Author Topic: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b  (Read 15317 times)

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Offline max-bitTopic starter

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #25 on: January 03, 2019, 09:56:39 pm »
Bios 1.77B worked well on Win 2k Win XP
It does not work on systems >Win7 (8 ,10) (no test UNIX)
It's a bit weird.
These adapters were generally dedicated.
Unfortunately, support is poor.

And what do you want to use (exactly) with this adapter?
I actually bought it accidentally.
I thought there was a normal SCSI drive in the IBM chassis. I was a little surprised when the DVD-Ram was in the middle and this adapter ...
I've tried it a bit (including reprogramming) but as I write ... even on the latest firmware there are problems with the latest OS
 

Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #26 on: January 04, 2019, 03:29:30 am »
I would like this ACARD adapter to convert my IDE CD-ROM drive to SCSI interface for use on an Am5x86 system, which runs DOS, Windows 95c, and NT 4.0.  It will never be used on anything newer than Windows XP SP3.

Could you let me know what problematic symptoms you were experiencing with your adapter before you upgraded the firmware?  I'd like to know if the symptoms are similar to what I am experiencing right now -  that is, the adapter detects the adapter/CD-ROM drive, but won't read from a disc and the DOS driver won't setup.

Also what have you used the adapter for after upgrading the firmware? How did you confirm its working properly now?
 

Offline Rasz

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #27 on: January 04, 2019, 04:22:44 am »
The extra pins on the TSOP-48 package, DQ8-DQ15, are not connected on either.

so it wasnt hardware related, never mind then :)
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Offline max-bitTopic starter

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #28 on: January 04, 2019, 06:19:14 am »
1. Is it simpler to use the CDROM on IDE ??
2. How did you upload the software to the original IC?
Can you show what the loaded code looks like? (Screen from the Wellon program)
 

Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #29 on: January 04, 2019, 06:42:30 am »
Could you let me know what problematic symptoms you were experiencing with your adapter before you upgraded the firmware?  I'd like to know if the symptoms are similar to what I am experiencing right now -  that is, the adapter detects the adapter/CD-ROM drive, but won't read from a disc and the DOS driver won't setup.

Also what have you used the adapter for after upgrading the firmware? How did you confirm its working properly now?

Are you able to provide some answers to these questions?  It may be that there is nothing wrong with my unit and that it expects certain hardware that it isn't receiving.

EDIT: When using, both, 1.77A and 1.77B BIOSes, the SCSI host controller card will identify the CD-ROM correctly, but the original 3.77I BIOS provided by max-bit and the 1.77B BIOS modded by max-bit, return, BadExtRom 16K on the SCSI scan.  Still cannot access a disc in the CD-ROM with 1.77A & 1.77B though.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2019, 01:08:29 pm by feipoa »
 

Offline Rasz

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #30 on: January 05, 2019, 03:06:03 am »
but the original 3.77I BIOS provided by max-bit and the 1.77B BIOS modded by max-bit, return, BadExtRom 16K on the SCSI scan.  Still cannot access a disc in the CD-ROM with 1.77A & 1.77B though.

wasnt the whole thread about changing format of those files? you need this one https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/add-a-single-byte-in-a-bin-file-every-one-byte-(all-file)/msg1972562/#msg1972562
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Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #31 on: January 05, 2019, 03:18:51 am »
newfile.bin.zip also returns "BadExtRom 16K". The only ROMs which are recognised are the originals 1.77A and 1.77B.
 

Offline Rasz

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #32 on: January 05, 2019, 05:41:02 am »
newfile.bin.zip also returns "BadExtRom 16K". The only ROMs which are recognised are the originals 1.77A and 1.77B.

have you compared them in hexeditor for obvious differences?
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Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #33 on: January 05, 2019, 11:01:58 am »
Yeah, apparently the adapter doesn't care for the alternating FF every 8 bits.

I'm thinking my issue is PCB component related.  The PCB appears to be developed for TSOP-48 and PLCC-32 options, with the SMD components chosen being the compliment.
 

Offline Rasz

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #34 on: January 06, 2019, 07:42:12 am »
newfile.bin.zip also returns "BadExtRom 16K". The only ROMs which are recognised are the originals 1.77A and 1.77B.

I had a look at newfile.bin.zip, its obviously off by one byte and had no chance of working even if you needed interleaved files


Yeah, apparently the adapter doesn't care for the alternating FF every 8 bits.

the other way around? 3.77I BIOS provided by max-bit is interleaved, it appears only the non interleaved ones work for you, so remoev every second byte from IBM_ver 3_77i_AEC7722IR_ver2006_16bit.BIN
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Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #35 on: January 08, 2019, 09:25:22 am »
I really appreciate everyone's comments. I'm a bit burned out on this project right now, but if anyone has a BIOS imaged modified for how Rasz is suggesting, I'd give it a go. Doing what you're asking would require learning time and I'm spent.

Also, I found someone who has rev 1.5 of this PCB. It contains BIOS rev 1.50I. What is of interest is that it contains only a 512 Kbit EEPROM chip - W29EE512P-70. Still PLCC-32. I'm using a PLCC-32, 4 mbit chip, which I thought I recalled seeing one one of these units when I looked into this years ago, and is why I bought the 4 mbit chip to flash.  Any chance using an EEPROM too large will cause issues?
 

Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #36 on: November 28, 2021, 04:54:10 am »
I thought it would be a good time to provide an update to this thread. I have been getting messages from people on other forums who have stumbled upon this thread.  After viewing another thread on this topic whereby the user had some initial success, I thought I'd revisit my work. That other thread is here, https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/converting-acard-aec-7722-to-aec-7726.38935/

It would seem that I had been doing nothing wrong, that is, I am using 8-bit PLCC32 EEPROMs and the BIOS binaries I was using are already intended for 8-bit EEPROMs. The problem is that these ACARD units are somewhat particular as to different combinations of host controllers, devices, and cables.

I am using AEC-7722IR with PCB version 1.8, which originally contained a TSOP-48 EEPROM and BIOS v3.77I. I removed this EEPROM and soldered on a PLCC32 socket and am using an SST 39SF040, 512Kx8 bit EEPROM (PLCC32).  I have no problem using BIOS version 1.77B, which is for the non-IR version of the AEC-7722.  At least for the particular combination of hardware I tested, it seems that you cannot use 50-pin narrow terminated SCSI cables via a male 68-pin to female 50-pin adapter. Also, I tried with and without the SE jumper set on the ACARD. I tested with an ISA SCSI card, the AHA-1520B, and a PCI Ultra160 based card, which also contained a 50-pin connector.  The ACARD adapter worked if I connected it with a 68-pin cable to a host controller's 68-pin connector.  If you want to connect the AEC-7722 to a SCSI host controller that only contains a 50-pin connector, you must use a female 50-pin to female 68-pin adapter on the host controller's connector, and use a 68-pin terminated cable. You cannot use the pin adapter on the ACARD side. Another user on the Vogons forum has also confirmed this finding. 

When I ran a quick benchmark with Adaptec SCSIBench32 on an Adaptec Ultra160 host controller, and the CD-ROM returned about 30 MB/s for same sector tranfers. When the CD-ROM was connected to an ISA AHA-1520B host controller, it benched 2700 KB/s, which from my experience is near the max of what a 50-pin narrow card can achieve on a 16-bit ISA.  I tried about a half-dozen CD/DVD-ROM drives. Most of them worked, but some do not.  Various Lite-On and LG drives worked, but my Compaq and Toshiba drives did not.  Another brand worked, but was abnormally slow. I also tried a SATA CD-ROM drive, first connected to a SATA-to-IDE adapter, then to the ACARD. It worked, but the performance was substantially slower than using a native IDE CD-ROM, that is, about 5 MB/s in the benchmarks vs. 30 MB/s.

Another observation was that I was unable to use DOS SCSI CD-ROM drivers when the CD-ROM was connected to the ISA AHA-1520B host controller. For some reason the ASPI2DOS.SYS file didn't want to load in config.sys. While I ensured the IRQ was different than the motherboard's native UltraWide SCSI controller, there may have been some other conflict. I don't know. I'd have to retest this on a motherboard without built-in SCSI. Booting into Windows 2000, I am able to use the ACARD CD-ROM on the AHA-1520B.  Alternatively, I had no issue using DOS SCSI CD-ROM drivers w/ACARD on the motherboard's native UltraWide controller (AIC-7880P). Note the motherboard is a Intel PR440FX socket 8 with two Intel Pentium II Overdrive 333 MHz units installed, and 1 GB of buffered EDO 50 ns memory. I also used a Gateway motherboard with Athlon 950 slot A for testing. This board contains the Ultra 160 host controller.

Next, I had wanted to see if I could use the 7726Q and 7726H BIOSes on the 7722 because this would let me convert IDE hard drives to Ultra 160 SCSI. I say Ultra 160 because the Acard manuals mention the 7726 work up to Ultra160.  I did my testing mostly with BIOS version 1.73Q for the AEC-7726Q. The answer is yes, IDE hard drives and CF cards will work with v1.69H and v1.73Q BIOSes on the AEC-7722.  Some CF card models don't work, like some noname eBay special deal unit and a Transcend 133x 8GB.  The CF cards which did work were the Transcend Industrial CF170, Sandisk Ultra, SanDisk ExtremePro, and Lexar Pro 600x. I also tested IDE Maxtor Diamond Max 9 Plus and Diamond Max 10. 

I ran some quick benchmarks on an Athlon 950 system with a Ultra160 controller.  Using Adaptec EZ-SCSI Deluxe v5.0 and SCSIBench32, I see that a 10K Seagate U320 HDD returns 78 MB/s sequential and 119 MB/s same sector. With the Diamond Max 9 Plus, I get 58 MB/s sequential and 106 MB/s same sector. With the Diamond Max 10, I get 65 MB/s sequential. I think this is pretty decent for using a bridge adapter. Unfortunately, I benched the CF cards on a the Intel PIIOD system with only a UltraWide controller (max 40 MB/s), so the comparison is not fair, but nonetheless, with a CF card on a slower host controller, I get 23 MB/s.

There are some caveats when using HDDs and CF cards on the AEC-7722 w/7726 BIOS; they are similar to that of using CD-ROMs, but with an extra limitation. It seems that hard drives and CF cards must be used on a 16-bit bus, meaning 68-pin only. Trying to use a 68-pin terminated SCSI cable with a female 50-pin to female 68-pin adapter on the 50-pin host controller side resulted in extremely slow performance. While the system was able to boot, it was slow - about 275 KByte/s slow. 

In summary, CD-ROMs with 1.77B work fine with the PLCC32 adaption. They work fine on 8-bit (usually 50-pin) and 16-bit (usually 68-pin) SCSI buses. Hard drives and CF cards work on the AEC-7722 with 7726 BIOS versions 1.69H and 1.73Q, but only on 16-bit SCSI buses. This is in contrast to the AEC-7720U, which uses a different ACARD chipset, which can accomodate IDE hard drives and CF cards on 8-bit 50-pin SCSI buses.
 

Offline DogP

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #37 on: March 28, 2022, 09:54:06 am »
In summary, CD-ROMs with 1.77B work fine with the PLCC32 adaption. They work fine on 8-bit (usually 50-pin) and 16-bit (usually 68-pin) SCSI buses. Hard drives and CF cards work on the AEC-7722 with 7726 BIOS versions 1.69H and 1.73Q, but only on 16-bit SCSI buses. This is in contrast to the AEC-7720U, which uses a different ACARD chipset, which can accomodate IDE hard drives and CF cards on 8-bit 50-pin SCSI buses.
Just want to add my experience... I recently picked one of these up (AEC-7722, this one specifically: https://www.ebay.com/itm/324946138745 ), looking to use it to replace the OEM HD with something solid state in my Agilent 16702B logic analyzer, which uses 50-pin single ended SCSI.  I had success using quite a few IDE drives and adapters with both firmware 1.69H and 1.73Q.  I also tested 1.77B with an IDE CD-ROM drive, and it worked fine.

The SCSI adapter I used was an HP 50-pin to 68-pin adapter (HP P/N 5182-4551, like: https://www.ebay.com/itm/361343207980 ), which was connected to the OEM HD.  I also tried this adapter: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373808851302 , though it didn't work as-is, and didn't work with the OEM hard drive either.  I've seen this adapter as well: https://www.ebay.com/itm/280662764240 , though I haven't tested it.

I think the non-working adapter didn't work because it tied all upper 8 data bits and its parity directly to GND.  For comparison, the HP one has all those pins tied together, but pulled to TERMPWR with a 4.7K resistor.  I modified the adapter to be similar to the HP one, and it worked.  I don't really recommend buying that to modify though, since the traces that need to be cut are beneath the 68-pin connector... so you need to remove the connector, cut traces, then resolder it.  I'll probably end up making my own adapter for a better mechanical fit anyway, so I'll post the schematics/gerbers if/when I do.

I did a lot of testing, so I might be remembering wrong... but IIRC, 1.69H seemed to be a bit more forgiving with the bad SCSI adapter.  I think it'd report the model of the device connected, though it'd hang if you tried using it.  I think 1.73Q seemed completely dead with the bad adapter.  I just mention this to note that one or the other firmware might be more forgiving if you're running into any problems.  I also tried both with an without the SE jumper, and it worked either way (I'm guessing it detects diff/SE automatically, but the jumper simply forces it to SE).

Attached is a pic of the adapter sandwich, and several of the drives/adapters I used.  I did some benchmarks (on the 16702B, running HP-UX), though of course performance depends on the specifics.  Here's some data (not all devices got every test):
Sequential read from raw disk:
Code: [Select]
time dd if=/dev/dsk/c0t6d0 of=/dev/null bs=1000000 count=100
OEM HD: 29.6 seconds
10GB IDE HD: 38.6 seconds
SATA SSD: 38.8 seconds
Extreme Pro uSD: 40.9 seconds (when at /dev/dsk/c0t1d0, all SD cards were ~44.9 seconds)
IDE FFC SSD: 44.7 seconds
SanDisk Ultra CF: 53.9
Transcend 133x CF: 62.1
Write file to disk:
Code: [Select]
time dd if=/dev/mem of=/logic/testout.bin bs=1000000 count=100
OEM HD: 19.9 seconds
Extreme Pro uSD: 21.3 seconds
IDE FFC SSD: 24.7 seconds
Read file from disk:
Code: [Select]
time dd if=/logic/testout.bin of=/dev/null bs=1000000 count=100
Extreme Pro uSD: 21.0 seconds
OEM HD: 21.2 seconds
IDE FFC SSD: 25.3 seconds
Boot time:
Code: [Select]
SATA SSD: 2:50
IDE FFC SSD: 2:50
SanDisk Ultra CF: 2:55
Extreme Pro uSD: 3:03
OEM HD: 3:25

The best overall performance was from the small SATA SSD using SATA->IDE->SCSI.  The IDE SSD (using FFC adapter) performed really well in the boot time test, though mediocre in the speed benchmarks.  The CF card performed well in the boot time test, though the CF cards were the slowest in the speed benchmarks.  The SD to CF adapter (SD->CF(IDE)->SCSI) had good transfer speed, though was a bit slower than the CF to boot.  The OEM SCSI HD had good speed performance, but was the slowest for boot time (expected, since the speed tests were mostly sequential, and boot has a lot of random access).

A couple notes... the SATA SSD would occasionally fail to initialize at boot (all of the others properly initialized every time)... not sure if there's a compatibility issue with the IDE adapter, SSD itself, etc., but I wouldn't recommend that.  The other oddity I noticed with the CF to SD adapter was when I tested in place of the CDROM (SCSI ID 1), it would pause for about 4 seconds before returning any data (e.g. copy 1 byte took 4 seconds, copy 1MB took 4.5 seconds).  No idea why that happened, but it was consistent with every SD card I tried.  But when it was in place of the HD (at SCSI ID 6), everything was fine with no delays.  Another thing I'm not totally sure of is why the raw disk read was slower than reading a file from the disk (but it was consistent with all drives).  Maybe the buffering is more efficient or something?

Of course YMMV... it's very possible that it's highly dependent on the controller, hardware, etc.  In the case of the 16702B, it uses an oddball SCSI controller (not a typical Adaptec PC card), and the entire system is single ended narrow SCSI-2 (controller on ID 7, HD on ID 6, and CDROM on ID 1).  As such, it only runs at 5 MHz (obviously much slower than the Ultra160, etc. discussed in the previous post).  I have no idea whether this would work at fast (10 MHz) narrow (50-pin, 8-bit) differential for example.  But maybe some other classic computers/electronics have similar a narrow SE setup that'll have good luck like I did.

DogP
 

Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #38 on: April 13, 2022, 08:55:23 am »
Thank you for the additional information about the terminator.  I only see one of these part numbers for $50 on eBay at present; that's too much for me.  I checked my male 68-pin to male 50-pin SCSI adaptors and they all have the higher order data pins going to GND rather than TRMPWR.  I'm not sure that I want to modify the adaptor.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to tell from eBay photos which adaptors have these pins going to TRMPWR vs. GND.

To confirm, on your HP adaptor, you have all of these pins (on the 68-pin side) going to TRMPWR:

pin 1 (+DATA BUS 12)
pin 2 (+DATA BUS 13)
pin 3 (+DATA BUS 14)
pin 4 (+DATA BUS 15)
pin 5 (+DATA BUS ODD PARITY)
pin 31 (+DATA BUS 8
pin 32 (+DATA BUS 9)
pin 33 (+DATA BUS 10)
pin 34 (+DATA BUS 11)
pin 35 (-DATA BUS 12)
pin 36 (-DATA BUS 13)
pin 37 (-DATA BUS 14)
pin 38 (-DATA BUS 15)
pin 39 (-DATA BUS ODD PARITY)
pin 65 (-DATA BUS 8
pin 66 (-DATA BUS 9)
pin 67 (-DATA BUS 10)
pin 68 (-DATA BUS 11)
« Last Edit: April 13, 2022, 08:57:05 am by feipoa »
 

Offline DogP

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #39 on: April 14, 2022, 08:19:10 am »
To confirm, on your HP adaptor, you have all of these pins (on the 68-pin side) going to TRMPWR:
No, only pins 35-39 and 65-68 (i.e. the -DATA bus pins) are shorted together, and pulled up to TERMPWR w/ a 4.7K resistor.  Those extra +DATA pins are left floating.

I'll post schematics soon.  I've been traveling lately, so haven't had much time to work on it... but was working on figuring out how to mechanically mount everything in my logic analyzer again last night, and will be building my own adapter soon to help with that.

DogP
 

Offline eutectique

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Re: Add a single byte in a bin file every one byte .... (all file)
« Reply #40 on: April 15, 2022, 07:19:03 pm »
Orginal file ;
02 00 d0 81 7c ff ff ff 02 0c 3c 02 15 07 ff ff


Mod file: (add FF every byte)
02 FF 00 FF d0 FF 81 FF 7c FF ff FF ff FF ff FF 02 FF 0c FF 3c FF 02 FF 15 FF 07 FF ff FF ff
(of course all bin file )

It wasn't me who revived this thread, but a shorter answer to the original question is this one-liner:

Code: [Select]
> srec_cat slvd177b.bin -bin -unsplit 2 0 -generate -over slvd177b.bin -bin -const 0xff -unsplit 2 1 -o slvd177b-16bit.bin -bin
Which gives:

Code: [Select]
> xxd -g1 slvd177b-16bit.bin | head
00000000: 02 ff 00 ff d0 ff 81 ff 7c ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........|.......
00000010: 02 ff 0c ff 3c ff 02 ff 15 ff 07 ff ff ff ff ff  ....<...........
00000020: 02 ff 00 ff d0 ff 32 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ......2.........
00000030: ff ff ff ff ff ff 32 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ......2.........
00000040: ff ff ff ff ff ff 32 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ......2.........
00000050: ff ff ff ff ff ff 32 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ......2.........
00000060: 41 ff 37 ff 36 ff 35 ff 44 ff 53 ff 49 ff 42 ff  A.7.6.5.D.S.I.B.
00000070: 47 ff 31 ff 37 ff 37 ff 42 ff 00 ff 00 ff 1f ff  G.1.7.7.B.......
00000080: 32 ff 30 ff 30 ff 32 ff 31 ff 31 ff 30 ff 37 ff  2.0.0.2.1.1.0.7.
00000090: 20 ff 20 ff 20 ff 20 ff 20 ff 20 ff 20 ff 20 ff   . . . . . . . .
 

Offline DogP

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #41 on: April 16, 2022, 09:16:05 am »
I'll post schematics soon.
I posted schematics, pics, and some notes here: https://github.com/pdaderko/16702B/tree/main/5182-4551 .  I believe that they're correct, though I haven't built anything based on these schematics yet, so I can't confirm.

DogP
 

Offline feipoa

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #42 on: April 18, 2022, 09:54:32 am »
Neat, thank you.  Do you know if these connectors are still available? If you have a BOM for the components and upload to OSHPARK (or similar), I'll probably put some together.
 

Offline alm

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #43 on: April 18, 2022, 12:45:11 pm »
If the goal is SCSI to SD, then there's also the more direct solution of SCSI2SD instead of stacking three adapters ;). People have reported success in the HP 16700, and it can even emulate a CD-ROM drive in addition to a HD.

Offline DogP

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #44 on: April 19, 2022, 03:09:41 am »
Neat, thank you.  Do you know if these connectors are still available? If you have a BOM for the components and upload to OSHPARK (or similar), I'll probably put some together.
I haven't seen those connectors for sale anywhere... I'm planning to finish up a couple adapter designs tonight, one of which I'm planning to use an IDC connector for (remove the connector from a ribbon cable and solder the IDC contacts to PTHs in the PCB like they were pins).  I'll post some pics later, and upload the designs once I've tested it.

If the goal is SCSI to SD, then there's also the more direct solution of SCSI2SD instead of stacking three adapters ;). People have reported success in the HP 16700, and it can even emulate a CD-ROM drive in addition to a HD.
Yep, I've seen the SCSI2SD, though the benchmarks I've seen show that it's slower than the OEM SCSI drive.  OTOH, the ACARD adapters have been shown to be faster than the OEM drive (my system booted 35 seconds faster by simply swapping the drive).  Also, SCSI2SD is ~$100+shipping (and currently out of stock) while the ACARD adapters are readily available for $21 shipped on ebay... plus whichever IDE adapter used (I have a bunch on-hand since I use them on lots of my arcade machines), and 50->68 pin SCSI adapter if needed.

Plus, this kinda thing is fun... and while it sounds like the few others that tried haven't had luck getting good performance out of their AEC-7722 in a narrow SCSI system, I figured I'd share details of my setup that has gotten good results, and maybe it'll help others find another alternative to the extremely overpriced 50-pin ACARD adapters available.

DogP
 

Offline DogP

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #45 on: April 19, 2022, 09:54:14 am »
Attached are a few renderings/pics... the one shown with the female 68-pin connector I plan to solder to the bottom of the AEC-7722, which would "permanently" convert the board to 50-pin SCSI.  I also made an adapter with the 68-pin IDC connector, with the 50-pin connector down and left... trying to keep the total physical envelope as small as possible.  The paper printouts show the idea(s).

The boards have been ordered... should have them next week.  I'll post back once tested.

DogP
 

Offline DogP

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #46 on: April 26, 2022, 03:39:28 am »
Got the boards today, and both styles work great!  Attached are a few pics.  The standalone 50 pin to 68 pin adapter can work with either a vertical or right angle 50-pin connector.  For a lower profile, I ended up using the style soldered directly to the bottom of the ACARD board.  This style only works with a vertical connector, unless you modify the key (or rotate the plastic shroud, use an unkeyed/unshrouded connector, etc).

BTW, this is the cable I bought, and removed the SCSI connector for the standalone adapter from: https://www.ebay.com/itm/143939246933 ... though it was only $4.99 shipped when I bought it, so there's probably a better deal on ebay now.

Anyway, I'll post the design files to Github in the next couple days in case anyone would like to build their own.

DogP
 

Offline DogP

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #47 on: April 28, 2022, 09:01:46 am »
BTW, I uploaded the SCSI adapters to Github:
https://github.com/pdaderko/16702B/tree/main/SCSI_50_to_68_male
and
https://github.com/pdaderko/16702B/tree/main/SCSI_50_to_68_female

I'd definitely be interested to hear results if you give either of these a try...

DogP
 

Offline ATEQUITY5

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Re: Upgrade firmware ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge 3.77 to 1.77b
« Reply #48 on: January 16, 2023, 08:28:42 am »
Hi Everbody, I am looking to use the acard 7722 for a Akai Sampler which is based on a 386embedded, target is to attach sd card writer IDE. I have in a second Akai sampler with a working Acard. Is it possible to extract the firmware out of the other model and put it into a 7722 card? If yes, what do I need. There is no need to use SCSI2SD or ZULU SCSI, because the Akai is using Fat32 format and one SSD or sd card is enough. I look for a cheaper solution. And the acard is a lot faster compared to the SCSI2SD, I have both in the same machine. Any help would be fine, there are quite a lot AKAI User who look for an alternative. SCSI2SD is not working anymore because of shortage of parts. Thanks for reading
 

Offline mfro

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Re: Add a single byte in a bin file every one byte .... (all file)
« Reply #49 on: January 16, 2023, 09:41:43 am »
That's exactly what Python is for. Here is a program, I have not tried it, but it should work.

Code: [Select]
fr = open('in.bin', 'rb')
fw = open('out.bin', 'wb')

try:
  byte = fr.read(1)
  while byte != '':
    fw.write(byte)
    fw.write(chr(0xff))
    byte = fr.read(1)

finally:
  fr.close()
  fw.close()

Before we had Python, we had the Unix shell. The same can be done in one single line:

Code: [Select]
paste -d '\0' <(xxd -p -c1 original ) <(dd if=/dev/zero bs=1 count=$(stat -c "%s" original) | tr '\000' '\377' | xxd -p -c1 ) | xxd -p -r > merged
8)
« Last Edit: January 16, 2023, 09:51:20 am by mfro »
Beethoven wrote his first symphony in C.
 


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