Lotus 123 books, IPC Peripherals CD changer....

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Thu Jun 5 18:16:00 2003

On Thu, 5 Jun 2003, David Woyciesjes wrote:
> Tothwolf wrote:
>
> > I'm not familiar with that exact model of cdrom changer, but I have a
> > number of NEC and Pioneer units. All of the SCSI cdrom changers I've
> > used have a device id for the drive itself, and a lun for each of the
> > discs. Most OS have no trouble assigning each lun as a drive, but it
> > can get tricky under DOS, depending on the host adapter's software.
> > The changer should automatically switch discs as you access the
> > different luns.
> >
> > What does the unit look like? My NEC changers have a row of 7 buttons
> > across the front for loading each of the 7 discs, while my Pioneer
> > drives use a 6 disc magazine. (I'm always happy to give other Pioneer
> > changers a home too, if anyone here needs to get rid of any.) One
> > thing about the Pioneer drives and their magazine, is that if you ever
> > need to ship or transport those units, you *must* remove the magazine.
> > If you don't, one of the 6 shelves will swing out and damage the
> > pickup. I've got a couple drives with that kind of damage currently
> > waiting for me to make time to repair them.
>
> Yeah, I have an NEC (?) internal IDE 4 disc changer. Pretty neat...

The only major issue I have with the NEC changers I have is that their
audio quality is extremely poor. I don't remember the specs off the top of
my head, but I think their range is something like 1.5KHz-10KHz. When I
did a little research, I found that pretty much all the NEC drives were
like that, so I guess NEC didn't think people would be using their drives
for audio. IMHO, they should have just left off the volume control and
headphone jack if that was the case.

The Pioneer drives OTOH, are spec'd at 20Hz-20KHz, but they seem to
perform slightly better than spec. The issue I've had with the Pioneer
drives is that they do not support digital audio, and Pioneer has not been
easy to get a firmware upgrade out of. All of my DRM-604X drives have
older firmware (2401, 2403, 2404), but there is supposedly a 2405 or 2406
available. According to Pioneer, a firmware kit made up of two EPROMs used
to be available for under $20, but now all they have available are the two
individual chips that made up the kit...and get this...they want ~$45/ea
for them. For some reason, the Linux SCSI layer won't work with the 2401
and 2403 firmware, although it used to (another todo item I guess). The
2405 and/or 2406 firmware supposedly fixed the problems with multi-session
and the combination audio/data cds (those so-called "enhanced" cds).

Both drive types are pretty easy to service, but the Pioneer design is the
best I've seen. After you remove the top cover, the PC board folds to one
side, exposing the drive mech. The optic mech is then easily removed for
cleaning, as it is on the top side. The discs actually go into the
magazines with the label side down.

> Well, the whole thing itself is about 4"Hx7"Wx13"D... Across the top of
> the face is the headphone jack, volume knob, 7 buttons in a row (for
> each disc) then the status light. Below that is the tray to load the
> discs. And the tray is wider than your standard CD tray... With this
> faceplate on it, my only choice is to keep it as an external drive.

That drive sounds very similar in design to the NEC drives I have. I have
to wonder if it isn't a rebadged or OEM drive? Does it use a regular
external SCSI drive chassis, or is it a custom case? The NEC and Pioneer
changers I have are all custom cases.

-Toth
Received on Thu Jun 05 2003 - 18:16:00 BST