SCSI2 SD V6

[+9640News]

I've just ordered the SCSI2SD card with the V6 that is supposed to emulate 7 SCSI drives up to 1 GB each.

 

My SCSI card is present sitting in a Geneve system, but I am anticipating moving it into a TI-99/4A.

 

I am making the presumption there will need to be some formatting of the images.  What program do I need to use to format the images either on the TI or Geneve?  Any advice with the SCSI2SD?

 

Thanks.

Beery

 

[+OLD CS1]

The utility which comes with it will allow you to set up the virtual devices.  Once those are set up the TI will see them as individual SCSI devices and you can use a formatting utility on the TI.

 

I use a single 256MB SD in mine and I only have it set for one devices and one LUN.  IIRC, I used DM2K to format it.

[+9640News]

12 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

The utility which comes with it will allow you to set up the virtual devices.  Once those are set up the TI will see them as individual SCSI devices and you can use a formatting utility on the TI.

 

I use a single 256MB SD in mine and I only have it set for one devices and one LUN.  IIRC, I used DM2K to format it.

Thanks for the reply.  I went to the website, but the 3 page PDF was very limited on information.  Was not aware DM2K had everything I would need.

 

I've got to ask though, what is a LUN?

 

[+dhe]

LUN = Logical Unit Number

 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, BeeryMiller said:

I've got to ask though, what is a LUN?

 

54 minutes ago, dhe said:

LUN = Logical Unit Number

 

Each SCSI device can be divided into multiple LUN, or Logical Unit Numbers.  This allows for the six SCSI devices (on a narrow buss) to be virtually increased.  I never saw it used for anything other than multi-disc CD changers.  For instance, I have a four-disc TEAC on my Amiga which sits at ID 3 with each disc a LUN 0 through 3.

 

https://www.tintri.com/faqs/what-is-a-lun-logical-unit-number

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_unit_number

 

[+OLD CS1]

Always remember, SCSI is a very special kind of voodoo

[+9640News]

I am contemplating defining SCS1.DSK1. as a DSK1 drive in a TI system at CRU >1000, but not sure how the Myarc 512K card responds to that situation. 

 

I do not recall if it is DM2K or DU2K that lists devices, one of those two programs shows the Myarc 512K also at CRU >1000 which surprised Matt when I was having some issues with the TIPI on a TI system, and had to move the TIPI to a different CRU.

Beery

 

[+jedimatt42]

I believe the formatting tools from Fred are in DU2K.

 

Based on reading his docs at ti99-geek.nl

 

-M@

[+OLD CS1]

I have had conflicts with my Myarc 512k and other devices.  I chronicled it in another thread.  I believe it conflicts with the WHT SCSI.

[wierd_w]

11 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

 

 

Each SCSI device can be divided into multiple LUN, or Logical Unit Numbers.  This allows for the six SCSI devices (on a narrow buss) to be virtually increased.  I never saw it used for anything other than multi-disc CD changers.  For instance, I have a four-disc TEAC on my Amiga which sits at ID 3 with each disc a LUN 0 through 3.

 

https://www.tintri.com/faqs/what-is-a-lun-logical-unit-number

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_unit_number

 

Its used a lot (*A LOT*) in SAN environments. iSCSI and pals use LUNs for the devices they control. Many storage controller head units will parcel out virtual volumes as iSCSI LUNs.  Virtual servers tend to use this kind of arrangement frequently-- where a SAN provides multi-path, redundant/fault-tolerant iSCSI over TCP, which then get mounted by something like ESX or VMware, and each virtual server snacks down a LUN.

 

It used to be used more frequently by end users in the 90s, when external SCSI chains were standard options on several Mac models.

 

Each adapter is referred to as the host bus adapter, or HBA. Each HBA has 7 LUN IDs it can present on each of its ports. Each disk on that port needs a unique ID. 

 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

You can set up multiple SCSI IDs on the SCSI2SD card, each with their own partition.  LUNs are not supported by Geneve master DSR nor by the WHT SCSI DSR, if I recall correctly. 

 

As already mentioned Fred's DU2K is useful for formatting. You can also sector copy an image to each device (i.e., partition) on the flash using a PC.  The latter method is how I typically prepare my EZ135s and test images for real hardware use. 

[+mizapf]

With a SD card, you have a very simple way of interchange between MAME's Geneve emulation and the real Geneve, as I do it:

 

- On MAME you have the CHD files for the hard disk

- Use TIImageTool to extract the raw sectors from the CHD (Utility->extract raw from CHD)

- For Windows, get the dd.exe tool. Linux/Mac users already have that in their typical installation.

- Write the raw file with dd on your SD partition, plug it in your SCSI2SD, enjoy.

 

Reverse direction:

- Use dd to copy the contents on your PC drive as a raw file.

- Use TIImageTool's "Import raw into CHD"

- Use the new CHD in MAME.

 

Works perfectly.

[RXB]

22 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

I have had conflicts with my Myarc 512k and other devices.  I chronicled it in another thread.  I believe it conflicts with the WHT SCSI.

Yea there are some cards that have issues with the SCSI cards.

I stuck with the SAMS 1 Meg, CorComp Disk, Modified TI RS232 Card, Horizon 4000 RAMDISK, CorComp 512K RAMDISK, and TIM 192K CARD Video.

This was the best set up I ever owed.

 

[+mizapf]

14 hours ago, mizapf said:

- On MAME you have the CHD files for the hard disk

- Use TIImageTool to extract the raw sectors from the CHD (Utility->extract raw from CHD)

 

Sorry, I forgot one point:

Add: Open the raw file in TIImageTool and convert the raw image to SCSI (Utilities->Convert to SCSI).

 

14 hours ago, mizapf said:

- For Windows, get the dd.exe tool. Linux/Mac users already have that in their typical installation.

- Write the raw file with dd on your SD partition, plug it in your SCSI2SD, enjoy.

 

Likewise, on the reverse direction, you have to convert the SCSI image to HFDC.

[+9640News]

I got the SCSI2 SD V6 in the mail this morning.  I hooked it up to a TI with SCSI, and then connected it to the USB port of my laptop to configure the drives.  I set it up with 7 devices with the software at 256 MB per device, for just over 1,000,000 sectors per device when I then formatted the drive with DU2K.

 

Pretty painless to set it up.

Beery

[+Ksarul]

Nice--I will need to get one of these. I have the previous version, but this seems to be a major improvement.

[Shift838]

On 11/15/2019 at 8:15 AM, BeeryMiller said:

I've just ordered the SCSI2SD card with the V6 that is supposed to emulate 7 SCSI drives up to 1 GB each.

 

My SCSI card is present sitting in a Geneve system, but I am anticipating moving it into a TI-99/4A.

 

I am making the presumption there will need to be some formatting of the images.  What program do I need to use to format the images either on the TI or Geneve?  Any advice with the SCSI2SD?

 

Thanks.

Beery

 

Where did you snag it from?

[RXB]

Just to mention RXB 2015 has two features for SCSI cards.

 

If from RXB XB menu for 5 seconds you can press 0 (zero key) and it looks for and runs "SCS1.LOAD" 

 

If from RXB REA menu when you are in Run Program File you press 0 (zero key) and ENTER key it looks for and runs "SCS1.UTIL1"

[+9640News]

12 hours ago, Shift838 said:

Where did you snag it from?

I got it from https://store.inertialcomputing.com/SCSI2SD-v6-p/scsi2sd-v6-revf.htm

 

I also picked up a faceplate for it along with the SD card and the Molex power connector.  I already had an approximate 20" 50-pin SCSI drive cable.

 

I did have to loosen up some screws in the back of the PEBox to give me just a bit of extra room to slide the floppy cable that went to the floppy controller as well as fold the 50-pin cable over on itself as the slot for the cable was not made for the width of the SCSI cable.

 

What I did discover after the configuration of the card, Windows does not show files on the card.  I had expected it to behave a bit like the DREM where it had individual files for each device, but that does not appear to be the case.  It looks like it is using it in a raw format of some type.

 

Beery

 

[+9640News]

2 hours ago, RXB said:

Just to mention RXB 2015 has two features for SCSI cards.

 

If from RXB XB menu for 5 seconds you can press 0 (zero key) and it looks for and runs "SCS1.LOAD" 

 

If from RXB REA menu when you are in Run Program File you press 0 (zero key) and ENTER key it looks for and runs "SCS1.UTIL1"

It was not with RXB, but with the Myarc XBII eprom for the 512K card, I edited the eprom code to change it from DSK1.128KOS to SCS1.128KOS.  It apparently does not like that 3 letter edit and hung the card up.

 

Beery