+dhe Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Looking at getting one of these, to those that are using one: 1) Does the scsi card provide enough power to power this device, or do you need to power it via the usb port? 2) And special firmware or configurations needed? 3) Can you give this device multiple scsi id's so that you can have "multiple" drives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 I'm powering it from the PEB. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 On a TI, you have up to 7 x 248 (maybe 256) MB drives with the SCSI2SD. On the Geneve in MDOS mode, you have access to 3 drives while if you do Rompage, you can get access to SCS4, SCS5, SCS6, and SCS7. I power mine from a power cable off of the disk drive cable. My SCSI card does not provide the power. If you plug a USB cable into the front of the SCSI2SD, then it will power it at least as far as reading from the drives. Not sure about writing. I think you are better off just using the power from the floppy drive. You need to plug a Windows computer into the front of the drive with the USB port to configure the drives initially and then use DU2K to format the individual drives. There was something said about being able to access files via the USB port, however, I have not been able to, and I can not understand how this would even be possible since it is a TI File system. It would be different if we didn't have to format it. Beery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 The 6" or 9" cable is not really long enough for the PEBox, so get something a bit longer. Beery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 I power mine with the case power supply. I seem to recall using the SCSI cable to power the device and found that it worked on one card, not the other. IIRC, the card that worked had two 5v regulators supplying power? It's been a while since i tried it. I'd hate to connect the device to just the SCSI card and end up drawing too much power. The version 5.x allows for up to four devices; version 6.x provides up to seven devices. After receiving my 6.x and not having any luck accessing the drives via USB (as Beery points out) I think that my next purchase might be the 5.2 model, since they were bundled with a bracket (in the US store) and cheaper than the 6.x model. The 6.x changed the type of power (no longer molex) and now uses the full size SD. See the web site for details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 I ordered this: https://samplerzone.com/collections/storage/products/scsi2sd-v5-5-plug-in-drive I believe, from the docs, I should be good, if I plug the USB port in to a charger. What SCSI ID's need to be set on the Geneve? Does it matter if DU2K is ran from EXEC or GPLMODE? If there are docs for setting up SCSI on a Geneve, can you please point me to them? I have a zip drive hooked to my working Geneve, so at one point, I knew how to do that thing.. =( SAD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 If you have a zip drive hooked up and working on the Geneve, then just plug the unit in. Not sure how the device numbers will roll in the unit. I have found DM2K, and I believe DU2K, both require to be run from Editor/Assembler, Option #5. On the Geneve, make sure you are in ROMPAGE mode. Beery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Hatter Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 (edited) I have a 7-8 year old rev 5.0, and it is able to be powered directly from the SCSI cable, without an external power source. But like IM said, must depend on the particular unit. I would use MYS to format the drive(s), then CYA to remap them. My 3 SCSI drives are set as: SCS1 = SCSI ID 0 (this is SCSI2SD drive #1) SCS2 = SCSI ID 1 (SCSI2SD drive #2) SCS3 = SCSI ID 2 (SyQuest EZ 135) Edited February 4, 2021 by Mad Hatter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 Where does one procure MYS, appreciate the information. That's the level of detail I need! ? Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Hatter Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 5 hours ago, dhe said: Where does one procure MYS, appreciate the information. That's the level of detail I need! ? Cheers. That’s a good question. I think it is on heatwave, but the file transfers are down. I could always send you a 5.25 floppy if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 (edited) Dan, If you have DU2K that you can grab from Fred's website, that is the simplest tool. With SCSI2SD I setup 7 images at 256 MB. In just a couple of minutes, I formatted out all 7 images. I think @InsaneMultitasker indicated DU2K will only format up to 248 MB, so you may not get the full 256 MB. I don't think one hits the limit with the SCSI2SD DU2K formatting issue, but there does become a point when MDOS when you do a DIR command can not display the actual number of free sectors properly. Even with the "large number" routine, when you get over a couple hundred million sectors free, the number is displayed incorrectly. Discovered that when "tricking" MDOS's reporting on sectors free with using the TIPI. Now, we just the setting of 9999 sectors free from the PI.CONFIG setting. Beery Edited February 4, 2021 by BeeryMiller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 1 hour ago, BeeryMiller said: indicated DU2K will only format up to 248 MB, so you may not get the full 256 MB. Correct, though the limitation is not imposed by DU2K - the hard drive format allocates 31 bitmap sectors to track used allocation units, which in turn limits capacity to 248MiB at 16 sectors per allocation unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 See also https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/File_systems#Allocation_Bit_Map_2 However, as we recently discussed, we should better stay with 8 sector allocation units, right? This limits the available size to 124 MiB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 My head hurts... Mizapf, would you mind doing a screen dump of your recommended parameters for DU2K? I mean 124 MiB is still like a lot of 90K floppies! ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 The SCSI2SD has a program you run that partitions the SD card for you. Then, DU2K requires no parameters to be input to format. 52 minutes ago, dhe said: My head hurts... Mizapf, would you mind doing a screen dump of your recommended parameters for DU2K? I mean 124 MiB is still like a lot of 90K floppies! ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 The program that partitions the SCSI2SD runs under Windows and plugs into the SD card via the USB port. You need to download the software from the SCSI2SD website. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 I have a SCSI2SD ver5.0b, It seems that I can "only" have this mimic 4 devices instead of 7, unless I'm missing something. Not a real issue as I can use other scsi devices with it. My reason for bringing it up was to ask how to configure fore multiple devices as I've not done much with it yet accept format the sd card and save some files which still after 2 years seem to be there. But I'm now configuring it to use all 4 devices. I believe I figured it out, making each device 248 megs in size and clicking auto on each device to let it configure sector count, but can I use 256 byte sectors or do I need to stay with 512 byte sectors? That is the main question, but do we also limit the size to 248mb or do we only use 124mb? I just know that it was not configured for any devices previously and I had formatted the entire microsd and it still saved files and retained them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 Perhaps @InsaneMultitasker can confirm, however I believe you need to stay with 512 byte sectors as this is DSR dependent, especially with a TI-99/4A system. As far as size limit, I can not confirm as I have mine in a Geneve system. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 1 hour ago, 9640News said: Perhaps @InsaneMultitasker can confirm, however I believe you need to stay with 512 byte sectors as this is DSR dependent, especially with a TI-99/4A system. As far as size limit, I can not confirm as I have mine in a Geneve system. Understood, and eventually mine will be in one of my Geneve systems too. What is the size limit for a Geneve? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 The /4a and Geneve DSR routines are coded for 512 byte sectors. Maximum capacity for each ‘device’ is 248MB, a constraint imposed by the DSR and associated file structure. Last time I checked the support site, SCSI2SD v6 and later emulate up to 7 IDs/devices. Version 5.x emulates up to 4 IDs/devices. I have both series and there is different software for the 5.x and 6.x hardware. previous posts in this thread cover some of the same ground 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 (edited) Thanks @InsaneMultitasker for clarifying, yes I knew it'd been covered before probably, but it was late when I got to this point last night. I was stumped for a bit on how to go about choosing successive ID's at first, wondering if I was supposed to calculate beginning sectors for each emulated drive, found that checking the auto box performed this for me. I hooked the unit back into the scuzzy card and was able to format the last three "drives". Was able to do a sector read on each one and see the name of each one SCS1-SCS4. Then loaded the "load" I had on SCS1. and it loaded into EXBasic ok. I didn't lose those files in the multiple setup process. Cool. I thought these would be saved on the sd card as drive images, but found that when I pulled the micro SD and put it into an adapter that it read as a 1gb raw drive, so I guess you can't just create a drive image on TI ImageTool and drop it in place. Edited October 14, 2023 by RickyDean spelling, added content Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 @RickyDean looks like you just posted. I was just about to mention the image files. The Zulu SCSI has that capability. @dhe got one a while back, and I later bought one for that capability. Little different setup but simple enough to copy and backup the images -without-needing to have a SCSI card in your PC. That was a big draw for me as I try to move away from my EZ135 platters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 4 minutes ago, RickyDean said: Thanks @InsaneMultitasker for clarifying, yes I knew it'd been covered before probably, but it was late when I got to this point last night. I was stumped for a bit on how to go about choosing successive ID's at first, wondering if I was supposed to calculate beginning sectors for each emulated drive, found that checking the auto box performed this for me. I hooked the unit back into the scuzzy card and was able to format the last three "drives". Was able to do a sector read on each one and see the name of each one SCS1-SCS4. Then loaded the "load" I had on SCS1. and it loaded into EXBasic ok. I didn't lose those files in the multiple setup process. Cool. I thought these would be saved on the sd card as drive images, but found that when I pulled the micro SD and put it into an adapter that it read as a 1gb raw drive, so I guess you can't just create a drive image on TI ImageTool and drop it in place. The ZuliSCSI emulator does have files instead of a raw image. I traded one of my SCSI2SD V6 devices in for the zulu a year or so ago and have individual images. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 I guess I could consider getting a ZuluScsi at some point. But I can deal with this right now. I have a few Acard and Addonics Scsi to Ide converters and a few Zip, Syquest EZ-drives, and Iomega LS-120 drives so, both Scsi and Ide, so getting files to the Scsi drives won't be a real problem, using the other available Id's. I can probably create an image for one of those and dd it to the disk unit and then copy to one of the SCSI2SD devices. I also have a couple of these that I created using EZ-Drive cases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 1 hour ago, InsaneMultitasker said: @RickyDean looks like you just posted. I was just about to mention the image files. The Zulu SCSI has that capability. @dhe got one a while back, and I later bought one for that capability. Little different setup but simple enough to copy and backup the images -without-needing to have a SCSI card in your PC. That was a big draw for me as I try to move away from my EZ135 platters. I have Scsi cards in a couple of my vintage pc's and a usb to Scsi device too. So that won't be a great problem for me, except for inexperience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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