A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

[rubber_jonnie]

Ok, so since removing the Laser Direct board the PSU appears stable, or at least has been so far, so it's staying out.

The good news is that I have BlueSCSI working, it seems I had managed to download an early version of the firmware, so I went back, got the latest and now I have this:

PXL_20230626_130734132.jpg

The drives have formatted OK, and files copy there OK too, so it looks like writing is fine.

I created the drive using the command: dd if=/dev/zero of=HD00512.hda bs=512 count=1000000

I did this on my Mac and it seems to work just fine. I just need to remind myself how to get the OS installed onto the SCSI drive so I can boot from there!!!

@stephen_usher this may be of use to you, hope so.

[stephen_usher]

Thanks! Unfortunately no SCSI on the A4000 and only connection for a mini-podule. The A4000 is really cost reduced in terms of expandability, i.e. virtually none.

[rubber_jonnie]

Thanks! Unfortunately no SCSI on the A4000 and only connection for a mini-podule. The A4000 is really cost reduced in terms of expandability, i.e. virtually none.

Aahh, shame. The A5000 only has IDE by default, it's a Morley non cached one, but it's a long podule, so I'm assuming from what you're saying, they won't fit fit the A4000.

I'm humming and haring about what to do next, as though the BlueSCSI drive formats fine and can be written to, it seems the backups of the original drive cannot simply be just dumped on the new drive.

Also, since removing the Laser Direct card, and removing a Molex extender cable to the HDD, the PSU and original HDD seem to work fine. So do I move forward with the BlueSCSI (I have 2 now :) ) which will give me a 500MB HDD, or do I leave it as is with the physical drive and call it good.

Since the BlueSCSI seems to work fine, I kind of want to go down that route, but I'll need to refresh my memory about how I got the OS booting from disk last time as I'm struggling to remember.

:dizzy:

[stephen_usher]

Yeah, the A4000 only has effectively headers on the motherboard and is one of two systems, both based upon the ARM250 SoC, which use this and don't have a full podule slot. As I said, cost reduced and knackered by default.

[rubber_jonnie]

Yeah, the A4000 only has effectively headers on the motherboard and is one of two systems, both based upon the ARM250 SoC, which use this and don't have a full podule slot. As I said, cost reduced and knackered by default.

Well that's just rubbish!!

[rubber_jonnie]

Ok, so I've decided to bite the bullet and replace the PSU.

Given the leaking caps it had when I got it, and the very porous PCB, I'm wondering if despite a damn good clean it has electrolyte in the PCB and it's affecting performance.

What is happening is that when stood for a day or so, it takes time to get up to speed, like the Mac Classic and gives screen flickering and odd burbling noises from the speaker, and the HDD won't spin up for about 5 minutes. After that it'll run fine all day.

So, I've found a Meanwell RPT-60A which provides the 12v, 5v and -5v needed and we'll see how that goes, and in the meantime I need to try and get the BlueSCSI booting, so I'll need to follow the instructions over on Riscos.com, since I really can't remember what I did last time!!

I wish I'd written down more detailed instructions when I did it previously...

[JezC]

I wish I'd written down more detailed instructions when I did it previously...

I can think of somewhere useful for you to store them for your future reference...it even has a group of like-minded retro enthusiasts who might also appreciate the write-up!

:coffee:

[rubber_jonnie]

I wish I'd written down more detailed instructions when I did it previously...

I can think of somewhere useful for you to store them for your future reference...it even has a group of like-minded retro enthusiasts who might also appreciate the write-up!

:coffee:

Well I'd actually meant I wish I'd stored them here...

First I need to go figure out what I did

[mrbombermillzy]

Hopefully Icky and Exxos will have that AtariWiki up at some point....perhaps there will be a 'misc/other machines' section that RJ can fill up? :D

[rubber_jonnie]

Hopefully Icky and Exxos will have that AtariWiki up at some point....perhaps there will be a 'misc/other machines' section that RJ can fill up? :D

Perhaps :)

Part of the problem seems to be that any drive I put on BlueSCSI is unbootable.

Be it 80MB like my physical IBM drive, or 500MB, the maximum, adding !Boot from Uniboot makes no difference and it simply doesn't boot. They are recognised as drives, format, they can be read and written to, but they don't boot, and I see no option for it in the Morley controller config options, and I'm fairly sure all I did last time was format and drop in Uniboot.

Could it be a BlueSCSI thing? Maybe. I may try installing the BlueSCSI in my Mac Classic and see if I can install a bootable OS, got to be worth a try and wouldn't take long.

If I had another physical 50 pin SCSI drive I could drop in, that would help, but I have no more spares :(