X68000 CompactXVI and Compact Flash card: a successful story!

[caius]

Hi all,
as promised I want to share the result of my work.

First of all  we must say that this kind of mod is more difficult  on X68000 CompactXVI since it doesn't have an internal SCSI connector like the other models or better it has  an internal connector which is connected by a flat cable to a small sub-board with provides external SCSI connnector.
See the picture a better understanding:

http://img859.imageshack.us/i/scsisubboard.jpg/

So if we want to make a completely internal mod we have to work directly on this sub-board.

If you look at the following  picture you can see 30 (2 rows of 15) solder pads near the SCSI connector:

http://img845.imageshack.us/i/e00138284cbae86787cac.jpg/

These 30 solder pads are connected PIN to PIN with the near  SCSI connector so , first of all, we have to install sockets on this 30 pads.In my case I used this sockets but you can use different ones:

http://img847.imageshack.us/i/toplayer.jpg/

The pinout of these 30 pads is the following:
http://img16.imageshack.us/i/x68000compactinternalsc.jpg/

Black circles are GROUND,  asterisk means 'not connected'.Numbers in circles are the equivalent of the 50 pins SCSI IDC connector.
I took the pinout ( and some pictures) from Painkilla blog, all credits goes to him!Look at his tutorial (in korean) here:

http://kpark.co.kr/2665922


Now that we have the pinout, we have two choices: building a custom cable SCSI which connects the installed sockets to your SCSI to IDE converter (In my case a Yamaha  V769970) like Painkilla made (see the above link) or building a small piggyback board adapter like I made.
This the layout :

http://img69.imageshack.us/i/x68000compactxviinterna.png/

Obviously you have to put the pin headers soldering them on the top layer of the board ( the 30 pin headers  downward and  the 50 ones  faced up)   then you have to piggyback the board on the previous installed sockets. Connect a SCSI 50 pin  cable from piggyback board to SCSI to IDE adapter then connect this to the CF to IDE adapter.
For my test I use the great Eidis HD image which I restore onto a 1GB Sandisk Compact Flash.
Set the jumper of your SCSI to IDE adapter to SCSI ID 3.
Regarding other settings  I got best results with PARITY and TERMINATION jumpers set to OFF(with these ON sometimes  I got random freezes or boot errors).BLOCK SIZE jumper also is set to OFF.

That's all.If you have any question, feel free to ask, I will be glad to answer!
Special thanks go to Painkilla, Eidis and Damphird for all the help they gave me!

[eidis]

Good job !

This is a great day for the scene. IMHO now we have tutorials for complete lineup of X68000 on how to connect a hard drive. Could you do a Wiki article on your massive achievement ? Keep up the good work !

Eidis

[caius]

Ok, I will do the WIki article.
Last thing:
I noticed that if I follow you procedure:

http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:hard_drive_on_sasi_machine

I have the same trouble which Damphird had: I can't initialize the CF but only format it and then, after I installed the bootloader in SRAM, no SCSI devices are detected at boot.
Instead, if I restore your HD image on CF (setting SCSI ID3 on Yamaha converter and SCSI3 on boot)  all goes fine.
I also format another CF (this time setting the SCSI ID0 on converter) without installing the bootloader but only choosing SCSI0 on boot and all is working.
So, my question is:
Is it  needed the bootloader in SRAM?

[eidis]

 Hi!

Quote from the Wiki article: *Note for SCSI users: You don't need the SxSI drivers and installation of bootloader to SRAM. You can take the easy route by transferring the below mentioned image to CF card, then transfer human302.xdf to floppy disk, boot from it, run switch.x and set BOOT to SCSI3.*

Eidis

P.S. SCSI based machines do not need the SxSI driver. All it does is basically translates SASI commands to SCSI.