Adding SCSI to Apollo MkIII

[Argus]

Hey all,

I have one of these boards but it's missing the 50-pin connector for scsi.  There doesn't seem to be any missing chips so can I add albeit a poor man's scsi by soldering on the pins? Anyone done this?

[patrik]

@Argus:

If no chips are be missing, then go for it - if it works it works, if it doesnt work it doesnt work :-D.

The only issue I can think of is that the part in the onboard ROM containing the SCSI-Apollo.device would be missing. You should be able to test that without any soldering though by just jumpering the SCSI-jumper and powering on the Amiga. If I remember correctly this makes the Amiga try to boot from the Apollo SCSI and if no device is connected to it, it should take a very long time too boot or not even boot at all.

Btw, be aware that the SCSI on the Apollo is very buggy - HDToolBox in 3.9 crashes as far as I know and it doesnt work with all brands of drives. Also make sure you read the documentation supplied on the Apollo install-disk regarding its SCSI.

(edit):

What Amiga and Apollo exactly do you have? The A1200 Apollos requires a separate SCSI-module as far as I know and has a 40-pin connector for that. The A3000/A4000 Apollos on the other hand has the SCSI-circuitry integrated on the Apollo itself and thus has a 50-pin connector for the SCSI-chain directly on it.


/Patrik

[Argus]

It's a MkIII board for A1200.  Maybe it requires additional hardware?

[patrik]

@Argus:

Yeah, it does and as mentioned in the previous post the A1200 Apollos has a 40-pin connector for a SCSI-module and not a 50-pin SCSI-chain connector.

Check this and this link for more information.

Dont feel too bad about it though. As the Apollo cards doesnt have a dma SCSI-controller, there is no loss in using one of those A1200 FastATA cards instead which also gives higher transferrates and cheaper harddrives.


/Patrik