Hardware Wanted

Trippynet wrote: AFAIK, sleds are required. I know someone on Neko did look at hooking a drive directly up to the backplane port, but I'm not sure if they had any success. A 68pin drive should work, but 80pin SCA drives are probably the most common ones I've seen and can be picked up pretty cheaply.

I have a SCA disk in my Indigo2 R10000. The only gotcha is the SCA adapter: the solder side of the adapter easily makes a short circuit with te metal of the disk. That's why you can see some carton there.


As for CDROMs: back when the Indigo2 was current, a CDROM wasn't standard with every system. They were usually only used during software installation anyway, so having one external CDROM for a workgroup was much more common. That's why the 5.25" sleds are relatively rare and expensive. Also, keep in mind if you place the system on it's side on feet, you need a CDROM drive with little 'latches' in the tray to keep the disk from falling out. Older Toshibas have them.

If you go for an external CDROM: Plextor drives used to be well regarded and are easily found.

Technically, an external system disk is no problem either. That way you can at least play with the system while you keep an eye open for an affordable sled.

jan-jaap wrote: The only gotcha is the SCA adapter: the solder side of the adapter easily makes a short circuit with te metal of the disk. That's why you can see some carton there.

I had the exact same experience. When I bought my system from Ian, he'd applied gaffer tape to the back of the adapter, but it wasn't enough. Cue my Indigo2 randomly shutting down here and there. I ran it with the lid off and saw occasional sparks from the adapter as it shorted due to the pins poking through the tape. Sliding a piece of cardboard between the drive and the adapter fixed it.

I found someone on this very forum with very affordably priced drive sleds, several affordably priced internal SCSI optical drives, and hard disks and video adapters on Acronym1's eBay page.

If only I wasn't going on vacation so I could buy all this stuff right now and get the Indigo2 up and running!

itsvince725 wrote: I found someone on this very forum with very affordably priced drive sleds, several affordably priced internal SCSI optical drives, and hard disks and video adapters on Acronym1's eBay page.

If only I wasn't going on vacation so I could buy all this stuff right now and get the Indigo2 up and running!

I recommend Acronym Systems. I just got an Indigo2 R10K and IP28 board from him. He was very good to deal with.

uunix wrote: I think roughly install standard is over a GB ?? on 6.5.22. Mind you I say that, but I install from a network dist which has a bundle of stuff.

I got my I2 with a 2GB HD, 6.5 filled it 95%. Can't remember which subversion though.

Trippynet wrote: Some drives don't support the necessary fallback to support the Indigo2's SCSI-2 bus. You won't harm anything to plug one in, but it simply won't be recognised. I'd say with the 30 or so drives I have that I've tested, I've had between a 40% to 50% success rate with them on my Indigo2 (ones that don't support it I reserve for my Fuel).

Worth looking out for drives with a "force narrow" or "force single ended" jumper setting, especially on U320 drives where AIUI the spec dropped compatibility (though in practice I suspect not all U160 drives play nicely on narrow SCSI2

Well apparently I need a new R4400 CPU board now.

I need at least a 150MHz unit.

That's tough bro.

itsvince725 wrote: Well apparently I need a new R4400 CPU board now.

I need at least a 150MHz unit.

I do have an R4400 250MHZ CPU and IP22 mainboard sitting around that came out of my Indigo2 when I upgraded to R10000.

The thing is, I don't know anything about the process of shipping items internationally. Not sure how the customs stuff works mainly.

I've only done it once and it was through eBay...so I won't be any help.

It's not terrible to ship from Canada to the US. Pack the items well, you(Krokodil)'ll need to fill out the Canadian version of the postal service customs form, just put in the approx value, basic description of the contents and fill out the forms honestly. At least here in the US, postal workers are relatively up to date on the regulations and can help you fill the form out.

If you live on the west coast/mid-west of canada (i.e Calgary or Vancouver) it's gonna be expensive. But if you live close to Mississauga (the East coast Canadian-US postal area) it's going to be affordable for Vince to get it.

Really no big deal to ship internationally. If you're not comfortable shipping with Canada Post do you have FedEx there? FedEx is a bit easier to deal with internationally at a bit of a premium.

Raion-Fox wrote: It's not terrible to ship from Canada to the US. Pack the items well, you(Krokodil)'ll need to fill out the Canadian version of the postal service customs form, just put in the approx value, basic description of the contents and fill out the forms honestly. At least here in the US, postal workers are relatively up to date on the regulations and can help you fill the form out.

If you live on the west coast/mid-west of canada (i.e Calgary or Vancouver) it's gonna be expensive. But if you live close to Mississauga (the East coast Canadian-US postal area) it's going to be affordable for Vince to get it.

Really no big deal to ship internationally. If you're not comfortable shipping with Canada Post do you have FedEx there? FedEx is a bit easier to deal with internationally at a bit of a premium.

So the postal workers have the customs forms on hand? I don't have to go chasing it all over town?

Yes, I live about 1hr from Mississauga.

In th US they do. Call your local PO and ask.

Krokodil wrote: So the postal workers have the customs forms on hand? I don't have to go chasing it all over town?

Yes. Package it all up ready for shipping. Walk in to the post office, hand them the box, and say "I need to send this to the US" (or wherever). They'll give you various price/service options (regular parcel, expedited, XpressPost, etc.), and then hand you the necessary forms to fill out. Once you've filled out the paperwork and paid, there's nothing more to do. It all happens at the post office counter.

You can get shipping quotes on-line if you like, but I actually find it easier to just go into the post office. They'll measure and weigh the package very accurately. They'll explain all the options. They'll provide all the right forms without you having to ask. Shipping internationally is easy with Canada Post. They do it every day. I've sent lots of stuff to the U.S. and Europe through them.

One piece of advice, though, is to try to find an actual Canada Post office nearby as opposed to a Canada Post counter in a larger store. In my town, there's a real Post Office and Canada Post counter in the back of a pharmacy. I don't know if the counter at the pharmacy is up to the same level as the true Canada Post location.

Well it looks like I might not need a CPU board. What I'll need instead is a graphics board compatible with the IP22 (?) motherboard and backplane.

If you're not getting serial output I wouldn't rule out the motherboard

God I hope it isn't the motherboard...

All I know is that the graphics board causes the hard disk to not work, as it spins up when the graphics board isn't installed. That tells me at the very least that I need a different graphics board.

itsvince725 wrote: All I know is that the graphics board causes the hard disk to not work, as it spins up when the graphics board isn't installed. That tells me at the very least that I need a different graphics board.

Could be power supply related, combined load of graphics and disk too much for a PSU on it's way out. With an oscilloscope you should be able to measure voltage and ripple. If the power supply is good, and the graphic bad (as in: voltages dropping due to severe load on PSU, causing disk not to spin) you would smell it.

Indigo2 PSUs are often the Achilles heel of the system, though the older pre-IMPACT PSUs tend to have less issues.

I don't smell anything when the machine is running (and I'm familiar with that fishy capacitor smell) so I don't think it's the PSU. It's a R4400 system so it's pre-Impact.

It's difficult to say. Old PSUs can misbehave in many ways.

My Indigo2 is on its second PSU. Originally, I had an issue a couple of times with the system randomly powering off after a few hours of use. I also had an issue whereby it would sporadically not boot at all (fans powered up, but no LEDs at all), turning it off at the wall for 30 seconds then back on sometimes resulted in it booting.

After changing the PSU, it's been running fine for the last 18 months.

Not saying the PSU is at fault for sure in your case, but they don't always just go bang and smell of burning electronics

The way I see it, if I buy a graphics board (especially a slightly better one) and it turns out the PSU is at fault, I'll still have a graphics board.

Replacing the PSU wouldn't guarantee the current graphics board would work again...