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Announcing ZuluSCSI - A file-based SCSI device emulator

Powerbase

Well-known member
I just ordered mine, anyone make a quick start guide post for getting one of these setup yet? Sounds like setup should be easy if you go hunt for all the info but would be nice to have a precise write up. Guess I’ll do it when mine comes if no one else has done it yet. Seems crazy this doesn’t exist yet.
I second this. Ive never used any of the scsi-to-sd setups and I thought I had my SD card set up right. It just sadmacs my 475 when hooked up though.
 

rabbitholecomputing

Vendor The First
I second this. Ive never used any of the scsi-to-sd setups and I thought I had my SD card set up right. It just sadmacs my 475 when hooked up though.
In those sorts of situations, it would generally be advisable to reach out to the vendor who sold you the product, for technical support. Have you?

I'd recommend checking out http://zuluscsi.com/ZuluSCSI-Manual/#using-quickstart
There's additional documentation at
https://github.com/ZuluSCSI/ZuluSCSI-firmware/blob/main/README.md

Thanks for the feedback. All future recipients of ZuluSCSI boards will receive a link to the documentation above. The GitHub project itself is linkedin from the ZuluSCSI.com website
 

loplop

Well-known member
In those sorts of situations, it would generally be advisable to reach out to the vendor who sold you the product, for technical support. Have you?

I'd recommend checking out http://zuluscsi.com/ZuluSCSI-Manual/#using-quickstart
There's additional documentation at
https://github.com/ZuluSCSI/ZuluSCSI-firmware/blob/main/README.md

Thanks for the feedback. All future recipients of ZuluSCSI boards will receive a link to the documentation above. The GitHub project itself is linkedin from the ZuluSCSI.com website
Well, that's nice--I couldn't find that manual when I looked. I suggest you link it on your main site--perhaps in the resources dropdown? Right now it appears you can't get to it without the URL.

Also, I suggest you encourage your vendors to link to the manual.

That will definitely help new buyers. I guess I can toss the "getting started" doc I was putting together LOL
 

Powerbase

Well-known member
In those sorts of situations, it would generally be advisable to reach out to the vendor who sold you the product, for technical support. Have you?

I'd recommend checking out http://zuluscsi.com/ZuluSCSI-Manual/#using-quickstart
There's additional documentation at
https://github.com/ZuluSCSI/ZuluSCSI-firmware/blob/main/README.md

Thanks for the feedback. All future recipients of ZuluSCSI boards will receive a link to the documentation above. The GitHub project itself is linkedin from the ZuluSCSI.com website
Nah, my mistake. It was my SD card I was using. It just took a minute to diagnose it. Managing a one year old toddler, a job, and the fact I do all the household work means my time is VERY limited.
 

rabbitholecomputing

Vendor The First
Well, that's nice--I couldn't find that manual when I looked. I suggest you link it on your main site--perhaps in the resources dropdown? Right now it appears you can't get to it without the URL.
Done! It's now linked under the resources drop-down on the main http://zuluscsi.com website.
Also, I suggest you encourage your vendors to link to the manual.
Agreed.
That will definitely help new buyers. I guess I can toss the "getting started" doc I was putting together LOL
Your feedback is appreciated. If there are areas within the documentation that you feel could use improvement, always feel free to shoot us an e-mail.
 

Juror22

Well-known member
thanks for making this available, and I know the documentation is still in the process of being written, but the "read the transferring data section." doesn't link to anything yet. (not even a part that says it is not here yet).

When you get to writing the Advanced Options area, could you include some in-depth items (with examples) from the zuluscsi.ini file along with any hardware 'fun facts' that you were going to include? I've done some minor work with the ini file to set some individual file options, but I'd like to know more.
 

jasa1063

Well-known member
I now have a ZuluSCSI v1.1 and ZuluSCSI v1.0 Mini. These are both working great and I really like the automatic firmware update feature. Peformance wise I get 1.6MBs with the v1.1 and about 1.4MBs on the v1.0 mini on my Mac IIci. I got 2.1MBs on the IIci with a Quantum Fireball SE 3GB SCSI drive. All these were tested on System 7.1 with the System Update 3.0 installed. I am using a 16GB Patriot LX Series Micro SD card formatted with exFat. I used the Apple HD SC Setup utility v7.5.3 (Patched) for the formatting and the driver. I currently have the v1.02 ZuluSCSI firmware installed. I see the specs show that v1.1 is capable of 3.9MBs. My question is are there some configuration settings in the ZuluSCSI.ini file (I am not currently using) to get to the 2.1MBs speed I got with Quantum Fireball drive on my Mac IIci?
 
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I got a ZuluSCSI a few days ago, shipping was really quick to Canada I should note. I had a fair amount of problems setting it up, but it wasn't the fault of the product, it was a combo of user error and a sketchy SD card.

The SD card I was trying to use just was not working, so I bought a new, higher quality one and after fixing my config file I was up and running in about 30 minutes. I should have written down everything I did for a basic guide, but I didn't think to. The mac I installed it seems more responsive, though I have yet to do any proper benchmarking on it.

For those who like me have no idea how to create a raw hard dive image, install qemu and run `qemu-img create -f raw hd2.img 1G`, just change it as needed...it seemed to work for me. I didn't use any emulators for setup, I just created the image and treated it like a newly installed empty HD. I absolutely had to use Lido to initialize the new image, nothing else would cooperate, but after I had done so I had no issues
 
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frankz

Member
I just purchased a ZuluSCSI Mini 1.0 for my Mac Plus. I was able to boot from a System 6.0.8 image by setting SelectionDelay to zero in zuluscsi.ini, but whenever I try to copy a file to the virtual SCSI volume, my Mac Plus gives me the bomb alert with “illegal instructions”. Back in the day this used to be typically associated with termination problems in the SCSI chain, but it shouldn’t be possible here.
Does anyone have experience running a Mac Plus with ZuluSCSI? Any setting I should try? Thanks!
 

rabbitholecomputing

Vendor The First
I just purchased a ZuluSCSI Mini 1.0 for my Mac Plus. I was able to boot from a System 6.0.8 image by setting SelectionDelay to zero in zuluscsi.ini, but whenever I try to copy a file to the virtual SCSI volume, my Mac Plus gives me the bomb alert with “illegal instructions”. Back in the day this used to be typically associated with termination problems in the SCSI chain, but it shouldn’t be possible here.
Does anyone have experience running a Mac Plus with ZuluSCSI? Any setting I should try? Thanks!
@frankz what's the firmware version on the Mini? It's logged to zululog.txt
 

frankz

Member
@frankz what's the firmware version on the Mini? It's logged to zululog.txt
Thanks for your reply! The firmware version is:
FW Version: 1.0.2 May 17 2022 08:12:51
Additional info: I am powering the ZuluSCSI mini from the termination power, for which I have modified the Mac Plus by installing a diode to provide 5V to pin 25 of the SCSI port. I can undo the modification and try to power the ZuluSCSI device from USB, if necessary.
 

rabbitholecomputing

Vendor The First
Thanks for your reply! The firmware version is 1.0.2
Thanks. This is the latest released version of the firmware. What's the size of the exported volume? Have you tried one that's smaller? If you could create a file named zuluscsi.ini, and in it place the following in the [SCSI] section:

[SCSI]
EnableSCSI2 = 0

...and see if that changes the behavior at all? You might also want to try adding "Debug = 1" to the INI file. This will enable rather verbose logging, and could be useful for us to troubleshoot the problem, if we can't figure things out.
 

frankz

Member
Thanks. This is the latest released version of the firmware. What's the size of the exported volume? Have you tried one that's smaller? If you could create a file named zuluscsi.ini, and in it place the following in the [SCSI] section:

[SCSI]
EnableSCSI2 = 0

...and see if that changes the behavior at all? You might also want to try adding "Debug = 1" to the INI file. This will enable rather verbose logging, and could be useful for us to troubleshoot the problem, if we can't figure things out.
Thanks! I’ve been using 2GB volumes (drive images, actually, with partition map and everything – should I use volume images instead?). I will try today to use a smaller 20MB one, and I will also disable SCSI2, enable debug, and report back.
 

rabbitholecomputing

Vendor The First
Thanks! I’ve been using 2GB volumes (drive images, actually, with partition map and everything – should I use volume images instead?). I will try today to use a smaller 20MB one, and I will also disable SCSI2, enable debug, and report back.
They should always be drive images. the Macintosh ROM can not boot successfully from SCSI devices that don't include a partition map, to the best of my knowledge.
 

Scott Squires

Well-known member
Has anyone thought about making a SCSI disk clicker like BMOW's floppy noise clicker? Get those nostalgic noises going. Interface it between your favorite SCSI emulator (or maybe optical drive since they don't make noises, really.)

I started working on an HDD noise simulator a few years ago. It was perhaps overambitious relative to my actual interest, as I was intending to characterize the sound of various classic drives, produce noises based on distance the head had to move and read/write block size, etc. At this point it would be nice to see someone else do it. ;)
 
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