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OAK Scanner User Manual

16 bit scsi controller card & hard disc drives
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  • Page 2 16 Bit SCSI Controller Card Hard Disc Drives User Guide...
  • Page 3 All maintenance and service on the products described in this manual must be carried out by Oak or their authorised agent. Oak can accept no liability for loss or damage whatsoever arising from the use of any information or particulars in, or any error or omission in this manual.
  • Page 4 WARNING (External Drives): The winchester drive must be earthed I MPORTANT The wires in the mains lead for the winchester drive are coloured in accordance with the following code: Green & Yellow Earth Blue Neutral Brown Live If the mains socket outlet available does not match the supplied moulded 13A plug, either a different lead must be obtained, or the plug should be cut off, disposed of, and the appropriate plug fitted and wired as described below.
  • Page 5 Make sure you understand the fitting instructions before embarking on installation. If in doubt, contact your dealer or Oak customer support. Keep the original packing in case you need to transport your equipment.

  • Page 6: Table Of Contents

    Contents Conventions used in this manual What is SCSI? Installing the Hard Disc & Podule Initial Testing Using Your Oak SCSI Winchester * Commands Using SCSIFORM - Format/Configure Utility Running Illegal Software Booting from the SCSI drive Trouble Shooting...

  • Page 8: Conventions Used In This Manual

    Conventions used in this manual The mouse buttons are referred to by name using the standard Acorn convention of: Pressing and releasing a mouse button is known as `clicking'. Pressing and releasing a mouse button twice in quick succession is known as `double-clicking'.
  • Page 9 In descriptions of syntax for *commands, the following conventions will be used. < ... > indicates that an actual value must be substituted, e.g. < f ilename> means that an actual filename must be supplied. [ . . . ] indicates that the item enclosed in square brackets is optional, means that the letter U is an optional e.g.

  • Page 10: What Is Scsi

    - so called because it initiates the SCSI commands). Up to 7 devices may be attached to one host, with each device having a unique SCSI ID number (0 to 7). The default ID for the Oak SCSI controller card is 7, leaving 0-6 free for peripherals. One SCSI device may actually be responsible for controlling more than one peripheral.
  • Page 11 Using an Archimedes with the Oak SCSI controller card avoids this degradation of performance. The Oak card buffers the 8 bit data from the SCSI bus in order to perform 16 bit memory transfers to and from the Archimedes, thereby vastly reducing the normal handshaking overhead.

  • Page 12: Installing The Hard Disc & Podule

    I nstalling the Hard Disc & Podule Warning No special skills are required to fit the Hard Disc Drive. However, the suppliers can accept no responsibility for any damage which may result from incorrect installation. If in doubt, contact your supplier. Tools The only tools required are a number 2 cross-head screwdriver and a large flat bladed screwdriver (A3000 only).
  • Page 13 I nstalling the Podule (300/400/R140 Series Machines) Disassembly Unplug the mains power cord and all peripherals (including the keyboard) from the Archimedes. The cover of the Archimedes is held in place by 5 screws, three on the rear of the case above the podule slots, and one at either side of the case close to the moulded plastic front piece (as shown below).
  • Page 14 If your kit contains an internal winchester drive, move on to the section headed installing an internal winchester. If your kit contains an external winchester drive, replace the cover of the Archimedes (don't refit the screws yet) and move on to the section headed installing an external winchester.
  • Page 15 I nstalling the Podule (A3000) On the A3000, the SCSI card is mounted externally at the rear of the machine. The SCSI card is housed in a metal case with a mounting bracket which bolts to the rear of the A3000. Ensure that the A3000 is disconnected from the mains.
  • Page 16 I nstalling an internal winchester Take off the plastic front panel of the Archimedes by removing the 3 self tapping screws underneath the front of the Archimedes, and the 1 at each side (normally obscured by the cover). The winchester mounting brackets are supplied already fitted to the winchester.
  • Page 17 I nstalling an external winchester Connect the external winchester to the back of the SCSI controller card using the 50 way ribbon cable provided, making sure that the polarising bumps on the cable sockets mate with the slots on the plugs at the rear of the Archimedes and the Winchester.

  • Page 18: Initial Testing

    [ Ctrl ] Break ] This enables SCSIFS - the filing system provided by the Oak SCSI controller card. Next, type: *configure scsidrive 4 [Return] This makes sure that SCSIFS initially logs on to drive 4 when selected.
  • Page 19 You will then have to decide how much memory to assign to the SCSI directory cache. The value will depend on the amount of memory available in your machine. A value of 4K is recommended: higher values will allow more directories to be cached in RAM, a lower value will allow fewer directories to be stored in RAM.

  • Page 20: Using Your Oak Scsi Winchester

    Dismount This option closes files, unsets directories and parks the heads of the winchester. (N.B. Oak Winchesters have autoparking heads so this option is normally only used for making sure that all files are closed.) Verify This option checks that the entire disc is readable.
  • Page 21 At the end of a session, it is good practice to use the dismount option on the SCSI icon menu, or to type *shutdown [Return] to ensure that all files are closed, even though all Oak SCSI winchesters have auto-parking heads. Page 1 4...

  • Page 22: Commands

    *Commands Oak SCSI winchesters work under a 'filecore' type filing system (i.e. like ADFS and RAMFS) and so use all the normal filing system *commands (e.g. *copy). Additional *commands provided by the SCSI system are documented on the following pages.
  • Page 23 *SCSIMap Lists EEProm configuration, showing SCSI ID, LUN, Block size and Write protect status for each SCSI drive. Syntax *SCSIMap This command basically gives the mapping between the SCSI drive numbers (4 to 7) and SCSI device ID / Logical Unit Numbers, and additionally returns the block size (the size of the data blocks specified by the disc format) and whether or not each drive is write protected.
  • Page 24 *SCSI Selects SCSIFS as the current filing system. Syntax *SCSI *SCSI selects the SCSI filing system as the filing system for subsequent operations. Remember that it is not necessary to switch filing systems if you use the full pathnames for objects, e.g. you can refer to a file as SCSI : : 4.
  • Page 25 *WProt Write protects (or unprotects) a given SCSI drive. Syntax *WProt <Drive number> [U] Parameters <Drive number> the SCSI winchester drive number (4 to 7) of the drive to be write protected (or unprotected) [ U ] if the U is included as a parameter, the drive is unprotected. <Drive number>.
  • Page 26 *KillADFS Attempts to cause ADFS hard disk calls to be redirected to SCSIFS and selects SCSIFS as the current filing system. Syntax *K illADFS All calls to ADFS are redirected to SCSIFS but note that as SCSIFS has no floppy drives, access to the floppies (other than via ADFS_Disc0p, as used by PC emulator) will result in a `Bad Drive' error.
  • Page 27 *UnKillADFS Undoes the effects of a *KillADFS Syntax *UnKillADFS Reverses the effects of a *KillADFS and allows calls to ADFS to be processed by the ADFS filing system. This command does not reset the current filing system. Page 2 0...
  • Page 28 *Configure SCSIDir Sets the Root directory of the configured SCSIFS winchester at power on. (N.B. for technical reasons this option appears twice in the *status display.) Syntax *configure SCSIDir Sets the Root directory of the configured SCSIFS winchester as the current directory at power on if SCSIFS is the configured filing system.
  • Page 29 *Configure SCSINoDir No SCSIFS directory is selected at power on. (N.B. for technical reasons this option appears twice in the *status display.) Syntax *Configure SCSINoDir Leaves SCSIFS with no current directory at power on. This is the default setting. Page 2 2...
  • Page 30 *Configure SCSIDirCache Reserves an area of RAM for the SCSIFS directory cache. Syntax *Configure SCSIDirCache <n> Parameters <n> is the amount of memory reserved in Kbytes. Reserves an area of memory for the SCSI directory cache. Directories are stored in the cache to speed up disc operations. Example Configure SCSIDirCache 4 reserves 4K for the SCSIFS directory cache.
  • Page 31 *Configure SCSIDrive Sets the SCSI drive selected at power on. Syntax *Configure SCSIDrive <n> Parameters SCSI drive number (4 to 7) <n> Sets the number of the drive which will automatically be selected at power on (if SCSIFS is the configured filing system) or when SCSIFS is first entered.
  • Page 32 *Configure SCSIFS Enables or disables SCSIFS after the next hard reset. Syntax *Configure SCSIFS [<n>] Parameters if n = 1 or is not present then enable SCSIFS [ <n>] if n = 0 then disable SCSIFS Enables (n=1 or not present) or disables (n=0) SCSIFS after next hard reset.
  • Page 33 *Configure FileSystem Selects the filing system to be used at power on. Syntax I <name> *Configure FileSystem <n> Parameters <n> filing system number (26 for SCSIFS) filing system name (e.g. SCSI) < name > This command is not provided by the SCSI card, but is included here to show how to configure SCSIFS as the current filing system at power Example *Configure FileSystem SCSI...
  • Page 34 SWIs and technical information Sec the file SCSI_INFO on the formatter disc for details of SWIs provided by the SCSI card, and for additional technical information. Page 2 7...
  • Page 35 Page 28...

  • Page 36: Using Scsiform Format/Configure Utility

    This program should not normally be needed as drives are supplied formatted and initialised. If, however, for some reason the program is needed, for example if you wish to connect a non-Oak drive, simply double click on the program from a directory viewer. The program is menu driven and fairly self explanatory in use to those with a good knowledge of both Rise OS and SCSI.
  • Page 37 (4 to 7). Note that drives must be added in ascending order, with drive 4 first. SCSI Id No. The SCSI Id number of the device you wish to add (usually `0' for Oak Drives). SCSI logical unit number of the unit you wish to add (usually 0 for winchesters, but may be 1 for a second drive on an 'Adaptec' type controller card).
  • Page 38 R Remove drive This option removes a SCSI drive from the SCSIFS system. Information required by SCSIFORM is as follows: Drive Number SCSI drive number of the drive you wish to remove (4 to 7). Page 3 1...
  • Page 39 I I nitialise EEPROM This option initialises the EEPROM on the SCSI controller card which stores the information about the connected drives and the drive configurations. All information currently stored on the EEPROM is deleted, so effectively all drives are removed. Note that this does not affect any information stored on the winchester itself.
  • Page 40 S Scan SCSI devices This option scans the SCSI bus for information about all devices currently connected. Information returned for each device includes SCSI Id numbers, device names, storage capacities, block sizes and sector interleave factors. Page 3 3...
  • Page 41 F Format Drive This option formats the chosen SCSI drive, and should not normally be required unless you specifically want to erase a winchester or change the sector size or interleave, as SCSI drives are supplied pre-formatted. Information required by SCSIFORM is as follows: Drive number or -ID A positive number gives the SCSIFS drive number (4 to 7) of the drive...
  • Page 42 This needs to be done before a new SCSI drive can be used (this option is not required with Oak drives as they are supplied already initialised). Information required by SCSIFORM is as follows:...
  • Page 43 T Set retry timeout & other options Winchester drives take a short time to spin up to speed and initialise themselves (typically about 15 seconds). This option allows the time that SCSIFS allows for drives to spin up to be adjusted. It also allows certain SCSI specific information to be configured.
  • Page 44 C Check SCSI devices against EEPROM This option checks that the block and map sizes of the devices connected to the SCSI bus match those it `knows' about in the EEPROM, and reports accordingly. Page 3 7...
  • Page 45 X Transfer speed test This option tests the average sustained data transfer rate from a given formatted and initialised drive in screen modes 0, 15 and 21. Note that this option requires a large amount of memory for a buffer, and consequently may fail on a 1Mb machine with an `Out of memory' error.
  • Page 46 Q Quit This option quits the SCSIFORM application. (Note: upper case Q required) Page 39...
  • Page 47 * *commands This option allows *commands to be issued from the SCSIFORM program. Press [Return] when you have finished issuing *commands to return to the main menu. Page 4 0...

  • Page 48: Running Illegal Software

    Illegal Software Certain pieces of software make the illegal assumption that the program is running on an ADFS drive. Note, that as SCSI becomes more and more popular, illegal programs are rapidly diminishing in number. However, if you encounter a program of this type, issue a *KillADFS command immediately before running the program - this should make the program work correctly, however, note that floppy discs will no longer work (except via ADFS_DiscOp as used by...
  • Page 49 This copes with the differences in response to non-ready drives with all Oak SCSI drives. The timeout period is held in EEProm, and the default value is 20 seconds. The optimum value is a couple of seconds longer than the spin-up/initialise time of the slowest drive in the system.

  • Page 50: Booting From The Scsi Drive

    Booting from the SCSI drive For a boot file to be run from a SCSI drive on power up, the following conditions must be met: The Archimedes must be configured to boot. (*configure boot) The configured filing system should be SCSIFS. (*configure filesystem SCSI) The configured SCSIDrive should be the one on which your !boot file exists.

  • Page 51: Trouble Shooting

    Trouble Shooting Your card and winchester have been comprehensively tested at our factory, and so if the card/drive does not work when you install it, unless the packaging looks damaged, the likelihood is that you have not installed it correctly! The following points should help clear up any trouble you may experience.
  • Page 52 I n use, the error `SCSI Phase error' or `SCSI bus not free'occurs. These errors are usually caused by either damaged 50 way cables, or by having 2 or more devices on the SCSI bus with the same ID. Visually inspect cables, and check ID numbers of connected SCSI devices (if you don't know how to do this, you are unlikely to generate the error by adding devices with the same ID number).
  • Page 53 Page 46...

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