19Echo Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I have an ICD FA ST model with 2 internal hard drives. Ones a 49 meg an the other is a 240 meg drive. Does anyone know where i can download a manual for this? Supposedly you can set it for 8 bit or 16bit mode by a jumper inside. But again a manual woul be nice. Google produced nothing.......Or i just looked in the wrong place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 You have to have an MIO or BlackBox to use it with an Atari 8-bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbking67 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 These are setup for use on the ST which uses a modified SCSI spec I believe... not directly compatible. If they are SCSI hard drives rather than MFM or RLL you should be able to use them with an MIO or BB as mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 The FA*ST is directly compatable with the MIO (and thus the black box as well).. It may require internal jumper-setting changes, but ICD did market/support it for use with the MIO on the Atari 8-bit, as well as the ST. In fact, theres an ANTIC article where Mathew Ratcliffe bought one and used it on his 8-bit and reviewed it. Whether its RLL/MFM, or Native SCSI inside really doesnt matter. Whatever controller they used, it worked with either system when configured appropriately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19Echo Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 Well considering i dont have a black box or MIO i guess its worthless on the 8 bit side. I do however have a 1040ST setup that i guess i could it for. Still need the manual though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 if you ever decide to get rid of one, let me know... would look nice with my MIO :') sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbking67 Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I had no idea that these could be easily used with 8-bit Ataris... back in the day I had an MIO and even external hard drive enclosures were extremely expensive. I remember scouring surplus yards for old equipment (like tape drives) that we could use to house and power the hard drives and controllers. Old DEC stuff was pretty common where I live... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Union NJ Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Found this stuff on google http://www.atarimagazines.com/v7n6/fastharddrive.html http://www.icd.com/atari/ http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n5/fastdrivekit.html Slim pickins on that search wow.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undeadmechanic Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Revenge of the necro-bump... Ok, so I have acquired one of these things and I, too, am attempting to figure out how to get it working with my MIO. After sifting through old posts in comp.sys.atari.8bit from about '88-'94, scouring google, digging through the backlog here, and going cross-eyed staring at my FA-ST's guts, I have arrived at a couple of conclusions. #1: there is no jumper anywhere in this damn thing to change modes. #2: I now know more about OMTI 3520 control boards, ST125 and ST157N drives than I ever wanted to... If there is indeed an issue getting the MIO to work with the FA-ST, I would bet the easiest solution would be to unplug the SCSI cable from the control board and terminate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 From reading the links posted above, I get the impression that the 8bit version of the device (which at the time was not in store shelves but had to be special ordered) could be converted to be used with the ST. Actually, I think if the unit had the adapted board in it you could convert it to run in the 8bits. The 4070 board is the same board I used on an MIO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 I owned an ICD FAST for the ST back at the day. I ordered directly from ICD. I had all their brochures and I don't remember any marketing as being dual. There was a line for the 8-bit and another for the ST. I'm pretty sure mine didn't have any jumpers for switching mode, but mine was the SCSI model (no MFM/RLL host adapter). But honestly, I don't think it would make much sense. Using the ST model for the 8-bit would mean you are paying for the ICD host adapter (ACSI to SCSI, plus real time clock with battery) that you are not going to use. Reading Matthew Ratcliff's he is not saying that ICD marketed it or sold it as dual mode. The jumper he mentions I bet is something on the Adaptec host adapter, not on ICD's board itself. Of course, nobody stops you from connecting the SCSI host adapter board directly to the MIO or BlackBox. And that could also be possible with direct SCSI drives as long as they are compatible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
800_Rocks Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Wow… a 10 year old thread that needs a bump 😁 I thought I would add some photos too. I just acquired one of these with both A8 and ST items so I am not sure which system it is for. Right now I do not get anything when I power it on. No lights, no fan, no sound from the drive. It looks like there is room for a second hard drive. Looks like there is a power cable for a second as well. What can you tell me about the drive shown in the pictures? Size? Type? Does anyone have a manual for the FaST device? I do not see any obvious jumpers for A8 vs ST as mentioned in the thread above. I will do some trouble shooting to see if it is getting power. I did replace the 3V button battery with a known good one. Smaller in size but it should be a good substitute. Replacing it did not help (yet). I expect there was/is some software on diskette to setup/config the FaST. Does anyone know of or have these? TIA 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Some info on the HDD here: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/seagate/ST157N-0-49MB-3-5-HH-SCSI1-SE.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 3 hours ago, 800_Rocks said: I just acquired one of these with both A8 and ST items so I am not sure which system it is for. Right now I do not get anything when I power it on. No lights, no fan, no sound from the drive. It looks like there is room for a second hard drive. Looks like there is a power cable for a second as well. What can you tell me about the drive shown in the pictures? Size? Type? This hard disk is for the ST. You might get more help in the ST section of the forum. If you don't get any led light at all when you turn it on, it is probably the power supply. Check the fuse. Of course, might be a problem with the cabling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Seagate N drives are SCSI1 and should (?) work directly off the MIO/BB port. With proper termination. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 12 hours ago, kheller2 said: Seagate N drives are SCSI1 and should (?) work directly off the MIO/BB port. With proper termination. The internal Seagate drive itself is indeed SCSI and then is not platform specific. It can be used in many systems with the correct adapter, including not only an 8-bit with a MIO or BB, but also a MAC or a PC. But the whole ICD FA-ST system shown in the above pictures, including the enclosure, the board adapter and the connectors, is for the Atari ST. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SoulBuster Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 2 hours ago, ijor said: The internal Seagate drive itself is indeed SCSI and then is not platform specific. It can be used in many systems with the correct adapter, including not only an 8-bit with a MIO or BB, but also a MAC or a PC. But the whole ICD FA-ST system shown in the above pictures, including the enclosure, the board adapter and the connectors, is for the Atari ST. Not sure if that is necessarily true. Can the Black Box or The MIO connect to the Centronics 50? If so, you are in business on the 8-bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 Just running the 50-pin cable from the drive to the MIO should work. The MIO firmware might need to be updated. For the A8, the FAST is just a box with a power supply and switch. IIRC, quite a few of those early SCSI drives could not deal with 256 byte sectors needed by the Atari. With SDX 512 byte sectors, that drive might work with the original firmware Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 4 hours ago, SoulBuster said: Not sure if that is necessarily true. Can the Black Box or The MIO connect to the Centronics 50? If so, you are in business on the 8-bit. What that I said is it not true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 Hello guys The ICD FA-ST was available for both the 8 bit and the 16 bit Ataris. One of the Atari magazines at the time described the difference. IIRC it wasn't that hard to adapt it to one or the other. The MIO only reads 256 byte sectors, but the Blackbox can be set to either use 256 byte or 512 byte sectors. The latter would be split up by the BB before passing it through to the Atari. Sincerely Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SoulBuster Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 20 hours ago, ijor said: What that I said is it not true? Guess I need to read better. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
130xeguy Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 I've recently acquired one of the FA-ST drives and it has dual Seagate ST-125N drives in it and they are working. .....well, they spin up and do their self tests no problems anyway. I'm planning on using the drives with a 130XE using an MIO that I already have. There's an old article out there where it was stated that ICD sold the same drive for both 8-bit and 16-bit systems and all there was was a jumper change required. Well....after scouring the board inside the enclosure, there's no jumper anywhere to be found. It has the AdSCSI Plus ST board in it, clock components appear to be unpopulated. Does anyone have a copy of a manual for one of these drives? The one I have has the year 1990 date stamped on the board and inside the case. Hoping that a copy of the manual that came with it will shed some light on configuration settings, etc. specifically for the 8-bit system. I'm assuming that the 50-pin centronics would connect directly to the MIO's SCSI 50-pin IDC type connector with the correct cable...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Not so much, I'll send you a message about the adapters and what not. And why the components are not there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickster Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 I hope you figure it out, because if you do, I might find a fast drive and do the same. Good luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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