SCSI gadgets were discovered in numerous different designs of computers from the 80s, from sun boxes to adorable bit Macs. These difficult drives as well as CDROMs are slowly dying, as well as keeping that goes an entire generation of innovation down the drain. Currently, the very best technique of preserving these computers with SCSI drives is the SCSI2SD gadget designed by [Michael McMaster]. While this gadget does precisely what it states it’ll do — turn an SD card into a drive on a SCSI chain — it’s relatively costly at $70.
[GIMONS] has a better, cheaper solution. It’s a SCSI gadget emulator for the Raspberry Pi (original link dead, here’s the new place of this writeup). It turns a Raspberry Pi into a SCSI difficult drive, magneto-optical drive, CDROM, or an Ethernet adapter utilizing only some glue logic as well as a bit of code.
As far as the hardware goes, this is a quite simple build. The 40-pin GPIO connector on the Pi is connected to the 50-pin SCSI connector with a few 74LS641 transceivers with a few resistor packs for pullups as well as pulldowns. The software application enables for online disk gadgets – either a difficult drive, magneto-optical drive, or a CDROM – to be provided from the Raspberry Pi. There’s likewise the choice of putting Ethernet on the SCSI chain, a practical addition since Ethernet to SCSI conversion gadgets are usually unusual as well as expensive.
Officially, [GIMONS] developed this SCSI difficult drive emulator for the x68000 computer, established by Sharp in the late 80s. While these are prominent machines for retrocomputing aficionados in Japan, they’re exceptionally rare somewhere else — although [Dave Jones] got his mitts on one for a teardown. SCSI was extraordinarily prominent for computers from the 70s with the 90s, though, as well as since SCSI was a common this develop should work with all of them.
If your retrocomputer doesn’t need a SCSI drive, and you’re feeling left out of the drive-emulation club, the great news is there’s a Raspberry Pi solution for that, too: this Hackaday prize entry turns a Pi into an IDE difficult guidare.
Thanks [Gokhan] for the tip!