Front Panel Issues

[leadacid44]

Hello, having some issues with the beta build of the front panel firmware. I have the front panel connected via qwiic cable to a BlueSCSI V2 - 2023.09a. Seems like the front panel and the BlueSCSI board aren't communicating. The front panel powers up, goes through its init sequence, but all it displays is "No Image Loaded". Button presses don't do anything. If given enough time for the screen to blank, button presses do wake it up.

I've tried flashing the RPi with the nuke firmware, then the panel firmware, no change. The BlueSCSI behaves normally otherwise. Change between various firmwares works as expected, but no change in behavior for the front panel.

Connecting through WiFi to the front panel works, but most of the details that would have come from the main BlueSCSI are blank or unknown. E.g.

System Information
Product: BlueSCSI Front Panel
Main firmware: Unknown
Front panel firmware: v0.4.0
Host Communications: Not initialized - Disconnected
Free Memory: 103.2 KB
Uptime: 4:53

System details

• BlueSCSI V2 -2023.09a
• Raspberry Pi Pico H
• SanDisk 128GB micro-SD card
• Card contains only bluescsi.ini and Windows 95 ISO
• Front panel from Joe's Computer Museum connected via qwiic cable
• https://jcm-1.com/product/bluescsi-front-panel-module/
• Powered by USB cable from Linux PC - no connection to SCSI bus or DC power
• PWR_ON jumper set
• TRM_ON jumper set
• Target jumper set
• First loaded flash nuke firmware "flash_nuke.uf2"
• https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/soft/flash_nuke.uf2
• Then loaded panel-specific firmware "BlueSCSI_V2_Universal_2026-06-17_53fd7a0.uf2" loaded from here:
• https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/releases/download/panel/BlueSCSI_V2_Universal_2026-06-17_53fd7a0.uf2

INI File

[SCSI]
EnableFrontPanel=true

Output log file

Platform: BlueSCSI (Pico1)
FW Version: 2026.04.28-dev Jun 18 2026 00:10:08
Flash chip size: 2048 kB
I2C Supported
=== Bootloader Log ===
[1ms] Bootloader version: Jun 18 2026 00:09:56 BlueSCSI
[1ms] Looking for firmware: BlueSCSI_Pico_DaynaPORT*.bin
[97ms] Bootloader continuing to main firmware
=== End Bootloader Log ===
Reclock RP2040 & Pico 1/1W based boards to standardized speed
Initial Clock set to 125MHz
Reclocking the MCU to 203MHz
Setting the SDIO clock to 41MHz
After reclocking, system reports clock set to 203MHz
 
=== SD Card Info ===
SD card detected, exFAT volume size: 121976 MB
SD Name: SD128, MID: 0x03 (SanDisk), OID: "SD" (0x53 0x44)
-- EnableFrontPanel = Yes

=== Global Config ===
Reading configuration from bluescsi.ini
-- EnableFrontPanel = Yes

=== Finding images ===
=== Finding images in / ===
== Opening /CD6-win95a_upg_en.iso for ID:6 LUN:0
---- Configuring as CD-ROM drive

== Platform supports ROM drive up to 800 kB
 
=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
ID: 6, BlockSize: 2048, Type: Optical, Quirks: Apple, Size: 615056kB, Removable

[erichelgeson]

I have to rebuild the Pico1 uf2 for the front panel - I'll ping here once it's uploaded to the panel tag.

[erichelgeson]

Built and attached to the release the Pico profile - note you can (currently) not use daynaport and front panel at the same time due to the RAM constraints on the Pico1.

[leadacid44]

Hi Eric, I was able to flash the file "BlueSCSI_Pico_2026-06-17_53fd7a0.uf2.uf2" and in the end, that worked great.

I had strange results at first, but I think I may know, at least partially, what's going on.

So curiously, my problem seemed to depend on how the BS+FP is connected/powered. Originally, I've been connecting the BS+FP via a USB cable to my Ubuntu Linux system. This behaves as you'd expect - default shows the SD card contents as a USB "Generic BlueSCSI" mass storage device. Pressing the BOOTSEL button during power connect shows the RPi as a USB "Raspberry Pi RP2 Boot" device. Both behave as expected, but the front panel never seems to connect - it shows symptoms similar to those I mentioned before, with the exception that now I believe it says that it is 'connected' but still clearly doesn't work.

Now, when I connect the BS+FP to a USB cell phone charger, then it works exactly as expected. The front panel cycles through what I assume to be the correct set of messages, and then displays the file contents of the card. Working through the web interface also works as expected.

I apologize if this is all expected behavior - just figured it might be helpful for you to know.

I'm primarily using this BlueSCSI for a CDROM emulator for an old IBM EduQuest Thirty, so having the front panel being able to graphically switch through CD ISO images is a huge help. The DOS toolbox utility works great for switching, but requires the ASPI drivers to be loaded, which adds a lot of memory overhead. Plus it the front panel makes the system look quite clean compared to just a bare PCB stuck into a 5.25" bay. :-)

I've got about a half-dozen BlueSCSI devices running in a variety of systems, so I'm a huge fan of your work and this project. Thank you very much!

[ksample]

I had an almost identical issue. Once I flashed the latest "panel" firmware--BlueSCSI_V2_Pico2_2026-06-17_53fd7a0.uf2 and ran it from system power (Molex > Berg adapter, with the Power jumper closed) on my PowerMac 7200 it worked perfectly. Still doesn't work right on USB bus power but maybe that's because my iMac doesn't deliver consistent voltage. The Berg connector on my PowerMac was delivering a consistent 5.1v.