A500 - A590 with SCSI2SD or IDE68K? how will mem affect compatibility? Which is best?

[bugsymalone666]

So for ages now I have been trying to get an external SCSI CDROM caddy type drive to work with my A500. Its A Stock A500, which I did the memory mod to where I added chip sockets to the motherboard and pulled the chips from a section of motherboard bought on ebay. I also did the chipram mod so basically 1mb chip ram. That worked fine then I decided I wanted a hard drive.

Hurdle one was getting a A590, which came with an original 20mb drive and also 2mb ram. I got a 1gb IBM hard drive which initially I partitioned and had workbench 2.0 working ok. I'd Built a raspberry pi drive so I could use ADFs to replace the original internal drive that wasnt working correctly (but now seems to!). I then acquired a Sony SCSI CDROM, and using some old stuff I had, mounted it in an external case and plugged into the back of the A590. on and off I have been trying for maybe a year to get it to work with no real success. I built a HxC Gotek modded drive into my external thing which is now DF2: and that bit works like a charm.

So then being Christmas this is the time I generally spend round my parents where my Amiga lives and I spend most of the time I am there mucking about with it. I had read its possible to use real Amiga drives with UAE and I thought it would make it easier to set up the thing initially(my PC there even has a SCSI card and HD Caddy) but I couldnt get UAE to recognise the drive. I put it back in the amiga and it wouldnt boot, it also didnt recognise it.

Now I have been wondering 2 things here, firstly could my 1gb drive be on its way out even though its alot newer than the Amiga one by about 10-15 years or second, could my memory have anything to do with it?

The reason I say about memory is because of this on going project with the CDROM and something I noticed as I gave up at the end of Christmas day.

So I thought if the HD is potentially going to fail what can I replace it with? SCSI hard drives under 1gb arent all that common these days, which is why I wondered if its worth getting a SCSI2SD and replacing the mechanical drive with a microSDcard? I have loads of 2GB cards, maybe some 1GB ones too. The A590 I think has 6.6 ROMS.

Then the hard drive started working again, but what was odd is each time I reinstalled Workbench, the machine wouldnt boot afterwards, if I put it in the PC then back in the Amiga the drive would not be recognised even though I have been fine doing this before.

Something weird I have noticed though is sometimes my Amiga registers 1mb of Chipram sometimes 0.5mb, so its like the stuff on board in sockets isnt playing ball, even though its identical to whats installed from new. When it was in 0.5mb mode though despite the hard drive being blank or not recognised properly, for the first time ever I could see both the the hard drive at ID3 and the CDROM at ID5.

So I wondered if ram may have an effect or the SCSI at all?

This brought up the other idea mentioned in the title, an IDE68K.

So looking at AmigaKit there are SCSI2SD units and I was like I remember a while back someone from here sold a home produced (professionally) IDE68K board that could come with 4mb or 8mb of ram. I'm thinking its kipper2k? might have been someone else and it was on par price wise with the SCSI2SD unit. I wondered if it might be a better option to pull the ram from the main board that I added via sockets, redo the stock connections and leave 0.5mb chip onboard, 2mb in the A590, without a hard drive(but keep it to connect scsi CD/DVD drive) then get one of those as CF cards and even small laptop HDs are fairly plentiful.

Its a bit of a long story but the end result I want to achieve is a hard drive, a CDROM and 1mb or ram or more (like the setup I had with a trapdoor expansion 20+ years ago). Maybe WB3.1 installed on HD with a 3.1Kickrom disk, so it works with my 2.05 (37.300) Kickstart chips. Then i am going to build a Raspberry Pi modem and get it on the internet, that is my goal!

Thoughts please?

[alexh]

If you want the CDROM drive then you have to keep the A590 and go down the SCSI2SD route.

I'd personally go with an A508 from Kipper2k (assuming he is still selling them)

It will be slightly slower and use more CPU than the A590 + SCSI2SD but you'll barely notice.

Loosing the lump off the side of the A500 and 2x PSU's more than makes up for it.

Plus sell your A590 and recoup some or all of the cost?

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

I have noticed though is sometimes my Amiga registers 1mb of Chipram sometimes 0.5mb

Are you sure? Is it not that you have applications including the HDD buffers which have used lots of chip RAM?

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

So I wondered if ram may have an effect or the SCSI at all?

The other way around. SCSI devices will use up some chip RAM

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

Maybe WB3.1 installed on HD with a 3.1Kickrom disk, so it works with my 2.05 (37.300) Kickstart chips.

Just replace your KS chips with KS3.1 (v40.63). They are very cheap. Or make your own

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

Then i am going to build a Raspberry Pi modem and get it on the internet, that is my goal! Thoughts please?

Sounds expensive for something you'll use once and never use ever again. You'll almost certainly require more than 1MiB for SLIP/PLIP. There is no graphical web-browser for an A500 with no accelerator.

[alexh]

The ultimate would be to get an ACA500+ for about £115

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...CA500plus.html

[bugsymalone666]

Originally Posted by alexh

If you want the CDROM drive then you have to keep the A590 and go down the SCSI2SD route.

I'd personally go with an A508 from Kipper2k (assuming he is still selling them)

It will be slightly slower and use more CPU than the A590 + SCSI2SD but you'll barely notice.

Loosing the lump off the side of the A500 and 2x PSU's more than makes up for it.

Plus sell your A590 and recoup some or all of the cost?


Are you sure? Is it not that you have applications including the HDD buffers which have used lots of chip RAM?


The other way around. SCSI devices will use up some chip RAM


Just replace your KS chips with KS3.1 (v40.63). They are very cheap. Or make your own


Sounds expensive for something you'll use once and never use ever again. You'll almost certainly require more than 1MiB for SLIP/PLIP. There is no graphical web-browser for an A500 with no accelerator.

So what I was finding is my Amiga would either register about 8-900kb memory (you know the normal for 1mb with workbench running) or 4-500k, like its not seeing the second lot of onboard chip ram. I have had both instances while it sees the SCSI hard drive, thats what makes me think there is a problem somewhere on the main board.

I did wonder if Kipper2k was still selling the A508, price wise its on par with the SCSI2SD, but you get 8mb of ram and an ide interface thats loads easier to plug stuff into. I think all his come with CF slots these days (if he still makes them)

I guess basically, I do it for the challenge, which is what I was asking myself before is why do we still play with this old stuff? I built an RPi diskette replacement drive for about £18 as I already had a raspberry pi, I have seen somewhere about using the Pi as a SCSI device too! same goes for the modem idea, I have seen its possible to do something and the challenge is getting it to work, understanding the electronics and the satisfaction of it working at the end of it. mainly I want to start using it again for mucking about with music stuff I used to do and the classic games, plus transfer the 200 odd disks of data onto ADFs so they can be kept indefinitely!

I'm wondering though, with Kippers IDE thing, I presume the scsi side still works alright?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

I have had both instances while it sees the SCSI hard drive, thats what makes me think there is a problem somewhere on the main board.

Sounds like a fault on the main board. Unless this is your prized Amiga from when you were a kid, sell it and buy an A500+ (but remember to remove the battery)

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

I guess basically, I do it for the challenge, which is what I was asking myself before is why do we still play with this old stuff?

For me it is nostalgia. To play again the things you did all those years ago as a kid.

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

I built an RPi diskette replacement drive for about £18 as I already had a raspberry pi

I did what most here have done. Buy a standard Gotek for £12 and a USB JTAG for about £3 and reprogram the firmware with either HxC, Cortex or the new FlashFloppy.

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

I have seen somewhere about using the Pi as a SCSI device too!

http://www.geocities.jp/kugimoto0715/rascsi/index.html

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

same goes for the modem idea, I have seen its possible to do something and the challenge is getting it to work, understanding the electronics and the satisfaction of it working at the end of it.

You'll get it to work no problem but you will use it once. See how terribly slow and unusable it is and never use it again.

Originally Posted by bugsymalone666

I'm wondering though, with Kippers IDE thing, I presume the scsi side still works alright?

Unknown. Probably, if the RAM jumper is set to 4MiB. Otherwise they will clash.

[E-Penguin]

Originally Posted by alexh

There is no graphical web-browser for an A500 with no accelerator.

Actually...

http://aminet.net/package/comm/www/AWeb-3.5.09-68000

Does need more than 512k chip though.

[bugsymalone666]

Originally Posted by alexh

Sounds like a fault on the main board. Unless this is your prized Amiga from when you were a kid, sell it and buy an A500+ (but remember to remove the battery)


For me it is nostalgia. To play again the things you did all those years ago as a kid.


I did what most here have done. Buy a standard Gotek for £12 and a USB JTAG for about £3 and reprogram the firmware with either HxC, Cortex or the new FlashFloppy.


http://www.geocities.jp/kugimoto0715/rascsi/index.html


You'll get it to work no problem but you will use it once. See how terribly slow and unusable it is and never use it again.


Unknown. Probably, if the RAM jumper is set to 4MiB. Otherwise they will clash.

Yep alas my first computer! think my dad bought it when i was like 10-11, I'm 36 now lol!

And I guess some of playing things like cannon fodder and flight of the amazon queen is totally what I want, but I remember the octamed music sampler being pretty good for throwing things together.

Luckily its not a 500+ so it doesnt have an on board battery to be a problem, its been through a couple of ram expansions, then when the last one seemed to stop working when I got it out the cupboard after about 10 years to start playing with it again, I found out about modding the main board and added in the chip sockets where there were spaces and modded the board according to another thing on here I think it was making it all chip ram on board.

Later on I got the A590 with its 2mb of ram.

Already done the Gotek HxC thing. Built an RPi drive first because I had an Rpi, then learnt about Gotek drives, got an Amiga one with the 3 digit display, then bought a second super cheap one from china (about £12 i think) without a display and used a usb serial programmer and bought a licence for the HxC and it works like a charm!

I think I may look at removing the second batch of on board ram I added and see how it performs. I have been looking at getting a good used trapdoor ram expansion for it and putting the main board back to stock (about 2 or 3 solder joints) I noted with the ram expansion they have an on off switch, which does make me wonder about some compatibility.

havent really looked into a 3.1kickstart chip yet, I wonder if that would have an impact on the ram situation and the Scsi stuff at all?

[Nosferax]

I don't think Kipper2k is making them anymore... I've sent him about 4 email in 2017 and never got any answer from him.

[alexh]

He just posted a thread where he made a new batch with rotated CF card slot so it fits in an A2000 with the CPU slot adapter he sells. So I bet he has some