INSTALLING A NAKAMICHI 5CD CHANGER in an Amiga 3000D using AMIGA OS3.2 and AMICDFS

[outlawal2]

Thanks to Dale over at Acill's discord channel for lending me a hand with this project:

What you will need / Assumptions:

• Amiga with a SCSI controller
• ASIMcdfs I am using v3.9 (You will need to download off the net. Not sure where at this point as it has been removed from AMINET.)
• SCSI-Prefs Download this off aminet if you are installing to an Amiga 3000. LINK --? Aminet - Search


My system is an Amiga 3000D with the internal SCSI controller. If you have a 3000D then you will need to use the SCSI prefs program listed above to set the SCSI preferences in NVRAM. (If you do not have a battery for your NVRAM or it has failed then you will need to set these preferences each time you boot the Amiga.) You would set them and then reboot the machine (Don’t shut it off, reboot it) and then the prefs will remain.

Connect your Nakamichi 5 CD drive to the Amiga internal SCSI chain and if this is the only device or the last device on the chain be sure to set the terminator jumper on the drive. Also make note of the SCSI ID on the unit. (The internal SCSI unit is 7 so any ID on the drive will work just make sure it does not conflict with any other SCSI units you may have installed.)

AMIGA 3000 SETTING THE SCSI PREFERENCES:
(If you are not installing to the internal controller on a 3000d you may skip these steps)

• Download the SCSI-PREFS.LHA archive from AMINET using the link shown above and then unpack this file somewhere on your Amiga hard drive. (PREFS is a good location.)
• Run SCSI PREFERENCES and select the checkbox for Multiple LUNS.

It will tell you to reboot the machine. REBOOT the machine now (Don’t shut it down)

INSTALL ASIMcdfs:
(I am using v3.9 but other versions have been shown to work as well)

• Download ASIMcdfs from the net.
• Double-Click on the installer and run thru the install as usual.
• Select the Nakamichi 7 disc changer. (Regardless of which Nakamichi changer you have, if the install does not offer the exact model you are installing then select the Nakamichi 7 CDROM as that will work for the 5 disk unit as well)

• When it asks if you want to use the query for the device and unit, say yes and select your SCSI device from the list. If you select the correct one your Nakamichi CDROM device should showup and match the SCSI ID you have selected on the back of the unit.

• Select that unit and click on “Continue”
•
• Here it should show you the SCSI device and you can accept the default
•
• Now it will ask you for the Device ID and will default to the ID you have selected on the back of the unit. If this was a single CD unit you would use the default, but since this is changer device it requires a different numbering scheme. If your device is 2 then change it to 002. If your device is 5 then change it to 005. and continue.

When it asks if you want separate or pooled, select SEPARATE.

Complete the install and reboot the machine. It will take longer to boot as it checks the drive for CDs. Once it is up to the desktop, hit the CD1 button on the drive and insert a KNOWN GOOD CD in slot 1. (KNOWN GOOD meaning a CD you have previously read on your Amiga with an Amiga CD drive in the past.) Go ahead and load the remaining 4 CDs into the drive as well.

Now it will take some time to load, verify and mount the CDs that are in the drive. This is not a fast process.
Eventually it will complete this step and if your drive is good and the CDs are in good shape you should see x5 CD titles appear on your desktop

TROUBLESHOOTING:

• Only one CD device shows in ASIMCDFS. (You may need to download SCSI-Prefs.lha from Aminet. See the steps above to install and configure CDPREFS)
• CDs are shown on the desktop but say “Not Initialized” This may be an issue with the SCSI chip in your machine. Look at the SCSI chip near the SCSI ribbon cable connector and if the chip says PROTOS this may be your issue. This particular chip is found in 3000s and 2000s and can exhibit strange behaviors. You may want to order an updated replacement from eBay or other source. The replacement type for this chip is:

AM33C93A-16PC And they are typically less than $5 a piece.

[Jope]

More important than the proto text is the revision. 00-02, 00-04, 00-08 exist at least, out of which the larger the number, the fewer bugs it has.

All of these have been seen with and without the word proto. :-)

But as you said, the AMD chip will have the smallest amount of bugs, so by all means get one if you can find a genuine one.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by outlawal2

• AMICDFS I am using v3.9 (You will need to download off the net. Not sure where at this point as it has been removed from AMINET.)

There is a big difference between AmiCDFS and AsimCDFS.

The former is shareware and of course still on Aminet with its latest version which is 2.40. It does not explicitly support disk changers. But you could probably make it work by creating a seperate dosdriver for each slot using the LUN number. With the disadvantage that it probably will rotate through all slots at least once at boot time to find out which CDs are in there.

AsimCDFS has always been a commercial product and never was on Aminet. You always had to buy it from its vendor or from various dealers around the world. By today it's available semi-legal in Tosec collections, probably even on archive.org, surely on the eab file server. 3.9 is a version of AsimCDFS, not AmiCDFS.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by outlawal2

Thanks to Dale over at Acill's discord channel for lending me a hand with this project:

What you will need / Assumptions:

• Amiga with a SCSI controller
• AMICDFS I am using v3.9 (You will need to download off the net. Not sure where at this point as it has been removed from AMINET.)
• SCSI-Prefs Download this off aminet if you are installing to an Amiga 3000. LINK --? Aminet - Search


My system is an Amiga 3000D with the internal SCSI controller. If you have a 3000D then you will need to use the SCSI prefs program listed above to set the SCSI preferences in NVRAM. (If you do not have a battery for your NVRAM or it has failed then you will need to set these preferences each time you boot the Amiga.) You would set them and then reboot the machine (Don’t shut it off, reboot it) and then the prefs will remain.

Connect your Nakamichi 5 CD drive to the Amiga internal SCSI chain and if this is the only device or the last device on the chain be sure to set the terminator jumper on the drive. Also make note of the SCSI ID on the unit. (The internal SCSI unit is 7 so any ID on the drive will work just make sure it does not conflict with any other SCSI units you may have installed.)

AMIGA 3000 SETTING THE SCSI PREFERENCES:
(If you are not installing to the internal controller on a 3000d you may skip these steps)

• Download the SCSI-PREFS.LHA archive from AMINET using the link shown above and then unpack this file somewhere on your Amiga hard drive. (PREFS is a good location.)
• Run SCSI PREFERENCES and select the checkbox for Multiple LUNS.

It will tell you to reboot the machine. REBOOT the machine now (Don’t shut it down)

INSTALL ASIMCDFS:
(I am using v3.9 but other versions have been shown to work as well)

• Download AMICDFS from the net.
• Double-Click on the installer and run thru the install as usual.
• Select the Nakamichi 7 disc changer. (Regardless of which Nakamichi changer you have, if the install does not offer the exact model you are installing then select the Nakamichi 7 CDROM as that will work for the 5 disk unit as well)

• When it asks if you want to use the query for the device and unit, say yes and select your SCSI device from the list. If you select the correct one your Nakamichi CDROM device should showup and match the SCSI ID you have selected on the back of the unit.

• Select that unit and click on “Continue”
•
• Here it should show you the SCSI device and you can accept the default
•
• Now it will ask you for the Device ID and will default to the ID you have selected on the back of the unit. If this was a single CD unit you would use the default, but since this is changer device it requires a different numbering scheme. If your device is 2 then change it to 002. If your device is 5 then change it to 005. and continue.

When it asks if you want separate or pooled, select SEPARATE.

Complete the install and reboot the machine. It will take longer to boot as it checks the drive for CDs. Once it is up to the desktop, hit the CD1 button on the drive and insert a KNOWN GOOD CD in slot 1. (KNOWN GOOD meaning a CD you have previously read on your Amiga with an Amiga CD drive in the past.) Go ahead and load the remaining 4 CDs into the drive as well.

Now it will take some time to load, verify and mount the CDs that are in the drive. This is not a fast process.
Eventually it will complete this step and if your drive is good and the CDs are in good shape you should see x5 CD titles appear on your desktop

TROUBLESHOOTING:

• Only one CD device shows in ASIMCDFS. (You may need to download SCSI-Prefs.lha from Aminet. See the steps above to install and configure CDPREFS)
• CDs are shown on the desktop but say “Not Initialized” This may be an issue with the SCSI chip in your machine. Look at the SCSI chip near the SCSI ribbon csable connector and if the chip says PROTOS this may be your issue. This particular chip is found in 3000s and 2000s and can exhibit strange behaviors. You may want to order an updated replacement from eBay or other source. The replacement type for this chip is:

AM33C93A-16PC And they are typically less than $5 a piece.

You should have watched Chris Edwards YOUTube channel as he covered this off including the SCSI chip upgrade.

The quickest and easiest method I found was to just install and use IDEFIX’97. Worked for me and less hassle

[outlawal2]

Originally Posted by thomas

There is a big difference between AmiCDFS and AsimCDFS.

The former is shareware and of course still on Aminet with its latest version which is 2.40. It does not explicitly support disk changers. But you could probably make it work by creating a seperate dosdriver for each slot using the LUN number. With the disadvantage that it probably will rotate through all slots at least once at boot time to find out which CDs are in there.

AsimCDFS has always been a commercial product and never was on Aminet. You always had to buy it from its vendor or from various dealers around the world. By today it's available semi-legal in Tosec collections, probably even on archive.org, surely on the eab file server. 3.9 is a version of AsimCDFS, not AmiCDFS.

DANGIT! I MEANT ASIMcdfs... Thanks for pointing that out, I will update this shortly.

[outlawal2]

Originally Posted by Jpor

You should have watched Chris Edwards YOUTube channel as he covered this off including the SCSI chip upgrade.

The quickest and easiest method I found was to just install and use IDEFIX’97. Worked for me and less hassle

Well that is great but where was this recommendation when I was asking for assistance installing the changer in the first place? (The Chris Edwards video)

Oh and by the way I did watch his video and yes it shows him USING the changer but does not explain how exactly he managed to get it to work and this is exactly why I documented it. The specific steps that need to be followed are not in the video just that "I got it to work" Nothing about scsi prefs (REQUIRED for a 3000)

Every time I ask for assistance I get replies similar that say "Oh do this" without specific instructions on HOW to do this.

Thanks

[Dale423]

Glad to help @outlawal2!