Built-in Serial Port under Jaguar
From Daniel Prieto García
Hello, Charles!
I'm an assiduous reader of your column. It has been very helpful in
many ways.
I have a PowerBook G3 (WallStreet 2
or PDQ model) with Jaguar installed. I use Max-MSP, and it works
well in this computer, but it can't use any MIDI, because Mac OS X
doesn't recognise any MIDI device connected to the serial port - only
modems and LocalTalk connections.
I know the hardware is okay, since Mac OS 9 and even 8 recognise it
and can be configured for MIDI and printing.
Do you know about a driver (or something like that) that enables the
built-in serial port for MIDI operation?
Thank you
Daniel Prieto
Bogotá, Colombia
- Hi Daniel,
Thank you for reading.
These devices may help:
Stealth
MIDI plug-in for Mac OS X
This plug-in enables most serial MIDI devices to operate with Apple's
Core MIDI software and the Stealth Serial Port under OS X 10.2.3
or later. This version is public beta 1.
Installation
- Quit all MIDI and audio-related applications.
- Install StealthMIDIDriver.plugin into /Library/Audio/MIDI Drivers.
You may need administrator privileges to do this.
- Copy the Stealth MIDI Setup application to a convenient
location.
- Usage
You must use the Stealth MIDI Setup application to give the driver
permission to use the serial port for MIDI. Find your serial port in
the Serial Port column. In the MIDI Driver column, choose
"StealthMIDIDriver" from the popup menu. (If you later wish to disable
MIDI on this serial port, choose "(none)" from the menu). Make sure the
serial port is highlighted (click on its name if necessary). Click the
Configure... button.
Choose the communication speed your interface is set to use. Most MIDI
interfaces support 1 MHz; use this if you don't know. Some
interfaces support "Fast" mode. If your interface has multiple
individually addressable output ports (such as a Mark of the Unicorn
MIDI Time Piece, Emagic Unitor8, or Opcode Studio 4), enter the number
of ports the device has. The driver will then attempt to use the MIDI
Time Piece multi-cable protocol to address messages to the individual
output ports. Enter just 1 port if your device only has one port or
does not support the MIDI Time Piece protocol. Open Audio MIDI Setup
(found in the Utilities subfolder of Applications) so you can see the
results of your work. You should see a "Standard Interface" with as
many ports as you entered in the configuration dialog.
gPort
Serial Adapter Software from Griffin Technology
Charles
SCSI-to-Ethernet Converter?
From Philip Croff
Howdy Mr. Moore.
I enjoy reading your 'Book Review
columns on Low End Mac and have been for quite a while. I have a
question.
I have an old Duo 2300c, which I would
like to use at school. I'd like to use the school network, but bringing
my Dock would be challenging (although since I'm on the newspaper
staff, I probably could set it up).
I do have a Minidock, but the blasted thing doesn't have an AAUI
connector (I'm sure you know all of this already, so I'll stop).
Would a SCSI-to-Ethernet converter work? I've heard of these, but I
haven't seen one, and they're more of an urban legend to my OS X using
self. Do you know of a source for them, besides maybe eBay?
Thank you,
Philip Croff
- Howdy Mr. Croff,
I've never seen one, either, but they do (or did) exist.
This site http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/docs/faq/l5.html
(Cambridge University's IT site no less, which should be fairly
authoritative) notes:
"If the old Mac does not have an expansion slot to take an Ethernet
card (e.g., early PowerBooks and PowerBook Duos), then you should use a
SCSI-to-Ethernet converter. This converter is discontinued so very hard
to source. If you find a converter, you will also need an Ethernet
(crossover) cable."
eBay may indeed be your only hope.
Charles
WallStreet Hinges
From Carlos Bragatto
Hello Charles!
Greetings from Brazil!
I bought a still expensive (here) PowerBook G3/266 (Series II) that I upgraded
with a 20 GB hard drive and added 512 MB of RAM (from RAM Direct). It
turned to be a quite decent OS X performer, and I'm quite
satisfied with it's performance.
But what really makes me angry is the screen flexing, which denotes
that the hinges are quite loose and can't hold the screen at some
angle.
I found the hinges quite expensive for my 3rd-world pocket (US$120
for both - this is a 14" screen machine), but I heard that this problem
can go away by only replacing the left hinge. Is there any truth to
this?
Also I'm afraid of replacing them both and start having the problem
later, so what can be done to prevent the problem? Is there any way to
fix a loose hinge?
Please keep in mind that the screen opens and closes and the hinges
are perfect, they can't only hold the screen at an angle.
Sorry for my bad English (feel free to correct it in case you
publish it on LEM).
TIA
Carlos Bragatto
- Hi Carlos,
Your English is fine. A lot better than my Portuguese!
Sounds like it's the screen hinge clutches that are bad on your
WallStreet.
You can find out quite a lot of useful and helpful information about
WallStreet hinge repair at these websites:
Several suppliers offer replacement WallStreet screen hinges.
PBParts:
WallStreet 14" Screen Support (Right), $69; WallStreet 14" Screen
Support (Left), $69; 13.3"/12.1" WallStreet Hinge, $69
Wegener
Media: Hinge set for 12.1" WallStreet, $49. Hinge set for 13.3"
WallStreet, $49. Hinge set for 14.1" WallStreet, $119.99.
PowerBook
Guy:
- Screen Hinge Set for PowerBook G3 WallStreet, 14.1" (new),
$119.95
- Screen Hinge Left, for PowerBook G3 WallStreet, 14.1" (new;
infrared port side), $69.95
- Screen Hinge Right, for PowerBook G3 WallStreet, 14.1" (new; ac
jack side), $69.95
- Screen Hinge Set, for PowerBook G3 WallStreet, 13.3" or 12.1"
(used), $109.95
- Screen Hinge for PowerBook G3 WallStreet, 13.3" or 12.1" (used;
Left or Right), $59.95
I hope this helps.
Charles
Re: Cranky B&W G3
From Seth Lewin
Hi Charles,
Thanks for responding. It didn't
seem to happen after installing anything though there seems to have
been some temporal relation between the machine having frozen while
accessing one or another website and the onset of this business - at
least that's when I first really needed to reboot and couldn't. The
problem persisting with all drives and cards removed seems suggestive
of motherboard issues to me.
Oddly, though, I've left the Mac running for a month, and it will
reboot upon request - i.e.: when selecting restart from the Apple menu
and will happily alternate between rebooting from a Panther installer
CD and its main internal drive as need be. Haven't tried shutting it
down, though.
With the monitor off and the disks spun down, how much power can it
draw? Not the price of a motherboard's worth. I don't plan to provoke
it unnecessarily at this point. Think I'll let it run till it's time to
buy a different machine and migrate my work and apps to that one, and
then I'll play with it.
Regards,
Seth
- Hi Seth,
Still sounds a lot like my S900
when it had the cranky hard drive. It would run fine once you got it
booted, but after a shutdown it was a major project to persuade it to
boot again.
Charles
Re: Cranky B&W
From Seth
Hi Charles,
But how would that explain its unwillingness to boot with all the
drives disconnected? You'd think it would still start up from the CD.
Odd. However, it's still running along so I let it.
Seth
- Hi Seth,
I haven't a clue as to why, but it was cranky starting up from anything
with that hard drive installed. It could usually be coaxed to start
from a CD, though, and if your rig is still behaving that way with
drives disconnected, then it's another problem. See below.
Charles
Cranky B&W G3: Corrupt System?
From Jukka Talari
Hi,
I was reading through your column, and this piece about Cranky
B&W G3 got my attention.
The symptoms remind me about problems I had, which were most likely
caused by the "OEA"-problem (OverlappedExtentAllocation) - and cured by
making a copy of the system partition with CarbonCopyCloner
to an another partition.
Anyway, it sounds to me as the problem the is experiencing would be
caused by problems with the system (files) rather then hardware. BTW,
rev. 1 B&Ws are known to corrupt files on the MotherBoard
IDE-controller, especially if the HD has been changed to a faster one.
I would recommend building a new system to a HD connected to the Acard,
and moving the 10 GB HD back to the MoBo:s IDE-connector (I assume that
it is the HD the machine originally came with).
Best Regards from Helsinki, Finland
Jukka Talari
B&W G3 Battery
From Marsha Jackson
Seth mentions "PRAM battery is good: 3.61 volts."
I had a friend's iBook that had power-up problems, too, and the
voltage on the PRAM seemed fine, but since it continued to lose
settings, I replaced it anyway. It's worked great since.
Marsha
- Hi Jukka and Marsha,
Thanks for the interesting and potentially helpful information.
Charles
Re: Radeon Enabler
From Jeffrey Harris
Charles
Display Spanner is important to investigate/develop.
You see, it allows higher resolutions than 1024 x 768 on external
monitor on an iBook.
If it is truly reliable, it eliminates a major difference between
iBook and PowerBook--and becomes a factor in a comparative review, like
the ones you have prepared.
BTW, even though my lab can certainly pay for a PowerBook for me, I
use an iBook for basic frugality reasons, battery life, and ruggedness.
Pretty much the sort of thinking you yourself do.
cheers
Best regards
JHH
- Hi Jeffrey,
See this page for more info on that issue:
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html
Here's a list of supported machines (i.e.: supported by the spanning
hack:
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/supportlist_e.html
Essentially, all iBooks with Radeon video accelerators are
supported.
Charles
Re: Radeon Enabler
From Jeffrey Harris
HI Charles
Yes, I have seen that page. I installed it once but ended up with
wiped disk and had to reinstall everything. It gave me a push to
install Panther, which does many things better than Jaguar, so
all's well that ends well.
I am waiting for the next version.
cheers
JHH
- Hi Jeffrey,
Ouch! As long as you had the important stuff backed up.
Charles
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