Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    I have a GVP-II and an Adaptec 40?? series. I am waiting for a cable to
    arrive and will be doing similar. 
    
    keep in touch
    kevin

    
    re:.-1  The docs for the acb 5500 indicate that it is the same as the
    4xxx but better (some how) so I would be interested to hear how you
    make out.
    
    re: .0  After spending another night of playing with the setup again
    and trying some scsi example programs I am beginning to beleive that
    the board is returning an error code which means that the drive is
    unformatted (which of course it is since this is the first time I used
    it).  Which brings up an interesting situation in that the GVP
    formatting software does not recognize the drive since the board
    returns an error due to an unformatted disk.  So here I sit with an
    unformatted drive and software that cannot format the drive, guess its
    time to learn C so I can put together a program which will talk
    directly to the ACB 5500 and supply the information to low-level format
    the drive.
    Has anybody done this previously?
    
    wayne
    

    
    	I have an ACB4070 connected via Microbotic's HardFrame. 
    
    	On the boot disk that came with the hardframe was a special 
    program to format the drives connected to the HardFrame
    
    Also if I remember correctly there is a jumper to format/test the drive
    (on the ACB4070)
    
    	Steve G

    
    The ACB 5500 has a jumper for diagnostics, when in place the DS lite
    flashes at a slow but regular interval.  Unfortunately the user guide
    that I received is missing appendix A which contains the Diagnostic
    information.
    
    
    wayne
    

    
    	I haven't even got any docs. Someone in the note file told me about
    the Jumpers..
    
    	I never really found out what that diag jumper did. (I suppose it
    tells you that you have connected the drive correctly to the
    controller...
    
    	Steve G

    Just a thought, is the drive terminated? When I took my RZ23 home and
    installd it on the GVP controller bus( extended cable from 40 meg) I
    had problems. The controller knew it was a DEC RZ23,104 meg etc. When I
    tried to do a low level format the drive active light came on,and
    stayed on. After I added terminating resistors it formatted and has
    been working great ever since. So aside from the possible many other
    problems a hardware mix can cause, make sure the end of the buss is 
    terminated. don't be indsulted if it is, but I thought it may be part
    of the problem.
    							bill 

    The diags on the Adaptec run and will flash a code on the LED if
    there is a problem.  At least that what they do on the 4000A.  You
    will need the technical manual to decode the flashes.
    
    m
    
    ps - when the diags are run on the 4000A you hear the drive
     	 seeking.

    
    In another test I was able to connect the Adaptec to a Supra controller
    and everything worked great first time.  Selected the Adaptec 4000 in
    the SupraFormat program and put in the ST-506 drive parameters.  It
    then went completly through a low-level format and bad block scan. 
    Rebooted the Amiga and mounted the drives and ran diskperfa for a test,
    not real fast but at least it worked right away without any screwing
    around.
    
    Took the hardware back home and hooked it up to the GVP II, no change
    it still does not work.  Tried some scsi inquire commands from a C
    program (which return correct information when checking a standard scsi
    drive) but could not get anything but errors returned from the Adaptec. 
    Checked all the cables and terminators (this is the last item on the
    bus therefore the resistor packs are installed) but still no luck.
    Called Creative Computers and talked to the Tech Support who indicated
    that they had tried an Adaptec on several of the older controllers
    (GVP, Trump and a couple of others) and found that it worked, but they
    have not tried it on the newer boards so do not know although he
    indicated that he would not be surprised to find that they no longer
    work.
    Therefore I am returning the GVP II controller to Creative Computers
    and will be looking for another controller that specifically supports
    the Adaptec Controller.
    An interesting note is that the Creative Computer Tech Support person
    does not recommend the Trump Pro controller at this time because it is
    not working reliably (even after receiving 2 new ROM upgrades).  He did
    indicate that it has tremendous potential to become the best controller
    on the market (and also something about it being able to support
    network communications on the scsi bus between cpu's), but at this time
    he cannot recommend it.
    
    wayne
    
    ps: anybody want to unload an old Trump, Supra or Hardframe (with docs
    that indicate support for Adaptec Controllers)???
    

    
    	Try the Microbotics HardFrame...This card works with the Adaptec
    ACB series of cards..I have an ACB4070 connected..and it works fine.
    
    	

    The Hardframe will work with the Adaptecs, but Microbotics was firm in 
    stating they do not support adaptec/Omti adaptors (at least this was
    the case a year ago).
    
    The ICD controllers ADVERTISE Adaptec and Omti support.  I have tried
    an old Adaptec 4000a on the controller and it works fine...
    
    The ICD controllers seem to be a bit faster than the GVP Series II,
    but your mileage may vary ;^)
    
    John
    

    
    Microbotics DOES support Adaptec controllers because they have a
    Adaptec format program on the disk that came with the HardFrame and in
    the docs the state that they don't support Omti (due to them not having
    docs for the controllers [ thats what I was told on the phone])
    
    	Steve G

    
    re: .10  What is the name of the ICD controller.
    
    In talking with Tech Support at Creative Computers he indicated that
    they no longer handle the Microbotics Hardframe because of the lack of
    support they received from Microbotics.  One of the local computer
    shops indicated that the Hardframe is their recommended controller
    because Microbotics supports their shop better than other
    manufacturers.
    
    Who to believe?  I think I will put my faith in the people of this
    notes file that have at least used the product and can relate
    experiences.
    
    wayne
    

    The ICD controller is called the ICD Advantage 2000 or AdSCSI 2000
    
    I think Creative carried them for $139
    
    

    
    
    	RE .13
    
    		I beleive ICD have announced a new controller called
    
    		ICD AdSCSI 2080 which supports a non-DMA SCSI controller
    		and upto 8-Megs of RAM.....????!!!
    	
    	Steve G 

    
    Well I orderd the ICD Advantage ADscsi 2000 since their tech support at
    least know what an ACB 5500 is.
    
    Upon receipt I was happy to find that it does indeed work, however all
    is not rosey.  In formatting an RD51 using the supplied interleave of 2
    I have found that the controller hangs regularly (disk to disk copies
    work however calling up applications will usually hang).  I even tried
    putting very short cables on the RD51 however it still hangs. Changing to
    an interleave of 3 or 4 seems to keep it alive however it is very slow.
    
    In addition I moved an RD31 and RD53 from a 2090A to the ACB5500 and
    found that the format software reports an error when accessing the
    drives (apparently the error code is indicating 'Bad Format' code from
    the ACB), the Bad Format is expected since the drives have never been
    formated by the ACB and the ICD software seems to be tripping over this
    and as such I cannot format these drives.
    
    At least I'm getting closer in that the software does talk to the
    ACB5500 this time.
    
    Also I seem to have developed bad blocks in the first 2 tracks of an
    ST-157 SCSI drive and as such the format cannot read/write the
    partition information on this drive.  The ICD software is having
    troubles with this and I have not been able to figure out how to map
    around these bad blocks, anybody have any ideas?
    
    All in all the ICD is working better for me execept that I have been
    able to hang it (and the system) repeatedly with no explaination.