SCSI card reader questions....

[TheGoose]

Folks, I got one of these and just got round to installing it. So far I see that the only slot that can be seen as a fixed hard drive is using the PCMICIA slot with CF adapter stuck in it.

SD or CF slots show up but are "unsupported" in HDToolbox.

So I re-read the page carefully:
http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68&products_id=184

I come to understand this is all normal, that only (on an Amiga) the PCMICIA slot is recognized for a fixed device. That right? Anyone else using one, can help?

[J-Golden]

Hey goose.  Those are being sold by a member here by the name of Mechy.  I remember talking to him about those things and the way it works is this;

- If you hook it up to the SCSi connector on the motherboard, you can use the CF reader as bootable AND install a PCMICA to CF reader in the PCMCIA slot fpr a second drive.

- If you hook it up to any other SCSI port, you can only use the PCMCIA slot.

I might be getting that mixed up though so drop a PM to Mechy, he'll set it all right.

[TheGoose]

Hmm, Ok I try that tonight. That sounds weird. Right now I have it as a 2nd physical device after the HD.

Thanks for the tip!

[Thomas]

Every bootable SCSI controller should be able to boot from every SCSI massstorage device. It does not matter to which connector you connect it or which SCSI ID it has, provided that you have termnation and jumpers set right.

IIRC there is a patch for HDToolbox available on Aminet to allow it to set up type 7 devices as harddrives. Or try HDInstTools. Or try to set up the SD/CF card on a PC with an USB card reader and WinUAE before you put it into the Amiga.

[J-Golden]

Well, I don't claim to be an expert when it comes to SCSI.

But after looking over his website I remembered it had to do with LUNS.  The PCMICIA slot can be setup WITHOUT LUNS while the actual CF (and all the other slots) NEED LUNS.

That was the big difference.  You could use the slot with an adapter w/o LUNS support.  What does and doesn't have LUNS, how LUNS works and what LUNS is...  I don't know...  But I do know that was the deciding factor of which parts could and couldn't be used...

Again, PM Mechy, I could be recalling a bad hallucination FAIK...:roflmao:

[TheGoose]

@ Thomas "IIRC there is a patch for HDToolbox available on Aminet to allow it to set up type 7 devices as harddrives. "

Thanks, that makes sense to me, being viewed as removable devices.

I did send PM to mechy too..

[Thomas]

A LUN is a logical unit inside the physical device. Each SCSI device can have one or more LUNs. For example a 6-way CD changer has 6 LUNs, one for each CD slot. Whenever you access one of the LUNs, the changer will move the CD from the respective slot into the CD drive so that you can read it.

In AmigaOS the LUN is usually specified in the tens place of the unit number. So if your device has SCSI ID 2, LUN 0 is unit 2, LUN 1 is unit 12, LUN 2 is unit 22 and so on.

HDToolbox actually does not know about LUNs, it just scans the unit numbers in a specific order.

[mfilos]

This SCSI Multicard Reader works just fine. (I think the only problem I had with was an 8GB Seagate Microdrive CF).
I mounted it on my A4000 on CSPPC's SCSI (via an 68pin to 50pin adapter).

So far I have tested CF via PCMCIA slot, CF slot, SD Slot and they all work just fine (and even Hot Swap!).
Tested also on normal CF slot an 4GB, 8GB, 16GB CFs and they all work as intended.
The only drawback is the low transfer rate (2.5MB/s) on all interfaces.

It really rocks to have one in your chain though

[TheGoose]

I'm using HDInstTools 6.9 (30.10.99) and it only like the PCCard slot so far. I even put an Amiga formatted CF card from my A1000, and it does not like it. And that's what my A1000 boots from.

So, this is not a formatting issue, it's clear that the device is struggling with removable media types.

I searched Aminet but have not found any thing for type 7 devices. I searched for "removable" too but nothing useful to this case came up.

:confused:

[Heiroglyph]

I've got three of them (so far) and it depends a lot on the driver.

On my 4000T it works great in multiple slots.

On the Warp Engines, the same thing as you, I need the adapter.

Yes, I've enabled LUNs and mechy has even seen it for himself.  It seems to be a driver that isn't very good with LUNs.

If you don't mind the adapter they are great though.

[mechy]

I replied about this to goose in PM,but i forgot to add... ALL slots will work with the proper controller and LUNS on.Some older hdtoolbox version may have troubles. Also in the icon info make sure LUNS=4 at least or hdtoolbox in some cases will not scan for luns past 0.you scsi controller must ALSO support luns(the 4091 and a4000t need the dip switches set,and 2091 needs a OPTION jumper set-6.6 roms or newer-i havent tried with older.). all slots but the boot drive slot you use are usually hot swapable but some controllers may not support diskchange correctly(also make sure reselection is on).
In some cases you also need DEVICE=SCSI and not XT in hdtoolbox icon info i recall.
the aminet patch may help with the removeable problem.
Goose didnt mention what machine,scsi controller,roms or particular card reader he has so its partly a problem with lack of info.
under 3.1 the 8gb cf may need td64/nsd stuff to work well. not sure here.
Type's of cf's can also be a problem,some cf's are set from the factory as removable only and no matter what,unless you can get a utility from the mfg and change it on a pc the card will not work.
hope this helps



mech

Folks, I got one of these and just got round to installing it. So far I see that the only slot that can be seen as a fixed hard drive is using the PCMICIA slot with CF adapter stuck in it.

SD or CF slots show up but are "unsupported" in HDToolbox.

So I re-read the page carefully:
http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68&products_id=184

I come to understand this is all normal, that only (on an Amiga) the PCMICIA slot is recognized for a fixed device. That right? Anyone else using one, can help?

[mechy]

I've got three of them (so far) and it depends a lot on the driver.

On my 4000T it works great in multiple slots.

On the Warp Engines, the same thing as you, I need the adapter.

Yes, I've enabled LUNs and mechy has even seen it for himself.  It seems to be a driver that isn't very good with LUNs.

If you don't mind the adapter they are great though.

Given enough time i bet i can solve your warpengine problem,but time was too short and there was too much to do. others reported back with 2091 and 6.6 roms they have all slots working,so it was a matter of figuring what i missed that day
i have one of these 5 slot card readers working on a gvp 530 with 4.15 rom and all slots are seen and useable.
Mech

[TheGoose]

Thank you Mechy for the responses.

1. looking at other HD tool boxes...

2. I think the A3000 SCSI does LUNs, I have the later V8 WD chip too.


EDIT--------------

I'm getting the CF card slot to work better with the old 3.1 HDToolBox program, seems to access LUNs correctly

EDIT--------------

And found this if anyone needs it:
http://m68k.aminet.net/search?query=hdtoolbox

[mechy]

goose, do you have a clock battery in the 3000? its got scsi settings in nvram that may also be a issue.there is a setbatt prog on aminet to check nvram stuff.

mech

[Cammy]

Heya Mech, I had an idea that could maybe help out people with these drives, and anyone looking to buy one for themselves in the future.

Maybe everyone who has got and used one of these SCSI card readers can write up a little bit about how they got it to work and detail their hardware setup, then we could combine the information to make some documentation to give to people who buy the drives, and post it on the website.

I can borrow one from Rebel, and maybe with Lunithy's help we can write up how it works on the A2091, then maybe test the GVP HC-8 with it too, and I can try it with the Squirrel SCSI interface on my A1200 and A600 if I can get it to work with my CD ROM drive in my external SCSI minitower.

I wouldn't mind compiling all the info and making up some form of document to display online or print out, maybe we could even work out some kind of boot disk to help mount and format the cards for people who don't have the software already downloaded, and haven't got an easy way to transfer files to their Amiga from a PC yet (which is perhaps why they bought the SCSI card reader in the first place).

It's just an idea, but I feel it would help people out a bit and I'd like to help out in any way I can.