rabbitholecomputing
Vendor The First
Last week we took delivery of the first mass-production batch of SCSI2SD V5.2's, all of which are now assembled in Canada (with foreign components), with a new Markham, Ontario-based contract manufacturer. They produce a far-superior quality product, and the quality of their Printed Circuit Boards is a cut above what we've come to expect. We are very pleased with the results.
From a user's perspective, on day one, the V5.2 isn't much different, functionally speaking, to that of SCSI2SD V5.1. It's a derivative design, and anything that works with V5.1 will work fine with V5.2. The most notable change is the removal of the DB25 connector area, as we now have SCSI2SD V5.5, which didn't exist back when V5.1 was designed. The introduction of SCSI2SD V5.5 had the expected effect of cannibalizing V5.1 sales, almost entirely.
The removal of the DB25 SCSI traces from the bottom side of the V5.2 PCB allowed us to build in the ability to add features to SCSI2SD V5.2 in the future. We've moved a few pin assignments around, and as a result, were able to bring out some signals to a SPI header. While the intent of this was to use these pins for SPI, they are true General Purpose pins, and could be used in a variety of different ways. Looking down the road, we've also added a place for SPI NOR flash (in two different footprints), which you can see below, where the silk screened text shows U302 and U303. Once firmware development is complete, and we're happy with the results, this will enable us to, as an example, ship SCSI2SD's with pre-bundled software. Current NOR flash components are available in capacities up to 256 megabits (32 megabytes), at a cost of only several dollars each.
Feel free to ask any questions you've got about SCSI2SD V5.2 here; I'm happy to answer them.
From a user's perspective, on day one, the V5.2 isn't much different, functionally speaking, to that of SCSI2SD V5.1. It's a derivative design, and anything that works with V5.1 will work fine with V5.2. The most notable change is the removal of the DB25 connector area, as we now have SCSI2SD V5.5, which didn't exist back when V5.1 was designed. The introduction of SCSI2SD V5.5 had the expected effect of cannibalizing V5.1 sales, almost entirely.
The removal of the DB25 SCSI traces from the bottom side of the V5.2 PCB allowed us to build in the ability to add features to SCSI2SD V5.2 in the future. We've moved a few pin assignments around, and as a result, were able to bring out some signals to a SPI header. While the intent of this was to use these pins for SPI, they are true General Purpose pins, and could be used in a variety of different ways. Looking down the road, we've also added a place for SPI NOR flash (in two different footprints), which you can see below, where the silk screened text shows U302 and U303. Once firmware development is complete, and we're happy with the results, this will enable us to, as an example, ship SCSI2SD's with pre-bundled software. Current NOR flash components are available in capacities up to 256 megabits (32 megabytes), at a cost of only several dollars each.
Feel free to ask any questions you've got about SCSI2SD V5.2 here; I'm happy to answer them.