bitfixer
Veteran Member
I ordered a few BlueSCSI PCBs from gerbers, looks like I will have 3 extra. If anyone is interested I can send one to you for postage. Located in California, US.
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A few BlueSCSI PCBs available
- Thread starter bitfixer
- Start date
tingo
Veteran Member
For those (like me ) who might not know what a BlueSCSI is: https://github.com/erichelgeson/BlueSCSI
bitfixer
Veteran Member
I have 1 extra still if anyone is interested. I put one of them together, haven't gotten it working yet. Strangely when powered on not connected to the Mac, it detects my sd card and the image files on it, which is confirmed by the log file written to the card. But when I power on connected to the Mac, it blinks its led indicating that the sd card is not detected. Strangely one time I started up, it did seem to detect it - and I got an odd sequence of happy Mac icon for about 1 second and then immediately jumping back to a blank screen, over and over. I'm suspecting that I may have gotten one of the fake bluepill boards the project page warns you about.
tingo
Veteran Member
FWIW, I have had good success with keirf's test program ("blinky") described here https://github.com/keirf/Greaseweazle/wiki/STM32-Fakes
for sorting out fakes and clones.
for sorting out fakes and clones.
bitfixer
Veteran Member
Thanks. I tried the Blinky test, and this one does seem to pass. At least, it gets through all the checks and enters the endless RAM checking loop. The only thing that looked mildly curious was that there was I think a version byte, and one other status indicator after it that were zero. I don't know if that is a normal value or not.
So, I'm not really sure one way or another about the specific bluepill board I have. It's also completely possible the problem is due to my own build issues. However, I'm confused by the fact that it can successfully write to the SD card, but only when not plugged into SCSI in the Mac.
So, I'm not really sure one way or another about the specific bluepill board I have. It's also completely possible the problem is due to my own build issues. However, I'm confused by the fact that it can successfully write to the SD card, but only when not plugged into SCSI in the Mac.
tingo
Veteran Member
What kind of Mac is this? And are you powering the BlueSCSI board from the SCSI connector on the Mac or externally (via the Berg / "floppy power" connector? I've read up on BlueSCSI versus Macs this evening, and it seems that a few Mac models doesn't automatically provide power (or enough power for the BlueSCSI) via the SCSI connector.
bitfixer
Veteran Member
Mac SE/30. I tried it both with and without powering with 5v from the Berg connector, same result. When it powers on connected to the Mac in either case, the LED on the bluepill blinks I think 5 times, then pause, blinks again. Which is the same thing that happens if you power up without a microSD. If I power it from another source, it sees the sd and writes a log file to it.
tingo
Veteran Member
Aha, my future "victim" for a BlueSCSI is also a SE/30 
If the LED blinks (and you are sure the BluePill is programmed) then it doesn't see the correct file names on the microSD card, I think. Not sure it helps, you have probably already verified that.
If the LED blinks (and you are sure the BluePill is programmed) then it doesn't see the correct file names on the microSD card, I think. Not sure it helps, you have probably already verified that.
bitfixer
Veteran Member
It does recognize the image files correctly in the case that I power up not connected to the Mac. It writes a log file on the sd card with some information, showing the image files found and indicating that it was ready to enter its main loop.
I will try this again, this time wiring the correct pins on the bluepill straight to a breakout board I have for a microsd, to see if it's some sort of flaky connection. Although I don't really think so.
Another possibility is my method of programming the bluepill. The instructions indicate use of the STLinkV2 for programming, which I did not have. Instead I used a raspberry pi and the stm32flash utility, as described in this blog post:
https://siliconjunction.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/flashing-the-stm32f-board-using-a-raspberry-pi-3/
This does seem to work just fine, and the fact that it does write files to the sd card indicate that it seems to have worked. But maybe there's some fuse setting that is not programmed this way, I don't know. I might just get the STLink device and try that out to compare. They are pretty cheap.
I will try this again, this time wiring the correct pins on the bluepill straight to a breakout board I have for a microsd, to see if it's some sort of flaky connection. Although I don't really think so.
Another possibility is my method of programming the bluepill. The instructions indicate use of the STLinkV2 for programming, which I did not have. Instead I used a raspberry pi and the stm32flash utility, as described in this blog post:
https://siliconjunction.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/flashing-the-stm32f-board-using-a-raspberry-pi-3/
This does seem to work just fine, and the fact that it does write files to the sd card indicate that it seems to have worked. But maybe there's some fuse setting that is not programmed this way, I don't know. I might just get the STLink device and try that out to compare. They are pretty cheap.
tingo
Veteran Member
stm32flash should be fine - it will tell you if the programming failed. As long as there is only one binary to flash, there isn't much that could go wrong. And - you are getting the log file written to the SD card, this proves that the program on the BluePill is working. The fuses are mostly for setting crystal frequencies and such, so if something was seriously wrong you wouldn't even get that far.
And if you used that setup for programming the blinky test, that is another vote for your programming setup being good.
Do you have any other machines with a SCSI card in that you could try the BlueSCSI in? Like a machine with an Adaptec SCSI card and Linux / FreeBSD on it or something.
And if you used that setup for programming the blinky test, that is another vote for your programming setup being good.
Do you have any other machines with a SCSI card in that you could try the BlueSCSI in? Like a machine with an Adaptec SCSI card and Linux / FreeBSD on it or something.
bitfixer
Veteran Member
Good idea, I may have a Pc scsi card around somewhere, will have to look around for it. In the meantime, I did also try it in a known working Mac SE with the same result. Still confused by this one.