BlueSCSI V2

[btp]

No questions are silly! I might indeed have omitted something obvious!

I have connected the berg power connector on the BlueSCSI with the power connector on the A590 via a molex to floppy power adapter - such as this one:



As mentioned earlier on the BlueSCSCI I have closed the PWR_ON jumper.
BTW my A590 gets power from its dedicated original Commodore PSU.


Further report on my latest tests:

a) Tried a different SD card (the first was a 32GB Kingston the second was a Sandisk 64GB) with the same results.

b) Updated firmware to the last nightly build (June 4) but alas the situation remains the same.

c) I created a 50MB image in WinUAE (within a system configuration that is identical to the one I'm using) and tried to load it in BlueSCSI. The Amiga boots into Workbench from the emulated hard drive but after a while - and at random times - disk read error messages appear (sometime while booting).

[btp]

Something that I forgot to mention previously: the SCSI cable that I used is 50cm long (it was a NOS cable never used before). It it perhaps too long for this use case?

[pandy71]

Originally Posted by btp

Something that I forgot to mention previously: the SCSI cable that I used is 50cm long (it was a NOS cable never used before). It it perhaps too long for this use case?

Not for real SCSI where even 3m cable long was possible... But for modern HW this can be too much (but i will be honest, have no clue about BlueSCSI v2 hardware implementation in theory RP2040 can tolerate 5V signals but definitely this is not recommended)

[nogginthenog]

Hey btp, did you solder the Pico yourself? On mine I had to solder the Pico & the SCSI connector.
Maybe there could be a bad connection?

Also, after you get the error check the log on the SD card.

[btp]

Yep, I also soldered the Pico and the SCSI connector myself.
Not claiming that I'm proficient at soldering but I have made quite a few of such projects to consider that I can do a decent job.

I did make a visual inspection and I can't find any obvious problem with my soldering.
To be certain I will try to verify everything with my multimeter.

[btp]

Today I checked all pins of the DB50 connector as well as the pins of the Pi Pico with my multimeter against the project's Kicad schematics. Everything checked out fine.

Next I'll post the error log that is generated on the SD card when reading or writing fails.

[btp]

For anyone wondering what is the outcome of my adventures with BlueSCSI v2 installed in an A590 I may report finally it was a success!

I tried various things at once but the one that I believe made a difference is the update to v7.0 roms of the A590 (yep made the investment to an XGecu T48 programmer that proved a smart choice).

In the last days I've put my setup under various test cases, from hard disk images to CDROM ISO images, and all performed as expected.

[AiO]

Hm... I wonder if someone has tinkered with a SANA2-driver for BlueSCSI v2 WiFi DynaPort (ancient Ethernet on SCSI-bus thingy). There are drivers for Mac OS System 6 and 7, and also Atari ST... Would be a very nice (and cheap) way to get your SCSI-capable Amiga online, wirelessly..... WPA2 even.

Link to more info: https://bluescsi.com/docs/WiFi-DaynaPORT

[fgh]

That would be great, indeed!

There are netBSD drivers as well, by the way.

The atari driver developer for the (real) dayna SCSI ethernet adapter made some notes for other driver developers. (attached).

Some links that may be relevant:
https://marc.info/?l=netbsd-port-mac...03263573602167
https://github.com/PiSCSI/piscsi/wik...Port-SCSI-Link
(There is a lot of discussion on the github piscsi project)

[nogginthenog]

I have been working on a driver. I've managed to send and receive some broadcast packets (DHCP, ARP) but hit a brick wall.
Recently I found the baxnet source from Zorro-LAN-IDE which is much more generic so I'm going to try this.

I am also working on an Amiga BlueSCSI toolbox. This lets you change ISO images and copy files to/from the SD card.
It's command line only right now but I'm planning a GUI.

My CyberStorm MkII SCSI controller really does not like BlueSCSI commands being sent to a HD (CD is fine). Other than that it's working nice.

[drHirudo]

Just received my BlueSCSI and it works fine on the Macintosh Performa 450 that I have. Unfortunately, the HDA images online are only with the MacOS Operating System, so I had to return back the old noisy Seagate drive into it, until I find more software or floppy emulator.

I have ShapeShifter images for use with the Apollo V4+ SA, with many installed games on them, but unfortunately Mac emulation on the Vampire is very unstable and garbles the CF a lot, giving checksum errors after and needing to rewrite whole CF card again.

Is it possible to convert disk images prepared for ShapeShifter to be used with BlueSCSI? I see hda images can be manipulated on MacOS X 10.4, but it will be much easier for me to just use the ready with installed games SS images that I have.

[nogginthenog]

Disk images from ShapeShifter should work with a BlueSCSI. Just make sure they have the correct names (HD10_512.hda etc).

[Nobby_UK]

I can only see one drive/image on mine.

Anybody have more ?

[nogginthenog]

They should be named like this:
HD10_512.hd
HD20_512.hd
HD30_512.hd
(I don't think the extension matters)

The BlueSCSI wiki is pretty good.

You can also create a folder named for example CD5 and put ISO images in there and mount a CDPOM.
The tool I'm working on can swap between the ISO images in this folder.

That part is working well but I'm getting a crash with the 'download files from the SD card' tool.

Should be available soon.

[Nobby_UK]

I can see from the Log File that it detected them
(extra Disc and/or CD)
but an ADOS (?) error
"gvpscsi.device: unit 000
Unexpected Status $4E/$20"
stops Workbench.

[nogginthenog]

Any reason you have 'Quirks: Apple' enabled?

https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI.../Compatibility
Shows Amiga 500 GVP HD8 is shown as working.

[Nobby_UK]

How would I disable it ?

[fgh]

Nobby_UK: Are you aware that when adding additional drives to an amiga you usually need to enter hdtoolbox? (To update the last_drive RDB flag of the existing drive, which exists to stop scanning for further drives to save boot time)

I have multiple bluscsi v2 'drives' on multiple amiga machines without issue.

In general when troubleshooting, it makes sense to advance in simple steps and make sure everything works along the way. So I'd remove the SCSI CD unit in your case until I have two drives working.

[Nobby_UK]

Originally Posted by fgh

Nobby_UK: Are you aware that when adding additional drives to an amiga you usually need to enter hdtoolbox? (To update the last_drive RDB flag of the existing drive, which exists to stop scanning for further drives to save boot time)

I have multiple bluscsi v2 'drives' on multiple amiga machines without issue.

In general when troubleshooting, it makes sense to advance in simple steps and make sure everything works along the way. So I'd remove the SCSI CD unit in your case until I have two drives working.

Well Duh !

[fgh]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

Well Duh !

I'm not a native english speaker but interpret your comment as 'yes of course I understand these obvious facts'.

Perhaps you stopped reading at 'hdtoolbox'? Then I should have specified that I meant additional drives, also when they are already partitioned and formatted and fully working on their own.
In my experience, that's not at all an obvious fact, and most users are not aware.

(When adding additional devices, even though these are amiga partitioned/formatted already - and working just fine on their own - they will not show up in workbench or the early boot menu until you run hdtoolbox or another RDB utility to UPDATE THE LAST_DRIVE flag of the drive that was already in your system.)

And I suppose from your reply you have OF COURSE tried without adding the blue SCSI CDROM (ID 5 in your log), otherwise that would be my prime suspect for the ADOS error message.