BTN USER NOTES (2.1) This document contains information for users of particular hardware: o Commodore 2090A SCSI adapter o Supra SCSI adapters o ICD SCSI adapters o 3M MCD-40 direct access tape drives If you don't own any of these items, you may safely ignore this document. ** DISCLAIMER ** Statements about alleged problems with a manufacturer's product may not be accurate, and in any case should NOT be construed as a recommendation against purchasing products from that manufacturer. ============================================================================= CBM 2090A SCSI ADAPTER 2090A compatibility is iffy. It works for some people, but doesn't for others. Read on if you want to risk it anyway. Apparently there is a software bug in the CBM 2090A SCSI-direct code that causes problems with tape writes. Bob Mitchell figured out that the problem can be circumvented by asserting data address bit 24 for writes. This handler can optionally invoke that circumvention. To do so, specify "C9-1" in the Startup string. The circumvention is NOT necessary for other adapters. A worse problem- the 2090A cannot seem to handle both the disk and the tape drive on the same SCSI bus. Simple reads or writes to the tape work fine, but intermixed tape reads and disk writes (such as during a restore) will cause the 2090A to get confused. This does not happen if the hard drive is on the ST506 bus. It also does not happen if you restore the files to RAM or floppy. Make sure the tape is out of the drive when you boot AmigaDOS; otherwise, DOS never comes up. When you mount TAPE:, make sure there is no cartridge in the tape drive. For some reason I do not understand, the 2090A causes a reset to the tape drive when OpenDevice is called. If a cartridge is in the drive at that time, the system eventually enters an unusable state. I recommend using "Mount = 1" in your MountList entry for TAPE: so when TAPE: is mounted, it will put up a requester because the drive is empty; click on cancel, then everything will be happy. ============================================================================= SUPRA SCSI ADAPTERS If your hard drive SCSI adapter is made by Supra Corporation, you need to determine which version of the driver software or ROM you are using. The possibilities are: Series III version 3.0 or higher (the latest and greatest) Series II version 1.10 (not as good, but BTN can handle it) Series II version 1.09 or lower (will NOT work with BTN) REALLY old version, like 5.1, 3.1, etc. (don't even think about it) Issue the CLI command "VERSION suprascsi.device". If you get a positive response to this, then SKIP the rest of this section. Otherwise, try "supradirect.device". If you get "9.1" or higher, then you have the Series II v1.10 driver (makes sense, right?). (Note: I recommend getting the Series III driver upgrade from Supra. It is an excellent upgrade, and fixes all the following problems.) There is a problem with the Supra Series II v1.10 driver software that causes the host adapter to hang when a non-zero byte count is supplied in the command (SCSICmd.scsi_Length). It works fine when a data length of zero is used. The handler can also circumvent this problem. Specify "SU-1" in the Startup parameter. DO NOT specify SU-1 for the Series III driver. For Series II, you MUST run the tape handler at a higher priority than the Supra v1.10 driver task. You do this by changing the "Priority =" line in the mountlist entry. For Supra v1.10, the task runs at priority 10. Therefore, the tape handler should run at "Priority = 11" or higher. If the cartridge is in the drive at the time you boot AmigaDOS, SupraMount will hang the system if it touches the tape drive. To avoid this, use the selective mount feature of SupraMount to mount only your disk unit. Example: "SupraMount 6". ============================================================================== ICD SCSI ADAPTERS I've been informed that there may be problems using ICD SCSI adapters on *accelerated* Amigas when writing to *slow* tape drives. The result is intermittent SCSI-PHASE ERRORs during writes (reads are ok). The ICD driver (2.01?) has a special flag to compensate for the problem, but unfortunately it is not accessible through the standard SCSI-direct interface. IF you experience this problem, I suggest you contact ICD and ask for a driver upgrade which provides access to this flag through the standard OpenDevice() device flags. Then you can enable the flag in the BTN mountlist DF parameter. ============================================================================== 3M MCD-40 (403,405) DIRECT ACCESS TAPE DRIVES The following applies only to the 3M MCD-40 direct access drive, and derivatives thereof. The value of BS must be either 8192 or 8320. No other choices. You should set BS according to the setting of switch 6 (see below). The 3M drive does not use filemarks. When you reference the tape as "TAPE:num", num is the SCSI block number, not the file number. When writing multiple files to a tape, you should write down the block numbers where each file starts and ends. Use the TAPEMON program to see the block numbers in the "Opened at" and "Closed at" messages. Also because it does not use filemarks, it is difficult to use the drive with the CLI "COPY" command. When copying from TAPE:, COPY will just keep reading bytes until you manually stop it with a control-C, or it reaches the end of the tape. The RB parameter in Startup may be used to skip over a number of blocks at the beginning of the tape, if there is something there (like volume information) you wish to preserve. The RT-1 (retension) parameter does not work properly on the 3M drives, but it is not necessary anyway because the drive does its own retension. Be sure your cartridge is formatted. If you try to use an unformatted tape, results will get "BLANK CHECK". You can buy preformatted tapes (not sure which kind), or you can format your own. The raw command to format a tape is: 04 80 20 00 00 80 which denotes the format command (04), immediate completion (80), precondition the tape (20), and retry on errors (80). Some older drives may not like some of the other bits, in which case try just: "04" The format operation takes approximately 40 minutes. A note about the hardware. If you haven't noticed it yet, the 3M drive is EXTREMELY sensitive to electrical noise. It is *essential* that the drive be properly grounded. The ground through the power connector is inadequate. You should run a thick wire or braided strap from the metal side-plate to the DC POWER SUPPLY GROUND (not the chassis or AC ground). Even the metal frame in which the drive is mounted may not be good enough. I'm not kidding. You have been warned! For specific information about the 3M drives, contact the places listed below. Try Georgens first. Georgens Industries, Inc. Voice 619-481-8114 3346 Industrial Court Fax 619-481-6913 San Diego, CA 92121-1003 3M OEM Data Cartridge Drive Products Magnetic Media Division 3M Center 223-5N-1 Voice 612-733-5454 St. Paul, MN 55144 MCD-40 SWITCHES AND JUMPERS (from the manual): Switch# Position Description 8 - Open YES Diagnostic mode Closed* NO " (* = factory default setting) 7 - Closed* NO reset on power-up and SCSI reset Open YES " 6 - Open* Data block size = 8192 bytes Closed " 8320 5,4 Open* Reserved 3,2,1 SCSI address (3=MSB, 1=LSB) (Open=0, Closed=1) Jumper Plugs: +5V ----|>|-----o JP5 o-------+------- Pin 26 | +---o JP6 o-------+ | ? <-----+---o JP7 o------------ +5V JP5 is for those systems that require terminator power to be supplied by the tape drive on SCSI Pin 26 for external terminators. The internal terminators must be REMOVED from the unit when using this option. JP6 is for those systems that supply terminator power to the tape drive. Only the SCSI terminators are powered in this option. The internal terminators must be INSTALLED if the drive is the last device on the SCSI cable. JP7 is preset as a factory default for those systems that use no terminator power. The internal terminators must be INSTALLED if the drive is the last device on the SCSI cable. Sense codes and Extended Sense codes: 1 - RECOVERED ERROR 2 - NOT READY 04 Drive Not Ready A7 Logical Load Failure A8 Cartridge Autoloading B0 No Cartridge in Drive 3 - MEDIUM ERROR 10 ID CRC 11 Unrecovered Read error of data blocks 15 Seek Positioning error 19 Defect List error 31 Medium Format corrupted 32 No Defect Spare Location Available 4 - HARDWARE ERROR 08 Logical Unit Communication Failure 10 ID CRC 15 Seek Positioning error 42 Power On Diagnostic Failure 5 - ILLEGAL REQUEST 20 Invalid Command Operation Code 21 Illegal Logical Block Address 24 Illegal field in CDB 26 Invalid field in Parameter List 6 - UNIT ATTENTION 28 Medium Changed 29 Power On or Reset or Bus Device Reset occured 2A Mode Select Parameters changed 7 - DATA PROTECT 27 Write Protected 8 - BLANK CHECK (unformatted tape) 9 - VENDOR UNIQUE B - ABORTED COMMAND 47 Message Parity Error Message 48 Initiator Detected Error