Help needed getting Fastlane Z3 SCSI card & BlueSCSIv2 work together

[Tchucolate]

I have bought a Fastlane Z3 SCSI2 adapter, and I'm trying to use it with an Amiga 4000.
So far, its not quite working, its still quite a ways off from being of any use.
It was bought as not known working, because the vendor said they had not used it in 5 years.
But, last time they had, they said it was fully functional.

Here are some photos of my device
Fastland Z3 - Front View
Fastland Z3 - Rear View

So, the situation…
When I plug in a serial connection into my BlueSCSIv2, and turn it on, it appears to be functioning as expected.
Further to this, I have already used THIS BSv2 with a GVP SCSI sidecar and it was working as expected.
So, I think its assembly is ok.

In the Z3 card, it sees the BSv2, as ID0 or whatever you configure it as, and you can select it, and try to configure it.
I have done this with both HDTools using z3scsi.device and also with its own native toolset from Phase 5 (unitControl2 and SCSIControl3).

Both tools see the drive. However, it is a little unreliable. For instance, when reading its details in HDToolbox, it sometimes reads the manufacturer information verbatim, but sometimes its characters are garbled, same goes for drive name, and version.

When I partition the drive, this works ok. However, post that, quitting the tool, the drive is not always mounted and shown on the desktop. Mostly, it is not, about 90% of the time, it does not appear, even after a reboot.

When it DOES appear, you can select it, and then format the drive, and this appears to work as expected. It's name changes, and you can open the disk, and it reports the correct size. However, when you try to write ANYTHING to it, it reports checksum errors, and data, never seems to stick, no files appear on the disk.

When using the unitControl2 tool to set the drives properties, it also sometimes reports a checksum error. Also, on occasion it will state that the drive's size is not divisible by the number of cylinders (or similar)

I am not sure if this is a hardware problem with the Z3. Oddly, in the the BSv2 serial logging, everything looks ok.
Or, is this a configuration/software problem, something needed somewhere with MASK values, sector values etc.

If anyone here also has a Fastlane Z3 that would be especially useful. Sadly, I do not have a REAL SCSI hard disk to test with. I'm not into using them as they are so unreliable now.

I may start, as a simple precaution to replace the cards caps. There are only 3, but who knows, maybe the power delivery is a bit off or dirty. I guess there could be an issue with the cards chips, which are mostly GALS or PALS (heat-sinks on all) but as it kind of works, I don't think it this. Usually ROM corruption or chip fails lead to more drastically bad behaviour.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on it right now. All help appreciated.

[Jope]

The faster the SCSI, the better your termination should be.

Do you have the termination resistors installed in the Fastlane? Is the termination jumper enabled on the bluescsi v2?

[Tchucolate]

Yes, the three physical terminator packs are installed, and these are enabled using a jumber right next to them. I have tried...

On Board Termination Enabled + BlueSCSI Termination Enabled

On Board Termination Disabled + BlueSCSI Termination Enabled

On Board Termination Enabled + BlueSCSI Termination Disabled

And not noticed any improvement in reliability. This could be a termination issue, certainly. But as none of the above seem to make it work better, I don't think it is the issue.

[mark_k]

From looking at the pics on amiga.resource.cx...

Like many old SCSI controllers, on-board passive termination is hard-wired and cannot be disabled by a jumper. There are three resistor packs next to the SCSI connector. If you wanted to remove termination you need to desolder them. (If all else fails you could try doing that and use an internal active terminator.) Edit to add: the resistor packs may be socketed on the Fastlane board, in which case you could remove them easily.

What you can change by jumper is whether the Fastlane supplies termination power to the SCSI bus.

Looking at the jumper settings, you could try disabling synchronous transfers by opening jumper 4. And try closing jumper 3 to enable "slow cable mode".

[Tchucolate]

Originally Posted by mark_k

From looking at the pics on amiga.resource.cx...

Like many old SCSI controllers, on-board passive termination is hard-wired and cannot be disabled by a jumper. There are three resistor packs next to the SCSI connector. If you wanted to remove termination you need to desolder them. (If all else fails you could try doing that and use an internal active terminator.) Edit to add: the resistor packs may be socketed on the Fastlane board, in which case you could remove them easily.

Yes, the fastlane resistors are socketed. I have tried removing these, and using ONLY the termination on the BlueSCSI, and I get the same result.
So far, with termination installed on the card AND the BS, or just on the BS, or just on the card, I get the same result.

It "works" but is funky, with odd checksum errors, etc.

[pandy71]

SCSI need TWO terminators at both ends of cable - easiest way to control termination is to disable all terminators on devices and use two separate Active terminators installed on cable ends. In Amiga it is probably wise to use external active terminator installed on SCSI port.

[Tchucolate]

On this card, there are a set of 3 resistor packs installed right next to the cable. I have these installed, so termination is on the device, as advised. On the BlueSCSI card, the Termination jumper is in place. So, all being good, I think termination is not the issue.

[Andreas232]

I have 3 BlueSCSI adapters and with all problems.. Did you try another device like Zulu or real HDD?

[mark_k]

It could be a good idea to have matching termination (i.e. both active, not one passive one active) at each end of the SCSI chain.

Also, how is the BlueSCSI powered?

[Tchucolate]

Hey, so I found the issue. Was a bit of a guess in the end, but it worked. Ill be releasing a video on the whole saga in the next few days

Basically, although the card does NOT need a Super Buster 11 from Factory, because of historical upgrades to the card, it now DOES.

With the Super Buster 9 in place, it manifested numerous subtle issues, mainly in the form of Checksum errors, but mainly, drives would not mount, or mount infrequently and not work.

Originally, I was going to do a video on a SCSI CD-Rom, disk swapper app, but considering the gip I have had with this card, I think it makes more sense to video document THAT journey first.