ZuluSCSI Mini and Blizzard SCSI

[LordCrass]

Does anyone here know if the ZuluSCSI Mini can be properly powered by the external SCSI port on the Blizzard SCSI Kit-IV? If not, can it be powered by the USB port on the back?

External SCSI CD-ROMs these days are at complete rip-off prices, and the ZuluSCSI mini seems like a nice alternative, if it'll work.

[Leon Besson]

Okay. So you are aware of free software for the Amiga that can open CD iso files?

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/DiskImageGui

AmigaOS 3.2 has this already built in.

Or am I missing the point here Bromigo?!

[LordCrass]

That assumes you already have OS 3.2 installed. If not, the first step is installing it, and it comes on a CD-ROM, which is what I was planning on using this for, among other things.

Yes, I know you can make physical floppies from the ADF files on the disc. My A1200's floppy drive is a PC HD 3.5" hooked up to a Catweasel, so I can't boot from it.

Apparently the device in question can be powered via USB, so I'll pick one up and report back here whether or not it works without external power.

[Ami_GFX]

Zulu SCSI can be powered by the USB port. I was thinking about getting one of the external minis but I really wasn't sure about it and it being as fast as the full sized version and I don't like using micro SD cards so I ordered a regular one which I'm going to put in an external enclosure. Having to power it by USB was also a factor against getting one.
I put a Zulu SCSI in my A2500 with a GVP SCSI controller and I find it convenient due to using images compatible with Winuae but the GVP controller maxes out at around 1.5 mb/s so it I'm not pushing it speed wise. When I get the external box set up, I'm going to image all my Zip and Jaz disks and use it as a replacement for them so I'll be testing it on a much faster SCSI controller. 2GB Jaz drives are fairly fast, around 7 mb/s so I'm trading some speed for convenience.

I haven't tested it with CD images but you can pop the SD card out of the drive and run Winuae directly from the image on the card which is what I did with floppy images to install software for some new hardware I've hooked up to the A2500. It's a lot easier and faster than than loading floppies and CDs into the Amiga.

If your Blizzard has termination power, you can run Zulu SCSI from it without any other power source. Just check whatever documentation there is for it.

[LordCrass]

The Blizzard docs don't cover details like termination power.

Turns out the Mini does work with the Blizzard SCSI kit's own power though. No USB cables needed.

[Leon Besson]

Originally Posted by LordCrass

The Blizzard docs don't cover details like termination power.

Turns out the Mini does work with the Blizzard SCSI kit's own power though. No USB cables needed.

Good to know Mang!

[HardStep]

Hey LordCrass,
What kind of speed are you getting out of it with Blizzard SCSI?

[Leon Besson]

Originally Posted by HardStep

Hey LordCrass,
What kind of speed are you getting out of it with Blizzard SCSI?

Be good to know as well. I tend to get 5/6Mb from a SCSI2SD V6

[LordCrass]

Just shy of 3MB/sec with PFS3 and slightly lower with the new FFS.

Without Direct SCSI option enabled on the FFS partition in HDToolbox, the performance plummets. This option has only very little effect on the PFS3 partition.

I've still got some issues to straighten out with this as I wind up with a yellow "Recoverable Alert" on bootup (which isn't actually recoverable) if I have no images on the card, or an image that hasn't been partitioned with FFS (eg. PFS3). In these cases, I have to boot without the card in the device and insert it after bootup, then rescan the SCSI bus and mount them.

I thought I had solved the problem with SoftSCSI to update my ROM to 8.5, but then I enabled DirectSCSI on the partitions for more testing and the problem came back, so I'm not entirely sure what's causing that yet.

[Leon Besson]

Originally Posted by LordCrass

Just shy of 3MB/sec with PFS3 and slightly lower with the new FFS.

Without Direct SCSI option enabled on the FFS partition in HDToolbox, the performance plummets. This option has only very little effect on the PFS3 partition.

I've still got some issues to straighten out with this as I wind up with a yellow "Recoverable Alert" on bootup (which isn't actually recoverable) if I have no images on the card, or an image that hasn't been partitioned with FFS (eg. PFS3). In these cases, I have to boot without the card in the device and insert it after bootup, then rescan the SCSI bus and mount them.

I thought I had solved the problem with SoftSCSI to update my ROM to 8.5, but then I enabled DirectSCSI on the partitions for more testing and the problem came back, so I'm not entirely sure what's causing that yet.

Thanks for the feedback Bromigo

Have you checked in SCSICONFIG to see if the partition is set to “Synchron” if so try unticking it as the drive may only work in “Asynchronous” mode only

[LordCrass]

I think I've traced the Recoverable Alert issue down to a race condition with my Catweasel MKII board. The system was returning the alert at this entry in the startup-sequence

Mount DEVSOSDrivers/~(#?.info)

In my DOSDrivers drawer, I only had TD0 and TH0, which are the Amiga high-density and double-density devices for the Catweasel.

I moved this line down to right before the execution of the User-Startup and the problem went away.

It might also be a power delivery issue. I have a disk in the floppy drive, so when the drivers load up, it spins up the floppy to read it. Perhaps this is drawing enough power at the same time the Mini is doing something and that pushes the system over the edge? The recoverable alert was always "0100 0012" with the task varying slightly.

I can enable the Syncron mode in SCSIConfig, but when trying to turn that mode on with UnitControl, it always reverts back to Asynchron. Perhaps this is not supported with this device?

[Leon Besson]

Originally Posted by LordCrass

I think I've traced the Recoverable Alert issue down to a race condition with my Catweasel MKII board. The system was returning the alert at this entry in the startup-sequence

Mount DEVSOSDrivers/~(#?.info)

In my DOSDrivers drawer, I only had TD0 and TH0, which are the Amiga high-density and double-density devices for the Catweasel.

I moved this line down to right before the execution of the User-Startup and the problem went away.

It might also be a power delivery issue. I have a disk in the floppy drive, so when the drivers load up, it spins up the floppy to read it. Perhaps this is drawing enough power at the same time the Mini is doing something and that pushes the system over the edge? The recoverable alert was always "0100 0012" with the task varying slightly.

I can enable the Syncron mode in SCSIConfig, but when trying to turn that mode on with UnitControl, it always reverts back to Asynchron. Perhaps this is not supported with this device?

Probably need a better PSU, like a A-Power or Meanwell type with adjustable voltage.

In sysconfig you should have a config mode where there is a RDB setting. Just check that the RDB has a tick for Synchron. Also check out a nifty app off Aminet called “Myunitcontrol”.

You can add a line in startup-sequence such as c:Myunitcontrol D=1230scsi.device U=0 P=10

I use this for my 1230 and 1260 Blizzrads with MKIV SCSI controller cards.

For example;

D (DEVICE NAME), U (UNIT/ID OF SCSI DEVICE), P (HOW FAST MAX, SUCH AS 10MB/SEC).

can download it here;

http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/MyUnitControl

[Ami_GFX]

I opened up my A4000T today and I had a Zulu SCSI board lying around so I did some testing. I tested it on the A4000T internal SCSI and the Newtek Flyer SCSI. I just hooked it to an open connector on a ribbon cable in both cases. With both controllers there was no need for external power. One thing I found out is that it doesn't like being unterminated in the middle of a SCSI chain. It didn't work well with the Flyer at all. All my other Flyer drives disappeared when I connected it. Somehow it confused the flyer and it would only see the Zulu drive on all three SCSI chains and the other drives weren't recognized any more. Flyer HD Toolkit just froze when I did a drive test and I had to reboot. On the A4000T SCSI I had to put the termination switch to on even though it was in a position on the chain that shouldn't be terminated. I was able to partition and format a drive and Sysinfo's read only drive test gave a speed of 3.9 mb/s. I don't have any benchmarking software that gives write speed on my A4000T but I did some file copies. Speed was good for small files but when I copied a folder filled with image files, it looked good at first. Workbench was reporting used space growing around 5 mbs every couple of seconds on the Zulu drive. Then I got an error at around 100mb. Clicking retry did nothing and I had to cancel the operation. In both cases I had write errors and the drive didn't really work in the middle of a SCSI chain.

Conclusion is that it is slightly faster than A4000 IDE but it only works terminated at the end of a SCSI chain. I think it is best for single SCSI drive applications but it works in a chain if it is the last drive with termination on. That is where I have it on my A2500 and I haven't gotten any errors but the GVP hard card I have in it is slow and doesn't push it anywhere near it's limit. I'll do a test on my A4000D next with it hooked up externally as the terminating drive.