> The box is indeed m38 in BA23A with m76 label on it; m76 died 
> (?) and m38 was put inside that box.

How did it die? Sometimes it's just a cry for attention :-)
I've salvaged mine twice so far!

> I do care about aesthetics :)

Quite right too!

>                                I tried not to damage the 
> enclosure .. but i really would like to use a CD-ROM, now i 
> have to find this plastic front panel thingy for CD-ROMs 
> somewhere. As Antonio says it should be trivial to replace it 
> (i have to figure that out :-)) 

I've just checked and the M38 manual does describe it quite
clearly with a picture.

>                               but i have to find one of 
> those first - anybody happens to have a trashed enclosure 
> that they can rip it out of and sell it for 
> not-some-outrageous sum ? 

I don't have one but, looking in the manual, the only suitable
one I see if for the TZ30. I have a similar one in a VS4K90
and a quick measurement suggests that it would be just right
for an RRD42 (and hence, probably any other DEC CDROM).

>                          I need the complete cover because 
> the box is down on the floor with tons of dust; extra hole 
> wouldn't exactly help in keeping box tidy.

While waiting for a complete cover that fits, you could make up
a temporary one (from wood or even cardboard) just to keep the
dust out. It won't be pretty, but it will avoid any irreversible
modifications to the existing bezel.

> Perhaps i should go for external unit instead ?

All my CDROMs are external. It makes it easier to move
them around for installs etc.

> I found 
> http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rayp/HD/QUANTUM/general/jmpr_def_scsi.
> htm which mentions "SPindle Sync", close enough to "SP Sync" 
> i guess. But that explanation is ... all gibberish to me - 
> i'm not sure why one would want to have two drives spindling 
> synchronously anyway ? 

Maybe it helps for RAID or striping? 

> Hmm .. so VS's controller neither speaks SCSI-2 or allows 
> wide transfers ? That's .. bad :( Especially the wide part, 
> it would have helped, right ?

The VS3100 SCSI controllers are really old. Wide did not
exist in those days and SCSI-2 probably didn't either.

> Another thing that just popped to my mind: VS4k has 
> Turbochannel bus, right ? Does that mean one can put another 
> network interface into it so it can function as a router ?

VS4K9x has TC and I think VS4K60 has too - I'm pretty
sure that the VLC doesn't. A TC NI does exist so all
you need is a driver (I don't know if one exists or
not). I think that you need a plug in board to actually
have a TURBOchannel - the manual is on the web now so
that should be easy to check.

Antonio

 
-- 

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Antonio Carlini             arcarlini@iee.org