SCSI2SD FAQ

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Does the V6 firmware work on the V5/V4/V3 boards ?

No.

There was a complete redesign for the V6 boards, which uses a completely different microcontroller.

I saved new configuration settings, and now the device doesn't work

This is a problem specific to the v4.2.2 firmware, which is still shipping on some new units.

  1. Stop the scsi2sd-monitor program if it is running.
  2. Turn off the SCSI2SD by disconnecting all power (USB cable, SCSI host should be off or SCSI cable + drive power disconnected)
  3. Run the scsi2sd-util program and select "File -> Upgrade Firmware..." from the menu.
  4. Select the new firmware file and click "Open".
  5. Connect the USB cable when the "Searching for bootloader" popup window is displayed.

scsi2sd-util can't find the device over USB

  • Try another USB cable. Bad USB cables are the primary cause of connection failures.
  • Even if your USB cable works for powering devices (eg. charging a mobile phone), the data pins may be bent/broken. Try another USB cable.
  • Try connecting directly to a USB port on the PC, not via a USB hub.

Small loads/stores work, but SCSI2SD fails with large writes

This is often a sign that only one end of the SCSI bus is terminated.

The following applies to the pre-V5.0 boards ONLY. There is no "J3 TERMPWR" jumper required on the newer boards.

A common cause is the use of a DB25 connector. Pin 25 is supposed to provide power to run the terminator yet several samplers do not connect this pin. Close the jumper labelled "J3 TERMPWR" on the SCSI2SD to provide direct power to the terminators. (5V power must be provided via the Molex 4-pin connector for the jumper to work.)

Does SCSI2SD work with samplers ?

There are compatibility issues with the Akai MPC3000, most other samples should work ok.

Thanks to Carl at Precious Sound for putting in the time to test SCSI2SD.

Does SCSI2SD support 256 bytes-per-sector ? More than 512 bytes-per-sector ?

Yes, from firmware version 3.3, set via the scsi2sd-config utility.

Does SCSI2SD do ECC or mirroring ?

No. However, you can configure SCSI2SD as up to four devices and use whatever RAID, data duplication, striping, or mirroring capabilities your equipment supports.


What is scsi2sd-monitor ?

It is a manufacturing tool for verifying that a board is not defective. It must be used when the SCSI cable is DISCONNECTED. Use of this diagnostic tool is the only thing that causes SCSI2SD to issue a SCSI RESET.

Use scsi2sd-util for SCSI bus event monitoring and general debugging.

How can I transfer data with non-standard sector sizes

  • The current version of freebsd (12.0) still supports 256 byte sectors.
  • Linux does NOT support anything except multiples of 512 bytes (2.4, 2.6, and current kernels tested).
  • sg3_utils sg_dd utility can be used to read any sector size, even on Linux