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NOS 3.5" 1.44mb Microsolutions Backpack for $1 BIN - not my auction

Ah, now I know what you mean. Have no idea wether it will work on the external drive though. If it can't be set to 720K to begin with? It's worth a try but I can't try it out as long as my shipment hasn't arrived yet and even then, afaik I might have only a single 720K drive...somewhere.

Anyway, what would be the best way to open the casing without damaging it? I'd prefer not to break off little pieces of plastic and get bad scratches on the casing
 
With a soft (i.e. non-metallic) object, push in on the recessed tabs on each side of the case while pulling the halves apart. Takes a litle practice, but is pretty easy.
 
Chuck(G) said:
With a soft (i.e. non-metallic) object, push in on the recessed tabs on each side of the case while pulling the halves apart. Takes a litle practice, but is pretty easy.
Click to expand...

I use a screwdriver.. as long as you're gentle it doesn't hurt the tabs much - just in case you can't find something "soft"..
 
Raven said:
I use a screwdriver.. as long as you're gentle it doesn't hurt the tabs much - just in case you can't find something "soft"..
Click to expand...

The end of a cheap toothbrush handle should work fine. It's plastic and about the right size. One of the sticks making up a spring-type clothespin should also work.
 
What I did with one of my purchased Backpack external 3.5" drives:

My IBM 5170 contains a 1.2M and 360K drive, and I have had an external ZIP100 drive connected to the parallel port for a while now.

I connected a Backpack external 3.5" drive to the 'printer' port on the external ZIP100 drive.
I then connected a Backpack external CD-ROM drive to the 'printer' port on the external 3.5" drive.

So now my 5170 has 360K/1.2M/1.44M/CDROM/Zip100 capability.

I was surprised that I could reliably daisy-chain the parallel port that much. I gave the external drives a good workout and I can't fault them.

Code: 
+----------------+
|                |
|  IBM 5170      +---+  parallel port (genuine IBM serial/parallel card)
|                |   |
+----------------+   |
                     |
+----------------+   |
|                |   |
|                +---+  main port
|    ZIP100      |
|                +---+  printer port
|                |   |
+----------------+   |
                     |
+----------------+   |
|                |   |
|                +---+  main port
| Backpack 3.5"  |
|                +---+  printer port
|                |   |
+----------------+   |
                     |
+----------------+   |
|                |   |
|                +---+  main port
| Backpack CDROM |
|                |
|                |
+----------------+
 
modem7 said:
I was surprised that I could reliably daisy-chain the parallel port that much. I gave the external drives a good workout and I can't fault them.
Click to expand...

I've never had any problem daisy-chaining parallel devices - except once. Never ever put a Trantor Parallel<->SCSI adapter in a long chain of devices - the HDD might catch on fire (smoke poured out of mine) in the SCSI box you attach. This was ZIP->Backpack 1.44->Trantor->Xircom if I recall.. I think it'd be OK as long as it's the first device.
 
Raven said:
I've never had any problem daisy-chaining parallel devices - except once. Never ever put a Trantor Parallel<->SCSI adapter in a long chain of devices - the HDD might catch on fire (smoke poured out of mine) in the SCSI box you attach. This was ZIP->Backpack 1.44->Trantor->Xircom if I recall.. I think it'd be OK as long as it's the first device.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't buy it. Do I think your SCSI HD had a problem? Sure. Do I think the Trantor SCSI adapter caused it? No way. A SCSI device responds to high-level commands. There is no sequence of commands that will destroy a device, much less cause it to smoke, any more than your TV remote can cause your TV to go up in flames. Were you running the Trantor adapter from an external power supply or were you using the drive terminator power supply?
 
Lol no no no, not what I meant. I didn't mean to insinuate that the combination of adapters literally caused the drive to burn - I think that the lack of drive control due to the malfunction of an unsupported passthrough pin somewhere caused the drive to get too much power or something. It may have just been a coincidence, the enclosure burning out or something. I haven't had time to do an autopsy yet, and I had a thread with more detail a while back about it.

Edit: the drive(s) I use have their own power, but the adapter runs from the power of the parallel port, it doesn't even have an input.
 
Raven said:
Edit: the drive(s) I use have their own power, but the adapter runs from the power of the parallel port, it doesn't even have an input.
Click to expand...

But it doesn't--there's not enough there to drive the SCSI bus. When not powered by an external supply (some of these were), it gets power from the terminator supply (TERMPWR) from the drive.
 
Chuck(G) said:
But it doesn't--there's not enough there to drive the SCSI bus. When not powered by an external supply (some of these were), it gets power from the terminator supply (TERMPWR) from the drive.
Click to expand...

Well you see, I am pretty ignorant about SCSI, and this was/is my first SCSI controller that I've gotten working (the software and setup made sense to me! lol).. I've used lots of other SCSI devices with no problems, so haven't troubleshot anything. I suppose you're right though, the PSU on that drive enclosure was probably just ready to go.. Thanks for the lesson though - good stuff to know.
 
Are you sure he's sold out? Seems his add still sais he got 38 left (even though he had just 34 earlier).

I can't wait for them to arrive and after I get them I get to make 2 other people happy :D
 
I think it is sufficient to say that his supply is dwindling. If you were going to buy, now is the time. He has been a great seller.

The constant updates on how many he has left has gotten 'old' though .. let's cut down on the noise some, eh?
 
I would actually consider buying a couple more but shipping to Europe is just too costly.
I guess I'll just have to make due with the 4 units I'll soon have at my disposal.

So Chuck...what are you going to do with all those units? ;)
 
Tetrium said:
So Chuck...what are you going to do with all those units? ;)
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about putting them in some 5.25" external drive boxes I have and hooking a Teac FD505 "dual drive" up (I still have most of a cart of those). Maybe working out a USB-to-parallel interface, I don't know.
 
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