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2.5" SCSI SSD Project

What do you mean? its already that way now. lol.
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NAH! That new Motorola POS with the idiotic NetBook lookin' "Dock" isn't nearly THAT well integrated or even 10% powerful enough to replace the best DeskTops.

Neither current DroidPads nor iPoo2s are good NetBook replacements quite yet!

Virtual KBDs SU . . . TINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :p

 
better scope than mine! Mine is full of vacuum tubes and doesn't like making nice straight square waves at all. :p Also takes up far too much space.
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still, its better than nothing.
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Because it needs recapped. it needs all new tubular axial/orange drop replacements to all the paper wax and black beuty caps.

and it needs a new set of electrolytics, plus all the weak tubes need checked and replaced if weak on emissions, or has any gassy or grid emission fails.

Then itll make perfectly straight waves. Be lucky the CRT is still good!

 
don't know of any local place with a tube tester. Can certainly replace all the caps though, there are like two. (not literally, but compared with the audio gear I've been tinkering with it certainly seems that way hehe). might order those up later this week, been holding off ordering a $.50 transistor until I have something more to actually order :p wonder if that place has tubes... (may need one for shortwave set I've got too, got a constant BUZZZZZZZZZZ on the audio output)

 
add that to the list for when I rebuild the Stromberg-Carlson. last few tubes I got from TubeDepot.

still doesn't help the lack of local tube testing :p need to find an old fart that has one kicking around still that will let me test a few.

 
go over to videokarma.org, and see if someone there is local to you. Unfortunately, i am in ohio. so that isnt gonna help. lol.

 
all you really need to do is replicate the SCSI/IDE bridge in the PB 5xx series, then use that to put a 44-pin IDE->LIF/ZIF adapter, then a LIF/ZIF SSD. It would be the easier way than developing a whole system just for it. it would probably be more compatible too.

I would be willing to help someone try it if they wanted to borrow a few parts from me to do it. I have a 16GB SSD that I am doing a LIF-> 44-Pin SSD mod for my Pismo i am getting. get one of those and you are ready to do the SCSI SSD system without having to design a whole freaking board just for it.

It may be cheaper than doing it the custom solution too, but it would also (if you decide to combine it) give you a starting point should you want to take the whole thing and miniaturize it.

Just saying just because you can/want to do it, doesn't mean you should't persue other options. Sometimes the easier way of doing something is harder.

but kudos if you get it working, and I might be one of your first customers should you decide to market it!

Also, anyone needing a beta tester, I would fork over the money to give it a good testing in a webserver I run. I have a PowerBook 540 (with SCSI HDD) that would make a great test subject since it gets semi-fair traffic, so it would probably speed a lot of things up.

just an FYI, before people think this will super-charge their machines, keep in mind, before the higher end PPCs, most SCSI busses were 1.25MB/s max transfer rate, so throwing SSD onto that might not be a good idea, especially with the speed limit of the SCSI controller. They weren't horribly fast

Although, getting a SCSI controller for an early mac and using that inside like a Compact Mac (such as a Plus) would make one fast cookie when loading Mac OS 6 or something. That would be swift...

 
< Laugh In mode >

VEEEERYYYYY EEEENTEEEEREEEESTIIIING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

< /Laugh In mode >

That makes two additional/complimentary approaches developed to the project addressed in this thread!

I LOVE this place. We're like a can of mixed nuts, you never know what'll come up to the top when this place is shakin' and the notions are a rollin' in a thread like this.

:approve:

 
the whole reason for this is becuase the SCSI to IDE bridges are what, impossible to find nowadays? and they use custom proprietary components that are hard to find, no datasheets, no code, etc....

thats why i wanted to design it my way. at least its open source

 
Yeah, I understand that, but wouldn't designing a SCSI to IDE adapter be easier than designing a whole SCSI to Flash drive?

I would think that since SCSI to IDE has already been developed, there would be more documentation out there on the process.

I seem to recall that there were a ton of desktop SCSI -> IDE adapters out there. Getting one (even if expensive) might be easier to reverse engineer than starting from scratch.

But then again, I have to applaud your efforts for taking on the project and look forward to the fruits of your labor. I will be watching this thread and if you get it working, I may very well be you first customer should you release it as a fully-developed product.

I seem to recall there is a site out there that you can post your projects on, people donate to have it being built. There's your money to start mass production. If you use any sparkfun devices, you might want to see if they will develop and put together a few versions of the thing once it's done. As open source, you could release it, they could do production as long as you use an arduino controller or possibly a PICAXE (I think you are using an ATMega chip, right?) so you could release the code, and let people go nuts on it, while minimizing developer's cost. I would gladly throw some funding your way should you need it (I can spare up to $80 to do it) and would love to be your (one of if not THE) first customer.

 
Well SCSI to IDE wont be any simpler for me than it already is. still requires the same, if not more amount of I/O lines, and it all matters on what libraries you use and how you integrate them when you compile your code.

Another reason for the way i am going, is I am in direct contact of the original author that GPLed alot of the code libraries that I am using. So why not implement his stuff in a different mannor? Plus hes helping me troubleshoot it to a certain extent.

He built a PCMCIA 68pin SCSI-3 LVD system using the same libraries and it works fine. while mine is on SE, and CF and it does NOT work. So i know its not code. its hardware related.

The SCSI libraries are built to be SCSI-3 compliant. Maybe this is my problem? since macs are only SCSI-1 and SCSI-2? Might need to study the docks some more to figure out the differences.

 
I would think that since SCSI to IDE has already been developed, there would be more documentation out there on the process.
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All the SCSI to IDE adapters I've seen are essentially two chips. There's a mysterious chip that does the work and a Flash chip with the firmware for the working chip.

For example, Acard is a one chip solution and apparently they have some kind of custom micro-controller built into their SCSI/IDE products and then they just write the firmware to make it do whatever job is needed. So there's really nothing there to reverse engineer. There's a chip where SCSI goes in and IDE comes out.

And you can't get an actual datasheet for any of Acard's chips without being a developer and signing an NDA with them.

So, no the information about the commercial products really just isn't available.

There may be things like open source FPGA code out there, like at SourceForge, but using Open Source code for a microcontroller is essentially the same idea.

It was a good thought Coius, but the datasheets just aren't available.

 
Well, you're younger than my parents, so not an old fart sorry to say. Side note, I commut to work twice a week in my Ghia 60 mi round trip.

 
I seem to recall apple shipped a SCSI to IDE adapter (put IDE drives in a SCSI laptop) in either the 500 series, of the 190 (doubtful)

Or was that to use a SCSI drive in an IDE system?

 
Nah, that was the 5xx series...they were SCSI only, but some of them did ship with 750MB+ "SCSI" drives that were actually an IDE drive with a SCSI -> IDE adapter hanging off it. The 190 actually used an IDE drive, and only used SCSI for external devices.

 
So this:

replicate the SCSI/IDE bridge in the PB 5xx series
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is nothing different from what's already happening in this project.
Although nutting out what on earth coius meant by that comment did lead to a slightly mad random train of thought that Trash80 may find amusing:

The PCMCIA adapter for the 5x0 series sits on a "subset" of the 030 PDS. PCMCIA slots can take CF cards with a simple slot adapter. And variants of the 030-type PDS are littered across the late 68k Mac product range - in LCs, in the SE/30, and in the Duos.

Maybe getting a good look at a 5x0 PCMCIA Card Cage would be worthwhile.

 
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