The SCSI side of the IDSC21 IDE-SCSI adapter
The IDE-to-SCSI interface allows standard IDE storage devices to be used on the Atari Falcon/TT SCSI interface. Motivation to do this is due to difficulty in getting 50pin SCSI devices and abundance of cheaper IDE storage devices. Two such products are
The ACARD device is still being supported by the ACARD while the IODATA device seems to be out of support. Unfortunately for me, my ACARD refused to work on both my Atari and on my WinTel PC. This to no avail even after 2 weeks of correspondence with the ACRAD tech support engineers.
Fortunately, I had better luck with the IODATA IDSC-21 device.
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The SCSI side of the IDSC21 IDE-SCSI adapter |
The outer facing side of the IDSC-21 is as shown above. This side is where the 50-pin SCSI cable will be connecting to as well as the power connecting via a provided Y-cable. The Jumpers are also visible on this side and must be jumper correctly.
The Jumper settings are to be set as follows (the green coloured boxes are the settings I used for one of my IDSC-21 connecting a IDE hard disk) :
SCSI ID Switches| SW # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | SCSI ID | This is sets the SCSI ID that will be seen by the host computer driver. |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 0 (default when shipped) | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 2 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 3 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 4 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 5 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 6 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ID 7 |
| SW # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | SCSI-1/2 Mode | For ATA device like hard disk, this sets the SCSI communication mode |
| - | - | - | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | SCSI-2 | ||
| - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | SCSI-1 |
| SW # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ATA transfer mode | For ATA device like hard disk, this sets the IDE transfer speed |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | - | - | PIO transfer | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | DMA transfer |
| SW # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | SCSI ID | For ATAPI device like CDROM, this sets the ATAPI communication mode |
| - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | Normal (CD-ROM, etc.) *Default when shipped |
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| - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | CD-Changer (LUN 0-5) | ||
| - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | - | PD | ||
| - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | - | - | LS-120 |
| SW # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Flash ROM | For firmware flashing only. You can Google for the latest firmware v1.27 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | - | Normal *Default when shipped |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | Rewrite Mode |
| SW # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Internal SCSI Termination SW | Set SCSI termination. You should know about this already :-) |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | Termination ON *Default when shipped |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | Termination OFF |
| SW # | A | B | C | Internal SCSI Termination SW |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Open Drain | |
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 3-state v *Default when shipped |
After setting the jumper setting, connect the SCSI cable to the IDSC-21 and power cable to both IDSC-21 & the IDE storage After setting the jumper setting, connect the SCSI cable to the IDSC-21 and power cable to both IDSC-21 & the IDE storage device. On bootup your Atari should see the IDE devices as SCSI devices with the SCSI ID that you set on the back panel of the IDSC-21. Your normal hard disk partition and format tools will work as normal and see the IDE storage as a SCSI device. It is advisable to do a reformat and partition so that Atari specific information is written on to the storage device.
Have Fun!!