Heeeeeeck yeah. The Raspberry Pi Pico-W transplant into the #BlueSCSI was a success. Loading web sites is pretty dang slow, but it tops out at like 60Kb/sec, not much faster than a 56K modem, not that those existed when this #Macintosh IIci was contemporary. I think the disk driver in the image I used is super slow. I remember seeing a warning in the log file. So going to fiddle with it in the near future, but for now just so glad this is working. Such a neat machine.
Edit: Oh and I forgot to tag @ActionRetro and @mac84tv for all their hard work with Frog Find and such oh and thanks to the #ProtoWeb project too!
Ever been like "Gosh, I wish I could remove this useless modem from my PowerBook 1xx series laptop, and install a platform to attach a remote SD card slot for my #BlueSCSI! If only someone would make such a thing?"
New blog post! If you're setting up a BlueSCSI image for your classic Mac, there's lots of little tricks and traps for the first-timer. I'm hoping this entry will make things easier, and you'll also learn how to change your hard drive icon... in Japanese. #retrocomputing#mac68k#bluescsi
@nulleric well, I just had a quick google search and I found #Adaptec documentation for #ASPI.
So I'm wondering if I could interface that using #OpenWatcom and a simple text UI...
I've never done low level #SCSI programming, but I should have an Adaptec card somewhere and I could rip out my #BlueSCSI out of my mac...
Should be an interesting little project,, but I don't know when I might find some time for that...
I’m going to do the old “Guess how many leaky caps are in the Erlenmeyer flask” competition at my #vcfeast table. The winner will receive a #BlueSCSI . (Not officially associated with or endorsed by BlueSCSI folks)
Making some good progress on screens, buttons, rotary encoders. Hopefully have a prototype to play with soon! This port is on all 2023.09+ desktop boards. #retrocomputing#BlueSCSI
Possibly a dumb question: what's the difference between the #ZuluSCSI RP2040 and the #BlueSCSI V2?
As far as I can tell, they're almost identical. At the moment I'm using a mix of BlueSCSI-V2 where I need speed, and RaSCSI where I need to be able to load images over WiFi. I'm wondering if ZuluSCSI would offer any advantages over what I already have.
Edit: I'm aware there's drama between the projects - I'm not interested in that. Tell me about the feature set.
Writing some Integration tests for #BlueSCSI (using a @piscsi) to catch any changes in command handling behaviors, validation behavior to specs, be able to quickly test a device is working.
Adrian's Digital Basement checks out the new Initiator Mode feature of #BlueSCSI v2 - runs into some issues - but that's OK because we'll have fixes for them soon :) Thanks for taking the feature for a spin and providing all the feedback and logs
It's the 1 year anniversary of the #BlueSCSI v2 today. Just a day after the #Macintosh 40 year. We have tons of new stuff coming this year for your #VintageMac so stay tuned!
Say Hello, World! to the new-to-me Macintosh Portable. This is the fancy backlit version (M5126). More luggable than laptop weighing in at 16 lbs. It’s just such a beast of a machine.
It comes with this even larger travel case with room for lots of extra gear.
Let’s look inside the #MacintoshPortable, a marvel of all plastic engineering. It contains no screws and requiring only a flat head screw driver to disassemble it. It’s also nerve wracking for fear of breaking brittle plastic.
The back holds the lead acid battery on the left and the right your choice of HD/FD or 2 FDs.
Here I’ve installed a #BlueSCSI V2 desktop along with the 50 to 34 pin SCSI adapter.
I have continued futzing around with the #Apple#Macintosh#PowerBook 145B. My weekend project was to remove the ancient, decrepit SCSI hard drive (functional, but loud as heck) with the #Androda#BlueSCSI replacement unit.
Fortunately I already have some experience working with .hda disk image files from last year's #PiSCSI project, so I had some ready-made virtual hard disks loaded with software I've barely touched.
Today at @mediaarchaeologylab I found a floppy disk for the 1995 Norton Disk Editor, a low-level diagnostic tool that I can't imagine there was much consumer demand for. The disk editor contains some hidden gems of MacIntosh lore I was previously unaware of.
The UI says "The Disk Type bytes identify the type of Macintosh file system in use on the volume. If the bytes are $D2D7 (or 'RW' - standing for Randy Wigginton) then the volume is an MFS volume. If the Disk Type bytes are $4244 (standing for 'BD' or "Big Disk") then the volume is an HFS volume."
Randy was employee number 6 at Apple, and a neighbor of Woz. Turning your initials into magic bytes buried in the filesystem you designed seems just so...early Apple.
The PowerBook is now completely silent when it runs. It doesn't have an internal fan. The hard drive motor was the only thing that made any noise (aside from the speaker, of course).
And the BlueSCSI? With a 128GB MicroSD card, it has about 1600 times as much storage as that old 80MB hard drive.
Well, I just placed orders for boards and parts to build a new Lisa 2/5 around my existing Lisa CPU card, the only part of a Lisa I’ve ever owned.
I would never have thought this was possible if it weren’t for the work of @DosFox who recently built the first new Lisa since 1986! Thanks for the inspiration!
I’ll continue this thread as parts roll in. I may ask (beg) if folks have some parts in your bins! 😀