SCSI2SD in SupraDrive Case

[Fletch]

The SCSI drive in my SupraDrive has become quite finicky so I figured I'd try a SCSI2SD as a replacement. Everything seems to work out just fine. Plenty of drive space and fairly quick on the 1040ST to boot. Here are some pictures.

[Atari030]

Sweet as. Does the SCSI2SD require parity?

[Fletch]

Sweet as. Does the SCSI2SD require parity?

 

Nope, but can be enabled.

 

SCSI2SD supports up to 4 different SCSI ID's, each using a different section of the SD card.

• "Enable Parity" refers to checking SCSI bus parity on incoming requests. For best results, set this to match your equipment. With equipment that supports SCSI bus parity generation, enabling this provides better noise/error detection and helps detect bad termination or cabling.

[Atari030]

Some ST controllers don't support parity, so that is good news. I was thinking of putting one in my TT and possibly my original Link/MegaSTE.

[walter_J64bit]

Where did you get the SCSI2SD?

[Fletch]

I got it at Inertial Computing :

 

http://store.inertialcomputing.com/SCSI2SD-p/scsi2sd-v5b.htm

[anzac]

SCSI2SD is an awesome piece of hardware

[vattari]

Some ST controllers don't support parity, so that is good news. I was thinking of putting one in my TT and possibly my original Link/MegaSTE.

I've got one of these in my TT, and used another externally with a Falcon. If you do get one, I'd recommend version 6 as it allows for more virtual drives.

[Lynxpro]

Do you have it mounted in a special way? The website order page mentions a 3D printed bracket as an option.

 

By the way, that's so cool!

Edited June 13, 2018 by Lynxpro

[tjlazer]

Fletch, are you using HDDRIVER on this?  How big is your SD card?

[+SoulBuster]

I am using three v5.0 at the moment and I have Samsung 32Gig micro SDs in them.  I use HDDRIVER with them.

[walter_J64bit]

BUMP! Anyway I've order the SCSI2SD I'll most likely reuse the RODIME 45 plus case (the OEM drive sound like it's on it's last legs) or reuse the Hard Drive case from Toad Computers. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by walter_J64bit

[+DarkLord]

Hmm, so you could stick this thing internally in say, a Mega ST?

 

Thanks.

 

PS BTW, nice job on the conversion Fletch. 

 

[+SoulBuster]

For a Mega ST, you are going to need a Bridge SCSI board (Supra, Atari, ICD).  It does not connect directly to ACSI.

 

I did some testing awhile back with various Bridge SCSI boards.

 

1. The Atari (Megafile 44 type) can have only one SCSI unit # per port.  The Megafile 44 board has two ports so you can have two SCSI2SD units installed in it using only 1 SCSI ID each at 1 gig in size.
2. The Supra only has one port, but you can setup as many SCSI unit #'s as the SCSI2SD allows and up to the max an Atari can have (7, 8?).  Each at a 1 gig limit for each SCSI Unit #.
3. The ICD AdSCSI or Link2 (do not have a Link 97/other ICD so unsure) can also setup as many SCSI unit #'s as SCSI2SD will allow and up to the max on the Atari (7,8?). Each SCSI unit # is NOT limited to 1 gig each.)  I have several setup with 32gig Micro SD cards using one SCSI unit # and getting as many partitions as the Atari will allow, depending on OS.
4. Last but certainly not least as they are still being made, the ACSI-SCSI Adapter Series II. I have done no testing on it as I have not owned one, but I imagine they work much like the ICD products.

You can probably fit the ACSI-SCSI Adapter Series II and a version 5.0 of SCSI 2 SD in a Mega ST.

[+DarkLord]

Interesting! Thanks for the info.

 

[walter_J64bit]

4 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Interesting! Thanks for the info.

 

Ditto!

[+SoulBuster]

One thing that I do want to do. I have a megafile 30 without a hard drive.  I want to remove all the guts and put the new scsi to acsi device and the scsi2sd in it to make use of the original atari case.

[walter_J64bit]

I have a SH204 (before Atari started using SCSI drives) it has a MFM drive! Wich I don't understand any about!

Edited June 10, 2021 by walter_J64bit

[+DarkLord]

5 hours ago, SoulBuster said:

One thing that I do want to do. I have a megafile 30 without a hard drive.  I want to remove all the guts and put the new scsi to acsi device and the scsi2sd in it to make use of the original atari case.

 

I've always wanted to do something like that, because I thought it would be ultra cool, but alas, I sold all my Megafiles years ago.

 

Good luck with your project and do post pictures. (we love pictures you know). 

 

[TGB1718]

10 hours ago, walter_J64bit said:

I have a SH204 (before Atari started using SCSI drives) it has a MFM drive! Wich I don't understand any about!

I believe that the SH204 is a SCSI drive that uses the now obsolete MFM encoding when reading/writing to the hard disk,

MFM superseded FM encoding and allowed greater density on the hard drive.

[+SoulBuster]

The SH 204 was the first pizza box HD drive that housed an MFM Hard drive, the megafile 30 was the next in the line.  It used a 20 pin cable and a 34 pin cable for the control and the data line (I never can recall which was which). In any case, you cannot hook up a SCSI drive to that unit.  You would need the 50 pin connector on the motherboard of the unit like the megafile 44 has.

[ijor]

The SH204 it is actually SCSI. It doesn't use an embedded SCSI drive. But it does have the 50 pin SCSI connector and an Adaptec SCSI controller connected to it. In theory you could remove the Adaptec controller and install something like SCSI2D. But the SH204 ACSI to SCSI implementation is very primitive and limited, and then in practice, it might not work.

Edited June 10, 2021 by ijor

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Interesting, so nobody here think that 1 adapter is better than 2 adapters, for same purpose.

Or, I don't get that this SCSI2SD is so cool, that we must use it ?

 

If it is true that with some latest firmware ACSI2STM/SD can achieve speed of some 1300 KB/sec - that could be much better and cheaper solution. And I just received mine, so will do some serious tests and by need driver SW update.

Why SCSI when we have direct ACSI to SD adapters ?

 

[+DarkLord]

It's probably more interesting to people that already have SCSI setups.

 

In my case, I'm looking at my BBS setup. It's a Mega ST4, with an older

4 gig SCSI hard drive, chained with a SCSI CD-ROM, EZ-135 all via a

Link 2.

 

Considering the age of the hard drive, I've got a new, in box 2 gig SCSI

replacement standing by. Also, I worry about anything happening to the

Link 2. I hear they are hard to come by these days. 

 

So I'm always interested in, and look at potential paths for replacement

in case something goes wrong.

 

If if wasn't for trying to keep my CD-ROM in the setup, I'd change in a

heartbeat to something like an internal version of Lotharek's Ultrasatan

for my Mega ST4.

 

[ijor]

2 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

Interesting, so nobody here think that 1 adapter is better than 2 adapters, for same purpose.

Or, I don't get that this SCSI2SD is so cool, that we must use it

I actually do think that one adapter is more convenient than two. But this is retro, it is fun to use original hardware as much as possible. I do find it quite cool to be able to use my old ICD host adapters with an SD Card. I'm sure this is not the fastest method, but usually I don't care too much about that. When I do want maximum performance for some reason, then I can use something else.