Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
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Posts: 46,084
I've been offered some 1GB IBM microdrives if I can come up with
something interesting to do with them. They behave according to the
CompactFlash 2 spec. Any advice on how to interface a BSII with a
CF2 card? I'm thinking the easiest way would be through a PCMCIA
adapter or a card reader (USB, parallel, or serial) but don't really
know how to proceed. Any advice?
Ellen Spertus
something interesting to do with them. They behave according to the
CompactFlash 2 spec. Any advice on how to interface a BSII with a
CF2 card? I'm thinking the easiest way would be through a PCMCIA
adapter or a card reader (USB, parallel, or serial) but don't really
know how to proceed. Any advice?
Ellen Spertus
Comments
Circuit Cellar had an article on interfacing them with a PICmicro. It takes
16 pins, so it might be doable with a BSII. Check out
http://www.chipcenter.com/circuitcellar/february01/c0201ms1.htm. Could
probably revise the schematics and code to work on a BSII. This doesn't go
through a PCMCIA adapter either... its direct.
Ken
Original Message
From: <spertus@m...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 11:31 PM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
> I've been offered some 1GB IBM microdrives if I can come up with
> something interesting to do with them. They behave according to the
> CompactFlash 2 spec. Any advice on how to interface a BSII with a
> CF2 card? I'm thinking the easiest way would be through a PCMCIA
> adapter or a card reader (USB, parallel, or serial) but don't really
> know how to proceed. Any advice?
>
> Ellen Spertus
Connect the BS2 to a PocketPC. The PPC already has RS-232 and the
drivers' for Compact Flash or PCMCIA. The BS2 and the PPC are a
perfect combination for mobile data acquisition projects. I would be
happy to help you for one of those 1GB IBM microdrives, heheh just
kidding. If you need some code or how to connect a BS2 to a PPC just
ask.
Original Message
From: <tunatunup2000@y...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 3:07 AM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
> The easiest way?
>
> Connect the BS2 to a PocketPC. The PPC already has RS-232 and the
> drivers' for Compact Flash or PCMCIA. The BS2 and the PPC are a
> perfect combination for mobile data acquisition projects. I would be
> happy to help you for one of those 1GB IBM microdrives, heheh just
> kidding. If you need some code or how to connect a BS2 to a PPC just
> ask.
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
Original Message
From: <spertus@m...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 1:31 AM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
> I've been offered some 1GB IBM microdrives if I can come up with
> something interesting to do with them. They behave according to the
> CompactFlash 2 spec. Any advice on how to interface a BSII with a
> CF2 card? I'm thinking the easiest way would be through a PCMCIA
> adapter or a card reader (USB, parallel, or serial) but don't really
> know how to proceed. Any advice?
>
> Ellen Spertus
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
> How do you read the compact flash from your PC?
We use a pcmcia adapter (e.g.,
http://shop2.outpost.com/product/66042) and put it in a PCMCIA drive
(e.g., http://shop2.outpost.com/product/47979).
Ellen Spertus
this is what I want to know about.
Will windows recognize these cards on its own, without a special driver?
ATA, this acronym, does this refer to the type of card that 'appears'
as a drive to windows?
Thanks very much,
I want to write a VB program to deal with the
card when in the PC. Any tips on this would be
very welcome, too.
Original Message
From: <spertus@m...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 2:01 PM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
> --- In basicstamps@y..., "rad0" <rden25@m...> wrote:
> > How do you read the compact flash from your PC?
>
> We use a pcmcia adapter (e.g.,
> http://shop2.outpost.com/product/66042) and put it in a PCMCIA drive
> (e.g., http://shop2.outpost.com/product/47979).
>
> Ellen Spertus
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
www.star.net/people/~mvs
Look for the StampDrive
Free Web Email & Filter Enhancements.
http://www.freewebemail.com/filtertools/
Original Message
From: "rad0" <rden25@m...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
> How do you read the compact flash from your PC?
>
>
>
Original Message
> From: <spertus@m...>
> To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 1:31 AM
> Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
>
>
> > I've been offered some 1GB IBM microdrives if I can come up with
> > something interesting to do with them. They behave according to the
> > CompactFlash 2 spec. Any advice on how to interface a BSII with a
> > CF2 card? I'm thinking the easiest way would be through a PCMCIA
> > adapter or a card reader (USB, parallel, or serial) but don't really
> > know how to proceed. Any advice?
> >
> > Ellen Spertus
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
> MVS has a RS232 to ATA device. Very simple to use. The website is
> www.star.net/people/~mvs
> Look for the StampDrive
Thank you. That looks perfect.
Ellen
to get it to see flash cards as a drive. Don't know if they fixed this in 98
/ Win2k or not.
Original Message
> Will windows recognize these cards on its own, without a special driver?
>
> ATA, this acronym, does this refer to the type of card that 'appears'
> as a drive to windows?
> MVS has a RS232 to ATA device. Very simple to use. The website is
> www.star.net/people/~mvs
Anyone bought any of these? As an overseas buyer, I'm reluctant to
purchase from a supplier that doesn't even have an email address...
I am interested though - I've been buying from other suppliers & paying
US$600 each!
Dave
only problem I have with them is their shipping. They like to use postal
for any ground orders, so I would request UPS.
Free Web Email & Filter Enhancements.
http://www.freewebemail.com/filtertools/
Original Message
From: <david@b...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2001 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
> On 3 Mar 2001, at 16:11, Shocker <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
> > MVS has a RS232 to ATA device. Very simple to use. The website is
> > www.star.net/people/~mvs
>
> Anyone bought any of these? As an overseas buyer, I'm reluctant to
> purchase from a supplier that doesn't even have an email address...
> I am interested though - I've been buying from other suppliers & paying
> US$600 each!
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
> I have purchased one and it works. They are very helpful if you call. The
> only problem I have with them is their shipping. They like to use postal for
> any ground orders, so I would request UPS.
I think I'll stick with postal - I sent something from USA to Canada last
week & UPS charged C$150 for "brokering fees", whatever that is - on top
of the courier charges & GST. Sending exactly the same thing a year ago
cost no extra!
Dave
>>MVS has a RS232 to ATA device. Very simple to use. The website is
>>http://www.star.net/people/~mvs
>>Look for the StampDrive
>....
>>I have purchased one and it works. They are very helpful if you call.
Hi Shocker,
The command set they describe on their web site sounds pretty
rudimentary. Did you find that there was more to it than that?
For example, as described it only has three commands, Read, Write and
Init, and when it receives the "READ" command, it dumps 512 bytes bam
bam .. bam onto the serial port. Huh? That's not very
stamp-friendly.
The circuit cellar article that Ken mentioned reads similar:
http://www.chipcenter.com/circuitcellar/february01/c0201ms1.htm
by Mark Samuels
It is a hack into the sector data.
What would be nice (IMHO) would be something that handles the higher
protocol layers, so you could open and close files and read and write
data, and then take the card and put it into any computer that has a
CF drive and see it all mounted on the desktop. (And the interface,
not the BASIC Stamp, would manage the file pointers.)
-- Tracy Allen
electronically monitored ecosystems
http://www.emesystems.com
> >>http://www.star.net/people/~mvs
> >>Look for the StampDrive
> >>I have purchased one and it works. They are very helpful if you call.
I just phoned them from Malaysia last night asking whether they had an
email address. Turns out they have (mvs@s...) but the guy that
answered said "They don't pay me to answer the email, so it will probably
take a week or two before I read it"! Now there is a company ready for the
21st century! So, between that answer & the fact that the device seems
somewhat crippled, I'm not sure whether I will get any. My application is
to log GPS data to a CF card so I can read it back using a PC later.
> What would be nice (IMHO) would be something that handles the higher
> protocol layers, so you could open and close files and read and write
> data, and then take the card and put it into any computer that has a
> CF drive and see it all mounted on the desktop. (And the interface,
> not the BASIC Stamp, would manage the file pointers.)
I have a couple of units from Persistor that do just that. US$600 each
though!
Dave
document mentioned in the article and built the interface, modified for a
BS2. I haven't started on any code yet because the FAT article only tells
you the directory structure. Does anyone have any info on how to track a
file through multiple sectors? This document only tells how to find the
first sector and the size of the file.
My final goal is to be able to open, modify, write files to a standard FAT
partition using a BS2. I think the 512byte chunks won't be that bad since
you don't really have to store the whole thing in ram. At a minimum, there
are 13 pins needed to interface to a CF card. If I find that I do need to
store that data, I can add a small serial ram chip on the other 2 pins. Or,
this may be a job for the BS2P40 with a standard 8bit data/9-16bit address
bus and use SRAM.
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 23:27:28 -0800
> From: Tracy Allen <tracy@e...>
> Subject: Re: Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
>
> >Shocker wrote:
> >>MVS has a RS232 to ATA device. Very simple to use. The website is
> >>http://www.star.net/people/~mvs
> >>Look for the StampDrive
> >....
> >>I have purchased one and it works. They are very helpful if you call.
>
> Hi Shocker,
>
> The command set they describe on their web site sounds pretty
> rudimentary. Did you find that there was more to it than that?
>
> For example, as described it only has three commands, Read, Write and
> Init, and when it receives the "READ" command, it dumps 512 bytes bam
> bam .. bam onto the serial port. Huh? That's not very
> stamp-friendly.
>
> The circuit cellar article that Ken mentioned reads similar:
> http://www.chipcenter.com/circuitcellar/february01/c0201ms1.htm
> by Mark Samuels
> It is a hack into the sector data.
>
> What would be nice (IMHO) would be something that handles the higher
> protocol layers, so you could open and close files and read and write
> data, and then take the card and put it into any computer that has a
> CF drive and see it all mounted on the desktop. (And the interface,
> not the BASIC Stamp, would manage the file pointers.)
>
> -- Tracy Allen
> electronically monitored ecosystems
> http://www.emesystems.com
Books. It describes itself as an "MS-DOS Emulator for Platform Independence
& Embedded Systems Development". It does go into some detail of the FAT
File System. The book takes you from a formatted floppy to a platform
independent, fairly complete clone of MS-DOS v3.1, written in C and some
assembly.
It also has references the FreeDOS Project:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/freedos.html which
resolves to an ftp site.
Take a look if you are rolling your own file system.
Regards,
Daniel McGlothin
Original Message
From: Barry Michels [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=TypHs-Sjbm1DtKbRgrBHJqwKB2Oz83sHYxR3jzLHNkN71KJDFDu70YX7QQxCdV1zWXeiGEu_DUGeew]bmichels@e...[/url
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 6:53 AM
To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
I took the circuit cellar article and also downloaded the CF spec and MS FAT
document mentioned in the article and built the interface, modified for a
BS2. I haven't started on any code yet because the FAT article only tells
you the directory structure. Does anyone have any info on how to track a
file through multiple sectors? This document only tells how to find the
first sector and the size of the file.
My final goal is to be able to open, modify, write files to a standard FAT
partition using a BS2. I think the 512byte chunks won't be that bad since
you don't really have to store the whole thing in ram. At a minimum, there
are 13 pins needed to interface to a CF card. If I find that I do need to
store that data, I can add a small serial ram chip on the other 2 pins. Or,
this may be a job for the BS2P40 with a standard 8bit data/9-16bit address
bus and use SRAM.
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 23:27:28 -0800
> From: Tracy Allen <tracy@e...>
> Subject: Re: Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
>
> >Shocker wrote:
> >>MVS has a RS232 to ATA device. Very simple to use. The website is
> >>http://www.star.net/people/~mvs
> >>Look for the StampDrive
> >....
> >>I have purchased one and it works. They are very helpful if you call.
>
> Hi Shocker,
>
> The command set they describe on their web site sounds pretty
> rudimentary. Did you find that there was more to it than that?
>
> For example, as described it only has three commands, Read, Write and
> Init, and when it receives the "READ" command, it dumps 512 bytes bam
> bam .. bam onto the serial port. Huh? That's not very
> stamp-friendly.
>
> The circuit cellar article that Ken mentioned reads similar:
> http://www.chipcenter.com/circuitcellar/february01/c0201ms1.htm
> by Mark Samuels
> It is a hack into the sector data.
>
> What would be nice (IMHO) would be something that handles the higher
> protocol layers, so you could open and close files and read and write
> data, and then take the card and put it into any computer that has a
> CF drive and see it all mounted on the desktop. (And the interface,
> not the BASIC Stamp, would manage the file pointers.)
>
> -- Tracy Allen
> electronically monitored ecosystems
> http://www.emesystems.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
That is not a good URL anymore. Try http://www.freedos.org/
It lloks interesting. Thanks for the pointer.
Good day,
Ralph
In response to the welcome remarks of D. Daniel McGlothin at 08:49 AM
3/9/01 -0500:
>It also has references the FreeDOS Project:
>http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/freedos.html which
>resolves to an ftp site.
>
>Take a look if you are rolling your own file system.
(up to 115kbaud) that could be interfaced easily to a Stamp.
http://www.csm.de/en_dosdrive.htm
It supports the ATA-FAT file system and lets you create or open a
file and then read or write to it with a file handle. It can also
take micro hard drives for awesome storage capacity. Unlike the
Persistor product <http://www.Persistor.com >, the CSM DOSdrive is
simply a disk drive, not a development platform. But they are both
in the US$400 price range.
I have not actually used either product, but just checking out the field.
-- Tracy Allen
electronically monitored ecosystems
http://www.emesystems.com
(up to 115kbaud) that could be interfaced easily to a Stamp.
http://www.csm.de/en_dosdrive.htm
It supports the ATA-FAT file system and lets you create or open a
file and then read or write to it with a file handle. It can also
take micro hard drives for awesome storage capacity. Unlike the
Persistor product <http://www.Persistor.com >, the CSM DOSdrive is
simply a disk drive, not a development platform. But they are both
in the US$400 price range.
I have not actually used either product, but just checking out the field.
-- Tracy Allen
electronically monitored ecosystems
http://www.emesystems.com
http://www.pcengines.com/cflash.htm
They are $20 each for a CF to IDE interface. That's all I was looking for
since I want to build the active stuff myself and access the card directly.
The FAT 12/16/32 structure isn't that complicated.
> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 10:04:19 -0800
> From: Tracy Allen <tta@e...>
> Subject: RE: Re: Interface to Compact Flash or PCMCIA?
>
> Here is another company that makes a ATA-CF card interface to RS232
> (up to 115kbaud) that could be interfaced easily to a Stamp.
> http://www.csm.de/en_dosdrive.htm
> It supports the ATA-FAT file system and lets you create or open a
> file and then read or write to it with a file handle. It can also
> take micro hard drives for awesome storage capacity. Unlike the
> Persistor product <http://www.Persistor.com >, the CSM DOSdrive is
> simply a disk drive, not a development platform. But they are both
> in the US$400 price range.
>
> I have not actually used either product, but just checking out the field.
>
> -- Tracy Allen
> electronically monitored ecosystems
> http://www.emesystems.com