#Bridgecard Help
20 messages in this thread
I need some help. I just received a bridgecard today for my A2000, but I am
having a problem. I followed the directions in the bridgecard manual to make a
special workbench disk. I did not change any of the defaults for deleting wb
files or adding the bridgecard files. After creating the bridgecard wb disk, I
booted it-so far so good. The system-startup file worked ok and the wb came
up. I then tried to open a PC window. I got a requester that said "library
not found". I am assuming this is supppose to be the janus.library. The
install program put it in the Expansion directory. Should it be in the libs
directory? Also, is it possible to use an external 3.5 drive for drive A on
the bridgecard? Thanks for any help.
Mike
Mike,
Does your startup-sequence have a BINDDRIVERS command in it? Do you do
any assigns in your startup-sequence? If so, that could be your problem.
As to the 3.5" drive, no, not without modifying the BridgeBoard itself.
The select line for drive a: only goes to the internal connector.
Don
Don,
I am using the startup-sequence that was copied from the install disk
with no modifications. Yes, BindDrivers is the first command in the startup.
Also, I do have many assigns-i.e. "Assign WB: sys:" and like "Assign c WB:c".
I talked with my dealer about it and he said he had the same problem. He said
he fixed it by setting the bridge jumpers to color, not mono. I tried that,
but no luck.
Regarding the select line, I would like to modify the bridgeboard to
do this. I will be using a 5 1/4 harddisk in the floppy bay. Could you tell
me which pin(s) to bring out to the external connector?(If this is indeed
possible.) Thanks for you help,
Mike
Mike,
I know that on boot up, and when opening the PCWindow, it looks in the
file SYS:SideCar/SideCarSettings.Table for certain parameters.
Also, if you have the board configured as Mono (default) then to have a
color screen, you have to go into the PCWindow Mono mode, type MODE CO80, close
the PCWindow and then startup PCWindow again this time with the PCWindow Color
option.
Finaly, there is the file SideCar/2500Prefs that is created by the
program PCPrefs. This tells it what modes are permitted, and where to load the
Janus handler. The defaults should be ok there.
On mine, I configured the board to default to color mode (I really
dislike mono screens) so to open the window, I just run PCWindow Color and I'm
there.
Yes, you can play with the select lines, but no, I don't know which
lines to cut and X over. Dean Brown from Michigan Software left a message
about it earlier (he has the schematics).
Don
Don,
I think I know what the problem is. From what I understand, one HAS to
have the Commodore 5 1/4 internal drive. My dealer said that something is
loaded from the drive(before the PC boot, I guess). I guess I will have to go
out and get a floppy drive. I wanted to put a harddisk in that bay. Oh
well….. Mike
Mike,
I can't say for sure, but believe your dealer is wrong. While I'm sure
you have to have a drive attached, I know of nothing that says it has to be the
CBM drive (it's a standard PC compatible drive as far as I can tell) or that it
has to be in the drive bay. There is no reason I can think of that you can't
run the ribbon cables thru one of the expansion openings and use an external
power supply for the drive itself (I've seen them for about $60 for 1 drive).
Don
Don,
Hmmmm, I have an old ds/dd drive I was using on an Atari 1200 system. I
guess I could try it. Thats the only way to find out for sure! Thanks again.
Mike
Mike,
Atari 800 (or 1200) drives are not the same as PC compatible drives.
Don
Don,
He probably has one of the Percom's or Astra's for his 8-bit. Those
are or can be had DS/DD. Isn't it just the controller that's built into the
drive case itself that is deifferent? Shouldn';t he just be able to strip out
the controller? That should leave him with a fine DS/DD drive, no?
-John
John:
Not necessarily. Some of the older 8 bit systems were not 48 TPI (or
96 for the 80 track units). 73, bill
John,
It's been a while since I've had an Atari 8 bit drive apart, but as I
remember, most of them have the controller integral to the drive. Remember,
these were "smart" drives…the controller had a cpu on it and they were fed
via the Atari serial port. Just to make sure my memory was right…I just took
the cover off my Rana drive (PC's can use SS drives…just that they only hold
160K then). Yup, right, no way this drive could be adapted to use with a PC
other than replacing the controller board completely…and that would cost as
much as a PC drive alone.
Don
Don,
Ok, thanks for straightening me out there. Looks like he got it set up
anywho. 🙂
-John DOn,
Don,
I have a Percom Atari drive that has an edge connector to connect PC type
drives. My second drive is a normal PC DS/DD drive. Anyways it doesn't matter
now. The bridge card WORKS! I moved it to the other Amiga/PC slot and it
worked. I reseated it before and that didn't help, but changing slots worked.
Now, to try the first slot again. Thanks for all your replies-too bad you don't
get consulting fees! Mike
Mike,
Make sure the bridge seats FULLY. The metal tab on the back can
prevent it from seating fully if it catches on the metal ridge under the mother
board. To make sure it doesn't, bend the tab on the bottom of the back plate on
the bridge board about 1/8" out (towards the back of the A2000) so it goes
around that metal ridge. You can see what I mean if you turn the A2000
sideways (powersupply facing away from you) and look up the lower left corner
(or along the back edge of the A2000 if that makes sense to you). You'll see
the ridge I'm talking about and the way the metal tabs have to go behind it.
Don
Don,
Yes, I saw that. I actually ground some of the back plate away so I could
get the card in all the way. You would think Commodore would make a card that
would fit their own computer. Not very good mechanical design. Mike
Don,
You don't even really have to have a floppy attached to run the
Bridgecard. If you have an HD on the PC side you can boot the Bridgecard off
it (the BIOS will yell at you for having a bad floppy and make you press F1 to
continue the boot). Of course you then can't get any floppies to work, even
ones on the external connector.
I've now pulled the 5.25" floppy external to my 2000 so I could put a
20 Meg 5.25" HD there instead. Everything works just fine that way.
Dan
Dan,
I wasn't sure it would work, so didn't suggest that, anyway…no floppy
at all kind of makes it useless. On our PC's at work, we set the switches to
show 2 floppies, attach the B: connector to the A: drive and have no A: drive
on the system. It boots off the hard drive via a password scheme. The drive
cable swap makes it so you can't stick a system disk in the floppy and boot off
the system disk and bypass the password. Then the autoexec.bat does an ASSIGN
a=b and everybody's happy. The PC now thinks it has an A: drive by reading the
disk in the b: drive.
It's a screwy setup, but it works. Since there are no switches on the
bridge to tell it how many floppies are attached…I figured it wouldn't work
with the bridge. Your saying that with no floppy at all, after booting off the
HD it won't recognize even the B: drive confirms that.
Don
So, if you pull internal 5.25, boot from HD, and as a side effect, can no long
access any PC side floppies — how do you load new stuff to the HD? You don't
really have a null modem cable between the Amiga and PC sides, do you?
I finally gave in and hooked the 5.25" floppy up external to the 2000
as a short term solution. I either need to make a nice case for it (I hate
bare mechanisms) or re-wire the external floppy connector to make it drive 0
instead of drive 1 so I can use my second 3.5" as A:.
Actually I could do most of what I want without a PC floppy using AREAD
and AWRITE to move files back and forth. If the PC BIOS didn't force a user
action (pressing F1 or whatever it is) when it fails to find A: I'd do that.
Dan
Mike,
Your situation sounds similar to mine with a sidecar. When I first got it I
wanted to mount a seagate 238 inside the floppy bay and basically run a no
floppy pc clone. The total price for the sidecar and the 32 meg drive was about
the same as a dedicated HD of the same size for the 1000. The system wouldn't
boot well without a floppy attached. The PC would error with a "Drive error.
Press F1 to continue" but you couln't see it beacause the system boot was
interrupted. I eventually put the floppy back in the bay and run the HD from a
cable out the back but you should be able to run the floppy from a ribbon cable
out the back of the 2000 if you so choose. It DOES need a floppy identified as
a: to run right. It can be be any bargain basement pc drive, they're quite
cheap.