Using a Compact Flash card on a600/a1200 PCMCIA - Page 2

Peter · 14 November 2006, 00:49

Cheers zetrO - that is a real help!

Peter · 16 November 2006, 13:29

This now works - setting to 4 Meg has enabled the PCMCIA - thanks for the help.

Does anyone know where I can buy a decent 030 or 040 Acceleraor card?
Is it just a question of keep checking Ebay...?

I noticed that - http://www.analogic.co.uk/Amiga_Addons&Upgrades.html -still has some 040 cards listed - anyone use this company? and know if these cards are any good?

Zetr0 · 16 November 2006, 15:17

Heys peter,

With Ebay you should be able tol get you a better deal probly a blizzard with 32MB+ram for the price on Analogic,

You can post a WTB/WTT on these forums in the market place, there is also amibench www.amibench.org

there also Amigakit.co.uk there pretty good (i have just checked... there outa stock on accelerators *first i have ever seen* just PM or email AmigaKit see when he plans to get any more accelerators in, there usualy a ood price with a good warrenty.

best of luck peter

Zetr0 · 17 November 2006, 01:36

Heys pete, after a little more of a lookie at analogic, they only have 68030 cpus at 30mhz or 40mhz

for 99% of amiga games an 030 +ram is more than enough (trust me wing commander in the asteroid field is bloddy hard!!! on an 030@40mhz)

if you wanna power play (doom / quake and the such like) or need to power use with the likes of imagine raytracing etc. an 040/060 or even PPC but a good 040 at 33mhz is good enough for full screen doom and in truth you need a gfxcard + PPC for quake.....

its all down to what you want from your miggy

cane · 21 November 2006, 17:47

I bought pqi PCMCIA compact flash adapter to use it with 128mb amzor card, and installed software (fat95 and cfd).
I can mount CF0, but when I try to access the CF0: my a1200 freezes that program (tried with dos shell and filemaster), but everything else works normally while that program is frozen. That same card normally works with the same adapter on my laptop.
I will try with some other card (when I grab it somewhere) maybe it'll work.
Or maybe you have some other idea what else to try?

Smiley · 21 November 2006, 18:00

My PQI card works fine with various cards up to 1gb

cane · 21 November 2006, 21:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiley

My PQI card works fine with various cards up to 1gb

You mean PQI adapter not card? Mine adapter looks like this. If it is the same like yours, then I hope it's not working only becouse of my card.

Smiley · 21 November 2006, 21:34

Well mine is the same just with a different sticker.

There is only 1 way to make a pcmcia<>cf adapter card so I doubt thats the problem

Peter · 22 November 2006, 00:38

Does the PCMCIA slot work with any other device?

In my case it was my Ram expansion that was disabling the PCMCIA slot - take any expansion card you may have out and try again...

You haven't bent any of the PCMCIA pins have you?

Try another card if you can... mine is a Danelec and
it is pretty good - if you shop about you can get 1 GB for a reasonable price...

cane · 24 November 2006, 09:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter

Does the PCMCIA slot work with any other device?

In my case it was my Ram expansion that was disabling the PCMCIA slot - take any expansion card you may have out and try again...

You haven't bent any of the PCMCIA pins have you?

Try another card if you can... mine is a Danelec and
it is pretty good - if you shop about you can get 1 GB for a reasonable price...

I only have HDD installed

; the pins on PCMCIA are ok.
Soon I'll try with a few cards, hopefully some will work.

cane · 24 December 2006, 16:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by cane

I bought pqi PCMCIA compact flash adapter to use it with 128mb amzor card, and installed software (fat95 and cfd).
I can mount CF0, but when I try to access the CF0: my a1200 freezes...

Just a small update. The same adapter works flawlessly in my new A600 (I couldn't resist not to buy it

).
Now I'm just waiting for CF-IDE adapter to arrive which I ordered a while ago.

sarek2k · 08 January 2007, 04:20

@dambuster i know the links you provided are for a uk web site but are they based in china or summat seems amazingly cheap? how much was postage etc m8?

just got myself a 1gb dane elec card and dane elec pcmcia adaptor for my A1200 tho now i quite fancy the internal IDE cf reader

glad you guys all got setup and as a noob at this stuff (CF pcmcia/ide) i might be asking quite a few questions

dambuster · 10 January 2007, 20:16

@ sarek2k
all items were individually packaged, and arrived over a couple of days, all within a week, and that was during the xmas bunfight.
Postage costs were £2.99 for the first item, then 99p for each additional item.
I got 1 double adapter, 2 single, a cf/pcmcia and fm radio transmitter for the mp3 player, inc postage came to £16. Altogether a happy bunny

DaZZaBoY · 14 January 2007, 22:51

Got one of these myself last year (Kingston PCMCIA adapt + 128mb Fuji CF card) from AmigaKit. Yeah, yeah I know I probably paid over the odds for it but I wanted the driver software included in the bundle as it's been bloody years since I added anything to a DEVS: dir.

Totally rocks for adf'ing those rare floppies and transferring to PC.

gizmomelb · 24 January 2007, 16:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

this could also include a list of supported CF cards and Adapters.

good idea Zetr0

I've tried the following cards in PCMCIA adaptors and they worked with no errors:

Canon 16MB
Sandisk 64MB
Sandisk 128MB
ASTORE 256MB 80X (I think)
A-DATA 512MB 80X (older purple 'MyFlash' version)

the cards I've tried that DIDN'T work with the PCMCIA adaptor:

A-DATA 512MB 80X (WHITE+GREEN card)
A-DATA 512MB 80X (older purple 'MyFlash' version.. yeah was I ever pissed off, the manufacturer changed something between the old and the new cards and now they don't work any more).

I haven't tried any cards as a HDD yet, maybe this weekend if I get the time.

anyone else got any known good cards which work with a PCMCIA or IDE adaptor?

Also, does anyone know if there is any definitive information on exactly what specs the A600 and A1200 PCMCIA supports?

Zetr0 · 25 January 2007, 12:08

what about getting it to boot from PCMCIA CF card formatted under FAT?

ppill · 25 January 2007, 15:26

@Zetro
That's how I would do it:
Ingredients:
vdisk.device and loadmodule to make it(the device) survive a reboot (you can use it to boot from later just by assigning a higher priority than that of DF0: or accesing the boot menu and selecting it -- vdisk.device HAS to be the best RAD: replacement available, period).
compactflash.device and another device to mount a file (HDF with a pre-installed system on it) as a normal drive(can't remember its name).
fat95 filesystem.
And a moveSYS command(a little program that reassign things like libs: c: l: to another drive)

The boot process would look sth like this

booting from floppy

make the vdisk.device resident with loadmodule

mounting a RAD: like device and copying compactflash.device and the 'file.device' together with the necessary mountlists to it

reboot

if you set the boot priority in the RAD:'s mountlist to 8 it would boot of it without having to remove the floppy disk.

The startup-sequence sitting in RAD: would simply mount the CFdisk with the HDF, mount the file as a drive and issue the moveSYS command and continue to load data(libs, fonts, handlers etc.) from that file/drive.

Should work

(sorry for all this being a bit chaotic but you get the idea)

I don't have the hardaware to test this though

Zetr0 · 25 January 2007, 15:34

@ppill
Nice list of ingredients... I like what your cooking

@gizmomelb
Thats some good info there,.... certainly explains why some of the IDE adpaters have issues (like the one smiley got lumped with!)

Retro-Nerd · 25 January 2007, 15:42

That sound nice, ppill. I hope somebody (Zetr0, heellllp

) can create a full working wb bootdisk for the pcmcia cf card. I receive my A1200 & pcmcia adaptor probably next week.

ppill · 26 January 2007, 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

(...) its an easier method than say trying to partition the CF card for FAT and AmigaOS formats... (it would be a little tricky to say the least)

Does the compactflash.device support RDB?
If yes then you could try to make a hybrid CF(fat+sfs+ffs) like with with a normal HD (writing the MBR first and the RDB after it). And it also depends on the way a stock CF is formatted -- does it too include a MBR?

17 November 2006, 01:36	#24
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	Heys pete, after a little more of a lookie at analogic, they only have 68030 cpus at 30mhz or 40mhz for 99% of amiga games an 030 +ram is more than enough (trust me wing commander in the asteroid field is bloddy hard!!! on an 030@40mhz) if you wanna power play (doom / quake and the such like) or need to power use with the likes of imagine raytracing etc. an 040/060 or even PPC but a good 040 at 33mhz is good enough for full screen doom and in truth you need a gfxcard + PPC for quake..... its all down to what you want from your miggy Last edited by Zetr0; 17 November 2006 at 01:49.

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14 November 2006, 00:49	#21
Peter Still an Amiga user Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent Age: 55 Posts: 2,715	Cheers zetrO - that is a real help!

16 November 2006, 13:29	#22
Peter Still an Amiga user Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent Age: 55 Posts: 2,715	This now works - setting to 4 Meg has enabled the PCMCIA - thanks for the help. Does anyone know where I can buy a decent 030 or 040 Acceleraor card? Is it just a question of keep checking Ebay...? I noticed that - http://www.analogic.co.uk/Amiga_Addons&Upgrades.html -still has some 040 cards listed - anyone use this company? and know if these cards are any good?

16 November 2006, 15:17	#23
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	Heys peter, With Ebay you should be able tol get you a better deal probly a blizzard with 32MB+ram for the price on Analogic, You can post a WTB/WTT on these forums in the market place, there is also amibench www.amibench.org there also Amigakit.co.uk there pretty good (i have just checked... there outa stock on accelerators first i have ever seen just PM or email AmigaKit see when he plans to get any more accelerators in, there usualy a ood price with a good warrenty. best of luck peter

21 November 2006, 17:47	#25
cane Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: .hr Age: 45 Posts: 540	I bought pqi PCMCIA compact flash adapter to use it with 128mb amzor card, and installed software (fat95 and cfd). I can mount CF0, but when I try to access the CF0: my a1200 freezes that program (tried with dos shell and filemaster), but everything else works normally while that program is frozen. That same card normally works with the same adapter on my laptop. I will try with some other card (when I grab it somewhere) maybe it'll work. Or maybe you have some other idea what else to try?

21 November 2006, 18:00	#26
Smiley Amiga-less! Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: UK Posts: 1,350	My PQI card works fine with various cards up to 1gb

21 November 2006, 21:34	#28
Smiley Amiga-less! Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: UK Posts: 1,350	Well mine is the same just with a different sticker. There is only 1 way to make a pcmcia<>cf adapter card so I doubt thats the problem

22 November 2006, 00:38	#29
Peter Still an Amiga user Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent Age: 55 Posts: 2,715	Does the PCMCIA slot work with any other device? In my case it was my Ram expansion that was disabling the PCMCIA slot - take any expansion card you may have out and try again... You haven't bent any of the PCMCIA pins have you? Try another card if you can... mine is a Danelec and it is pretty good - if you shop about you can get 1 GB for a reasonable price...

08 January 2007, 04:20	#32
sarek2k E.A.B Addict and Proud Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: England Age: 56 Posts: 543	@dambuster i know the links you provided are for a uk web site but are they based in china or summat seems amazingly cheap? how much was postage etc m8? just got myself a 1gb dane elec card and dane elec pcmcia adaptor for my A1200 tho now i quite fancy the internal IDE cf reader glad you guys all got setup and as a noob at this stuff (CF pcmcia/ide) i might be asking quite a few questions

10 January 2007, 20:16	#33
dambuster Zone Friend Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Dundee / Scotland Posts: 151	@ sarek2k all items were individually packaged, and arrived over a couple of days, all within a week, and that was during the xmas bunfight. Postage costs were £2.99 for the first item, then 99p for each additional item. I got 1 double adapter, 2 single, a cf/pcmcia and fm radio transmitter for the mp3 player, inc postage came to £16. Altogether a happy bunny

14 January 2007, 22:51	#34
DaZZaBoY Diamond Geezer! Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: NorthWest/UK Age: 52 Posts: 133	Got one of these myself last year (Kingston PCMCIA adapt + 128mb Fuji CF card) from AmigaKit. Yeah, yeah I know I probably paid over the odds for it but I wanted the driver software included in the bundle as it's been bloody years since I added anything to a DEVS: dir. Totally rocks for adf'ing those rare floppies and transferring to PC.

25 January 2007, 12:08	#36
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	what about getting it to boot from PCMCIA CF card formatted under FAT?

25 January 2007, 15:26	#37
ppill CON: artist Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Poland Age: 43 Posts: 1,250	@Zetro That's how I would do it: Ingredients: vdisk.device and loadmodule to make it(the device) survive a reboot (you can use it to boot from later just by assigning a higher priority than that of DF0: or accesing the boot menu and selecting it -- vdisk.device HAS to be the best RAD: replacement available, period). compactflash.device and another device to mount a file (HDF with a pre-installed system on it) as a normal drive(can't remember its name). fat95 filesystem. And a moveSYS command(a little program that reassign things like libs: c: l: to another drive) The boot process would look sth like this booting from floppy make the vdisk.device resident with loadmodule mounting a RAD: like device and copying compactflash.device and the 'file.device' together with the necessary mountlists to it reboot if you set the boot priority in the RAD:'s mountlist to 8 it would boot of it without having to remove the floppy disk. The startup-sequence sitting in RAD: would simply mount the CFdisk with the HDF, mount the file as a drive and issue the moveSYS command and continue to load data(libs, fonts, handlers etc.) from that file/drive. Should work (sorry for all this being a bit chaotic but you get the idea) I don't have the hardaware to test this though

25 January 2007, 15:34	#38
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@ppill Nice list of ingredients... I like what your cooking @gizmomelb Thats some good info there,.... certainly explains why some of the IDE adpaters have issues (like the one smiley got lumped with!)

25 January 2007, 15:42	#39
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,435	That sound nice, ppill. I hope somebody (Zetr0, heellllp ) can create a full working wb bootdisk for the pcmcia cf card. I receive my A1200 & pcmcia adaptor probably next week.

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