CQD-220 behaving oddly
David Riley
never got the chance to really put it to work (most of the SCSI drives
I had as spares turned out bad). I've moved semi-recently, and the
card doesn't seem to behave anymore.
I've gone through the regular paces of running the on-board utility,
but it always seems to freeze whenever I try to run the "Additional
utilities" selection (7). Specifically, it seems to freeze when
retrieving the serial number (the console output halts at "SN =" and
just sits there).
This worked before, at my old place (I used to at least be able to
scan the bus correctly). Somewhere in the middle (no idea where),
things got screwed up. Other interesting tidbits: About 1/3 of the
time, the device doesn't respond properly at its CSR+2. It responds
(ODT doesn't give me back a question mark), but the data is either
zero when it should be something along the lines of 005400, or it's
garbage (especially after I poke it with 123456 at its CSR+2. Also,
the term power fuse appears blown. I've shorted it with a "poor man's
fuse" (thin piece of solder between the pins which should melt at any
real current), but it seems to have no effect with or without the
jumper present and with or without devices or even a cable on the bus.
I can provide a transcript of a typical session, if it helps. Anyone
familiar with banging on the CQD-220 and its various faults?
Similarly, anyone know what's under those labels on the two ROM-
looking chips and the bigger CPU-looking one (40-DIP)? I have spare
Z80s, 6809Es and 65[C]02s lying around if I need to replace a
processor. I also have an EEPROM burner if I need to verify/re-burn
the ROMs, as well as a few spare older EEPROMs lying around.
Thanks in advance,
- Dave
David Riley
> I bought a CQD-220/TM (QBUS SCSI controller) off eBay a while back but
> never got the chance to really put it to work (most of the SCSI drives
> I had as spares turned out bad). I've moved semi-recently, and the
> card doesn't seem to behave anymore.
>
> I've gone through the regular paces of running the on-board utility,
> but it always seems to freeze whenever I try to run the "Additional
> utilities" selection (7). Specifically, it seems to freeze when
> retrieving the serial number (the console output halts at "SN =" and
> just sits there).
Oh, also of note: the built-in RS232 port doesn't appear to respond at
all. I've followed the instructions in the manual as well as I can,
but no combination of halt/reset/carriage return on the console seems
to make it respond. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's pinned out like
the standard DEC 2x5 serial port, yes? Unless I've grievously misread
something, it looks like I ought to be able to take the RS-232 adaptor
straight from my SLU ports on the CPU (KDF11-BA) to the port on the
card.
David Riley
clock devices that feed it and the number of '373 registers attached
to what should be an ALE pin, that the processor on there is an 8 MHz
8088. I've also determined that I no longer have any PCs with a
parallel port (and I would be surprised if Windows 7 worked with the
crappy driver program for my ROM burner/reader). Does anyone happen
to have a copy of the ROMs for the CQD-220 that I could disassemble?
Worst case, I can wait until I can get a parallel port card from
NewEgg.
As a side note, I disassembled the loop that the PDP-11 side ends up
getting stuck in... it's basically polling the card and looping until
it gets something, which is never once the card has gone into its
funky garbage output mode. I'm worried that maybe one of the 25 or so
GAL/PAL/PEEL devices on the card (this thing is a more complex circuit
than the original Mac, which used 4 PALs and did a whole lot more with
them) has gone up, in which case I'll just have to toss the card
because there's no reading them to duplicate 'em.
- Dave