problems with the SCSI to Micro SD Interface Adapter in my GVP A500 HD

[Toki]

I can now see it's version 4.13.

I can see the SD card has 3862528 sectors. So I've set the device size to 1.8418.

I've configured it as SCSI ID 1.

The GVP Expert Prep program loads ok, but as soon as I select SCSI ID 1 the mouse changes to the timer symbol and stays like that. I leave it for 5 minutes and then I turn it off.

Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.

[mark_k]

OK so you have the latest gvpscsi.device. Not sure any of these things will help, but...

Do you have the latest firmware in your SCSI2SD? If you have a v5 board the latest is v4.7.1.

Are terminating resistor packs installed on the SCSI2SD board? Are they definitely the right way around?

Try running scsi2sd-util, click "Load from device", make sure Enable Parity and Enable Unit Attention are both ticked. (Then click Save to device, of course.)

Check there is only one enabled SCSI target. [Are you sure scs2sd-util supports decimals in the Device size field?]

[Toki]

Yes I can see on that I have scsi2sd-util v4.7.1.

I've already had the resistor packs out and put them back in wrong, but I know I have them right now because the scsi2sd-monitor program returns an answer that the device is ok.

I've ticked Enable Parity and Enable Unit Attention, and saved.

Yes only one enabled target.

I did all the above, but still Harddisk tools is not finding the device.

I'll try changing the size tomorrow so no decimals are involved.

[Sinphaltimus]

If you power off your A500, press and hold both mouse buttons, then turn your A500 on while still holding the mouse buttons, you don't get an early start menu?

[mark_k]

I'm pretty much out of ideas now.

You could try running some other SCSI-using program and see whether that works. GvpScsiCtrl is handy for that. I have v5.8 here, other versions work differently. You can type GvpScsiCtrl GUI and see a list of connected SCSI devices. Also SCSIQuery.

Do you have another computer with SCSI interface that you could connect the SCSI2SD to? (PCI SCSI cards are very cheap if you have an old PC.) That way you could confirm the SCSI2SD works properly.

[Toki]

Thanks Sinphaltimus, I'll try that again

Thanks mark K, I'll try some more adjustments. I'm going to try using another A500 to see if there is some conflict going on. And I'll try GvpScsiCtrl GUI and SCSIQuery and test with a PCI SCSI card. I'm not giving up yet!

[patrik]

How is it with termination power and the SCSI2SD? The GVP controllers I have at least do not supply it, so you have to either have a drive that powers its own terminators or a drive that supplies termination power to the bus to get functional termination.

The controllers I have which do not supply termination power to the bus are GVP A500 HD8+, A2000 HC+8 and G-Force030.

[E-Penguin]

I think the early boot menu is ks2 and above? Never got it working on 1.3, at least.

[Sinphaltimus]

If he's not running KS3.x, I'm afraid I can't help. I believe there are specific things that need to be done in KS1.x in order to get SCSI working correctly. I maybe mistaken but thought you needed a newer KS to be able to do these things. I assumed he was on a newer KS because he mentioned WB3.1. I did a qucik search and glanced at soem of the info - https://www.google.com/search?q=Amig...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[mark_k]

Toki: How are you powering the SCSI2SD? Is it fitted inside the GVP case (replacing the original hard drive), connected to the 4-pin Molex HDD power connector?

[Toki]

Yes powered by fitting it in the gvp case and connecting the molex. I

And yes I've been running WB3.1 in my A500.

i was previously running WB1.3, but the swapped the ROM to wb3.1 to see if that would sort out mu problem.

[Sinphaltimus]

I'm kind of stumped at this point really. I'm not that technical with the scsi2sd - it was fairly easy for me to setup IIRC. Were you able to get into early startup under the ks 3.x rom?

[patrik]

@Toki:

What about the termination power? (see question above)

[Toki]

I managed to get to the early startup menu by changing my 3 button mouse for a 2 button one, surprising what you learn on the way! It shows two external devices both working ... I'm guessing this is the gvp and memory card.

Expert Fastprep is reading the size of the card properly... it's just the options are greyed out. I think I need a different version of Faastprep, one that can boot from floppy disk.

Regarding termination power, I'm not quite sure what you mean. I recently modded the gvp so that it powers from the A500 rather than having it's own supply. The power fed through th molex cable to the card seems fine and the light flashes on the card as it is read.

Just need to get those options wording in Faaastprep to format the disk ... I seem very close now?

[patrik]

With termination power I mean SCSI termination power. SCSI terminators needs a power supply to work properly. Normally this is supplied via the controller or one or more of the devices to a dedicated termpwr pin on the SCSI cable. For separate terminators, the only option is to get power from this pin, but for devices with built-in termination they can either get termination power from the bus or their own power supply.

The reason I am asking how this is handled on the SCSI2SD is because I have never seen a GVP controller which supplies termination power to the SCSI bus so for the SCSI2SD built-in termination to work properly, it either has to supply termination power to the bus or power its terminator from its own power supply.

[Toki]

Thanks I will check this out, although I've not seen anyone with this particular problem.

I've now suspicious I'm not using the right version of Faaast prep, so I'm searching the internet for other versions.

[Sinphaltimus]

Also, in hdtoolbox - does it see the device at all on the first screen. You may have to add the drive there and read info from drive if you can even see it.

[mark_k]

Do you know which hardware version SCSI2SD you have? Reading the user manual, for pre-V5.0 boards you should close jumper J3TERMPWR to provide termination power to the SCSI bus.

[Toki]

It's version 4.7.1.

The device is not detected by HDToolbox. Reading around on the internet it sounds as though I need to check that the gvpscsidevice driver is in the Expansion drawer and to add Binddriver to the startup-sequence, otherwise the HDToolbox will not detect it. I'll be trying this next.

[mark_k]

4.7.1 is the firmware version. There are apparently three different hardware versions which use that firmware: v3, v4 and v5.

Does your board have a J3 jumper?