Viking SCSI controller secrets?

From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh_at_aracnet.com>
Date: Fri Jun 29 12:00:28 2001

>Is there some secret lore about Viking SCSI controllers that I need to get
>them to work?

The first thing you'll want to do is look here
ftp://zane.brouhaha.com/pub/dan/viking_scsi/


>I've got a Viking QDT (dual wide Disk and Tape) that has V1.5 of the
>firmware. When I plug it into my VAX with two RZ55's in an expansion
>cabinet and type SHO DEV (MV3500) it says:
>UQSSP Disk controller (177xxx)
> -?
>
>Then finds the TK70 and adds
>
>UQSSP Disk controller (xxxxx)
> -?
>
>Its not exact but basically the system knows I've got an MSCP disk
>controller and a second TMSCP tape controller and when it asks them what
>devices they have attached the Viking seems to be answering ("I don't know.")
>
>Now if I hook it up to a box that had a couple of MO drives in it (an old
>Aspire cabinet) then it reports DUA0 (_at_0) and DUA1 (@0) and no tape (as
>expected, and it doesn't even print the -?)
>
>I don't have the funky cable to get to the RS232 port (although the Aspire
>box does, it doesn't seem to work correctly)
>
>Questions:
> 1) If I build a funky cable, which three wires do I use?
> 2) Shouldn't it just work?

OK, I'm getting really suspicious here after having read this whole thing.
I take it that the Aspire box came with the Viking board? What exactly
does the firmware say? BTW, the latest version of Viking Firmware I've
seen is V3.7, however, it sounds like you've might have Alphatronix
Firmware.

I'm more than a little confused by the cable question. You should have a
50-pin cable going from the Viking board, to the RS232 block, and from it
you should have another 50-pin cable going to any drives.

Also, what SCSI ID's are the RZ55's at? Make sure they're between 0-3.

One word of warning, my VAXen don't rate Vikings, they're reserved for my
PDP-11's :^) So I've never tried using a Viking with a VAXen. Although
both my PDP-11/44 and PDP-11/73 use them (in the case of the /44 with
RZ55's).

                        Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh_at_aracnet.com (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
|                                  | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
|     Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing,    |
|                   and Zane's Computer Museum.                 |
|                 http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/              |
Received on Fri Jun 29 2001 - 12:00:28 BST

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