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BlueSCSI - SCSI2SD Alternative

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xodaraP

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I saw this tonight and thought it may be an alternative to the SCSI2SD on CPS3. I have bought one to test and will document my experience here.

https://scsi.blue/

This is a completely open source solution (they provide Gerbers so you can order your own PCBs) or you can buy an already built board or DIY kit with everything you need.

I just ordered a DIY kit from the official Australian distributor and the price was quite reasonable. I wouldn’t have saved much making my own PCBs and would have been waiting much longer, but it is nice to have the option.

Once received I will take some photos of the build process and see if it is compatible with the CPS3.

Like the SCSI2SD it supports power through the 50 pin cable or can be powered externally. A 3D printed bracket is also included with the kit.
 
commenting to ride the news wave :rolleyes: i know a bunch of folks are stuck with some SCSI2SDs that don't work in blasts iirc, so more options are always welcome
 
This sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would love to make! Thank you very much for linking it here, I shall follow with interest.
 
GeeDee said:
commenting to ride the news wave :rolleyes: i know a bunch of folks are stuck with some SCSI2SDs that don't work in blasts iirc, so more options are always welcome
Click to expand...
It's been a few years since I sold my CPS3 stuff, but I'm almost certain I ran both an original scsi cd drive and SCSI2SD in a blast city with no issues.

Neat to see an open source one; I use SCSI2SD a lot in retro Macintosh computers, and this looks to be viable there too.
 
skate323k137 said:
It's been a few years since I sold my CPS3 stuff, but I'm almost certain I ran both an original scsi cd drive and SCSI2SD in a blast city with no issues
Click to expand...

iirc, there's a very specific revision of the SCSI2SD that just doesn't work in blasts for whatever reason. Mine was always fine as well, but I do specifically remember there being a thread or two somewhere around here about issues people were having with their DS kits not getting past the menus, and the result was their specific revision of the SCSI2SD
 
for any youngsters who dont know much about scsi optical drives (real or simulated), make sure you set the jumpers for a 512byte blocksize. ;)
if you dont, you may end up saying this drive or that drive wont work on your stuff - specially on old *NIX based stuff like SUN and SGI systems.
 
skate323k137 said:
It's been a few years since I sold my CPS3 stuff, but I'm almost certain I ran both an original scsi cd drive and SCSI2SD in a blast city with no issues.

Neat to see an open source one; I use SCSI2SD a lot in retro Macintosh computers, and this looks to be viable there too.
Click to expand...

The BlueSCSI was designed and has only really been properly developed/tested for retro Macs so no worries there.

The SCSI2SD 5.1 I think doesn’t like power supplies with 3.3v like the Blast. The 5.0a from iTead is known to work and I’m fairly sure the v6 has been tested and works too
 
I used v5 on my cps3/blast

3.3v should be irrelevant, only 12v and 5v are present on the jamma edge where the motherboard connects. So I would wager the problem is unadjusted 5v, or a specific revision that wouldn't work on another cab either.
 
From what I remember the revision that did have issues also had those same issues on other cabs with JVS PSUs with 3.3v

That was the only factor that was different to any other cab. Even though the 3.3v isn’t connected to the JAMMA edge it IS connected to the JVS to JAMMA converter.
 
xodaraP said:
From what I remember the revision that did have issues also had those same issues on other cabs with JVS PSUs with 3.3v

That was the only factor that was different to any other cab. Even though the 3.3v isn’t connected to the JAMMA edge it IS connected to the JVS to JAMMA converter.
Click to expand...
I could see using a JVS to JAMMA converter in a net city or something, but why would anyone use one for a CPS3 in a JAMMA wired cab like a blast? Anyway, I don't mean to derail the thread.
 
I thought Blast was JVS with a JAMMA converter? Is it actually wired for both separately?

Definitely worth looking into it more in the SCSI2SD thread. I’m interested to know if it will be an issue for the BlueSCSI
 
Blast is JAMMA with the option of JVS power loom ("001 loom"). With a CPS3, it would be wired straight JAMMA. (Edit: the 001 loom also adds stereo RCA audio ability).

For JVS like NAOMI you need a jamma IO like capcom or sega rev B., but the blast with 001 loom can at least power a NAOMI motherboard.
 
BlueSCSI arrived this week and I put it together this weekend. It's a very easy board to build, as long as you have basic soldering skills you won't have trouble getting this together. The official sellers all offer the kit with the microSD reader pre-soldered.

The CPS3 detects the BlueSCSI as a drive which is a big win, but says that the inserted disc is invalid. The BlueSCSI currently does not officially support CD-ROM images and at the moment does not support a 2048 sector size which means I can't try loading it as a "hard drive" to see if that boots. The device is open source, I am having a look now to see if a 2048 sector size is a possibility or what is required.
 
This got stuck in my head and I did some reading.

SCSI2SD used to be an open source project (until version 4.1) and all of those open source designs and code are still out there
https://github.com/fhgwright/SCSI2SD
And there has been a tonne of innovation based off the 4.1 design like this
https://github.com/arananet/scsi2sd-tiny

So I jumped into Eagle and popped out a BOM - . The only expensive and tricky part is the microcontroller due to the global chip shortage
https://www.digikey.co.nz/en/produc...cDaIMIE0AccCsYBsB2AggDQEkBaAGQAUAGVARhAF0BfIA

I'm wondering if it's worth the effort to develop a "CPS3SCSI" fork of this board.

It would plug directly into the SCSI/power, would stick up slightly higher than a normal SIMM, not as high as an ULTRASIMM.

if we could produce a super-tiny, super-cheap, super stripped down device specificaly to address this use case that might be quite cool. But I'm not even sure if this problem still needs to be solved with the availability of the awesome UltraSIMM.

Thoughts?

1630308160413.png
 
Good idea for sure, appreciate all your hard work and build logs mate.
 
that mcu choice was dumb,
they should have used an STM32 series
 
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