68kMLA Classic Interface

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sharing disk images between ZuluSCSI/BlueSCSI and modern Mac
Posted by: bigmessowires on 2023-12-13 09:03:33
I'm not going to say you're wrong, but why would you rather have it that way? I can see your point about having a standard power connector - Zulu SCSI has this as a $3.50 option when ordering. But as for the rest, from my viewpoint there are only drawbacks to whole-card emulation and no benefits. What can you do with whole-card emulation that you can't do with file-based emulation, or that's harder with file-based emulation? At any rate, if you prefer the SCSI2SD style of whole-card emulation then Zulu SCSI supports that too, and I think Blue SCSI does as well.
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-12-13 09:09:04
I'm not going to say you're wrong, but why would you rather have it that way? I can see your point about having a standard power connector - Zulu SCSI has this as a $3.50 option when ordering. But as for the rest, from my viewpoint there are only drawbacks to whole-card emulation and no benefits. What can you do with whole-card emulation that you can't do with file-based emulation, or that's harder with file-based emulation? At any rate, if you prefer the SCSI2SD style of whole-card emulation then Zulu SCSI supports that too, and I think Blue SCSI does as well.
I think the big difference is people who just want a disk to use an old computer in an old computer environment, and people who want to use an SD card adapter to ferry stuff between an old computer and new.

Also, remember that until fairly recently, the SCSI2SD devices were considerably faster than any of the other SD based devices.

I use ethernet for file transfer so a SCSI2SD, that I already have and is from an era when the BlueSCSI was an inexcusably poor design, works just fine. Disk images wouldn't add anything to my setup. So I'm not saying it is worse, just I don't need one over what I already have.
Posted by: LaPorta on 2023-12-13 09:33:14
I kind of err on the SCSI2SD side in that it’s kind of a “one and done” sort of deal. Most have now sat inside their target machine for years and never come out.

Now, if I could only figure out the issue with the one in my SE…

For the most part, though, once set up you don’t need to mess with them. I agree that it is fairly easy if you have the support structure…but not if, say, you bought a plus and all else you have is a modern PC.
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-12-13 09:38:02
Now, if I could only figure out the issue with the one in my SE…
Grab a red one like the one in my photo. They work fine in the SE (it is in my SE).
Posted by: JT737 on 2023-12-13 09:42:14
For the most part, though, once set up you don’t need to mess with them. I agree that it is fairly easy if you have the support structure…but not if, say, you bought a plus and all else you have is a modern PC.
Unless you happen to have the original 800k install disks...which I do! Or, as I've done in the past, you can use the floppy emu to install an OS on a given machine....it works really well.
Posted by: LaPorta on 2023-12-13 10:12:03
Grab a red one like the one in my photo. They work fine in the SE (it is in my SE).
You know, I’ve got either a 5.1 or 5.0b (whichever it was, I can’t recall), and it does work, it just has a peculiar issue: most times when you flip on the machine, the LED will glow solid…and the SE won’t see it. If, however, you flip the machine off and then on again, the LED blinks in and off once, and then functions normally. No idea why this happens.
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-12-13 10:25:57
You know, I’ve got either a 5.1 or 5.0b (whichever it was, I can’t recall), and it does work, it just has a peculiar issue: most times when you flip on the machine, the LED will glow solid…and the SE won’t see it. If, however, you flip the machine off and then on again, the LED blinks in and off once, and then functions normally. No idea why this happens.
Strange - a few years back they used to say get the older style red ones for an SE. I was lucky and got one because it was cheaper 🤣

I made a little opto isolated mixer circuit with an RGB LED so I could see the activity from the old disk and the SCSI2SD at the same time 🙂 it still has blue free if I ever want to add a third disk 🙂

Posted by: LaPorta on 2023-12-13 10:27:29
That’s really cool! I just stole the Amber one from the original HD. The 5.0b is the red one if I remember…I’d have to check.
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-12-13 10:36:50
That’s really cool! I just stole the Amber one from the original HD. The 5.0b is the red one if I remember…I’d have to check.
Hum, no, I think it is 4.something. The 5 wasn't out when I bought it, the options were... Something like 4.1 or 4.5... but it's a long time ago and their website doesn't even admit versions before 5 existed any more.

Edit - nah, I think you're right. It must be the 5.1 that was released afterwards. I'm getting muddled.
Posted by: absurd_engineering on 2024-01-06 02:10:14
For vintage 68k macs with hfs, I just use hfsutils on my modern macs. It’s command line only but can mount the image files (from ZuluSCSI, etc), copy files in/out, etc. No GUI.
FUSE-HFS works properly in Monterey and Ventura, btw. I'm using it for most of my classic Mac image tasks now. Automatic mount arbitration and everything.
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-01-06 05:53:32
FUSE-HFS works properly in Monterey and Ventura, btw. I'm using it for most of my classic Mac image tasks now. Automatic mount arbitration and everything.

Yes, the only issue is it doesn’t work with physical disks…the only thing I would need it for.
Posted by: joevt on 2024-01-06 13:13:58
Yes, the only issue is it doesn’t work with physical disks…the only thing I would need it for.
What kind of physical disks? Works for me with a disk connected with USB or FireWire. I'm running Monterey 12.6.7 but I can try the latest versions on a different Mac.
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-01-06 14:07:53
What kind of physical disks? Works for me with a disk connected with USB or FireWire. I'm running Monterey 12.6.7 but I can try the latest versions on a different Mac.
If you insert, say, an HFS-formatted SD card, it doesn't enable reading or writing.
Posted by: joevt on 2024-01-09 00:20:56
If you insert, say, an HFS-formatted SD card, it doesn't enable reading or writing.
It seems it can mount HFS partition from APM but not GPT formatted disks.
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-01-09 02:17:18
Hmm....let me look into this further...thank you. You tried it personally?
Posted by: joevt on 2024-01-09 15:22:43
Hmm....let me look into this further...thank you. You tried it personally?
Yes, on an SD card, 32 GB. Formatted as APM or GPT using a Leopard virtual machine. HFS only mounted in Monterey when on APM but it only showed 2.05 GB capacity/available even though Leopard allowed me to copy more than 3GB.
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