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[RMK305]

I have just installed a SCSI hard drive on the Warpengine and it seems to be working fine however I don't think there is any termination setup on the drive...does this matter and could it damage the warpengine or the drive itself?

Thanks,

Robert

[LoadWB]

It won't damage the drive or controller (or shouldn't, anyway,) but you might see random data errors, unreadable blocks, etc. I had problems with my WarpEngine 4040 and a few SCSI devices, ultimately resolved by turning on termination on the device at the end of the chain.

[da9000]

What LoadWB said.

What's the drive model? Perhaps it has some arcane jumper settings?

[RMK305]

The drive is an IBM Ultrastar 18.2GB. Model : DDYS-T18350 P/N: 07N3210.


I found the following information on it...

http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/85256AB8006A31E587256A6A00576847/$file/ddys_ps.PDF

From reading that, page 4 states.

"On board SCSI active termination is not supported. The using system is responsible for making sure that all required signals are terminated at both ends of the bus cable."

"Terminator power
Terminator power can be provided by the 5v power supply through current limiter and Schottky diode. This function can be selected by jumper."

Does this mean that the drive cannot be terminated? I was told by someone here that the drive would work. What can I do with this?

Thanks,

Robert

[Zac67]

It's normal for LVD devices (U2W onward) not to offer termination options (I've never seen a single one that does btw). You need to get a cable terminator or use another SCSI device to terminate that end of the bus.

Termpower is something related, but different. Any terminator requires power to operate which - for a cabled one - must come from the bus, so at least one device must supply termpower for the terminators to work. Usually it's supplied by the host adapter, but most of the time it's a good idea to also use devices at both ends of the bus for this purpose.

[LoadWB]

You should be able to find narrow chain terminators relatively cheaply. You might even be able to find a cable with one built in. I enabled TermPwr on my hard drive because, IIRC, the WarpEngine does not provide it. If it does, no harm done.

Also, if you WarpEngine is the start of the chain, make sure your resistor blocks are installed -- that's your local termination. If it sits somewhere in the middle of the chain, you'll need termination on both ends of the cable.

If you have another SCSI device further down the chain than the hard drive, check it to see if it provides termination. Some devices do, some don't. My Zip drive does not, though my CD-ROM does, as did my Seagate and Western Digital hard drives.

EDIT: Also, some 80-50 and 68-50 adapters provide termination via resistor packs, but need TermPwr from another device.

[RMK305]

The Warpengine does have the 3 resistor packs installed already. So I take it I can just buy a 50 pin terminator to plug into the next connector on the cable and put the jumper on the term power pins?

I take it I could just plug the spare connector on the cable into this one...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Passive-SCSI-Terminator-Internal-Female/dp/B000I2JYZM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1222467435&sr =8-2


Sorry, this is all new to me and I just want the damn thing etup and working.

[Zac67]

Yes. But while you're at it, getting an active terminator is recommended. Active termination ensures better signal integrity - mostly for the same or a very similar price. If you look around they're not too hard to find. The one you need is just 2.65€ at reichelt.de.

[RMK305]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Active-SCSI-Terminator-Internal-Male/dp/B000I2JYZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1222469130&sr =8-1

Will go for this one in that case. A little bit more expensive than I thought they would be, but oh well.

Thank you.

[RMK305]

I got the terminator through (£6 off ebay) and have set up the drive with the terminate power pin on the drivebridged. 2 questions.

1. If I add another of these drives should I bridge the term power pins in both of them or just the one nearest the end of the chain?

2. When playing a game and only when playing a game, the hard drive makes a weird noise. Difficult to explain, but it's not a reading/writing noise. Anyone heard of this before? I'll try loading the machine and leave it sitting to se if it hapens while stagnent in Workbench.

The SCSI drive is like lightening compared to the ide. Unbelievable difference.

[Zac67]

In theory you can have any number of devices supplying termpower to the bus, at least one is required.

Sometimes this seems to cause weird problems though. I always activate termpower on the drives with/next to the terminators and deactivate it on all the others.