Help Installing SCSI Card Reader [A2000]

[Findlarn]

Around four years ago i bought a SCSI card reader from MechWare. However i was very busy at the time and didn't got around to try it out. And now when I've got some more time on my hands i thought i finally might give it a go.

However when i turn the A2000 on with the reader installed, the screen just becomes gray and it won't boot up. So what could be the reason causing this?


My setup is an A2000 (Rev. 6.2) with the A2091 SCSI Controller (Rev. 4.0) and 6.6 Roms.

I have tried with the JP5 (LUN) jumper in both positions. With no luck.

And also, witch way should the SCSI cable go into to the card reader?

Hope somebody can help.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I have Mechy's SCSI card readers in both my 500 (via GVP sidecar) and 2000 (previously via GVP '040 board, now by '060  board). I think the trickiest thing for me was figuring out where to put it on the SCSI chain, and termination. Make sure the termination jumper is on if you have it as the last device.

Everything works once you get it set up properly, LUN's, hot-swapping cards (except for your boot card, obviously), great piece of hardware. Just keep playing with it, it'll work. You might also want to update your ROM's on the 2091 to a newer version.  

[mechy]

Around for years ago i bought a SCSI card reader from MechWare. However i was very busy at the time and didn't got around to try it out. And now when I've got some more time on my hands i thought i finally might give it a go.

However when i turn the A2000 on with the reader installed, the screen just becomes gray and it won't boot up. So what could be the reason causing this?


My setup is an A2000 (Rev. 6.2) with the A2091 SCSI Controller (Rev. 4.0) and 6.6 Roms.

I have tried with the JP5 (LUN) jumper in both positions. With no luck.

And also, witch way should the SCSI cable go into to the card reader?

do you have the pcmcia to cf adapter card also?
Hope somebody can help.

If you can give a little more infomation i will try and help you set it up.
Are there any other scsi devices on the chain?
if so what device # is it set to?

if the card reader the last device on the cable?
do you have the cpcmia to cf adapter also?

[Findlarn]

If you can give a little more infomation i will try and help you set it up.
Are there any other scsi devices on the chain?
if so what device # is it set to?

if the card reader the last device on the cable?
do you have the cpcmia to cf adapter also?

I probably should have said that this card reader is the only device in the chain. And yes, i have the adapter. But it is not plugged in. Does it have to in order for it to work?

And yes, i will probably update to the 7.0 ROMs. Especially when i saw that you easily could get new Cloanto licensed ones.

Here is a picture of the jumper settings on it. I haven't changed anything, so they are in their default positions. Is ID 0 correct?

[mechy]

I probably should have said that this card reader is the only device in the chain. And yes, i have the adapter. But it is not plugged in. Does it have to in order for it to work?

And yes, i will probably update to the 7.0 ROMs. Especially when i saw that you easily could get new Cloanto licensed ones.

Here is a picture of the jumper settings on it. I haven't changed anything, so they are in their default positions. Is ID 0 correct?

It is jumpered as device#2(see the chart on the label) in the picture-but we want to make it 0.
With power OFF, just remove the lower jumper closest to the scsi connector. Leave the upper one(it is termination).

connect it to the last connector on your ribbon cable. plug in the power.

set the 2091 autoboot jumper on. For now leave the LUNS jumper off.

Plug in the pcmcia adapter with a suitable cf card.

you can now boot off a workbench install floppy and run hdtoolbox to partition/format the cf.

I few things to know. The 2091 is not the best card, it has incredible slow lun scans,and can take forever to check all the slots and boot. With the jumper off you can use the pcmcia slot with a cf which is likely way faster,if that is all you need.
Ff you can find a GVP hc2+8 or other card with 4.15rom,it will be way faster.

If you turn luns on,it will be incredibly slow (likely taking a minute+ to scan the slots)but you should be able to use the other slots. One possible way to slightly speed up scanning is to populate all the slots with cards formatted for amiga.

Even though i tested these well on 2091 cards with different dmacs and rev's of the WD scsi chips,as well as an array of roms,some people still had mixed results with the 2091's. this could be due to brand of cf,their particular cabling/termination,what drives they use and workbench install. Most 2091's come with the -04/proto scsi chip known to have troubles.

Having a 1MB of ram or more on the 2091 may speed it up some also.

[Findlarn]

It is jumpered as device#2(see the chart on the label) in the picture-but we want to make it 0.
With power OFF, just remove the lower jumper closest to the scsi connector. Leave the upper one(it is termination).

connect it to the last connector on your ribbon cable. plug in the power.

set the 2091 autoboot jumper on. For now leave the LUNS jumper off.

Plug in the pcmcia adapter with a suitable cf card.

you can now boot off a workbench install floppy and run hdtoolbox to partition/format the cf.

Ok, so i have now removed the jumper, set it to device 0, put a card into the adapter, booted it up, and... It works! The hand of awesomeness appeared! :roflmao: So thanks for the amazing help guys! I will try to install WB later today. And hopefully the rest will also turn out great.

I few things to know. The 2091 is not the best card, it has incredible  slow lun scans,and can take forever to check all the slots and boot.  With the jumper off you can use the pcmcia slot with a cf which is  likely way faster,if that is all you need.
Ff you can find a GVP hc2+8 or other card with 4.15rom,it will be way faster.

If you turn luns on,it will be incredibly slow (likely taking a minute+  to scan the slots)but you should be able to use the other slots. One  possible way to slightly speed up scanning is to populate all the slots  with cards formatted for amiga.

Even though i tested these well on 2091 cards with different dmacs and  rev's of the WD scsi chips,as well as an array of roms,some people still  had mixed results with the 2091's. this could be due to brand of  cf,their particular cabling/termination,what drives they use and  workbench install. Most 2091's come with the -04/proto scsi chip known  to have troubles.

Having a 1MB of ram or more on the 2091 may speed it up some also.

Well, i guess for now i can settle with the 2091. Because I'm just going to use it as a HDD substitute. It is also loaded with 2MB of extra RAM! So i think i will be good for a while at least.

But i will probably (out of curiosity) also do some LUN experimenting. Does it configure itself? Or is there any software tweaks and stuff that needs to be done when setting it up?

[mechy]

Ok, so i have now removed the jumper, set it to device 0, put a card into the adapter, booted it up, and... It works! The hand of awesomeness appeared! :roflmao: So thanks for the amazing help guys! I will try to install WB later today. And hopefully the rest will also turn out great.




Well, i guess for now i can settle with the 2091. Because I'm just going to use it as a HDD substitute. It is also loaded with 2MB of extra RAM! So i think i will be good for a while at least.

But i will probably (out of curiosity) also do some LUN experimenting. Does it configure itself? Or is there any software tweaks and stuff that needs to be done when setting it up?

Just by setting the lun jumper on the 2091 it should be ready to use any of the other card slots. you may notice a way long boot time while its scanning the other slots.
the 2091 is not particularly smart and will scan 7 luns per device. This is why(from memory) populating all slots will speed it up since once it finds a device on the particular ID,it doesnt scan the other 6 luns and moves on.

Enjoy.

[Findlarn]

Just by setting the lun jumper on the 2091 it should be ready to use any of the other card slots. you may notice a way long boot time while its scanning the other slots.
the 2091 is not particularly smart and will scan 7 luns per device. This is why(from memory) populating all slots will speed it up since once it finds a device on the particular ID,it doesnt scan the other 6 luns and moves on.

Enjoy.

Ok. Thanks!

[Findlarn]

Ok, so here is a little update on what has happened:

First off I have upgraded the ROM's to 7.0 and secondly I have installed "Better Workbench" on a 4GB CF card.

But now there is one last little problem that I cannot seem to figure out, so I thought I might ask this one last question:

When I insert a second CF card (the first one being the HDD, mounted in the PCMCIA adapter) I can see it under HD Toolbox. But how do I gain access to the card itself? Because it doesn't show up as an icon or anything. You know, like it does on the A1200, where you just click on it on your desktop.

[pyrre]

You might also want to update your ROM's on the 2091 to a newer version.  

Where can one find 2091 roms up to date?

[Findlarn]

Where can one find 2091 roms up to date?

I got mine on Amibay from a guy called "BlindGerMan"

[Findlarn]

I have done some experiments now. And it seems to work fine when the card is FFS formatted. But that doesn't help much, sense it must be FAT formatted in order to be able to transfer files from my PC.

So... how do I get around this?

[amiadudeorwat]

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95
This will allow you to mount fat formatted cards in your second slot.  This does not let you actually boot from fat formatted disks.  In the aminet description is a link to a tool to create fat mountlists.  Not sure if this is necessary as I have a single mountlist that seems to just work with whatever size CF I insert.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95
This will allow you to mount fat formatted cards in your second slot.  This does not let you actually boot from fat formatted disks.  In the aminet description is a link to a tool to create fat mountlists.  Not sure if this is necessary as I have a single mountlist that seems to just work with whatever size CF I insert.

The instructions for Fat95 might as well have been written in Chinese.  Lots of info on devices no one uses anymore, and zero info on those that they do.  I had to figure it out through extensive google-fu and trial & error.  

Here's the mountlist I use (attached).  I have no problems reading and writing to FAT-formatted SD cards in the SD slot of my SCSI card reader, FAT-formatted USB devices through Poseidon with my RapidRoad, etc.  Obviously you'll need to change the Device and Unit fields to match your particular SCSI controller (mine is "tekscsi2.device").

Hope it helps!

[Findlarn]

Thanks for the help. But that also means that I must find another way of transferring it to the Amiga. But as a lucky coincidence I have just recently ordered an external CD-Rom drive. So hopefully I can transfer it that way. I will come back later when it has arrived, and hopefully some progress has been made...