Help needed for my X68000 XVI Compact and external SCSI to Compact Flash

[fandenivoldsk]

I have been reading this and other forums, about how to connect a X68000 XVI Compact via SCSI to use a Compact Flash card reader for HD game install.
But I'm still puzzled about what to get for my XVI Compact to make it work.

As for outputs, I can see that there is a "SCSI out" on the back of the XVI Compact unit, and I also got a Sharp CZ-6BS1 (http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:cz-6bs1_-_genuine_sharp_scsi_board) plugged into "Slot 2", so all in all I got two (different looking) SCSI outs on my XVI Compact.

What should I get for these two outputs to connect a Compact Flash card reader, and is it possible to connect CF cards to both outputs, so I can have two HD for games?

I also got this adapter: http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b134769103, but I don't know if this is something that will make things easier, as I have no idea what the adapter is made for :-)

Any help from you guys on how to hook up my X68000 XVI Compact to harddisk gaming would be highly appreciated :-)

[lydux]

Hi !

First, for knowledges :

SCSI are designed to hook up to 7 compliant devices on a single chain. You have 2 scsi chains, so you can have up to 14 drives if you wish to !
Your CZ-6BS1 card output a typical DB50 SCSI-1 connector. While the Compact output a proprietary connector, and your converter will convert it to HD50 SCSI-2 connector.

So, you want compact flash as an external drive ?
Unfortunatly, that's not simple...
You will need an external scsi (1 or 2) enclosure and that's really expensive ! Because of this multi-device support, most of them look like a tower where you can plug your drives. You may be able to find cheaper enclosure for 1 or 2 drives, but they are generally designed for 5' devices (cdrom/tape). As far as I know, I've never seen empty enclosure for scsi hard drive like nowadays external sata to usb case. Although, single and already filled external scsi hard drive have exist (SUN were a good producer for this). A solution could be to buy one, with dead or removed hard drive (I'm thinking about a "SUN 411" case).
Try to search for "scsi external enclosure" on ebay. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Plus, compact flash are ATA compliant, not SCSI ! So, you will need an ATA(IDE) to SCSI converter. See wiki links below.
And finally, a cheap IDE to compact flash converter...


Here is Caius's tutorial about adding Compact flash internally. This is not what you are looking for, but you should think about it :
http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:internal_scsi_and_cf_card_mod

And give a read to this one as well, just to understand what we do on twin-tower models :
http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:hard_drive_on_sasi_machine


Good luck !

[fandenivoldsk]

Hi lydux,

Thanks for your quick reply! I will check out your links and tips.

Something I did not mention in my first post: A year ago, a guy on ebay was selling a "Sharp CZ-6BS1 SCSI card for x68000 with Compact Flash".
I bid on it, but did not win it.

Here is what he wrote about his offer and a picture of it:



Sharp CZ-6BS1 SCSI card for x68000 with Compact Flash card reader

Comes with:
AC adapter for SCSI PCMCIA card reader
PCMCIA Compact flash adapter
1gb Compact Flash card (Human OS installed, plus additional software/games)
CZ-6bs1 card
50 pin centronics to 25pin DB SCSI cable (approx 2feet)

Tested and working on:
Sharp X68000 Pro - bootable from compact flash, may require changing settings in SWITCH.X (been awhile from
when I set it up dont remember)

Sharp X68000 Expert - could not get it to boot from Compact Flash, but was able to read the drive with Human
OS 3.01 boot disk (there should be a way to get it to boot from Compact Flash but I have forgotten how to.)



So is the above possible to do with my X68000 XVI Compact?
It seems his setup is a bit different to your "SUN 411" suggestion, but maybe a bit cheaper and easier to do? What do you think of it?

[lydux]

Yeah, there is many thing you can do with scsi. Using an scsi to pcmcia is more or less what we do (in term of specifications I mean).
That'll work with any SCSI host. So your compact as well.

But  the little black box here is rare, I haven't been able to find one. And seems it were sold at about $150...

[caius]

Hi fandenivoldsk,
I think you could try my mod, it's not very hard (the hardest part is to disassembly the CompactXVI and solder the PIN headers, IMHO  ) and it's cheap compared to your solution.Feel free to  ask me help and I'llgive you all support

P.S.
Obviously, I will also provide you the assembled PCB to adapt from SCSI internal to SCSI 50 IDC.

[fandenivoldsk]

@caius: PM sent :-)

[AnnaWu]

Uploaded following ROM:

SCSIEXROM_CZ-6BS1 : External SCSI from a Sharp CZ-6BS1.

I guess IC18/21 are merged.

[AnnaWu]

On the Wiki exist a picture of the Sharp CZ-6BS1 controller card.
Unfortunately, the resolution is not high enough to identify all parts.
Someone have a more detailed picture?

[neko68k]

Lydux scsiinrom works in xm6. AnnaWu's scsiexrom does not.

[AnnaWu]

Lydux scsiinrom works in xm6. AnnaWu's scsiexrom does not.

With the tool "XM6 utility" you can create SCSIINROM.DAT and SCSIEXROM.DAT dummies, right?
SCSIINROM.DAT work and SCSIEXROM.DAT doesn´t work on XM6, right?

[neko68k]

I have the dummies yeah. They work, I was just testing. And yes, SCSIINROM.DAT works and SCSIEXROM.DAT does not. Both dummies, however, work fine.

[AnnaWu]

Just for info

[lydux]

You both are right, this rom is good to me.
Just look into the sources, XM6 does many stupids things with roms loading !

And unfortunatly, this emulator suffer a lots from bad programming practises...

Anyway, thanks Anna for this one !

[AnnaWu]

Maybe XM6 expects the ROM to start at 0xEA0000?
Not checked in detail.

[lydux]

No, I've quickly checked by directly debugging xm6 from sources. It just do not load it at all...
The type of scsi rom it will loads depends on the configured machine's kind. Haven't checked so far, but seems it have to be a SASI one without an already loaded internal SCSI rom. And anyway, you can't configure both chains in options menu... So you can't have both roms at same time, which is totally non-sense to me !
All existing drivers/tools works with only one chain, depending on the boot address configured in SRAM. That's a IOCSCALL limitation.
But theorically, that's possible to work with both at same time (NetBSD should be able to), as they do not use the same memory space.

[AnnaWu]

Thanks for the info, lydux.

neko68k, try the modified CZ-6BS1 ROM on XM6.

[lydux]

Ho yeah ! I got it !  

This one should work.
As I said, crappy loading routines...