Sanyo CD-ROM drive ROM-4005U

[kpanic]

Some time ago I came across a couple of vintage CD-ROM drives. Most of them were standard IDE/SCSI and one was a proprietary Mitsumi, all no big deal.
But the one that intrigued me most is this Sanyo one, Model ROM-4005U. I can't find *anything* online about this drive. It's as if it never existed. All I could find was someone on German dosreloaded forum who had a ROM-4015, apparently a later model, which from what he wrote seems to have the same interface. I also found an old 1992 article in German magazine "Computerwoche" that mentioned it came with "an interface card, a Microsoft extensions driver and a demo disc".
( https://www.computerwoche.de/a/massenspeicher,1137383 )

The drive has four DIP switches to set the drive ID and a fifth one to enable termination, which might hint to it being a SCSI drive. But the interface connector on the back is 40 pins, like an IDE cable, not 50 like for SCSI.
The sticker on the bottom says it was manufactured in January of 1990 by SANYO Electric Co., Ltd.
This makes it the oldest CD-ROM drive I own, and I would really love to put it in my 286. But without knowing the specifications and or finding a matching driver, it seems virtually impossible to get it going.
So if anyone has any information regarding this drive (or this family of drives), I would be really pleased!

 

[Plasma]

I'm unsure about that specific drive, but Sanyo CDR-H94A uses the MKE/Panasonic interface and this driver.

 

[Timo W.]

Correct, interface is the same as Panasonic - it is not IDE.

Most sound cards from that time, especially those from Creative, should have the interface for it.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess that would make sense. I believe there was a special relationship between Sanyo and Matsushita...I think I heard that the founders of both companies are brothers.

 

[kpanic]

I had already tried it with the Panasonic interface on a SB16, using the SBCD (Panasonic) driver, using any Sanyo/Torisan driver I could find, including the H94A driver, to no avail.
I mean, if it was a Panasonic (MKE) interface, then why are there drive ID and termination switches on the drive? Doesn't make to much sense.

Here are some pictures of the drive:

 

[Plasma]

I really doubt it's SCSI. MKE drives like CR-563 also have 4 ID jumpers. Did you try with the ID set to 1?

Given that there are different Sanyo drivers for different models, it's possible there was no standard command set and you need the specific driver. It's also possible the drive is just broken...

 

[Timo W.]

I mean, if it was a Panasonic (MKE) interface, then why are there drive ID and termination switches on the drive? Doesn't make to much sense.

Because pretty much every bus needs those..? ID and termination is not SCSI-specific. (also note that SCSI only has 3 ID switches, not 4!)

It may use an older implementation of the interface and the SB16 could be too new for it to work. This was sadly common with those proprietary interfaces and an issue I also run into with Philips LMSI. Or maybe the drive is just broken.

btw, I have an external Genstar 2000 CD-ROM drive from 1990 which seems to use the same Sanyo mechanism.

The drive has four DIP switches to set the drive ID

May I ask why you even think this? They may have completely different functions. ID makes no sense, as this would mean you could use up to 16 drives on one cable. At that time, having jumpers simply named 1, 2, ... x was sadly common, too.

With the termination enabled, I would suggest to just try all 16 possible combinations and see if the driver finds the drive.

 

[kpanic]

May I ask why you even think this? They may have completely different functions. ID makes no sense, as this would mean you could use up to 16 drives on one cable. At that time, having jumpers simply named 1, 2, ... x was sadly common, too.

Because the label literally says "ID SWITCH"...

 

[Timo W.]

That still does not tell you what these switches *actually* do (e.g. can more than one be "on"; is "all off" valid, etc.). Guessing without having the manual can always lead into a wrong direction.

It also does not speak against just trying all the possible combinations. In the worst case, you will at least confirm this way that it's not an issue with wrong dip switch settings.