Re: Adaptec USB2Xchange

On Tue, Jan 04, 2005 at 09:31:18AM +0100, Barry Bouwsma wrote:
> Daniel O'Connor wrote:
> 
> > > I have reason to use a USB to SCSI adapter under FBSD.  I have a
> > > USB2Xchange from Adaptec, but (as usual for adaptec) it requires a firmware
> > > load, which appears harder in usb than in PCI.  Does anyone know how to do
> 
> > There is a USB firmware standard called DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) which
> > quite a nunmber of devices use (eg Atmel WiFi, Ti USB Audio, etc).
> [...]
> 
> > Unfortunatly it's hard to say if your device does DFU at all.. I would suggest
> > pulling it apart and trying to find data sheets on the chips in it.
> 
> For anyone who doesn't thrill to the sound of plastic yielding a
> satisfying *SNAP*, I happen to have one of these (1989100) thanks
> to a friend, who also gave me a different device that works without
> a need for firmware load or anything -- though I have no SCSI
> devices to test, in case anyone is interested in things that Just
> Probably Work As-Is:
> umass0 at uhub3 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
> umass0: Microtech International, Inc. USB-SCSI-HD50, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 6
> umass0: using SCSI over Bulk-Only
> scsibus0 at umass0: 2 targets, 1 lun per target
> probe(umass0:0:0:0): generic HBA error
> That's under NetBSD; FreeBSD looked comparable.  It also required
> being snapped apart, because at first it didn't work at all, and I
> discovered two things:  The power USB wire had come detached, and
> secondly, a SMD inductor was missing, so I have no idea how it ever
> passed quality control, nor do I want to know.

Maybe they get powered by termpower from the attached drive.

> Anyway, I'll not post a `usbgen' or `usbctl' from this device, as
> there's not much to see that's not already known, unless there's a
> call for it.

Don't think thats usefull - we already know it's SCSI over bulk-Only.
However a FreeBSD dmesg would be interesting.

> Inside my device seems to be a Cypress Semiconductor chip, something
> like  CY7xx8013-56PVC   where the `xx' is hard to make out
>       CYP 608578
> The mystery `xx' could be `C6'; or the first character could be `0' or
> perhaps `6'; the second character could be a `6' or `8' or maybe a
> `C' or `0' -- hard to tell as there's a thick blue marker line atop
> the chip, and my eyes aren't so good.

Don't know about this special chip, but most of them are basicly
Mikrocontrollers with embedded USB hardware and allow custom firmware.
No clue how they do the SCSI part, since the chips typically are
only fast with embedded hardware and the components I know all include
ATA controllers.

> I did notice this mailing list post for Linux, if not yet known:
>  http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-usb-devel_at_lists.sourceforge.net/msg22138.html
> but I haven't looked into it.

Sounds promissing.

-- 
B.Walter                   BWCT                http://www.bwct.de
bernd_at_bwct.de                                  info_at_bwct.de