SCSI card reader questions....

[Zac67]

LUN support has very little to do with the controller chip in question, it's 99% due to the driver (=boot ROM or embedded in Kickstart).

[blanghorst]

I'm having problems with mine in an A3000.  I have a 1 GB CF card in the CF slot.  I can see the card in HDToolBox and can read the attributes and partition it.  However, I can't see it in the OS at all so I can't format it and when I reboot, I get a Guru error.  My OS is v3.1.  Any hints?  I have to remove the card in order to boot into 3.1 on my SCSI hard drive.

[Zac67]

What does it look like in Early Startup? Does it show the partition? Does it boot with the partition disabled?

[mechy]

I'm having problems with mine in an A3000.  I have a 1 GB CF card in the CF slot.  I can see the card in HDToolBox and can read the attributes and partition it.  However, I can't see it in the OS at all so I can't format it and when I reboot, I get a Guru error.  My OS is v3.1.  Any hints?  I have to remove the card in order to boot into 3.1 on my SCSI hard drive.

Do you have a battery installed?It is needed to address luns.
have you turned LUNS on in the 3000? use a tool like scsiprefs from aminet to do this.you must have a battery to save scsi settings or they revert back to no luns on the next cold boot.
Hd toolbox needs to be told to check luns,check the icon info.

Try formatting the card in the pcmcia/cf adapter plugged into the pcmcia slot on the reader..Once it is setup there,you can move it to the cf slot.
Try different brand cf.
Some cf's are set to removable only and can cause trouble.. If that doesn't work you may also try patching the hdtoolbox prog with the aminet patch so it can handle removable cards better.

Anyone having trouble: please email me direct on the store. My time has been so short i don't get to the forums like i should.

thanks,
 Mech

[mechy]

So, has this information been gathered and given a logical home since last August?  I recently acquired one of these card readers and love the concept (good job Mechy).  This thread is the most useful info I've seen so far.  

My goal is not necessarily to boot from CF cards, but rather, to read (and share) files through SD cards with my Palm, Mp3 player, camera, etc.  Apparently, no one has done this so far?  I think I'm going to need to mount a compatible file system.  Formatting the various style cards with a file system only usable with Amiga has little utility for me.   I'm not afraid to experiment and share results.

There is a program on aminet called scsipcmcia that used to work with the old pcd-25B scsi card readers that allowed them to use a fat formatted card in the pcmcia slot. I have not managed to get this to work on the pcd-50B. scsipcmcia was used in conjunction with fat95 to read and write fat cards.  You might want to experiment with this and see if you can make it work. I ran out of time with everything going on and have not been back to it.

mech

[mechy]

Well what do you know.....  The card reader works flawlessly in my backup a3000.

mmmm....  Is the problem with my main a3000 hardware or software related?

Assuming termination and the scsi chain is setup right it is more than likely software. the pcd-50B will not care if it is hooked to a 030 machine, 040,or 060. the cpu really has no bearing on it.
unofficial boing bags and such could easily cause troubles here. patched scsi devices etc, you just cant be sure.

A easy way to test the machine would be boot from a clean wb3.1 floppy,then partition and setup the card.

Also,the dataflyer was not a very good scsi card, it didn't follow the scsi protocol very well. Some trumpcards seem to have lun problems but work fine on 0.rom revisions on these cards will probably have alot to do with it also. When these old cards came about more than likely there were not many lun based devices out or available for testing.

Mech

[blanghorst]

Do you have a battery installed?It is needed to address luns.
have you turned LUNS on in the 3000? use a tool like scsiprefs from aminet to do this.you must have a battery to save scsi settings or they revert back to no luns on the next cold boot.
Hd toolbox needs to be told to check luns,check the icon info.

Try formatting the card in the pcmcia/cf adapter plugged into the pcmcia slot on the reader..Once it is setup there,you can move it to the cf slot.
Try different brand cf.
Some cf's are set to removable only and can cause trouble.. If that doesn't work you may also try patching the hdtoolbox prog with the aminet patch so it can handle removable cards better.

Anyone having trouble: please email me direct on the store. My time has been so short i don't get to the forums like i should.

thanks,
 Mech

Yes, I have a working battery and LUNs are enabled.  I'll email you later this evening or tomorrow.  I'll need to order the pcmcia adapter.

[Motormouth]

I'm having problems with mine in an A3000.  I have a 1 GB CF card in the CF slot.  I can see the card in HDToolBox and can read the attributes and partition it.  However, I can't see it in the OS at all so I can't format it and when I reboot, I get a Guru error.  My OS is v3.1.  Any hints?  I have to remove the card in order to boot into 3.1 on my SCSI hard drive.

As mechy said (and someone else earlier in the thread),  I suggest partitioning and formatting your CF in the pcmcia lun 0 postition with a CF to pcmcia adapter.  Once this has been perform, try the CF card in the lun 1 postion (CF slot).  This seems to work best for my a3000s.

[Motormouth]

Well what do you know.....  The card reader works flawlessly in my backup a3000.

mmmm....  Is the problem with my main a3000 hardware or software related?

I found out what the problem is with my main a3000,  it is not the 3640 or any of the zorro III or my prometheus.  The problem appears to be an  interaction between my 500 meg digital hard drive and the card reader.  

I typically have several scsi devices, thank you WD for the -08 controller;  two physical hard drives (a 500 meg quantum maverick, a 500 meg digital), a cd rom drive, a zip drive, and a scanner.

As I tried the card reader and removing scsi devices one my one,  I found that the scsi card reader will not automount or autoboot with the digital hard drive in the scsi train.  I tried all kinds of scsi configurations one internal, one external (both terminated);  both internal, both external, different drives at the end (ie terminated).  

The scsi card reader seems to work fine with the quantum maverick, and all the other scsi devices.

With the digital hard drive and the card reader in the train, I have to mount the card reader with mounter or scsi mounter.  Very Odd.

[blanghorst]

Ok, so I bought the PCMCIA adapter and a CF card from Mechy and tried it with my A3000D tonight (running 3.1). Here is what I did:
 
1. Insert CF card into adapter and insert into PCMCIA slot. Boot up.
2. Went to HDToolbox and read the configuration. It correctly saw that it was 2 GB. I created a 400 MB partition for the heck of it. I turned autoboot off on the card for now.
3. The OS saw the card find and called it SDH0: and allowed me to format it.
4. I turned the 3000 off, pulled the PCMCIA adapter, removed the CF card, and put it in the CF slot on the reader.
5. When I booted, the OS did not see the formatted card. I went into HDToolbox and the card was detected and everything.
 
Am I doing something wrong, or is it likely an issue with my SCSI chip or something of that nature? I had to turn autoboot off on the card because the system couldn't boot to the hard drive and OS if I didn't (don't know how to set boot priority in AmigaOS).

[magnetic]

Do you have multiple LUNs enabled?

[blanghorst]

Do you have multiple LUNs enabled?

Yes, multiple LUNs are enabled.

[Motormouth]

Ok, so I bought the PCMCIA adapter and a CF card from Mechy and tried it with my A3000D tonight (running 3.1). Here is what I did:
 
1. Insert CF card into adapter and insert into PCMCIA slot. Boot up.
2. Went to HDToolbox and read the configuration. It correctly saw that it was 2 GB. I created a 400 MB partition for the heck of it. I turned autoboot off on the card for now.
3. The OS saw the card find and called it SDH0: and allowed me to format it.
4. I turned the 3000 off, pulled the PCMCIA adapter, removed the CF card, and put it in the CF slot on the reader.
5. When I booted, the OS did not see the formatted card. I went into HDToolbox and the card was detected and everything.
 
Am I doing something wrong, or is it likely an issue with my SCSI chip or something of that nature? I had to turn autoboot off on the card because the system couldn't boot to the hard drive and OS if I didn't (don't know how to set boot priority in AmigaOS).

Does the CF card boot in the (with adapter) pcmcia lun 0?

When the CF card is in the CF slot lun 1 can you mount it with scsi mounter(can get from aminet) or mounter(comes with OS 3.9)

[blanghorst]

Does the CF card boot in the (with adapter) pcmcia lun 0?
 
When the CF card is in the CF slot lun 1 can you mount it with scsi mounter(can get from aminet) or mounter(comes with OS 3.9)

Yes, when in the PCMCIA slot, it will try to boot from the card.
 
I haven't tried SCSI mounter, but I'll try that next.  Thanks

[mechy]

Yes, when in the PCMCIA slot, it will try to boot from the card.
 
I haven't tried SCSI mounter, but I'll try that next.  Thanks

That is a very strange problem, i have never ran into it... many people use these on 3.9.
is the pcd50b a lower device # than the other HD?

i seem to remember os3.9 tools sometimes set the lastdrive flag and if that is after the HD it may be the problem, but i am just shooting in the dark.

It almost seems a os3.9 thing. is it possible to skip the scsi and rom updates for os3.9 and see what happens?

Worst case if you simply cannot get it to work to you're satisfaction you can return it for a refund.

thanks,
 Mech

[Zac67]

I always put the first drive on ID1 instead of ID0 - that way I can always insert an ID0 drive without messing with the lastdrive flag.