Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) (04/27/89)
A couple of years ago, I build a hard drive sequencer for a few locals
in Dallas and Houston which allowed the ST to power up automatically when
hooked up to a hard drive.
For BBS operators, this addressed a special problem: when a power
failure occured during the day when the SysOp was away at work, the
sequencer would allow the system to come back up, hard drive and all. Normally,
when a hard driven ST is powered up, the user has to power up the hard drive
first, allow it to build to speed, and then power up the ST. With the
sequencer, that is not necessary, it does that for you and is totally
external. The user merely plugs the power cord for the hard drive and for
the computer into the sequencer's special power outlets.
Ok, all of that intro was necessary for the following questions. I'm
getting requests to build this thing again and am wondering if TOS 1.4
is a bit more 'intelligent' in that it detects a hard drive during power
up, thus delaying the startup sequence of the CPU until the hard drive is
up to speed.
If TOS 1.4 does indeed include the hard drive sequencer via data line
detection (or sumptin') then I'll back off the project. To be frank, I
burned myself out on the sequencer last summer after building nearly 300
of the things and need to know before I save up funds to build enough
capital to get parts and all of that.
Thanks for any info, folks!
Larry Rymal <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (04/29/89)
In article <890427.09095442.063770@SFA.CP6> Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) writes: > wondering if TOS 1.4 ... detects a hard drive during power up Nope. Might be a good idea, but how long do you wait? If the computer and the drive both power up at the same time, the hard drive may not reset properly. Some drives need to be allowed to do the whole power-up sequence before they can take any commands or data, even just request-sense (status) commands. On the other hand, some don't. If you put AHDI.PRG in the \AUTO\ folder of a floppy, and put another program BEFORE that in the AUTO folder which delays by 30 seconds (or whatever it takes), you could be in business without any sequencer. The ROMs will look for a hard disk, not find one, and boot off the floppy. By the time the delay has elapsed and AHDI loads, the drive is ready. Give that a try. It might not work. Warranty void if terms are violated. Your mileage may vary. You may have some other rights which vary from state to state. ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
BUGGS@cup.portal.com (William Edward JuneJr) (04/30/89)
But my HD requires another boot to get it to register. If it's off and then powered up it will not autoboot. I have to keep a floppy with REBOOT.ACC to to another boot. I have a Micropolis 1355 ESDI HD runnin' via an ICD host adapter. Is this normal? Ed June
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (05/01/89)
In article <17759@cup.portal.com> BUGGS@cup.portal.com (William Edward JuneJr) writes: >But my HD requires another boot to get it to register. >If it's off and then powered up it will not autoboot. I have to keep a floppy > with REBOOT.ACC to to another boot. >I have a Micropolis 1355 ESDI HD runnin' via an ICD host adapter. >Is this normal? > >Ed June My Quantum-80 on a Supra adapter also does this. I have no idea why, I'm fairly certain that it's a recent development, i.e., it didn't happen when I first got the drive installed and running. Of course, I used to have two drives attached, and now only have 1. Perhaps an improper termination somewhere? -- -=- PrayerMail: Send 100Mbits to holyghost@father.son[127.0.0.1] and You Too can have a Personal Electronic Relationship with God!
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (05/02/89)
Some people have mentioned that their non-Atari hard disks don't always auto-boot. Something came to my attention recently, and this might be part of the explanation: The boot sequence on the ST starts with a "move.w #$2700,sr" instruction (to ensure IPL 7) and then "reset" to reset external devices. Unfortunately, the "reset" instruction does not pull down reset as long as the SCSI spec requires. Furthermore, the time between letting go of the reset button and the time the "reset" instruction gets executed is too short -- that is, you get "reset" (the button is down), then "not reset" (the instructions are executing), then "reset" (the reset instruction), and the "not reset" time is shorter than the SCSI minimum-time-between-resets specification. A host adapter to a true, picky SCSI device would have to lengthen any reset it gets to the minimum SCSI length, and possibly remove the brief "glitch" it sees while the two instructions are executing. Atari hard disks can take it (or the host adapter is doing the fiddling) because, of course, they work. I regret (retroactively) that this timing problem exists. The fact that the reset instruction is too short isn't really our fault: it grounds "reset" for 124 clocks in the 68000, 512 clocks on the 68020 and 68030 (but remember, clocks are likely to be shorter). However, the too-short time between resets *is* under software control. ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
coffey@ucselx.uucp (pat coffey) (05/05/89)
In article <1470@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes: >Some people have mentioned that their non-Atari hard disks don't always >auto-boot. Something came to my attention recently, and this might be >part of the explanation: ... stuff deleted about booting from the hard disk. I have a related question. I have both a 520 and 1040 ST. The 520 has a 1 meg upgrade and a Supra 20 meg hard disk attached. Sometimes, when I push the reset button, it boots several times. The screen goes blank, and the booting starts again. Sometimes this also happens with my 1040 with no hard disk attached. I've never experienced it when I turn on the machine for the first time. Any suggestions? _ _ Ms. Pat Coffey |_) (_ San Diego State University |