SCSI emulator for Mac Plus with '030 accelerator?

[JeffC]

I recently installed my Performer clone accelerator into my Plus and have found it seems to be incompatible with my BlueSCSI v1.1. Does anyone know if there are any SCSI emulators that work with an accelerated Plus? I know the Plus's SCSI implementation is a bit non-standard so they have trouble with the SCSI emulators, even without an accelerator.

My machine has 4mb RAM and the BlueSCSI image uses System 6.0.8. The Plus board has the diode mod, and the BlueSCSI has the proper .ini file in the root directory. When I have the accelerator installed but no driver installed the BlueSCSI works fine. I can boot from it and use the machine as normal, though it runs extremely slowly without the accelerator driver. When I put the driver (GemStart 2.2 or 3) into the System folder and restart, I get the GemStart startup animation, the machine comes up to the desktop, but quickly freezes as soon as I try to open menus or files.

Does anyone have experience with any of the SCSI emulators in an accelerated Plus? It is worth noting the BlueSCSI works fine with my Mac SE when I have the same accelerator card installed in that machine, so I am rather certain there is not a problem with the accelerator itself.

 

[wottle]

I have a Mac Plus with a 20MHz 030 accelerator and it works fine with my BlueSCSI. Different accelerator - it's a Total Systems Gemini board. I use the SCSI from the accelerator, as it is faster than the on-board SCSI on the Plus.

 

[Crutch]

Are you sure the issue is specific to using a SCSI emulator? You didn’t actually say whether you can boot successfully with the driver installed (GemStart) but using native SCSI. I ask because these old accelerator drivers are notoriously finicky.

Anyway I have never used this Performer accelerator you mention, but have used all manner of Gemini/Novy Systems/Brainstorm accelerators in my Pluses and my scsi2sd 5.5s (which I think are the same as the ZuluScsi mini https://store.rabbitholecomputing.com/ZuluSCSI-Mini-RP2040-p/zuluscsi-mini-rp2040-db25.htm) all work great with them. (Get a right-angle adapter and these sit adorably up against the rear of your Plus chassis.)

 

[JeffC]

Are you sure the issue is specific to using a SCSI emulator? You didn’t actually say whether you can boot successfully with the driver installed (GemStart) but using native SCSI. I ask because these old accelerator drivers are notoriously finicky.

Anyway I have never used this Performer accelerator you mention, but have used all manner of Gemini/Novy Systems/Brainstorm accelerators in my Pluses and my scsi2sd 5.5s (which I think are the same as the ZuluScsi mini https://store.rabbitholecomputing.com/ZuluSCSI-Mini-RP2040-p/zuluscsi-mini-rp2040-db25.htm) all work great with them. (Get a right-angle adapter and these sit adorably up against the rear of your Plus chassis.)

Unfortunately the only external SCSI drive I have is the BlueSCSI, all my spinning platter drives are internal, and I don't have any sort of adapter or enclosure to adapt the 50 pin dive to the DB25 port on the Plus.

That's good to know about the SCSI2SD and potential ZuluSCSI working with other accelerators. Hopefully other people can add their experiences, though this is a bit of a specific situation not a lot of people deal with.

 

[Crutch]

I would say then in general - if your Plus accelerator crashes at the Finder after you add drivers, it’s more likely your drivers are borked than that your SCSI is incompatible, in my experience anyway. (In particular if your SCSI even gets you thru the boot sequence, it is probably working fine.)

 

[eric]

First I'd start with the troubleshooting guide to rule out any easy issues. Next I'd try removing the mac plus specific ini settings as with the accelerator it may not behave like a Mac Plus anymore. If it works with those other emulators it'll likely work with a v2, there should be no inherent incompatibility.

 

[JeffC]

First I'd start with the troubleshooting guide to rule out any easy issues. Next I'd try removing the mac plus specific ini settings as with the accelerator it may not behave like a Mac Plus anymore. If it works with those other emulators it'll likely work with a v2, there should be no inherent incompatibility.

Thanks, I'll try those suggestions.

 

[JeffC]

My BlueSCSI v2 works great, for some reason the accelerated Plus just does not like my v1.1. I used the same SD card in both just to rule out card incompatibility.