BlueSCSI v2 Pico announced for retrocomputing storage #VintageComputing #SCSI #OpenSource @BlueScsi

(See update at the end of the post – March 15, 2023) … BlueSCSI is an open source, open hardware, and open design SCSI solution for vintage computers.

The original version 1.x devices use a “Blue Pill” microcontroller board based on ST chips. Due to the chip shortages, clone ST chips have often been used.

Today the team announced BlueSCSI v2!

  • BlueSCSI v2 is based on the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller and a fork of ZuluSCSI’s SCSI2SD code
  • It is open source, open hardware, and open design.
  • It is fast, pushing 10MB/sec.
  • It comes in 3 models, Desktop, Laptop, and DB25.
  • It has tons of new features.
  • It is available now to build yourself or buy.

BlueSCSI v2 targets the Raspberry Pi Pico (not the Pi) which uses the RP2040 microcontroller. Like before we’re building on the shoulders of those who came before us – namely this code base is based on the ZuluSCSI’s SCSI2SD. This is a joint effort between Eric(nulleric) the maintainer of BlueSCSI and Jacob(Androda) a core BlueSCSI developer and maintainer of the F4 BlueSCSI fork.

We’ve added our “special sauce” to the hardware and software. Hardware for BlueSCSI v2 will be released under the same Creative Commons Non-Commercial license as BlueSCSI v1 – we believe in open hardware and this will allow you to build the device yourself if you like.

The original BlueSCSI isn’t dead! We will continue to support and port features to the F1/F4 versions of BlueSCSI as we can. Not all features can be ported back, and speeds are more limited on the earlier models.

See the product page and GitHub for all the details. Efforts like this are what open source is about.


Update: Editor’s note (pt here) March 15, 2023 – Alex Perez, Owner, of Rabbit Hole Computing contacted Adafruit regarding this post, after discussing this over email we agreed to add a public statement (link) to what Alex wanted, it’s here: https://zuluscsi.com/BlueSCSI-V2-Misattributon

And! an update here is the correct link to the v2 on GitHub as well.


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