Amiga 3000 Battery and SCSI NVRAM

[mechy]

Hmmm.. I have a mechware reader that uses LUNs that I was thinking about installing here.  So if it is disabled by default, sounds like I'll need a battery.

the A3000 will see the pcmcia slot,and it will work/BOOT with the pcmcia to cf adapter in that slot without any changes/battery because its lun0. other slots are luns 1-4 and will be ignored without LUN'S SET ON.

SYNCHRONOUS usually improves speed some.
its possible to call the scsi settings in the startup sequence but might likely need a reboot once.
A battery is best is easiest if you can replace it.

[mechy]

it will boot fine with or without a battery,with the rare exception scsi vram is scrambled somehow,but i've only heard one case of this in 20 yrs.

If you dont mind a external card reader, what you can do is install it in a old external floppy case and build a scsi cable to hook to the back of the 3k scsi port. makes for a pretty slim external card reader solution.

@tcmslp Getting time from internet works very well on amigas with badly damaged boards that are not practicle to add a battery. Its more accurate than onboard time in alot of cases.
They draw very little power and run cool,so no worries the card reader will get too hot etc.

[mechy]

While I'm trying to get the NVRAM to work, is it possible to enable LUNS support a different way?  I'm trying to run OS3.9 from a PCD-50B and REALLY want the SD card to work (which requires LUNS)... it's how I transfer files to the Amiga.

yes it should be, call the scsi settings in startup-sequence or user-startup, but i think it will need a warm reboot and then it will be active(likely the 3.9 reboot will do it if you call it in the startup early enough).just add a line to enable luns.

http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/SCSIPrefs

or
http://aminet.net/search?query=setbatt

[mechy]

Those programs won't run for me.. I get error messages about not being able to access the battery backedup RAM.  I think maybe my RTC isn't completely repaired.

sounds like it can't find the clock chip,so yes i suspect its bad or not repaired right. the chip holds the scsi settings ;/
you might also check voltage to the chip with the amiga powered.

chip is here if u need one,i think its the correct one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/RICOH-RP5C01-DIP18-REAL-TIME-CLOCK-WITH-INTERNAL-RAM/361790820669?epid=1223826694&hash=item543c69d13d:g:zBkAAOSwn7JYD4Um

you might also check voltage to the chip with the amiga powered.

Anthony Hoffman has a great tutorial on clock circuit repair:  http://amiga.serveftp.net/RTCrepair.html