Buddha Flash Phoenix Edition...Worth it?

[mchaggis]

Hi all,

I've just bought an A2000 with TWO A2091 SCSI cards, and both seem defective. The RAM works fine on both of them, but given the availability of SCSI-I drives and the annoying natuure of SCSI adapters (read SCSI in general) I'm considering a Buddha Flash Phoenix from AmigaKit.

They are expensive, especially given the AUD to GPB exchange rate at the moment.

So, has anyone got one, vouch for it, or otherwise?

My intended set up would be a 4GB Flash RAM card and do away with the mechanical drives completely. I'll be keeping to the two A2091's with the 2Mb on each.

I suppose one advantage is that the old machine would run nice and quiet without the buzz of a HDD.

[Darrin]

mchaggis wrote:
Hi all,

I've just bought an A2000 with TWO A2091 SCSI cards, and both seem defective. The RAM works fine on both of them, but given the availability of SCSI-I drives and the annoying natuure of SCSI adapters (read SCSI in general) I'm considering a Buddha Flash Phoenix from AmigaKit.

They are expensive, especially given the AUD to GPB exchange rate at the moment.

So, has anyone got one, vouch for it, or otherwise?

My intended set up would be a 4GB Flash RAM card and do away with the mechanical drives completely. I'll be keeping to the two A2091's with the 2Mb on each.

I suppose one advantage is that the old machine would run nice and quiet without the buzz of a HDD.

I had a Buddha Gold which I used in my A3000 and A2000 and (while it worked) I loved it.  Connection is plig and play and it comes with a nice utility disk with some extra software/drivers/etc.  The ability to use common old IDE devices which are probably littering the shelves in your room is a real plus.

I'm not sure what the problem is with my card (perhaps static got to it when I was swapping it between machines).  The early startup detects the card as working, but any device attached to it has the description/name corrupted and Hard Drive Toolbox is unable to mount and format it.  As I use an A4000 for my main machine I bought an Elbox Flyer instead (costs more and is Zorro III only).

I'd recommend getting one and just use the SCSI cards for RAM.

[Ruud]

I've always found the Buddha cards very good. I had one of the original Buddhas that worked very well and I still have a Catweasel ZII S-Class which incorporates a Buddha.  I am selling the Catweasel actually but I no longer have a Zorro equipped Amiga to test the card in (it hasn't been used for over 5 years).  Taking this into account I'll accept quite a low offer for it.
The Phoenix edition Buddha has some nice extra features like the clockport and flashrom so all in all it's a good expansion for an A2000.  The quality of Individual's stuff is always very good so AmigaKit's price doesn't seem too bad to me but I live in the UK so no exchange rate to worry about.

[HeatherK]

I just picked up a Buddha Flash recently and it works great.  I have an Amiga 4000D and just wanted to be able to add more IDE devices.  I attempted to hook up an IDE to CF adapter but was unable to get it to work.  Of course, I never tested the IDE to CF adapter in another system so the CF adapter I have may be junk.

All-in-all, I am very satisfied with the Buddha Flash.  All the documentation is on the floppy.  The floppy itself is a High Density disk formatted as Double Density.  Because the A4000 had a High Density drive, I had to use an external floppy drive to read it.  The disk also had an error on it but I contacted AmigaKit support and they sent me a link to download the floppy files.

I hooked up a DVD-ROM, Zip-250 and Hard drive to the controller and it works great.

Good luck!

Heather

[mchaggis]

Thanks for all of your reply's I have another niggling problem with the A2000, so I'll need address that before I order myself a Buddha.

Thanks,
Derek.

[EdFlux]

Buddha works great in my A2000. Plan on keeping it just for it's transfer rate even if I get my Blizzard 2060 working. Beats most SCSI on Zorro II, best $80 you can spend.

[Iggy_Drougge]

The Buddha doesn't work with most CF cards. You have to use an "industrial" CF or reprogram your "domestic" CF card to act as a fixed disk (using a suitable PC program).

[HeatherK]

Heather

...reprogram your "domestic" CF card to act as a fixed disk (using a suitable PC program).

I'd love info on how to do this.  Or would you perhaps let me know what a suitable industrial CF card's make/model might be?  Have you actually installed one of these adapters on a Buddha and got it to work?

Thanks,

Heather