Blizzard SCSI KIT IV and SCSI CD-ROM

[eva]

Hi!

Originally Posted by José

Couple of things to try.
1- Are you powering on the CD Rom before powering on the Amiga ? If not try it.

Yep. Done. No change.

Originally Posted by José

2- Check what's the current ID (jumper settings on the drive) of the CD drive. The Blizzard kit itself is ID 7 so maybe the drive is also set to 7 and there is an ID conflict.

I have tried it with all the CD-ROMs jumper settings: ID0, ID1 and ID2. No change.

Originally Posted by José

3- How long is the cable ? Do you have another one to try ?

Less than a meter in length. I do not have another cable to test although given that the CD-ROM receives a reset signal, it sounds like there is a connection...

Originally Posted by José

... Can't remember anything else for now...

Thanks!

[eva]

I can purchase some other cables and a new CD-ROM if need be. Right now I'm more concerned about the SCSI Kit itself. Perhaps if there is a way to debug that since the rest costs much less to be replaced.

[Michael]

after that and it does indeed pick-up my drives.

So you see the drive on the scsi chain without setting 1230 device in tool type?
Because you should not (in theory) since the program knowns it and should scan for it automatically.

[ptyerman]

Just a suggestion, but I had similar problems myself with the SCSI devices not been detected and it turned out to be the cable from the SCSI kit to the external DB25 connector. I bought a new one from Amigakit and things have been fine since. There is no signs of damage or wear on the old cable, even with a magnifying glass, but it will not work at all. Due to the age, corrosion probably effects the inner wire.

[eva]

Originally Posted by Michael

So you see the drive on the scsi chain without setting 1230 device in tool type?
Because you should not (in theory) since the program knowns it and should scan for it automatically.

When I set:

DEVICE=scsi.device

I get the following:



I have two CF cards on the IDE connector with a dual-CF adaptor.

When I set:

DEVICE=1230scsi.device

I get nothing...

[eva]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

Just a suggestion, but I had similar problems myself with the SCSI devices not been detected and it turned out to be the cable from the SCSI kit to the external DB25 connector. I bought a new one from Amigakit and things have been fine since. There is no signs of damage or wear on the old cable, even with a magnifying glass, but it will not work at all. Due to the age, corrosion probably effects the inner wire.

Hmm, same sort of issues? I can try AmiKit - right now it's on: "Stock Expected: T.B.A." I'll use the flea market.

[Michael]

Just went through the trouble to collect all the necessary amiga bits scared around my home to assemble an A1200 with Blizz1230 scsi...
It amazing what you can find many years after ;-)

Any ways, the conclusion.

If no scsi devices are connected, then you can only see 1230scsi device in resident device list of Scout (or similar sys monitor)

Once some working (electrically) device is connected, then the SCSIConfig tool will show your virtual board and a device on the scsi bus, unit number is not important if it's one device and its last on cable, also termination is good thing, but it will work slow without it too. Setting it in tool type is not required, its detected internally.

As ptyerman suggested, you might have problems with the cable.
It's good to use a meter and check all the pins are continuous.
You only need 25 of them, also if you are ok with DIY, you can make a 25D to IDC50 connector in an hour for connecting directly to 50pin devices.
The Cetronics cable for external devices is much more complicated and probably hard to find the connector these days.

[eva]

Originally Posted by Michael

As ptyerman suggested, you might have problems with the cable.
It's good to use a meter and check all the pins are continuous.
You only need 25 of them, also if you are ok with DIY, you can make a 25D to IDC50 connector in an hour for connecting directly to 50pin devices.
The Cetronics cable for external devices is much more complicated and probably hard to find the connector these days.

Thanks Michael! I am going to look for a SCSI cable for the Blizzard SCSI Kit. Perhaps the internal cable is damaged given its age. It shouldn't be the cable running from the Amiga to the CD-ROM because it is pretty "new" (bought separately, as a cable). I will post back in case anything changes with the new cable.

[Daedalus]

Just another thought: are there any other connectors on the cable? You should connect the CD drive to the very end of the cable, and the SCSI kit to the other end. Pity you're not closer or I could swap some parts with you to help figure the problem out. It is simple enough to make another cable though if you have some soldering skills and the connectors...

[eva]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Just another thought: are there any other connectors on the cable? You should connect the CD drive to the very end of the cable, and the SCSI kit to the other end. Pity you're not closer or I could swap some parts with you to help figure the problem out. It is simple enough to make another cable though if you have some soldering skills and the connectors...

Hi! It is a rather simple setup: a Blizzard SCSI Kit mounted in the Amiga, after that a cable 25-to-50 going directly to the back of the CD-ROM, and the other port on the CD-ROM is terminated by an active connector. No other fluff. :-) I have also tried swapping to which port the cable goes on the CD-ROM...

Thanks for the offer! I know what you mean - I was trying to locate some other device to test whether the SCSI Kit is working. I can replace the SCSI CD-ROM, they still go for about 20 quid but I am really hoping the SCSI Kit itself is not damaged since that can go up to 150 quid+ and is also quite rare.

On the other hand the SCSI Kit's RAM is showing up fine and the system is very stable...So there's to hoping...

The new cable from the SCSI Kit to the back of the Amiga is on its way. If that fails, I'll suspect the CD-ROM next and then the 25-to-50 cable. Actually the 25-to-50 cable (going from the back of the Amiga to the CD-ROM) was ordered separately from the flea market. It was advertised as "working" - you never know, but still quite implausible (looks pretty solid too).

[Michael]

Test the cable with a multimeter, you should only have 25 contacts and another 25 ground

[eva]

Further to this, I have received the new SCSI cable for the Blizzard SCSI Kit and again, the CD-ROM received the reset signal but it does not show up in any tools.

Originally Posted by Michael

Test the cable with a multimeter, you should only have 25 contacts and another 25 ground

I have measured directly on the Blizzard SCSI Kit and on the 25-to-25 external SCSI cable. It seems that all the signals are there.

I guess that the CD-ROM is at fault then. It is a Ricoh CD-RW. Unfortunately, I cannot afford a different CD-ROM to test with and the Zip/Jaz drives are all sold at exaggerated prices on the flea market.

Perhaps I will try again when I get a different SCSI gadget to hook-up to the Amiga.

[ptyerman]

Try different SCSI ID's on the CD Writer, it might be using something the SCSI kit doesn't like. I usually use a SCSI ID of 4 for CD drives, and have never had problems. Never had a Ricoh drive though so it's possible the SCSI kit doesn't like the Ricoh firmware, have you looked if there is a updated firmware revision for that drive? I have Yamaha, Sony and Teac CD/RW's and there was 2 updated revisions of firmware for the Yamaha drive when I got it and there was 1 update for the Teac. I didn't have the problems your having though.

[eva]

The drive I have is a Ricoh MP6200S:

* http://www.ricoh.co.jp/drive/cd-r/mp6200/

and translated in English.

It seems on their site that the interface is "SCSI-2" - could that be the problem? Just wild speculation, of course... Does the Blizzard SCSI Kit support SCSI "2"?

[ptyerman]

Yes, I use SCSI-2 and SCSI-3 drives on mine without problems.

[eva]

Hi! Thanks for the replies. I wanted to leave a message that the issue has been solved. It turns out that the Ricoh drive simply was not supported. Furthermore, the Blizzard SCSI kit did not show up at all in SCSIConfig so if anyone stumbles upon this thread, do not panic, the SCSI kit is most likely fine - just try a different drive.

To Ricoh's defence, it was a CD+RW (read and write) so I am not sure whether that was an issue. In any case, I have replaced the Ricoh by a NEC CD-R 40x and it runs perfectly fine now.

As a symptom checklist:

• The drive blinks once during boot.
• Using CybSCSI tools, neither the drive nor the Blizzard SCSI Kit shows up.
• Obviously based on the former, neither music CDs can be played nor data CDs show up on Workbench.
• All the possible SCSI IDs were attempted by setting jumpers to absolutely no effect.
• The Blizzard SCSI Kit cable was replaced.
• The drive had an active terminator.
• The cable from the Blizzard SCSI Kit was tested with a voltmeter to check that it outputs the signals - and it does and did.

Now, I have just replaced the CD-RW by a CD-R from NEC on SCSI ID 5 and it showed-up in SCSIconfig along with the Blizzard SCSI Kit. :-)

[StompinSteve]

This is an old thread, but just in case anyone wants to test their Scsi-kit IV Flatcable (26pin IDC to external D-Sub25 connector) you can use this schematic: