Retaking an old project (SD Card Interface).

ferix · 28 May 2014, 12:24

Hi all there, I'm back :P

I've been out a long time because personal reasons, but now I'm back, and I'm retaking an old project from 2009, my SD Card Interface for Amiga computers (plugs into the parallel port).

The hardware was ready at the time, but I'd never got time to code a driver...
So, last week I've retook the project, and this is what happened

Let the pictures explain by themselves:

That's a top view of the interface.

A bottom view...

This is the first try of a driver, emulating a floppy drive geometry (80 tracks, 11 sectors per track and 2 heads).

Next step, using the full size of the card.

And the final driver, listing the contents (copied from Workbench disk).

Those pictures has been taken from my testing machine, a bare A600 (1Mb chip, no HD) with 2.04 kickstart...

Now let's see it on a rev. 5 A500 (kick 1.2)...

Of course, It works

Wow, 30Mbytes (actually It's a 32Mbytes card, but only 30Mbytes usable)

And finally, lets try a FAT formatted card... (fat95 present in L:, of course)

Yes, I got It...

Well, the project is far from being completed, but It works quite well, and It's very stable.
It's not fast, but It's faster than floppy, and It's not optimized (not at all), so It can go faster.

Currently I'm implementing DirectSCSI emulation (hello HDToolBox), and I've implemented some custom functions for statistics retrieving, but I need to write the client side tools to extract all the information (card info, reads, writes, retries, errors, etc...)

As you can see, It supports whatever filesystem you put into the card as long as you have the right handler in the system, and a proper mountlist.

The driver was written in assembly and works in WB 1.3 and 2.04 (tested), and It should work in 3.0+ too... (untested, no 3.0 machines here...)

That's It...

ptyerman · 28 May 2014, 16:17

Excellent work. You need to finish this and put it up for sale.

robinsonb5 · 28 May 2014, 16:30

Very nice work!

Tiago · 28 May 2014, 16:37

:-) Good work Ferix !

Franchute13 · 28 May 2014, 17:22

Hello Ferix!
Very interesting project! Plans to do open source?
Thanks for sharing the photos!.

Akira · 28 May 2014, 17:46

YES this is excellent!

gulliver · 28 May 2014, 21:20

Really cool and handy.
It is good to have some sort of universal Amiga harddrive without opening the case.

Do you plan to sell them at some point? Could you estimate a price range? Or will you just open source it, and leave the rest to others?

Please let us know how this project of yours is going to go from here onwards

prowler · 29 May 2014, 00:09

Wow! That device looks very handy indeed.

Welcome back, ferix!

Lord Aga · 29 May 2014, 00:51

Cool stuff

Adrian Browne · 29 May 2014, 01:05

Very cool. Ill be buying an amiga somewhere down the road, a1200 or a4000 probably so this may be useful.

I need to repair my old a500 too though...

Yulquen74 · 29 May 2014, 19:50

Mega cool! I would definately like one of those interfaces on my A500+ setup!

Some questions:
- Does it support hot-swap?
- What are realistic transfer speeds with current driver, and perhaps future driver?
- Would you be willing to share the schematic diagram?

ferix · 30 May 2014, 19:23

Hey, Thank you all for your support!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Franchute13

Plans to do open source?

Hola compañero

Well, I'm thinking about it, but I don't want people making profit from my job... so I have to do a deeper thinking...

Quote:

Originally Posted by gulliver

Do you plan to sell them at some point?

I don't know... May be...

Quote:

Originally Posted by gulliver

Could you estimate a price range?

That prototype costed about €15, close to $20.
Probably it would cost even less if mass produced...

Quote:

Originally Posted by gulliver

Or will you just open source it, and leave the rest to others?

Answered before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yulquen74

Does it support hot-swap?

Hardware does, software doesn't (yet).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yulquen74

What are realistic transfer speeds with current driver, and perhaps future driver?

I'm not really sure because all the debug stuff and the unoptimized code... and I don't want to speculate yet... but it's faster than a floppy drive right now

This is my first time programming for amiga, and I'm still learning about amiga os.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yulquen74

Would you be willing to share the schematic diagram?

Maybe in the near future...

ferix · 31 May 2014, 19:10

A brief update...

Running on WB 2.04 (A600)

gulliver · 01 June 2014, 00:02

@ferix

Thank you for the answers.

It would be really great if you could build a rom module to automount it and, even better if it could have autobooting capabilities.

ElectroBlaster · 01 June 2014, 01:33

If you plan to sell these, then I stand in line for one!

Very nice bit of kit you have created

Brotboxfan · 01 June 2014, 01:47

Nice work.

Supamax · 01 June 2014, 02:39

Hi ferix, welcome back!

Quote:

Originally Posted by gulliver

It is good to have some sort of universal Amiga harddrive without opening the case.

I agree!!

This could be very useful

.

It would be nice to know the transfer speed, too (when you'll have time to make speed tests etc.).
A great project!

HardStep · 01 June 2014, 03:24

Great work

mfilos · 01 June 2014, 09:48

A really nice project mate. Congratz.
It's a really nice file transfer solution especially for non PCMCIA featured Amigas.

I would be interested as well to support this effort

ferix · 05 June 2014, 09:38

Thank you all again

To all those who have sent me a PM, I saw it (them) but I have no time to reply, but I will do it

Now, watch the interface running...

[ Show youtube player ]

28 May 2014, 12:24	#1
ferix Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Spain Age: 43 Posts: 95	Retaking an old project (SD Card Interface). Hi all there, I'm back :P I've been out a long time because personal reasons, but now I'm back, and I'm retaking an old project from 2009, my SD Card Interface for Amiga computers (plugs into the parallel port). The hardware was ready at the time, but I'd never got time to code a driver... So, last week I've retook the project, and this is what happened Let the pictures explain by themselves: That's a top view of the interface. A bottom view... This is the first try of a driver, emulating a floppy drive geometry (80 tracks, 11 sectors per track and 2 heads). Next step, using the full size of the card. And the final driver, listing the contents (copied from Workbench disk). Those pictures has been taken from my testing machine, a bare A600 (1Mb chip, no HD) with 2.04 kickstart... Now let's see it on a rev. 5 A500 (kick 1.2)... Of course, It works Wow, 30Mbytes (actually It's a 32Mbytes card, but only 30Mbytes usable) And finally, lets try a FAT formatted card... (fat95 present in L:, of course) Yes, I got It... Well, the project is far from being completed, but It works quite well, and It's very stable. It's not fast, but It's faster than floppy, and It's not optimized (not at all), so It can go faster. Currently I'm implementing DirectSCSI emulation (hello HDToolBox), and I've implemented some custom functions for statistics retrieving, but I need to write the client side tools to extract all the information (card info, reads, writes, retries, errors, etc...) As you can see, It supports whatever filesystem you put into the card as long as you have the right handler in the system, and a proper mountlist. The driver was written in assembly and works in WB 1.3 and 2.04 (tested), and It should work in 3.0+ too... (untested, no 3.0 machines here...) That's It... Attached Thumbnails Last edited by ferix; 28 May 2014 at 13:07.

31 May 2014, 19:10	#13
ferix Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Spain Age: 43 Posts: 95	A brief update... Running on WB 2.04 (A600) Attached Thumbnails

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28 May 2014, 16:17	#2
ptyerman Registered User Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Worksop/UK Age: 56 Posts: 1,290	Excellent work. You need to finish this and put it up for sale.

28 May 2014, 16:30	#3
robinsonb5 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Norfolk, UK Posts: 889	Very nice work!

28 May 2014, 16:37	#4
Tiago Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Estoril/Portugal Age: 44 Posts: 115	:-) Good work Ferix !

28 May 2014, 17:22	#5
Franchute13 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Argentina Posts: 277	Hello Ferix! Very interesting project! Plans to do open source? Thanks for sharing the photos!.

28 May 2014, 17:46	#6
Akira Black Lives Matter Join Date: May 2001 Location: New York Posts: 19,438	YES this is excellent!

28 May 2014, 21:20	#7
gulliver BoingBagged Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: The South of nowhere Age: 42 Posts: 2,216	Really cool and handy. It is good to have some sort of universal Amiga harddrive without opening the case. Do you plan to sell them at some point? Could you estimate a price range? Or will you just open source it, and leave the rest to others? Please let us know how this project of yours is going to go from here onwards

29 May 2014, 00:09	#8
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Wow! That device looks very handy indeed. Welcome back, ferix!

29 May 2014, 00:51	#9
Lord Aga MI clan prevails Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 1,193	Cool stuff

29 May 2014, 01:05	#10
Adrian Browne Jackie Chan Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Ireland Age: 43 Posts: 751	Very cool. Ill be buying an amiga somewhere down the road, a1200 or a4000 probably so this may be useful. I need to repair my old a500 too though...

29 May 2014, 19:50	#11
Yulquen74 Registered User Join Date: May 2013 Location: Kleppe / Norway Posts: 213	Mega cool! I would definately like one of those interfaces on my A500+ setup! Some questions: - Does it support hot-swap? - What are realistic transfer speeds with current driver, and perhaps future driver? - Would you be willing to share the schematic diagram?

01 June 2014, 00:02	#14
gulliver BoingBagged Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: The South of nowhere Age: 42 Posts: 2,216	@ferix Thank you for the answers. It would be really great if you could build a rom module to automount it and, even better if it could have autobooting capabilities.

01 June 2014, 01:33	#15
ElectroBlaster Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Exeter, Devon, UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,583	If you plan to sell these, then I stand in line for one! Very nice bit of kit you have created

01 June 2014, 01:47	#16
Brotboxfan Registered User Join Date: May 2014 Location: Germany Posts: 7	Nice work.

01 June 2014, 03:24	#18
HardStep Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Toronto Posts: 163	Great work

01 June 2014, 09:48	#19
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 42 Posts: 1,577	A really nice project mate. Congratz. It's a really nice file transfer solution especially for non PCMCIA featured Amigas. I would be interested as well to support this effort

05 June 2014, 09:38	#20
ferix Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Spain Age: 43 Posts: 95	Thank you all again To all those who have sent me a PM, I saw it (them) but I have no time to reply, but I will do it Now, watch the interface running... [ Show youtube player ]

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