Buddha 2018

[Blatboy]

Thanks for the hot tip.  I have a couple more Amigas I can try it on.  Hopefully today if stars align.

[Blatboy]

I made the stars align

Tried on the 3000, the 1200, and the 500.  (I don't have the proper gender changer for it to work in the parallel port on the 1000)

The same thing happened (as before, see post 136 ) on each setup... I tried multiple times with each computer.

I'm pretty sure I'm getting a good connection with the cable.  One time on the 500, I held it more loosely, and I got a "bad connection" message, and the utility didn't even start.  That makes me think there isn't an issue with the cable or the connection I'm making normally.

I'll sit back and wait and see how it goes for others...

[Blatboy]

Thanks for this!

While I don't know if I'll take out the 3640 for this use case... after reading this I'm now thinking I'm understanding the voodoo that's always in my SCSI bus.  

Ok.  That's for another thread...

[Blatboy]

Have any other cards in? pull them? try different slots? Maybe discount the scsi drive when booting with the floppy so system sees nothing but. We have similar A3000D, hopefully we can figure something.

Somehow I missed your post here.
On the 3000, I took out all the cards and the scsi drives when I was testing.

Yeah.  I'll hold tight and see how it goes for you.  

[Blatboy]

Wow!  That's great!

Man... I must be cursed.  Tried again many times today and yesterday on the 500 and the 1200, using a multitude of pressure levels.  Still no CPLD love.

Now that I have taken my 3640 off and put it back on a couple times, the 3000 doesn't want to boot at all.  Another day in the life...  [tangent:  I wonder about those caps on the 3640...]

Anyway.   I also checked the pins on the cable, and an initial check seems to line up ok.  Though the "1" embossed in the cable on the DB25 side puts pin 1 on the wrong side. If you're looking at the business end of a male DB25 connector, pin 1 is on the top left, correct?  

I'll try some more tomorrow.

I was considering soldering on the cable just to take that part out of the troubleshooting equation.  I have a nice desoldering gun, so I can clean it up pretty well when I'm done...

[Blatboy]

get it going?

So, yeah, it's been a minute since I've gotten back to you on this... what, about 7 months?  Here is another tale of idiocy and tangents:

As I was troubleshooting the Buddha and attempting to update the CPLD (more on that in a moment) I figured I'd take off the 3640 and attempt using the Buddha without it.   It didn't go so well... I was so young and foolish back then in September.  I realized I didn't know what jumpers to set on the a3000 motherboard go back to a non-accelerated situation.  So, instead of doing the 15 minutes of research I'd need to figure that out  , I aborted that approach and put the 3640 back on.  Then the machine wouldn't boot.  I tried reseating it etc etc.  Nope.  No dice.  I did have a version with backwards caps, so I figured I'd have someone fix that.  (Thank you @Acill ) Alas.  It couldn't be repaired.  The board was dead as a doornail.     So, in a fit of financial irresponsibility, I picked up an a3660.  So, now we're back to testing Buddha!

Ahem.  Then I read the below (emphasis mine) from @kirk_m

Just remember the CPLD update tool is a different utility, named Buddha_CPLD.  It comes in a separate archive on the iComp wiki.  You have to use a cable you either make, or Jens sends you (at the end of March) to update the CPLD from the Amiga's parallel port to the header on the card itself. The card MUST be plugged into a Zorro slot at the time, else, the card will not be detected by the CPLD update utility, and it will error out and fail. 
/SNIP

OY.  Yeah.  I was trying to update the CPLD without the card attached in the Zorro slot.  My first try updating the CPLD correctly worked like a charm.

So, that rather stupid mistake sent me on a wonderful, expensive, and needless 7 month journey...  I hereby deserve any hell anyone feels to throw in my direction.

*sigh* Onward!