ICD MIO and Atari Mega60, SupraDrive

[Timothy Kline]

Given that the ICD MIO has the SCSI interface, and that Atari ST hard drives are connected via SCSI, has anyone here ever successfully paired either an Atari Mega 60 or a SupraDrive with their MIO or Black Box?

 

Thank you, in advance!

--Tim

[ijor]

Given that the ICD MIO has the SCSI interface, and that Atari ST hard drives are connected via SCSI, has anyone here ever successfully paired either an Atari Mega 60 or a SupraDrive with their MIO or Black Box?

 

The ST doesn't have actually a SCSI interface, but something called ACSI. Similar in some aspects but quite different to interconnect directly.

 

ST hard drives, depending on the model, might have a SCSI drive inside. I'm not sure, but I think that the MegaFile 60 has a so called RLL/MFM drive, not a SCSI one. Regarding Supra, again, I'm not 100% sure, but I think older models didn't have a SCSI drive.

[+Larry]

I had a Supra Drive and an original Rom/MIO. I could not get them to work together. (SCSI drive) The original MIO Rom was very limited as to the drives it would support -- mostly mfm with a bridge board. The new Rom works with lots of drives, but quite a few still don't work. I would say the odds would be good with the new rom, but it all depends on the drive inside. Best bet -- Aztec monster or Acard + new rom.

[Timothy Kline]

 

The ST doesn't have actually a SCSI interface, but something called ACSI. Similar in some aspects but quite different to interconnect directly.

 

ST hard drives, depending on the model, might have a SCSI drive inside. I'm not sure, but I think that the MegaFile 60 has a so called RLL/MFM drive, not a SCSI one. Regarding Supra, again, I'm not 100% sure, but I think older models didn't have a SCSI drive.

 

Now that you mention about it being ACSI, I remember. /facepalm

 

Well, it was something worth asking about since both have been sitting here for a while. So, they'll get aside for whenever I get around to the corner full of Atari STs, as I know both are fully working from when I had them connected to a 1024ST some months back.

 

But I appreciate you sparking this old man's memory! (Yes, I could've Google'd for the info, but a little interaction on an otherwise quiet day sounded much better.

 

Thanks again, ijor!

 

--Tim

[Tillek]

Given that the ICD MIO has the SCSI interface, and that Atari ST hard drives are connected via SCSI, has anyone here ever successfully paired either an Atari Mega 60 or a SupraDrive with their MIO or Black Box?

 

Thank you, in advance!

--Tim

I actually got an SH204 (shoebox) working right now with my 800xl and ICD MIO. Basically, the ACSI goes into a small card/host adapter which then connects to a MFM controller with a 50 pin scsi ribbon cable (which then connects to the drives). If you plug the 50 pin cable from the mio to the mfm controller it works just fine.

 

I'm sure the Supradrive works in a similar manner, but you'll know as soon as you open it up. The megafile might be more challenging though because (at least mine) seems to have it all on one controller board.

 

I just wish I could get an updated rom so I could use drives with 512b/s

[BillC]

1990

I had a Supra Drive and an original Rom/MIO. I could not get them to work together. (SCSI drive) The original MIO Rom was very limited as to the drives it would support -- mostly mfm with a bridge board. The new Rom works with lots of drives, but quite a few still don't work. I would say the odds would be good with the new rom, but it all depends on the drive inside. Best bet -- Aztec monster or Acard + new rom.

I have an MIO that i used with an Adaptec 4000 and a ST251 40 MB MFM HDD, I still have both but haven\t had them connected since 1996(they have been in storage since a move in 1998). The HDD was originally 20MB(ST225 IIRC). but I got the ST251 from my brother for free,around 1988-1990, iit t ook quite a bit to configure/partiton the SR251 but it was worth the effort.(2 16MB partitions + remaider).

 

,

[+Larry]

@Billc-

The MIO + ST251 was my setup for quite a few years. That was a sweet setup back in the day! That brings back memories. There was one little quirk to the ST251. I had two of them. The original was a regular 251 and could be completely formatted with 256 byte sectors. I found a really good deal later on a ST251-x (dont remember the suffix letter). It could only be formatted to about 3/4 capacity with 256 sectors, and only could make full capacity with 512 byte sectors. Presumably the extra overhead for double amount of 256 sectors.

-Larry

[Timothy Kline]

I was able to purchase an ST-225N a couple weeks ago with the intent of trying to use that with my MIO, but thought Hey! I have these two ST hard drives so why not see if I can use either of those before I go looking for some sort of housing to put the ST-225N into for using with my 8-bit system.

 

The furthest I ever progressed as an Atarian back when Atari was still Atari was the MIO— and I thought that was a massive deal. Someone I knew back then was running their Carina II BBS (Dragon's Lair, out of Lansing MI, if memory serves) off one and it loaded files SOOOOO fast! And storage capacity? Whoa! What I imagined I could fill that thing with back then.

 

But I fell in love with BBSing as well. Being able to communicate electronically? And exchange not just files — but entire diskettes! In Lansing, we had 3 1/2 BBSes that were for Atari owners:

 

There was C.H.A.O.S., which served as an online content system for the Capital Hill Atari Owners Society. John Nagy was running it in those days, and for a while before it changed hands, John had been kind enough to let me put together an ATASCII welcome screen. ATASCII was another love of mine, but before I digress...

 

It changed hands to Tom Denison, whom I came to know better than John. Tom ran C.H.A.O.S. for a while but he was already moving on to the ST line of computers and running a BBS on that for the FidoNET feeds (pre-Usenet). As for the user group itself, it was already in decline with memberships— arguably because of the availability of information online even in those days.

 

There was Dragon's Lair, although the name of its operator escapes me right now. And his BBS seemed so much cooler than the software C.H.A.O.S. BBS was using! We'd gotten together a few times to exchange software, but by then I had managed to get an SX212 modem and could get the software I went looking for in a fraction of the time I could've with my 1030.

 

The third one was rarely online, and forgettable because of it.

 

The "half" BBS was a Wildcat! BBS that was PC-based but did have a file section for Atari.

 

Hmmm, maybe there was a T.A.G. BBS that did, too. That was probably my exposure to T.A.G. BBS software, which made PCs even more enticing to me. And finally, Renegade BBS software.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed running the Atari BBSes I set up back in those days, that's for sure.

 

I saw BBSes as a future where there could be online communication and exchanges of information— the evolution of our telephone system. And I'd like to believe plenty of other people saw it as the same way.

 

While my first BBS was a dual 1050 setup, I didn't hit the big time until I was running the second BBS when I got my first MIO.

 

Loved that thing to death! It was the last piece I reluctantly parted with back when I retired from my Atari activities.

 

Sure, now we have better options now, such as the SIDE2. But there's just something about the MIO in whatever's left of my mind.

 

--Tim

 

[Timothy Kline]

Since this is my second go at trying to set up a hard drive with the MIO (my previous effort was with an ACard, which I set aside to just go with a direct SCSI drive, bypass the interface card, and let 80's Nature take place) and since the ST-225N was listed in the manual, I picked one up.

 

Are there any specific things I need to perform in this setup? By the way, MetalGuy was kind enough to provide me with the updated ROM to use in the MIO, so I am all set on that front. It was his opinion that my particular MIO has a known design flaw with the PH2 (or PH1, can't remember just now), but since I presently lack the confidence to go in there and in my Ataris, it seemed the better option to test things out by trying the ST-225N. After all, I only have the one Acard, and no available way to test it apart from the MIO: it could be a dead card for all I know.

 

The ST-225N will decide it for me. But I want to be sure that I connect the drive correctly in the first place since it is a working HD pulled from a working system.

 

Thank you, in advance, and apologies for the lengthy posts. O.o

 

--Tim

[ijor]

I'm sure the Supradrive works in a similar manner, but you'll know as soon as you open it up.

 

IIRC, it depends on the generation. I think later ones come directly with a SCSI drive. Possibly all the older ones comes with a SCSI to MFM controller. But I'm not sure some units had a host adapter like the one in the Megafile.