ACARD AEC-7720U Ultra SCSI-IDE bridge

many thanks

my guy is still trying stuff out - I've also been asking advice from Amiga Mech in USA who is well known for selling Acards/PCDs etc.

between the 2 of them and various tests the possible explanations (so far) are one of these:

1) someone fried them by mistake, then repackaged them and sold them to you. Acards are fragile, and can be overloaded, esp these early revisions that have crap fuse. so they could be big time dead...

2) issue JUST with resetable fuses that are under the power connection, again could have happened before you received them

3) these could be strange custom write protected Acards - these DO exist according to both my guys on the case, and they are bloody difficult to do anything with from what both are saying

4) something else!

Its NOT mac bios thats the issue, thats now off the list as these have now been tested on a mac also.

as soon as I have more word will get back to you - Acard (the company) have not emailed back yet either.

my last message from my tech is below - still no confirmation of problem:


the fuse is only for term power and the fuses are ok

i get 5v to the chips and the schotky diode and the termpower pin and at the fuse and after the fuse its not a power problem

i get power but no talk to the risc scsi processor via scsi buss

each one i have opened smell of burnt plastic

these have been fried

like i said some of them have definetly been used

I thought they were all used, are these supposed to be brand new?

Are you having the same problem with multiple bridges, or just one?

They were old stock, unused. I did open a few and those could have been the ones I handled but not more then 5. It is possible that those 5 were shipped. None were installed though as I got Chaka's SCSI adapter but didn't end up doing anything with it.

I am interested to see what Acard has to say. Even though I wouldn't understand much, it sheds light on the whole subject.

I just happened to know what the cards were because I frequented this forum from owning the different MPC's with the exception of the 3000. Therefore I dare not chime in on that model.

On another note, a local pawnshop is selling a 3000LE. I called today and it's still available but it was way over what I consider a deal. Check Los Angeles craigslist for info.

If anyone in the LA area, you can have 2 cards free to test out if you have a 3000. Just call me or text to pick up. You will be asked to post your findings.

I will be in the Oakland area on May 16 and I know there are a few MPC heads in the Bay area, you can have 2 cards as well to test and post your findings.

My email is [email protected]

No shipping, no selling. We are just trying to troubleshoot compatibility at this point.

asichop wrote:We are just trying to troubleshoot compatibility at this point.

All three Acards I received from you work with my MPC3000. They also work with my S1000 and S750.

Seed certainly has some bad luck goin on with his batch, which are only a few serial numbers away from my cards.
Sounds like they've been exposed to some kind of EMP in transit... or summat.

@jimmie Thanks for testing with non-MPC equipment

@Seed78 Thank you for your diligent work on finding all possible angles, your postings will definitely help shed a lot of light on the acard solution. Also glad to see there are other options being tested than just the obvious

DaveMars reported one good card and one bad card so Seed78 is not an isolated case. He contacted me and I sent replacements right away for the cost of postage.

I offered to send replacements for the cost of postage to Seed78 and requested that the cards sent to him be shipped back to me. One factor that comes to my mind is I shipped all the cards to Seed78 via DHL so customs wouldn't hit him hard. All other recent cards were shipped USPS. I wonder if they use a different method to sort.

We are also waiting on Gertie to chime in officially whether the cards he received from me are good to go.

Last I heard from Chaka is that he ended up selling his MPC so the cards weren't installed.

There is also a local seller I found who has the 7720UW version but I do not know if they are compatible...

asichop wrote:DaveMars reported one good card and one bad card so Seed78 is not an isolated case. He contacted me and I sent replacements right away for the cost of postage.

did he try to flash the bad card? thats when it becomes really clear there is a major issue.

problem with sending replacements to me, means I could just have this all over again, as you have no way of testing before sending back to me.

was there ANYTHING special about the batch you sent me - did they come from separate box, or anything that isolates them from the rest?

asichop wrote:17) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
18) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
19) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
20) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHPPED
21) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
22) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
23) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
24) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
25) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
26) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
27) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
28) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
29) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
30) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED
31) XXXXXXXXXXXX / PAID / SHIPPED

basically - this is me - and not a single one works...

ha ha - got to laugh!!

asichop wrote:There is also a local seller I found who has the 7720UW version but I do not know if they are compatible...

I have 7720UW installed in my MPC3000 and it works flawlessy. But I'm unable to tell what FW it is running on (sticker with FW version had been peeled off when I got it). So there are some 7720UW versions which definitely work, just must be tested for compatibility.

the 7720uw work and can be flashed if there revision firmware is to low

the ones you have to watch out for are the wp versions which are write protected

i have tested these cards from seed

pc low level dos scsi interrogator adaptec pci card

this talks to the scsi processor of external devices

this will give manufacturers name and scsi item name

with scsi to ide devices

it will be acard scside:then it will give the name of the hd device

on cf cards it will be name of manufacturer sandisk a number code like 34657

and the size as in the case of richards sandisk card sandisk 34657 1gb

now my acards 7722u and 7720uw both come up on the low level dos screen

once i can see this i can then b oot into windows when windows is loaded i can then access the scsi to ide cards via acard scsi utility

this will tell me what revision software is on the flash

now these new cards from seed when i connect them to the scsi buss and do the low level tests i get no device connected

i have tested all his cards and i get the same thing

because the scsi buss can not see them then windows wont see them

and i am not able to flash them as if i use the acard scsi utillity and choose my scsi pci card it shows no devices ATTACHED

i have tested them with my mac and i get no devices attached

i have tried all the cards on an e4ultra which i know work with the 7720u

and i cant get the sampler to see them

tested on a kurzweil k2000 with 3.87 os which sees every thing and im not able to see them

tried on a roland s760/770/xv5080 and they cant access them

i know these work as i have a rack hot swap drive with 4 scsi hotswap devices

a acard 7720u
a acard 7720uw
a iodata version 2
and a pcd47b

and the samplers all work with this rack

akai sxxxx range dont see them

mpc2000xl dont see them

a3000 and ex5r does not see them

i have been doing hot swap drives for samplers for a very long time

i was the person who helped scsi4samplers find the correct settings and correct scsi to ide card for ensoniqs

i am the only person in the world to get a hotswap drive solution working for an eps13bit classic sampler

these cardfs either have no firmware on there flash so the processor cant talk to the scsi buss

this could be a factory fault or they could of been warranty returns

and not of been fixed

i get 5v at the termination power jumper this is feed by the schotky diode and then goes to a resetable fuse this is for termpower protection if there is a surge of current of termpower to many devices with term power on the scsi buss

then the resetable fuse becomes a open circuit and stops the current from damaging the scsi boards but there is also a schotky diode voltage can only go one way so the scsi to ide cards are protected

i have tested all the fuses and they are all ok

im getting voltages to the ic chips and there is a good 0v return path

if i plug in an led onto the led pins i get the led to light up on power up

but it does not blink at all with activity by the scsi host controller device

on the 7720uw and the 7722u both when the led is fitted blink when talking to the host controller

after 3 days of exhaustive tests with many machines

these cards dont work

and would need to be sent back to acard for fixing or hardware reflash

as its not possible to flash them like normally

Thanks J,

for all - he's looked at all 15 (yes 15...) of the ones I bought and they all share the same problem.

only option left is something called a 'logic testing clamp' (I have no idea what that is...) - or to send them back to Acard IF thats not going to result in crazy costs!

@seed78 Don't worry we will work something out between us. Have you heard from acard? We need to keep track of the serial numbers of all the cards now. All the cards I am selling are from the same box so the serial numbers should be similar.

@jhulk I saw on craigslist some guy selling the 7720uw version somewhere in the San Diego area. He matched my pricing point. I would jump at the chance to get these if I had the knowledge and tools to test them but I still have my stock to deal with.

I have learned so much about these cards now, you guys are making me want to get a vintage sampler. I have an broken S2000 but I know very little about electronics to get her up and running. Someday.....

If you bought from me, please try to find your serial number and we will post it on this thread as working or not.

Thanks!

SEED78 wrote:was there ANYTHING special about the batch you sent me - did they come from separate box, or anything that isolates them from the rest?

Yes. Yours was shipped via a faster method because you ordered more. I used DHL for your order. The rest were shipped via USPS.