Vintage External Virtual SCSI Enclosure Build - SCSI2SD Part 1 

I love the cat! Please have the kitty in videos from now on if possible.

Given it was a Quantum drive I wouldn't be surprised if it was the rubber stoppers inside that turned into some kind of sticky goo and glued the heads in place. Those Quantum SCSI drives were notorious for that.

So instead of using feather toys, Shelby just uses molex cables when playing with his cat.

14:00 To prevent the drill from walking on you, use a "spring loaded center punch" which makes a little indentation in the metal, enough to keep the bit in the right place while drilling. 15:00 you could also use adhesive-backed plastic or nylon standoffs, then you could just push it down into place from the top, with no drilling/threading, etc.

18:00 Tip for the future, you can just hold a bigger drill bit in your hand and deburr holes quite easily with it, no need for a deburring tool or sanding.

Great to see you kept almost all the cat footage. Cats plus vintage tech, that's the ticket.

So the SyQuest drive is a classical style hard drive. Apparently, the people at SyQuest had never worked with classical hard drives and didn't know why everyone switched to Winchester drives.

Cat is mandatory for all future videos. This is the way. 😻

In regards to CF cards, I’d just get a CF2SD/dual mSD adapter from ebay for around £10. I currently have one in my A1200 with 2x 64GB mSD (I presume JBOD) which seems to do the job (touch wood).

You goin on about SCSI and all that meanwhile im admiring this beautiful cat

“Cat tangents” ;)

That floppy-style power connector has a number of advantages from a PCB manufacturing POV - they're often cheaper in terms of the actual connector itself. They're slightly more compact, which could mean fitting another column/row of boards on a panel, which can make a significant difference. The honkin-ass pins of the "standard" 4-pin molex are a lot less common than the pin size of the floppy-style, which can mean increased assembly costs as well. Not saying that outweighs the cross-compatibility issues when you're designing something as a drop-in replacement, but I can see situations where I, too, would shout "fuck it, use the smaller connector" and ship it.

Cats + tech? That’s an automatic like there.

What a well-behaved cat, actually keeping to a blanket instead of occupying the keyboard.

For mounting, my experience is that a nice box of old Meccano always comes in handy ;) (still adding nylon washers everywhere)

I've got a soft spot for SCSI. My very first HDD was SCSI. Moving from floppy disks to hard drives was almost a religious experience.

What is AkBKitKu's name? Adorable cat. Great video!

Excellent job. I love mods like this! 👌 And the cat too! Whats her/his name?

The threaded “nuts” you thought might be welded in place are from a range of press in stuff known as PEMs (though the equipment and precision required to install them is a little beyond what a hobbies can do). To save the blood sweat and tears, get yourself a counter sink. They are cheap and can even be turned by hand to deburr holes. An 82° one would also let you flush mount screws in future project. Yes, I have Hi’s job from Raising Arizona (the drilling holes in sheet metal job, not the robbing convenience stores one.)

Probably a bit late for that, but how would SCSI2SD detect SD card presence if there's an always plugged in extension? I believe it can present SD card as a removable SCSI media which one could eject and replace while running. Not familiar with SCSI2SD circuitry though, SD card detection might be in software as well as in hardware. The latter one probably wouldn't work with an extender.

9:19 It's a binary encoder wheel. They're not all that complicated, actually. It's got two ratchet devices for toggling up and down, but the thing that makes it work is the wheel inside, which has a PCB with exposed circular copper traces, and functions similar to the selector nob on a multimeter. Just a 3x8 position set radial copper tracks, and which position the wheel is in determines which tracks meet up with the wiper contacts. Many are simplified to use a common return between the 1,2 & 3 pins, since the jumper blocks usually just pull to ground anyways. The theory of operation for SCSI jumper blocks is as simple as adding the number on the ID pins: pins 1 & 3 enabled gives a drive ID of 4, pins 1,2 & 3 give a drive ID of 7, etc. None enabled gives a drive ID of 0 (I like to have 0 as the controller ID, some people use 7, it doesn't really matter, so long as no two devices use the same ID). The drive ID's don't even need to be in sequence on the ribbon, though you DO need to make sure that the last drive on the cable has a terminator enabled, or a terminator block is attached on the end of the ribbon to prevent signal reflection.

Kitty!

One reason to use the floppy connector would be saving on production costs. The standard molex is quite big and would require a larger board that would be more expensive to produce and that would be unused space by the looks of the circuit.

Rivetnuts. Not too expensive for the tool and a combo pack of rivetnuts to be included. About $25-50 for an ok setup.

nutserts my friend, they work wonders Nutserts® are inserts that, when installed, provide threads in materials too thin for tapping, or in blind holes. Nutserts® are ideal for use in areas where sheet metal screws can't achieve the clamp load and pull-out values required. if you use the wrong size or strip a thread, just put a helicoil in it. :D hope it helps

Heh, my wife bought me that exact screwdriver set (6:29) for x-mas last year.

My very first hard drive ever was on my Amiga 1000. It was a Syquest 5MB removable media drive. It was also SCSI and 5MB at the time seemed pretty extravagant!

Another hardware tip: theres a tool called a riv nut like a cross between a pop rivet and a nut, because thata what it is. You can get cheap ones on amazon or ebay or harbor freight and they're okay. Make sure you get a kit with small sizes you want and that it comes with the tool to set them.

Cat hair..everywhere! :D

I built myself a "blackbox" as shown on Don Solaris' site. It's a crazy SCSI to IDE type thing. I have a compactflash card reader on mine. Using it with an EMU sampler.

Cats, Roland and SCSI my favorite :)

21:00 A lot of LED drivers just use an NPN transistor (or FET) on the low (cathode) side of the LED which connects that pin down to Ground. The series resistor for the LED can then be put on either side of the LED. I like how you approach these mods. eg. "If I'm gonna do this, I'm not just gonna tape the board in there." lol

Keep this in mind for your DEC system.

Beautiful cat. What's his/her name?

Nice to see an upload from you!

Your videos are always educational and refreshing. Thanks a lot

Hello, I bought SCSI2SD v6. I have ATARI TT and FALCONA030. Is it possible to supply power to SCSI2SD via the output of ATARI floppy disk power supply with SCSI2SD floppy disk input. Currently, I can only connect via usb computer - SCSI2SD v6 2020c, I have two more power adapters to charge the phone also with a 5v usb output. one has 460mA and the other 1.2A. The SCSI2 instruction states that the power supply cannot exceed 500mA and 5V, especially the problem with the 500mA current - no one on YTub addresses this problem, hmm, how to connect SCSI2 from a loved ATARI floppy drive or from a converted USB output from with 2A and 5v current? Can I ask for help with the solution NOT to burn SCSI2SD chips.

Do you need to keep the cooling fan ?

Rotate the scsi2sd 90 to mount it?

Very awesome! Keeping old tech alive, by whatever means, really like that!

I love yor cat videos :-)

looks like a dreamcast

I look forward to more in the keyboard...had numerous Roland's over the years, from top end, down to low end, but never had SCSI on the back :-) My Yamaha now has ethernet, times are a changing! :-)

RRR!! Yes. why can't they just make it the width of a regular hard drive so the holes line up with a regular hard drive mount. And then they could just stick the regular Molex power connector on it as well. *Storms away ranting, but in a comment format.

Now we just need a Jasmine, GCC, or FWB Jackhammer enclosure. Microtech was one of the main SCSI vendors back in the day. But the GCC drives had the best LEDs on the front.

I use a SCSI2SD with my Ensoniq EPS, which is also a sampler workstation (and I used a Roland W30 for many years - great machine). Mine is in a 3D printed case, which is simpler than your external case but nowhere near as cool. By the way, the W30 does have sounds in ROM but they are of course inaccessible until you load the OS from floppy or SCSI drive

A SCSI quest sounds like a bloody nightmare. Also I actually have seen one of these floppy keyboards at my local music resale shop. But sadly it has a broken key :/

Awesome build! Inspired to do this for some of my vintage musical gear.

I had a 100 MB SyQuest drive in the late 90s. It was a 3.5 inch form factor, so a little more convenient than their larger version. I really liked it, but when Iomega launched their 250 MB Zip toward the end of the decade, SyQuest never came back with an adequate answer. I still love the idea of removable hard drive players, though! :)

Still wondering whether an SD card is actually a good choice in replacing hard disks ... considering that they have a quite limited rewrite capacity ... wouldn't a CF or USB w/ real SSD be a better choice?

those DD floppies aren't even the worst 80s roland has to offer. pray you never have to deal with QuickDisks

You failed to point out. The kitty is important part of the repair process.

At least with the double density format, you can always tape over the hole on high density disks and use them with mixed results. It’s the first thing I do to otherwise bad HD diskettes, to prolong their usage.

Glad to know it's known to be highly likely for Quantum drives to cark it. *glares at her GVP Amiga sidecar* >.>

Maybe a SCSI IOmega Zip drive would make a better case for this. They are easier to find (I have several) and the card slot and USB connector would be accessible through the disc slot. The Zip drive uses an external power supply so it could be adapted to any voltage.

I've seen people use external zip drives with those keyboards. Might not have been the same keyboard exactly, but I'm pretty sure it was one of those combo parallel/SCSI external zip drives they were using for storage.

I think those flush nuts in the sheet metal are normal nuts just crammed in. There a bunch of types of rivet like nuts. A popular bunch of them are called rivnuts, but that probably isn't quite correct here. A previous employer used PEM brand self-clinching standoffs, which look like they have a fair chance of being what was originally used in this device.

Why not a ZIP drive? SCSI ones are easy enough to find, as are ATA and USB. 100M is a decent amount for retro applications.

I'd get rid of the huge enclosure and use an old 3.5" hdd enclosure. Use a usb B or micro jack to feed the 5V, and make the board flush with the front, so you don't need any usb or sd extenders. You can get usb micro breakouts CHEAP. Take the scsi connectors off this huge case and mount em in the back. The huge case could be a great case for a mini pc of some sort!!!

If I had known about the SD extension thing I probably wouldn’t have bothered with grabbing that 3D printed front bay thing for my SD to IDE adapter for my 486. It sticks out like a sore thumb because it’s white on a beige machine and it’s super fiddly and brittle to the point that I’m scared to touch it most of the time.

I'm still pissed the 5.2 redesign dropped the external scsi port option. On the 5.1 you could add a standard external SCSI port and you don't need that big bulky enclosure. You can just 3d print a little container and stick it inside.

It would be epic if this also made the HDD sound :)

Hey, keep an eye on that PSU. Those old switchers really need an adequate load, which they won’t be getting from the SD board. The fan might be enough if you left that plugged in. And some of them were designed to be stable under no load conditions. Just watch out for it!

Quick tip on deburring, take a drill bit about 3 sizes up, and just press it up against the hole and drill for a couple revolutions. Don't press down hard or anything, you just want to let the bit's cutting edge take out the burr. Also, get yourself a set of center punches, that way the bits won't walk on you all the time.

I don't know if you already know this, but a tip for deburring drilled holes, use a larger drill bit that's about 2mm or 4mm larger than the hole you drilled and while running your drill with it fitted, press it into the hole briefly on both sides. For a 4mm hole, use a 6mm or 8mm bit for deburring, and that will cleanly deburr the hole in about 2 seconds or so. If you can't get your drill into place due to space constraints, then turning the drill bit by hand will also work, it'll just take longer Also, if you want to avoid having the drill walk when trying to drill and you don't have a centre punch, take an old drill bit that's 4mm or so that you don't care about, and tap it fairly gently with a hammer where you want to drill, it's not ideal and the bit can break, but it will work as a makeshift centre punch.

The hard drive actually might be saveable. If it has only one platter, the melting rubber bumpers can be changed and it will unpark again happily.

doesnt look much in that scsi enclosure ,looks like just psu and drive..? what was wrong with it? if the psu, repair or fit a new psu, if drive get and fit a new drive???

Glue Gun. Dremel. Also, power supply destined to fail. But a much better wall wart can handle that.

those round threaded inserts are called PEM nuts, and they have an internal thread, and a crimping ridge around the bottom that "bites" into the metal to secure it when pressed into the metal hole. I get mine from Fastenal.

If you cover the media hole (opposite the write protect) on a HD floppy you can format them to 720k in a PC

It's possible neither of the LED connectors is ground if the resistor for limiting the current is between the LED and ground.

Let me introduce you to the wonderful wonderful world of riv-nuts! Simply put its threads that are riveted onto a piece of metal removing the need for nuts on the backside.

Every time you say SCSI all I hear is Victor Bart saying scooozy

Why not 3D print a piece that mates the 4 holes on the metal plate then on the same design have 4 holes to screw the SCSI adapter, result being it's secure and insulated. Just an idea 🙂😸

Man, you should've put the adapter far enough forward that the SD card could've popped out thru a slot in the bezel 🙂

Something I didn't expect to learn from this video was the screwdriver. I have The same exact screwdriver that came with one of my electronics repair kits And I always wondered what that little barrel part towards the handle was for. when you went to go and extend the screwdriver I was like oh so that's what that's for and I tried it and it works with mine as well.

re power connector - is it because the molex connector requires more force to use which the adapter cannot take? the hard drive enclosure would reinforce the back for the power connector by having some mass there blocking over insertion force and limiting wear on the solder joints - the adapter doesnt have that so maybe thats why a floppy drive connector makes more sense.

That power supply will be coasting now ... maybe you can ditch the fan.

i have a whole box of these 200mb disks if you need, unfortunately in Germany

OOhh SCSI. I used to be the master of SCSI back in my Unix admin days.

i have a keyboard thats extremely similar to that one, but i don't think its a Roland. it has same dd floppy drive with that little cubby on top and a similar control panel

One like for the content, one for the cat playing with the Molex connector. As I can only give one like, it was for the cat ;)

Shelby: Cat, you gonna hang around or you gonna leave? Cat: .... Yes.

i did something very siomilar with my macintosh plus. i got a laci external drive and put a scsi2sd in it for os and saved programs

There are special rivets you can get with a rivet gun for mounting nuts on boards like that for standoffs

"Neither one of these are ground so I'm not sure how this works" @ 21:00 - could be switched on the ground side rather than the 'hot' side - check for continuity between one of the power rails and the LED pins and you'll probably find something

Tech Tangents Presents: SCSI Quest 2021

My cat (who allows me to share her desk) suggests you need a drill press. 🙂

I wonder if the tameframe on this is right to support an external Zip drive.

I'd kill for that VC6.0 box set.

I'm officially putting you and Doug DeMuro in the council of people who start off their videos by saying 'this'

What's your cat's name? And how does he/she feel about avocado? Also, you can print a panel mount adapter for the SD card extender and have it up front: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3854077

I had a good chuckle when you forgot the name for flat head screws.

Awesome. Is that drive silent? Does the old fan make noise?

BERG power connector is alright.

Tech youtubers and cats. Name a better duo. :D

I have SE/30 with drive out the back.

who the fuck thought scsi was a good idea for storage?

The cat is payed by Gotek obviously.

3:07 you sound like Kermit the frog XD