RCA CF Reader not working in DOS on 486

[Scythifuge]

Greetings,
I have a parallel port-based RCA CompactFlash reader which has been tested to work in Windows XP, and in MS-DOS 7.1 / WIndows 98SE on a Pentium III. I have MS-DOS 7.1 installed on a 486DX2 and have tried all sorts of drivers I found by scouring the net. Some drivers don't work at all, and half of them install correctly when loaded in config.sys and even detect the size of the inserted card. The little light also flashes when activated by the drivers and whenever I insert a CF card. However, when accessing the drive letter assigned to the reader, I get "Write protect error reading drive A, "Abort, Retry, Fail?"
I have tried changing the parallel port settings in the bios, though I don't know what else I can try.

 

[ajacocks]

Welcome to the forum @Scythifuge !

[edit]
I just noticed that you posted on Vogons already, here:

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Parallel-Compact-Flash-Reader/dp/B00004RBR7

There are some excellent questions asked in that thread, already.
- Alex

 

[ajacocks]

This question sent me down a rabbit hole, where I found this SD-to-parallel adapter, designed for Amigas:

GitHub - jbilander/SDBox-Mini: SDBox Mini for Amiga, compatible with the new updated card-detect firmware

SDBox Mini for Amiga, compatible with the new updated card-detect firmware - jbilander/SDBox-Mini

github.com

There are also lots of other interesting Amiga devices, including the plipbox parallel-to-ethernet adapter:

GitHub - cnvogelg/plipbox: The plipbox Arduino HW Adapter to bridge Amiga PLIP to Ethernet

The plipbox Arduino HW Adapter to bridge Amiga PLIP to Ethernet - cnvogelg/plipbox

github.com

DOS drivers could be written for these, if there was someone interested in doing that. As far as I am aware (I have known of the plipbox for years), nobody has tried to create one, though.

- Alex