CF -> SCSI by motley chain of adaptors

[TylerEss]

I know there's a ton of threads about CompactFlash, but here's yet another. Who's actually put together a long chain of adaptors to put CompactFlash in their 68k?

I'm now waiting on arrival of the following:

CF->40Pin IDE

IDE -> SCA SCSI

SCA -> 50Pin SCSI

I'm excited to see if it all plays well together. I've had good luck with similar setups before, even though daisy-chaining adaptors usually ends in tears. Hoping for the best. At about $30 shipped for all three, I won't be too disappointed if I strike out.

If you've tried one of these contraptions, please post your experiences here!

 

[waynestewart]

I tried pretty much that setup and had no luck.

I used a CF to ide adapter I picked up from NCIX

I connected that to an Acard ide to SCSI adapter and used a 50 pin SCSI adapter.

The CF to ide adapter is working fine connected to an ATA 100 card in my 9600.

The ide to SCSI setup works fine with an ide drive connected.

Maybe it's just my particular collection of adapters that just won't play together

I'll be interested in hearing how you fare. Hopefully yours will work together

 

[luckybob]

If nothing else, make sure you post pictures of this rube goldberg contraption.

 

[krye]

Yes, I'm definitely interested in seeing this work too.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Is the SCA SCSI output for U160 or U320?

If the former, I think you should be OK. It'll be interesting to see if your IDE->UltraSCSI adapter does a better job of it than the ACARD IDE->SCSI ASIC.

If the latter, it may or may not be backward compatible with the original (Mac) SCSI spec.

Good luck, I'm following this I/O hack with great interest! :approve:

edit: That'd be way cool hooked up to your fast/wide JackHammer SCSI II Card, BTW! }

 

[TylerEss]

I don't actually know what SCSI spec the SCSI/IDE adaptor is supposed to be compliant with.

It's not one of the well-known ones, but is actually a board taken out of a Maxtor drive caddy for filling a SCSI drive shelf with IDE drives. When it arrives I'll hopefully know more from reading the silkscreening on the ASIC.

I've got hope that it's U160 or even U2W on the SCSI side, since the time period when IDE drives were cheaper than SATA was quite a long time ago indeed.

*fingers crossed*

 

[TylerEss]

OK, sad news everybody. The "IDE->SCSI" adaptor I bought on eBay is actually an "IDE -> IDE + Power on an SCA80 connector" board. No active components. I gave it to my kid to play with; there's $15 out the window.

Don't really feel like putting the $75+ into a proper IDE->SCSI adaptor + the $40 or so for a 600x CF card. Maybe later.

I will be working on getting one of these Hitachi 72GB 10k drives going in the Mystic instead, using the SCA->50pin adaptor. They've got fluid dynamic bearings and are super cool and quiet. Very fast access times, too.

 

[Bunsen]

The "IDE->SCSI" adaptor I bought on eBay is actually an "IDE -> IDE + Power on an SCA80 connector" board.

Yup. I was fooled by those on ebay for a while till someone put me straight. Luckily I never put down the cash on one. At least it wasn't a huge loss :/

 

[TylerEss]

Yeah, I got suckered into it because the local computer wrecking yard had (some time back) a SCSI drive shelf full of MAXTOR IDE drives with fancy sleds that (reportedly) had IDE-SCSI bridges in them. So, I thought these were the same thing. Ah, well. :'(

 

[beachycove]

...one of these Hitachi 72GB 10k drives going in the Mystic instead, using the SCA->50pin adaptor. They've got fluid dynamic bearings and are super cool and quiet. Very fast access times, too.

That's interesting. Most SCA drives that I have encountered are like young children on a long car journey: whiny, irritating and best put to sleep.

Do you happen to have the model number handy?

 

[TylerEss]

These quiet ones are Hitachi HUS103073FL3800.

I got them a few years ago from Compuvest and ran them in a RAID 1 pair in an old workstation. I had a big, undocumented pile of code and mirrored 10K SCSI made my grep -r wicked fast.