Black Cardinal wrote:
Are you saying it selects which of those two physical ports to direct output to, or that it enables additional diagnostic messages sent to both ports simultaneously? I'll try it out again when I get home this evening. (I've tried before but never noticed anything.)
The two ports are in parallel, but you shouldn't connect to them simultaneously.
Black Cardinal wrote:
I have observed that when the key is the On position, diagnostics info during boot is output on the DIN8 port. This info seems to contain much (but not all) of the same info that is output to the serial console.
Comes in handy when you want to communicate with/issue commands to the MSC. As you've noticed, diagnostic info goes there even if the key isn't turned, but without the key turned you'll have to enter a password to communicate with the MSC. If you're lucky and no one has set the MSC password, the default/unset password is "none" (so the command to try would be "control+t pas none"). If there's a preexisting password you can use the key to get MSC command access, and use the clear command ("control+t clr") to reset *all* of the MSC settings back to the factory defaults (though if there's any preexisting settings that your system needs that might not be a good idea). All MSC commands are three characters in length, and are normally prefaced with a "control t" combination keypress. MSC responses should always include "OK", followed by the answer to your query (if you've asked the right question). There are a number of MSC control features, from the very useful fan speed control to the slightly frivolous ability to display custom text in the MSC's LED display.
On the odd chance you aren't already familiar with MSC commands, there's a few scattered through this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=11658&p=92544&#p92544
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J5600, 2 x Mac, 3 x SUN, Alpha DS20E, Alpha 800 5/550, 3 x RS/6000, Amiga 4000 VideoToaster, Amiga4000 -030, 733MHz Sam440 AmigaOS 4.1 update 1. Tandem Himalaya S-Series Nonstop S72000 ServerNet. 