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                  ICD HOST ADAPTOR 
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                                  by ACE member Malcom Hardy

I purchased one of the first 1040STe's to reach Australia which 
was about 14 months ago. About six months later I heard about the 
DMA chip problem and sent my STe in to have the chip replaced. I 
had always intended to purchase a hard drive but had been making 
do with the one floppy drive. Once I received it back I began 
searching for reasonably  priced hard drives. It was at this point 
that I heard about the ICD host adaptors which enabled oneself to 
assemble their own hard drive reasonably cheaply. It sounded simple 
enough so I ordered one from the United States. Within two weeks I 
had received the Host Adaptor. The Host Adaptor I ordered was the 
AdSCSI Plus ST version which includes a battery backed clock and 
calendar.

The kit itself includes the Host Adaptor board,software (One 
double sided disk),power cable for the drive , Host Adaptor,
DMA cable and a very detailed seventy page instruction book.

You have a choice of connecting a standard PC type hard drive or 
to connect a SCSI type drive. The host adaptor can handle two hard 
drives. The PC type drive ie; ST506/412 type requires an 
additional controller before it can be connected to the Host 
Adaptor. This controller is not the same as the usual controller 
card in XT's or AT's. A SCSI hard drive has a built in SCSI 
controller and can be connected directly to the Host Adaptor. 
These are usually more expensive than the other type, but are more 
reliable and faster. A SCSI drive nearly ends up costing the same 
as an ST506/412 type drive plus controller.

I decided to go with a SCSI type drive and started the painful 
process of searching for a reasonably priced one. Most Computer 
stores did not understand what I was talking about when I 
mentioned SCSI hard drives. After a long search I finally found 
someone who knew what I was talking about and was selling hard 
drives at reasonable prices. The name of the company is Electronic 
Desktop Solutions. They supplied me with a new 45Mbyte NEC SCSI
hard drive for $500.

A few days later I was off to Dick Smiths and Rod Irvings 
electronic stores. The following components were purchased;

1. Metal casing to house the drive                   $35.00
2. Small fan to keep the drive from overheating.     $30.00 
   (12 volt)
3. 50 Conductor cable to connect the drive to the    $10.00
   Host Adaptor.   
4. 50 pin Connectors for the above cable.            $ 4.00
   ( 2 off )
5. Screws, nuts, washers.                            $10.00
6. Single throw, Single Pole illuminated 240volt     $ 5.00
   switch.
7. Disk drive power supply.                          $90.00

After about 16 hours of cutting, soldering, drilling and careful 
assembly I had a fully assembled hard drive. It was at this stage 
that I started having problems. The power supply that I purchased 
was intended for a floppy drive mechanism. A hard drive requires 
about half an amp of current. The Host Adaptor board requires 
about 0.6 amp. The power supply was rated at a maximum one amp. 
When I switched on the power the hard drive would not come up to 
speed. At this stage I was starting to think that purchasing a 
standard Atari hard drive would have been a lot easier.

Anyway I decided that even though there was a lot of effort 
involved it would be well worthwhile in the long run . The drive 
would be faster than the standard Atari drive and I would have a 
clock/calendar.I found a power supply circuit , purchased the 
parts and a 240 volt transformer and assembled the power supply.
I decided to use one power supply to drive the fan and hard drive 
and the other power supply to drive the host adaptor. After 
reassembling everything I switched it on and everything worked 
fine. 

The ICD software provided for formatting and initial setup is 
excellent and allows to get your system up and running in a 
minimum of time. A powerful accessory is provided to 
enable/disable and rename partitions.
The following utilities are included with the 
formatting and driver software;

ICDTIME.PRG - This program sets the ST's clock and calendar from 
              the clock in the host adaptor.

IDCHECK.PRG - This program scans the DMA bus and reports other 
              SCSI devices which are connected.

RATEHD.PRG  - This program tests the drive access time and 
              maximum transfer rate.
              This program accurately tests hard drive access,
              bypassing any disk cacheing and the hard disk 
              driver. It allows you to fine tune your hard drive 
              to get the best performance. Real world access times are 
              generally higher than manufacturers claimed times.
              
              I obtained the following results with my drive using
              an interleave factor of 1:1.
              Transfer rate ; 600 Kilobytes/sec
              Average access time; 35 millisecs (28 ms claimed )
 
              
MAKEPARK.PRG - This program scans for SCSI devices and generates a
               program to PARK those selected. (NEC hard drives 
               are AUTO parking.)

WHEREIS.TOS - This program allows you to search partitions for a 
              file matching a specified mask.

I have been using my Hard drive for the past three months and am 
amazed at the increased speed at which programs and files are loaded and 
saved. Also all my files are timestamped with the correct dates 
and times now.
It really transforms your ST into a very productive and powerful 
tool. One could no doubt build a hard drive cheaper
if they built their own power supply. In the end my drive ended up 
costing me around $800. The ICD software and utilities are easy to use
and the clock/calendar is also very useful. 
Assembly would be easier if you purchased a pre-machined
case and assembled power supply.
 
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