Amiga 4000: Is the Fastlane Z3 the best home for a BlueSCSIv2 Upgrade?

[@RetronautTech]

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[@tpd1967]

I used one of these for a while with my Broadcaster Elite non linear editing suite. Eventually upgraded the Fastlane when I got a Cyberstorm PPC accelerator with built in Ultra Wide SCSI controller and its 68pin header. Used two 36GB 10,000 rpm Seagate Cheetah drives which absolutely flew!

[@RetronautTech]

Just wondering. Others and myself have noticed issues with disk corruption. Do you remember these being prone to this back in the day? Of course, these issues could be to do with people picking up (very old) kit?

[@mikedefoy]

I couldn't have done any serious multi-track audio, video or 3D animation / special effects work in my Chicagoland studio without SCSI, due to the sheer size and volume of the files. The Flyer had its own proprietary file format, but before that, Lightwave 3D used a DPS Personal Animation Recorder "PAR" card to play back the completed animations (with it's own dedicated hard drive). When the Flyer became available, the PAR was no longer needed. An external tape and Syquest drive were mandatory for backing up projects. There was a program called Tapeworm that handled that, with up to 7 devices on a single, properly terminated SCSI bus line.

[@RetronautTech]

Yah, SCSI, gone, but not forgotten. Personally, Id love to see the Fastlane Z3 cloned, a ReAmiga version of it would be nice. Mind you, it is a little flaky, but that could be remaining gremlins in the Super Buster 11?

[@HoldandModify]

Good job on these! It's not to see stuff that's not always, "under produced" and "poorly produced" for a change! 🙂 -HAM

[@RetronautTech]

Thanks, and hey to a fellow VFX'r :) I worked over here in UK, in first games, then TV and then Film VFX for about 12 years. More of a 3dStudio guy though. Though my first 3D love was Real 3D on the Amiga. You know, when moving to Imagine, etc, I just could not grok polygons at first. Yeah, Real 3D was odd in that respect.

[@RetronautTech]

If anyone is wondering, the state of play with this card now, is that the SCSI is working, but the RAM side is iffy. Originally, when I received it, I could not get the SCSI working, hence the video. But the RAM actually worked. Well, it worked for the 4x 4mb Simms, giving me 16mb extra. Then, just before I started making the video, I decided to pop the other RAM in, starting with the 2nd 16mb. And it did not work. Yellow screen. Took it out, and tried various combos. None worked, so then went back to the 16mb again, and now that does not work either. When testing this, I found if I held the 2nd Simm in its socket, it worked, kind of. But often if I let go, and reboot, yellow screen again. Plastic clips broken on ALL of those first 3 slots. So I decided to get the new sockets, the ones with metal clips. I may make a video showing me fixing this. But of course, nothing is guaranteed. The Fix or the video :). Never de-soldered, soldered a simm slot before, so that'll be a fun challenge for a start eh?

[@stephenwhite506]

I guess that a modern version would be tiny compared to this card, as you can get a single 64MB SDRAM IC for $3 and a 64MB DDR SRAM IC for $1. You can get DIP ICs but also BGAs at 10mm x 12.5mm!

[@RetronautTech]

Yes, the RAM side of things would now be one chip, even if it were the full 256mb of RAM. The SCSI side, could all be merged into one IC probably. It would only be the 50 pin SCSI socket and the backplate that would make it large. Maybe sourcing those is not so easy, but it appears it IS possible as the A4091 was made recently.

[@tpd1967]

It’s a long time ago now, I moved to the Mac for video editing in 2004! I do remember the Broadcaster system used separate scsi drives for video and audio. The amiga’s FFS couldn’t be used to format them, the system was supplied with PFS, Professional File System. I think it had built in file defragmentation but can’t be sure at this distance…

[@MrSmileyBobuk]

Great video as always, love the way you go into detail and explain everything. I’ve recently repaired an Amiga 4000 myself and would be very interested in buying some of those SIMM sockets from you if that’s possible? The clip on a few of mine have broken although the memory seems to work at the moment.

[@RetronautTech]

I do worry the detail is a bit much. But then who wants to know vague stuff about tech, and you can always skip ahead if I'm boring the toenails off you eh :). The Sockets, well, maybe wait a couple of weeks and the ping me via the channels email address. I've not received them yet. I cant really vouch for their quality yet. But they look the biz in the photo eh?

[@R.Daneel]

Anyone else old enough to remember Apple's marketting push to get people to pronounce SCSI as "Sexy"? They didn't want Scuzzy ports in their fancy Macs. Even back then, I'm pretty sure it just got the few people saying "Ess Sea Ess Eye" to say Scuzzy instead.

[@RetronautTech]

Wasn't the precursor to SCSI, SASI? Sasi and Sexy.... hrm, sounds like a bunch of men getting a bit over excited again over tech eh. Ha! Nah, not heard that one. Mind you, you do forget others do not know what SCSI is, and they give you an odd look when you say your working on a SCSI video...

[@togst]

I'm having a bit of a fight with my Fastlane card as well. Had problems with the image becoming corrupted. Although not clearly visible on the BlueSCSI wiki menu, an article regarding SD Cards can be found and says to avoid all SanDisk cards. I bought a high endurance Samsung card and the corruption went away. Thought I'd point this out as it does appear you have a SanDisk card.

[@RetronautTech]

AH, a fellow fastlaner. Yeah, they are a little tricky. Currently mine is totally our of order, or rather it might be my A4000's riser card. I had to put it and the Fastlane back in, out several times to install a CD-Rom Drive. Because the A4000 is a nightmare to add drives is right.... So after the 5th or 6th insertion (which required force) it was either not seeing the card, or reporting it with some gibberish IDs and the wrong types. So yeah... argh. Another video when I test this again. Who knows it might fix itself... But I'm assuming some solder joint got cracked on the riser card, the motherboard, or maybe the Fastlane. What I need to check this is some test Zorro card. If anyone has one they don't need, please send it my way. It can be for something no one needs these days, like a serial expansion. I just need a KNOWN good Zorro card to test with.

[@togst]

Ouch, never a good feeling. I'm sure you will get your riser card sorted out! I personally end up with seemingly random crashes, but found this happen every time with WHDLoad. I can see in the debug logs either timeout messages from the pi, or a watchdog message. Having tried all sorts of combinations of settings both on the BlueSCSI and on the Amiga, I am convinced it isn't compatible. It works for the most part, but not fully. Stable and fully working with the exact same setup on IDE with an S-ATA adapter. Would like to try a ZuluSCSI, but it is still pending to be shipped from the vendor after several months. Looks like I have to use an S-ATA drive and either sell or retire the Fastlane card. Not the outcome I wanted, as this is a much more elegant solution.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

a SCSILVD2SATA Adapter might let you use a 1TiB SSD

[@KarlHamilton]

New subscriber here. What's this like compared to the A4091 or the A4000T SCSI with Buster 11?

[@RetronautTech]

Sadly, I could not tell you. I only have the 4000D with this card. I THINK the A4091 is also a SCSI2 card, and I would anticipate VERY similar speeds. Not sure about the built in BUS on the 4000T, but I recall Chris Edwards putting an A4091 into his tower, I THINK, so that suggests its might be slower?

[@KarlHamilton]

​@@RetronautTech Yeah A4091 is SCSI-2, I think the A4000T SCSI is just a buikt in A4091 but there's probabaly a few differences along the way. Always is.

[@NigelsWorkbench]

Your monitor may have a faulty backlight?

[@RetronautTech]

Well spotted, actually, no, its a bit more complicated. I tested the same RGB to SCART lead with my A500 and this monitor, and its nice and bright. So... this has lead to me taking the A4000 apart and some techy probing to see if there is an issue with its video DAC. Long story short, today, I THINK its all actually good so... odd. My solution is to order a second cable, from AmigaKit, which apparently are a little more techy and aimed specifically at displaying RGB on an LCD screen. I understand that simpler (socket, wire, socket) RGB to SCART cables can work just fine for a CRT, but have issues on an LCD. Now, this new cable may not help, but as I have 3x Amigas and only one cable, its not going to waste anyway... Right now, with my current cable, the screen is down to about 10% brightness, so it could still be an issue with the A4000 DAC, but its certainly not an easy one to pin down. The spec for the chip says that the RGB signals should be near 15-30mV and thats what I see. Hence I began to think its a cable issue.

[@jeroentaverne8232]

Is one of the PLCC sockets cracked?

[@RetronautTech]

Can you give me a clue, which one?

[@symosys]

Why fastlane z3 over an re A4091?

[@RetronautTech]

Hrm, I cant say off the top of my head. From my recollection, the Fastlane offers more memory expandability. And getting one 2nd hand, I think the cost is about the same.