#BB in the A3000
36 messages in this thread
To anyone,
I have a A2286 bridgeboard in my A2000 and was wondering if there are
any problems moving it to my A3000 and sticking a IBM 1.44 meg drive in the
3 1/2 inch bay of the A3000. I use it only for work related text intensive
applications so I don't plan on adding much to it in the way of expansion
cards. Does the software run on a A3000 under 2.0 or did C= violate its
own rules and write funny things into the software. Is the cable I'll
require a standard IBM drive cable? Thank you.
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
Bruce,
I don't think the BBs work in the 3000. It doesn't have bridge
slots, I believe.
Steve:
That is 100% absolutely not true. The 3000 has the same BRIDGED slots as
the 2000 series. The 3000 series machines have one FEWER PC slots
available when set up with a bridgeboard. The 'hassle' comes when you want
to use an XT bridgeboard in a 3000, and that is because the 5.25" floppy
that comes with the XT BB will not fit alongside the internal 3.5" Amiga
floppy, so you need to mount either the XT 5.25" pc drive or your Amiga
3.5" floppy externally.
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
Michael,
I stand corrected.
Steven, That is incorrect — bridgeboards work just fine in 3000s. The
limiting factor is that there are only 2 IBM slots and you'll have to
install the 5.25 floppy externally.
-sja
Steve,
I stand corrected.
Steve,
It has bridge slots (two of them). That just means that it is more
difficult to add IBM cards. Personally I think that the IBM is an
overpriced piece of junk and the software is very expensive for what you
get but I'm in the Army and the Army uses the IBM exclusively (well almost)
so I need some compatability. I don't need to add much so the lack of
slots isn't worrisome. Thanks anyway.
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
The 3000 does indeed have BB slots. I haven't moved my bridgeboard over to
the 3000 yet, because Commodore so thoughtfully put seals on the 3000, open
it up, and poof! the warranty is gone.
Can't say as to whether or not the 1.44 will work without a hitch. The AT
Bridgeboard is supposed to support it. (Mine is still in my 2000, and I
only used the 1.2. The only other problem is that the 3000 only has two
Bridgeboard slots. Which leaves VERY little room for expansion.
– via Whap!
Alex,
I stand corrected.
Bruce,
Yes…the A2286 BB does work on an A3000 with one note of
caution… You have to set the CPU to not cache data via the CPU (or older
SetCpu) command.
No idea on the 1.44Meg drive, but I see no reason why not unless
the FDC chip on the BB won't handle it. Perhaps someone else could give
you a definate answer on that one.
Don
Don,
Actually, Commodore now suggests A3000 Bridgeboard users put an ENFORCER
QUIET command in their startup. Then you can leave caches on and not bog
down the whole machine. ENFORCER QUIET will cause the Bridge not to be
cached, but everything else to be.
…Denny Atkin
Denny,
Actually…that's true, I forgot about it, and that they now
include Enforcer on the install disk.
Don
Denny,
Where do I find this command? Is it somewhere I missed in my 2.0?
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
Bruce,
Enforcer is on the Install disk.
Don
Don,
Thanks for the quick response. I have to slow down my system? That's
not good news. Is there a way to disable the board at boot short of
unpluging it?
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
Bruce,
Actually, no…you don't have to slow down your system. All you
have to do instead of turning off the cache…is to run enforcer in the
quiet mode before you boot the bb.
That'll allow the BB's use while not slowing down the rest of the
system.
You can disable the board by simply not calling BindDrivers so the
driver never gets loaded.
Don
Don,
Thanks. That is a relief. Well I guess I'll go buy a 3.5" drive. Is
there a useful purpose that this 5.25 drive can serve for my Amiga or do I
just store it?
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
Bruce,
there's no real use for a 5.25" drive in an Amiga other than for
reading or writing MS-DOS disks.
Don
Oh, I don't know, Don. I find them very useful for reading Commodore
64/128 disks, using Disk-2-Disk from Central Coast Software.
Betty
Don,
I know but I don't like just puting it in storage.
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
Bruce,
Oh…by the way, as long as you don't open a PCWindow, even if you
do "bind" the BB, you won't have any problems. My BB is booted every time
I boot the machine…but I only use it on occasion. The only exception to
this would be if you're using a portion of your Amiga drive for an MS-DOS
boot drive. Then during bootup…it'll access that drive. But once the
BB's done booting…it simply sits there doing nothing, and taking up no
resources other than it's autoconfig space.
Don
I currently have an XT-BB in my 3000 and it works fine. Also added a 3 1/2
Chinon drive to the other drive bay and connected it up to BB, works great
also. But be sure to get a drive that has a similar eject button as your
regular Amiga drive. I bought the drive from Safe Harbor, so you might give
them a call. And you will have to use a different cable other than a
standard IBM cable. Also had a 2286 Bridgeboard in the 3000 until I had to
sell it with my 2000 system, So despite some of the horror stories you have
heard about the Bridgeboard not working with a 3000, well as Anna Rosanna
Danna used to say, "Nevermind". 8^) P.S. The BB works OK with 2.04, except
you will have to use "CPU NoDataCache" in your startup sequence, or better
yet, "Enforcer QUIET" before the Binddrivers command.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
What's involved with hooking up a 720K drive as the A: drive with an XT
Bridgeboard? Can it be done? Will it boot a 720K disk, or do you have to
have that DRIVEPARM line to make that work?
Although I guess ARead and CrossDOS would make the Amiga's DF0: fairly
useful for transferring files from 720K disks anyway…
…Denny Atkin
I have a MAST floppy drive used as drive B:. It requires a driveparm line,
and must have any noclick hardware defeated. I kept the regular A drive.
Ron
Denny, if you use a standard Amiga drive for the A: drive, you do have to
change one of the connectors on the cable that plugs into the drive. I
believe standard IBM drive connectors are the "Edge" type. And you do have
to change the CONFIG.SYS file to add the DRIVEPARM statement so that it
will recognize it as a 720K drive. Other than that, not really much
involved. Seems to work just fine and a nice way to add a internal IBM
drive for the 3000/Bridgeboard.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
John, does this mean that my BB can work with 3 1/2 inch IBM disks? Is it
possible to not have to deal with those little miserable 5 1/4's?
Paul
–pt–not seattle– 😉
Yes, you can easily use a 3 1/2 drive in the 3000, or 2000. Just get a
standard 3-1/2 Amiga internal drive, change the connector on one end of an
IBM cable, and add one line to your CONFIG.SYS file on your IBM side. Works
great and sure beats the He** out of a kludgy 5-1/4 external drive, IMHO
8^) John – K7KB (via Whap!)
A happy camper is I 🙂 Thanx.
Paul
–pt–not seattle– 😉
Your Welcome! See my message to Michael Gerard for more details on the
internal BB drive.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
(forwarded to Paul Toal)
6#: 40633 S12/Bridgeboard/AMAX 15-Nov-91 03:38:58 Sb: #40552-BB in the
A3000 Fm: John Gager 71336,624 To: Michael Gerard 75505,1757 (X)
Maybe I should start selling a Bridgeboard internal drive kit, considering
how much correspondence I've received lately 8^) Yes, you can mount a 3.5"
drive in the other drive bay in your 3000 and use it with the BB. You will
need to get a 3.5" internal drive for the 3000, and I bought mine from Safe
Harbor. It's the AIR A3020 drive, and you can probably get it from other
mail order outfits also. You will also need to change the connector on the
drive cable to a standard ribbon cable connector to match the new drive
because the 5.25" drive uses the card-edge type. Once you get the hardware
hooked up, all you have to do is add a line to your CONFIG.SYS file on the
IBM side: drivparm =/d:0 /f:2 And that should do it. Works just fine
except that now the other drive bay is filled I can't use it for another
3.5" Hard drive or floppy. Not a big deal since I have an external SyQuest,
and don't need another 3.5 floppy that bad.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
John:
Sorry for asking you to repeat stuff, but I just caught the middle of this
thread…
Are you saying that you can replace the 5.25" drive on an XT BB with a 3.5"
drive that mounts internally? If so, could you describe this to me in a
bit more detail (I have an A3000 and an XTBB, and I don't realy want to
remove my internal Amiga 3.5" drive, or try to mount the 5.25" BB drive
externally if I can avoid it).
Thanks,
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
Maybe I should start selling a Bridgeboard internal drive kit, considering
how much correspondence I've received lately 8^) Yes, you can mount a 3.5"
drive in the other drive bay in your 3000 and use it with the BB. You will
need to get a 3.5" internal drive for the 3000, and I bought mine from Safe
Harbor. It's the AIR A3020 drive, and you can probably get it from other
mail order outfits also. You will also need to change the connector on the
drive cable to a standard ribbon cable connector to match the new drive
because the 5.25" drive uses the card-edge type. Once you get the hardware
hooked up, all you have to do is add a line to your CONFIG.SYS file on the
IBM side:
drivparm =/d:0 /f:2
And that should do it. Works just fine except that now the other drive bay
is filled I can't use it for another 3.5" Hard drive or floppy. Not a big
deal since I have an external SyQuest, and don't need another 3.5 floppy
that bad.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
Thanks for repeating yourself John 🙂
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
John,
Thanks for the quick response. I can't believe I have to slow down the
system to plug this board in. So C= didn't follow their own rules. I was
afraid of that. Is there a way you know of to disable the board at boot
without unpluging it every time I don't want it (which is quite often).
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
Bruce, if you use the ENFORCER QUIET command, then the system doesn't slow
down any. I shouldn't have even mentioned the CPU NoDataCache, so don't use
it 8^) You don't need to activate the BridgeBoard every time you boot. In
fact, I've got mine on a script using ICONX so that it only activates the
BB whenever I want it to. Here is the script I'm using:
C:Enforcer Quiet C:BindDrivers C:Run > NIL: SYS:PC/PCDisk C:Run > NIL:
SYS:PC/Services/TimeServ C:Run > NIL: SYS:PC/AMouse C:Run > NIL:
SYS:PC/PCWindow "SYS:PC/PC Color" C:Run > NIL: SYS:PC/LPT1
After you have created the above script using a text editor, and saved
under the filename "Bridgeboard", create or use a PROJECT icon making the
Default Tool "IconX". Then what you need to do is go into your
Startup-Sequence and remove the BindDrivers command, and others that start
up the Bridgeboard. Keep in mind that if you have a Hard Drive that
requires a Binddrivers command, you cannot delete it from the
Startup-Sequence.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
John,
Thanks. I guess I'll go buy a 3.5" drive and get off the A2000.
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!