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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: alphadec on April 26, 2015, 10:01:14 AM

Title: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 26, 2015, 10:01:14 AM
Where do I find cf cards that can be used with a pcmcia adapter on amiga600 or 1200.

I know Amiga can only accept 16 bit cards but where do I find them. ?

goal is to use them as a storage device, if that is possible.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on April 26, 2015, 12:10:20 PM
Take whatever CF card you find, the PCMCIA adapter is passive and all normal CF cards still follows the specifications and can be used. (there are a few changes to the later DMA cards and there are some problems with some cards when used as PATA drives but that wont effect the PCMCIA use you need it for).

Are you planning to use a CF card with FAT and have the software needed?
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 26, 2015, 12:23:25 PM
Quote from: som99;788460
Take whatever CF card you find, the PCMCIA adapter is passive and all normal CF cards still follows the specifications and can be used. (there are a few changes to the later DMA cards and there are some problems with some cards when used as PATA drives but that wont effect the PCMCIA use you need it for).

Are you planning to use a CF card with FAT and have the software needed?


When I try them in my A1200 all I get is "write protected" but there is no lock on the cf cards so thought it was becouse they was not compatible.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on April 26, 2015, 12:33:10 PM
You need compactflash.device and FAT95 if you are going to use FAT.

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/cfd
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on April 29, 2015, 08:06:26 AM
Did you get it all up and running?
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 29, 2015, 10:28:26 AM
Quote from: som99;788568
Did you get it all up and running?


I have installed both files but the cf card shows up as "no disk present" when I use "info" from shell.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on April 29, 2015, 11:57:38 AM
Are you sure that the passive adapter is a 16 bit card? What CF/PCMCIA adapter are you using?

Can you see the CF card in WinUAE?

Edit: Also what brands and sizes of cards are you using? Cheapo crapo cards from ebay (are even fake labeled ones there) are something to stay away from.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 29, 2015, 12:45:34 PM
Quote from: som99;788576
Are you sure that the passive adapter is a 16 bit card? What CF/PCMCIA adapter are you using?

Can you see the CF card in WinUAE?

Edit: Also what brands and sizes of cards are you using? Cheapo crapo cards from ebay (are even fake labeled ones there) are something to stay away from.


What I like to use it for is a storage device so I can copy files from windows to my amiga1200 (that was the plan).

When I read the fat95 read me it say I must write the mountlist myself is there anyone who have amount list that works for fat95. ?
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on April 29, 2015, 02:48:02 PM
what happens if you double click /devs/CF0?
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 29, 2015, 04:12:50 PM
Quote from: som99;788581
what happens if you double click /devs/CF0?


"CF0: is mounted"
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on April 29, 2015, 04:43:48 PM
Quote from: alphadec;788583
"CF0: is mounted"

Still "no disk present"?

Do a fresh format of the cards on another machine and try again (be sure not to NTFS, exFAT, EXT*, JFS, XFS etc format them).

I know people have had trouble with CF cards, but as long as I stay at the bigger brands I have had zero problems with em for PCMCIA but some won't work as a PATA device.


Kingston works great for me, but honestly I probably have near 100 CF cards and all big brand cards worked without any problem for me, some shady questionable brands cheap out on the onboard controller and won't work on the miggy but all others I have tried works flawless :S

What cards are they? Size and brands?

Edit: also try the other version of CDF on aminet.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 29, 2015, 05:00:53 PM
Quote from: som99;788585
Still "no disk present"?

Do a fresh format of the cards on another machine and try again (be sure not to NTFS, exFAT, EXT*, JFS, XFS etc format them).

I know people have had trouble with CF cards, but as long as I stay at the bigger brands I have had zero problems with em for PCMCIA but some won't work as a PATA device.


Kingston works great for me, but honestly I probably have near 100 CF cards and all big brand cards worked without any problem for me, some shady questionable brands cheap out on the onboard controller and won't work on the miggy but all others I have tried works flawless :S

What cards are they? Size and brands?

Edit: also try the other version of CDF on aminet.

I tried to format it in win7 in a program called SDFormater. When I now put this in my A1200 the icon "CF0:NDOS" comes up.

So then there is something with the fat read on my A1200.

Clues. ?

PS. Card is a verbatim (2GB)
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on April 29, 2015, 05:50:14 PM
I have not used SDformat so don't know anything about it.

Smells something wrong with FAT95, have you put fat95 inside :L?

Select CF0 and do a QUICK format in Workbench and see if you can use the card with FFS.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on April 29, 2015, 07:04:03 PM
I have a 256MB FAT95-formatted SD card that I occasionally use for transferring files between my Amiga and PC (I have card readers in both, so I just pop from one to the other).  I set it up last year sometime, but having absolutely no experience with FAT95 prior to that, I can tell you I found it an absolutely infuriating head-scratcher of a PITA.  Much more difficult than it needed to be, with no clear online instructions or guides available anywhere.  :angry:

Hang tight, if you're unable to figure it out I'll try to make some screenshots of my config for you later today, might help?  Good luck!
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 29, 2015, 08:46:25 PM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;788588
I have a 256MB FAT95-formatted SD card that I occasionally use for transferring files between my Amiga and PC (I have card readers in both, so I just pop from one to the other).  I set it up last year sometime, but having absolutely no experience with FAT95 prior to that, I can tell you I found it an absolutely infuriating head-scratcher of a PITA.  Much more difficult than it needed to be, with no clear online instructions or guides available anywhere.  :angry:

Hang tight, if you're unable to figure it out I'll try to make some screenshots of my config for you later today, might help?  Good luck!


Love to see some screenshots of your config.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on April 30, 2015, 04:59:27 AM
As you can see, nothing too special going on here.  I can't for the life of me remember how I got it all set up.  I'm pretty sure I had to format the device on a PC though, possibly a couple times doing a "slow" format (un-check "quick"), before it took.  As you can see I used fat32, works fine, the Amiga recognizes it seamlessly.  Just like any other partition or removable disk.  Pop it out, the icon goes away off Workbench.  Pop it back in, it shows back up.

Maybe confirm your version of l:fat95 matches mine?

Actually, you know what?  I just turned around to take a couple more pictures.  You need to create a Devs/DOSDriver textfile for your device.  Last two pics is what mine looks like.  Struuugggling to recall, but I think this is where I had trouble - you need to create one, but where do you get the values?  I think this is where I really hit a wall, none of the examples are even close to what I was trying to do, eventually just wound up going with trial-and-error guesswork for things like "Unit #" (mine is different because the cardreader has LUN's...), etc.

Hope this helps!  :)

(set 1 of pictures)
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on April 30, 2015, 05:00:38 AM
(set 2 of pictures)
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on April 30, 2015, 05:10:39 AM
One more pic.  You can see I thought I was being cute by giving it a Windows icon back when I set this up.  ;)
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on April 30, 2015, 05:14:07 AM
Attached is a zip of my Dosdriver file (the text portion and the icon).  You should be able to extract this on your PC, and edit the text portion with any text editor on your Amiga.  Obviously you'll want to change the header, and the device (probably from gvpscsi.device to scsi.device or compactflash.device on the A1200), the Unit # (you should be able to get your unit # from HDToolbox, on an A1200 it'll probably be something obvious, like "1"), MaxTransfer, blah blah.  The only thing I have no idea what to tell you on is the "DosType" field.  Maybe try what I have in there and cross your fingers?  Good luck!  :D
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on April 30, 2015, 05:16:11 AM
Here it is another way:

Quote
[FONT="]/* FAT95: file system for 256MB SD card              */

FileSystem    = l:fat95
Device        = gvpscsi.device
Unit          = 31        /* change drive number here */
Flags         = 0
LowCyl        = 0
HighCyl       = 1
Surfaces      = 1        /* bootblock values have priority over these */
BlocksPerTrack    = 1
Buffers       = 50
BufMemType    = 1
MaxTransfer   = 0x0001FE00
Mask          = 0x7FFFFFFC
BootPri       = 0
Stacksize     = 4096
Priority      = 5
GlobVec       = -1
Mount         = 1
Activate      = 1
DosType       = 0x46415401    /* enable ETD commands */
[/FONT]
 
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: F0LLETT on April 30, 2015, 01:52:00 PM
Quote from: alphadec;788586
I tried to format it in win7 in a program called SDFormater. When I now put this in my A1200 the icon "CF0:NDOS" comes up.

So then there is something with the fat read on my A1200.

Clues. ?

PS. Card is a verbatim (2GB)

Did you actually try and format it on the amiga, when it came up as ndos?
If it still doesnt format it, then it will more than likely not be compatible.


@Mike
Your posting that yours works fine, but your using USB. Not PCMCIA.
They are completely different and will work differently with different cards.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on April 30, 2015, 02:22:50 PM
Quote from: F0LLETT;788617
Did you actually try and format it on the amiga, when it came up as ndos?
If it still doesnt format it, then it will more than likely not be compatible.


@Mike
Your posting that yours works fine, but your using USB. Not PCMCIA.
They are completely different and will work differently with different cards.


Yes I have tried to format the NDOS icon that comes up when inserting the pcmcia with the cf card inserted.

But I get a error message

So what can be used on amigaOS formated in FFS. ?

Or what cards is compatible. ?
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on April 30, 2015, 04:28:43 PM
Quote from: F0LLETT;788617
@Mike
Your posting that yours works fine, but your using USB. Not PCMCIA.
They are completely different and will work differently with different cards.

Incorrect, sir.  I am using a SCSI card reader.  Not quite so different from the way he's trying to do it.  :D

Edit:  As OP states in post #8, he doesn't know what a mountlist for fat95 is, or how to write one.  Now that I remember how I did it, I provided an example of mine.  OP just needs to modify to suit his particular device, I think.  This is assuming he wants to format the CF as fat95 (so he can use it to exchange files with a PC), as opposed to some native, Amiga-only format.  ;)

Edit 2:  Here is a long thread with some good information on creating mountlists for fat95:  http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=67430
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: paul1981 on May 01, 2015, 01:00:12 AM
Like has been said previously though, the CF0 mountlist is included in the 'cfd' Compact Flash Device on aminet, so all the user has to do is to plonk fat95 (device) in L: and compactflash.device in DEVS: and then double click on the provided CF0 icon.

CFD:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/cfd

FAT95:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95

I wonder if this is the pcmcia reset issue?

OP, have you tried running / installing these first?

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardPatch
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardReset
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: som99 on May 01, 2015, 09:13:05 AM
@alphadec - Do you have any expansion cards on your A1200? Ram expansions or CPU expansions etc that might conflict with the PCMCIA? If yes, remove and see if it works.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: alphadec on May 01, 2015, 12:43:27 PM
Quote from: som99;788682
@alphadec - Do you have any expansion cards on your A1200? Ram expansions or CPU expansions etc that might conflict with the PCMCIA? If yes, remove and see if it works.


No there is nothing installed other then a IDE HD other then that nothing.
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: F0LLETT on May 01, 2015, 01:32:48 PM
Quote from: alphadec;788691
No there is nothing installed other then a IDE HD other then that nothing.

Paul is right everything is included. If its not working, then it simply isnt compatible.
I agree on cardpatch, make sure you have them installed. If you already do, try removing them from startup (some motherbaords do not need the patches or fix).
Title: Re: cf-card for Amiga600/1200
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on May 01, 2015, 10:04:07 PM
Quote from: F0LLETT;788694
Paul is right everything is included.

Man, you A1200 users have it easy.  I felt like an idiot, bashing my head against a wall trying to figure out FAT95 on an A2000!  :lol: