Using the PowerMonster II with Blizzard SCSI Kit

[geminister]

I got two new toys today, A Blizzard SCSI Kit and a PowerMonster II CF to 2.5" SCSI adapter. It also included a 2.5" to external scsi adapter.

After a lot of problems, I've managed to figure out how to get these babies working well together. It turns out that the PowerMonster doesn't support reselection. I've read problems identical to mine with AztecMonster (similar product from the same manufacturer) too for people with Amigas, I'm willing to bet this was the problem.

So, when installing a new CF card, make sure you uncheck reselection under drive setup in hdtoolbox/hdinsttools. After that, things should be working fine.

 

[Rodpulsar]

Thx for this experience feedback Geminister. Could you tell us the transfer speed in MB/s you get with a simple hard drive test from Sysinfo 4.0 ?
(Not that Sysinfo is accurate, but it's heavily used in the community and it gives us some relative comparison speed).

Thanks a lot

 

[geminister]

I'm currently preparing a second, faster CF card. With the first, slower, one I got around 4.4mb/s in Sysinfo.

 

[CrazyC]

Have you used the scsi tools to try synchronous mode?

 

[sir_beaker]

Fantastic, I plan to go down the road with the AztecMonster in a few months so great to know

 

[geminister]

Have you used the scsi tools to try synchronous mode?

Yes, 6.5mb/s with synchronous. Very obviously faster than the internal IDE, and feels faster than the Fast ATA too. This is without doubt the best CF solution for the A1200 with a compatible Blizzard accelerator.

 

[CrazyC]

That is cool - I am just quite gutted that a whole host of house and wife expenses have cropped up and made me park this plan again, possibly till next year even.
I think I shall probably even have to release some of my Amiga stuff back into the wild.
Where are powering the Monster from?

 

[geminister]

That is cool - I am just quite gutted that a whole host of house and wife expenses have cropped up and made me park this plan again, possibly till next year even.
I think I shall probably even have to release some of my Amiga stuff back into the wild.
Where are powering the Monster from?

Power to the PowerMonster? It comes from termination power from the SCSI kit, the 2.5" SCSI -> external SCSI adapter has that function.

 

[Rodpulsar]

Thanks a lot ! I thought SCSI could give speeds around 9/10 MB/s though.

Is it limited because it's a CF instead of an HDD, or it would be the same speed with an HDD ?

 

[CrazyC]

Power to the PowerMonster? It comes from termination power from the SCSI kit, the 2.5" SCSI -> external SCSI adapter has that function.

Oh - I was looking at the Aztecmonster as I want the card to stick out more, and that has a molex for power, forgot the Powermonster is different?

 

[geminister]

Power to the PowerMonster? It comes from termination power from the SCSI kit, the 2.5" SCSI -> external SCSI adapter has that function.

Oh - I was looking at the Aztecmonster as I want the card to stick out more, and that has a molex for power, forgot the Powermonster is different?

Yes, it's built in a 2.5" form factor. Perfect for a desktop A1200!

Although, with my floppy cable I have an extra molex connector. So I could have used that one, if needed.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks a lot ! I thought SCSI could give speeds around 9/10 MB/s though.

Is it limited because it's a CF instead of an HDD, or it would be the same speed with an HDD ?

I don't know, will fiddle around a bit with the options and see if I can get it up a bit more.

 

[CrazyC]

So basically the SCSI cable from the blizzard plugs into the SCSI socket on the Powermonster (yes I know its via the attached adapter) and thats it? No other connections?

 

[geminister]

So basically the SCSI cable from the blizzard plugs into the SCSI socket on the Powermonster (yes I know its via the attached adapter) and thats it? No other connections?

That's right. It's very handy.

 

[geminister]

So, a quick update. Due to the fact that the BakMonolith (2.5" SCSI to DB25 adapter) has the DB25 connector pointing downwards, and that DB25 connectors aren't exactly thin, I'm having problems fitting this in the drive cage under the keyboard in my A1200D. It's too thick to fit, basically. One option is to make a 2.5" SCSI extension cable between the BakMonolith and the PowerMonster, placing the BakMonolith somewhere else. Another option is to desolder the DB25 connector from the BakMonolith and replace it with an angled DB25 connector, like this. I need to measure everything closely to figure out what I can do to fix this. A third option would be placing it somewhere else in the case, but I'm reluctant do do that. I'll keep it in mind as a last resort, though.

 

[geminister]

And now for a update to this. I got some help with resoldering the connector on the BakMonolith and a new cable to fit it. It all works beautifully.