of makes you wonder whay they would build them that way.
On the contrary, "break before make" is what you want. If the switch
makes the second connection before breaking the first, you could end up
letting the smoke out, and everyone knows that once the smoke escapes from
electrical/electronic components, they just don't work anymore.
I am sure that the .other. technical/hardware types here will agree with
me on this one (looking from side to side and all around).
//daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola
>On the contrary, "break before make" is what you want. If the switch
>makes the second connection before breaking the first, you could end up
>letting the smoke out, and everyone knows that once the smoke escapes
>from electrical/electronic components, they just don't work anymore.
Absolutely correct. I knew what I meant, I just didn't say it right. 🙂
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
>Absolutely correct. I knew what I meant, I just didn't say it right. 🙂
As is my condition more and more often…I think.
BTW, what means "Hakuna Matata!"
//daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola
>BTW, what means "Hakuna Matata!"
It's the name of a song from Disney's "The Lion King"
I believe it means something like live an let live, or roll with the
punches…
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
I see…thanx!
//daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola
>BTW, what means "Hakuna Matata!"
Addendum: The literal translation is "no worries"!
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
similar to "…don't worry, be happy…"
//daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola
>similar to "…don't worry, be happy…"
Yep, but don't remind me of that… People were whistling the intro to
that song for FAR to long. 🙂
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
Daniel,
Break before make sounds right to me, otherwise it's "three's a crowd" …
DJ
>"three's a crowd" …
Hmm, it seems it always takes me a 100 word essay to say what others can
in 6 words or less….:)
//daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola
Dan,
It's just I'm running out of words after shooting them off for too many
years … getting lazier also tends to make whatever you do take up less
of whatever it takes up <g>.
DJ
Bob,
You write:
>I use a switch with no problems… (Knock on wood!)
Thanks very much for the information. A field engineer from work (we
used
to service Amigas) told me the same thing, so I won't worry about blowing
any chips…
Thanks,
John G. Ata
Sterling, VA
John
While I have used switchboxes without worry to switch dotmatrix printers,
there is a semi-official policy with HP laser printers that they will void
your warranty if they catch you using one. Switchers blow their
communication option board. As Robert said also, I have never lost an 8520
in nearly 10 years of using all sorts of amigas from 1000's up and I have
used switchboxes on all of them. Your milage, however, may vary. Just keep
the cables short and if possible get a box that switches to 3 devices so
you can leave the B device empty to ensure it definately breaks before
making. The latter is probably overkill.
Tom
alternate: jonest@hfsi.com
I never met a man I didn't like…Will Rogers
I am using a three-way switchbox to allow sharing my (Canon) printer
between my 2000 and BridgeBoard (I use a multi i/o card parallel port
instead of software control of the standard Amiga parallel port from the
BridgeBoard). Because of the experiences of others which I have read
about here, I made sure (checked with ohmmeter) that each and every
terminal of the switch is "break before make" so that the connection to
one parallel port is opened before closing the connection to the
other…this avoids shorting the two parallel ports together with the
printer's port. I also turn off the printer before switching.
//daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola
Many thanks to Dan Darlingon, Tom Jones and Daniel Stripes for their
response to my query on using a switchbox on the Amiga printer port.
Basically I am switching between a printer and a handscanner (doesn't have
a passthrough). I will not fear that the 8250 will blow up as I switch
between them, thanks. My handscanner is usually left powered off so that
when I switch, it's usually between a powered up device (printer) and the
powered down handscanner. The reason why I leave it powered off is that
when it is not selected, for some reason it automatically comes on by
itself. This is not a function of the switchbox, since I can reproduce
this be just plugging it in and not having it connected anywhere. Just
curious if anyone who has experience with Golden Image handscanners would
know why this is so.
Again, thanks very much,
John G. Ata
Sterling, VA
You are welcome.
//daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola
John,
I've had my Amiga 2000HD and Apple ][+ connected to a switchbox to
share my Okidata Microline 92 which was replaced with a Hewlett-Packard
500C. I had to swap a 5-foot parallel cable from the printer to the
switchbox for a 3-foot parallel cable for my Apple to be able to drive the
printer. At that time the configuration worked fine.
Sincerely,
(Mr.) Gayle Lee Fairless
'Perfessor Fearless' from the Rocket City!
via AutoPilot 1.03a
It is nice to see one's name with a positive connotation … you are very
welcome John.
muv — AutoPilot from Mpls/St. Paul
Daniel A. Darlington 71564.1216@compuserve.com
Yes you can use a switch box with your Amiga. The Amiga parallel port for
one reason or another is kind of weak on its signal processing. For that
reason, you should use the shortest parallel cables you can find. I am
using an 18" cable to my box, and two 3' cables to the printers one of
which is a Fargo Primera which is notoriously hard to make work with
switch boxes. I hope this helps …
muv — AutoPilot from Mpls/St. Paul
Daniel A. Darlington 71564.1216@compuserve.com
John,
I do it all the time between a running Amiga and a '486. Been doing it
with a Laser even for years.( HP has some buggaboo about not honoring
warranties if you use a mechanical switch) . I've never had any problems..
or sparks 🙂
Rocky