The C-Ltd. SCSI-1000 for My Amiga 1000, and I Need Help Getting it Working (Disk Woes)

jdmcs

TinkerDifferent Board DoP&G
Staff member
Oct 28, 2021
60
37
18
Central Virginia
youtube.com
I just want to be able to use a mass storage device with my Amiga 1000... so when I saw this C-Ltd. SCSI-1000 appear on eBay, I bought it now. Maybe I should have done some research first. Maybe I should have spent twice as much and just bought a Parceiro (assuming you can get them still). But my brain said, "Period accessory! SCSI! Gimme!" And it had copies of the original disks, so it can't be too bad, right?

Let's Take a Step Back... What Do I Have?​


Until last year, I had never touched, let alone owned, an Amiga. And until this year, I'd never used an Amiga. So my decision to purchase the SCSI-1000 was not based on any past experience. Instead, it was driven by my desire to be able to attempt to use a BlueSCSI with my Amiga 1000 so that I didn't have to load everything from disk, and by the fact that Amiga 1000 accessories don't show up on eBay as frequently. And I think the seller listed this as a Buy It Now listing for right around $100, so I was afraid that if I delayed, someone else would jump on it.

If I had done my research, I would have realized that this card can't autoboot, and I would have been more likely to pass. But pass I did not, therefore...
IMG_4207.jpeg

I own a C.Ltd SCSI-1000. It's in a metal enclosure, and the front has a really nice metal badge.

IMG_4208.jpeg

Is it too late to send in the warranty card? (Ha ha!) The back shows that this is revision 1.2, and serial number 91E2396. I'm not sure if this means that they made at least 2396 of these (as they could have started the serial numbers at 1000 or 2000), but they definitely seem like a small business, as the label appears to be photocopied with a hand-written serial number.

IMG_4209.jpeg

These are the two disks that came with my SCSI-1000. Yeah, unfortunately these aren't the original disks. The seller said they created them from ADF files they found somewhere, but when I requested the original ADF files, they could not locate them.

These disks are labeled CLTD UTILS and SCSI 2 CLTD, which could provide a clue as to what the original disks would have been labeled.

IMG_4210.jpeg

The obligatory inside shot, because folks are going to ask for it anyways. That liquid is Deoxit residue, and the single electrolytic capacitor has been replaced.

IMG_4211.jpeg

The SCSI chip is an AMD AM5380PC.

Under the SCSI chip, the PCB is labeled:
C-LTD BRECK RICKETTS
REV 3

It looks like a "3", but it could be a "B". (It's hard to read even in-person.) But given what looks like a roman numeral III on the PCB itself, I'm inclined to go with "3".

IMG_4213.jpeg

In case anyone is wondering what the rest of the logic chips are. Other than the SCSI chip and the one PAL pictured here, the rest of the ICs are standard jellybean logic chips.

And yes, if you looked at the photos of the SCSI-1000 on Big Book of Amiga Hardware, you'll notice that I am missing the card edge that would let me daisy-chain another sidecar to this one. (It looks like a passive PCB, so one could be fabricated, assuming someone hasn't already done it.) You will also notice that there is a ribbon cable in this enclosure. I have no idea why, unless it was for a terminator, as that's the only thing at the time that would have fit. (It's possible one could fit a Blue SCSI with a right-angle header, but it might block the bus pass-through connector.)

All for Want of CLtd.device​

If I plug this card into the Amiga and run SysInfo, SysInfo does report that a card is present. (Sorry, no screen grab of this.) That's as far as I can get, because there seems to be something wrong with both included floppy disks.

When I insert either disk into the Amiga, a disk is mounted onto the desktop, but both disks have odd names. In addition, if I double-click on either disk, an empty window appears.
2022-06-13 23-25-04.00_07_57_52.Still001.png

2022-06-13 23-25-04.00_10_18_32.Still002.png


And worse, I got a Guru Meditation when one of the disks was in the system (I don't know if it was related)...
2022-06-13 23-25-04.00_08_15_06.Still003.png


I've searched the Internet for anything related to this card, and all I can find is the Big Book of Amiga Hardware page, which doesn't have any software linked for this card. So I need help...

Calling All Amiga Experts​

I bought a Greaseweazle, and it arrived today, so the first two disks I imaged were the two floppies that came with this card. I've attached those ADF files to this post. I'm hoping that someone more knowledgeable of the Amiga might be able to look at these images and tell why the files don't appear. (There appears to be something on both disks, as I did see some non-zero data in a hex editor, and the data looks like it could be an executable.)

Maybe there's a disk repair program out there. or maybe an Amiga expert will open the ADF files in a hex editor, take one look at the data, and say that whatever is on both disks isn't actually for an Amiga.

Or maybe, just maybe, someone out there has the original disks for this card and will archive them straight away.
 

Attachments

  • cltd-scsi-1000-disks-maybe.zip
    7.9 KB · Views: 84

Cashed

New Tinkerer
Jul 10, 2022
3
6
3
Hi @jdmcs
Thank you for all the details -much appreciated. That Guru Meditation - Software Failure error code 32, refers to Diskcopy.
You can fetch the correct drivers for your C-Ltd. A1000 SCSI here, from the Amiga Hardware Database.
By the way, if you ever stumble into any another Amiga users near you, and the two of you have different Amiga models. Disks that stops working on one model, can often be fixed, if a copy is made on another model.
 
  • Like
Reactions: johnklos