Using a Compact Flash card on a600/a1200 PCMCIA

[lesta_smsc]

I let it disable the internal IDE to ensure no conflict issues with PCMCIA.

I formatted card as FAT (also tried FAT32) and there is no partition. Comfy.hdf is in the root of the drive with no other files.

May be the CF cards are only compatible with internal IDE and not via PCMCIA.

The only way to be sure would be to try the PCMCIA in another Amiga or use a working CF in this Amiga (those both have been reported as working in the Amiga)

[solarmon]

I did some testing to try to simulate the error, with a view to then trying to fix it.

Normally, when you partition and format the CF it uses an MBR. However, there is also the option of GPT - the difference between the two can be seen at:

https://www.minitool.com/partition-d...gpt-guide.html

When I used Minitool Partition Wizard to change/convert the working CF from MBR to GPT, the CF continued to work in my Windows machine and is seemingly healthy. However, it failed to work in my A600 giving the "Not a DOS disk in CF0:" error.

I tried converting back to MBR, but that still did not fix it. The only way I fixed it was to format the CF again, making sure MBR was used. Then it started working again.

So maybe the issue is something about the partition that the Amiga does not like.

Use a disk/partition manager to check that your CF is using an MBR partition, and I would suggest a fresh format. I used the disk/partition manager to do the format, and not did not use the Windows format feature.

[lesta_smsc]

My issue is the CF is not detected at all. Not that is not a DOS disk

Alas, I need to try another CF to be sure...

[solarmon]

But you mentioned previously that you used Prepcard and both CF cards shows up there?

Where was Prepcard used? On your A600, from the the internal IDE->CF/SD drive?

[lesta_smsc]

Prepcard on A600. Prepcard is for SRAM but it was interesting it detected CF.

Comfy should have been able to make CF work but I think CF card is incompatible.

[solarmon]

I found a CF card I have that does not seemingly work, using the same adapter:



With this I get the "No disk present in device CF0" error:



So I'll see whether I can get this working.

I have already tried a 4G and 1G partition on it, but that makes no difference at the moment.

[lesta_smsc]

That's the same error as mine! Fingers crossed you can get it working...

[solarmon]

Not sure if this is the cause or just the symptoms, but when measuring the PCMCIA pins there is a difference on the _CC_WE_PGM and _CC_OE signals, which comes from U43 (74LS245):



On working CF cards it reads 5.03V, but on the non-working CF card it reads between 3.8V and 4.1V

I suspect it is is something to do with the 3.3V/5V operating ranges of Compact Flash cards. I suspect the non-working cards only seem to work at 3.3V - or at least, something is causing them to try to operate at 3.3V. Or Gayle is not liking the CF card for some reason.

[solarmon]

If you ever wondered what the inside of a CF card looks like. Wonder no more...



The CF controller chip is a Phison PS3016-P9-R

http://www.wise-tech.net.cn/uploads/...1008579220.pdf

The spec sheet, althogh for "PS3016-P9" not "PS3016-P9-R" suggest it it operates between 3.0v and 5.5v.

This seems to be the same controller used by this Kingston CF card:

https://chyvack.livejournal.com/32439.html

[solarmon]

The USB CF adapter I was using was giving 3.3V to the CF cards. To test/prove it is not a 5V issue - i.e. the CF cards can work at 5V - I put the CF card in to an IDE adapter and then in to a USB to IDE adapter:



I measured where VCC goes to the CF card and it was showing 5.03V and the CF cards were all working in my Windows machine.

Doing it this way also means you can see the proper CF device names, instead that of the USB CF adapter device. For example:

The two working 256MB cards:

SanDisk SDCFB-256 USB
Hitachi XXM2.3.0 USB

And the non-working (in the Amiga) 32G Phihong based card:

CF Card USB

[lesta_smsc]

This is a nice article on the SD and CF card issue:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...rge-drives-FAQ


It seems that CF usually support both voltages. The issue is what mode they can support which may be the reason for the incompatibility in terms if it working via IDE but not via PCMCIA.

I can't access the documents but there is a text file on Transcend 4GB which is one of the cards which I use and doesn't work. Would be interesting if it contained any workaround in that document.

[solarmon]

I've put it in the Zone:

http://eab.abime.net/zone/id_transcend4gb.txt

[solarmon]

The CF cards can definitely work in either 3.3V or 5V - as proven by them working in the CF USB adapter at 3.3V and in the USB IDE adapter at 5V.

I suspect something is causing the non working CF cards to work at 3.3V when in the PCMCIA slot.

I need to test the non-working CF card as an internal IDE->CF card.

[solarmon]

I think it is more to do with the signalling/logic levels - it may operate with a 5V power source but if it is sending/expecting 3.3v signalling/logic levels then that is probably what is causing it not to work.

Just my uneducated guess.

[lesta_smsc]

Interesting someone else had similar problems:

https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=72442.0

It may be my bad luck that the 2 cards I have work for IDE but not PCMCIA.

[amiwolf]

If it was a hardware problem then Prepcard would not be able to identify the CF card. I think the issue relates to compactflash.device. My advice is to run cfddebug then send the cfdlog to Torsten as per the instructions in the CFD133 archive.

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by amiwolf

If it was a hardware problem then Prepcard would not be able to identify the CF card. I think the issue relates to compactflash.device. My advice is to run cfddebug then send the cfdlog to Torsten as per the instructions in the CFD133 archive.

I have now used my A1200 to get this debug report and will send it to Torsten.

Prepcard does see my non-working card:

Working:

SandDisk
SDP
Version 4.1 5/3 0.5

Not working:

Vendor
CF Card
Version 4.1

[lesta_smsc]

This has been reported in the thread in Amibay quite some time ago, hence presume there was no fix for these.

[Toni Wilen]

It is known issue. Some CF cards refuse to configure in Amiga PCMCIA slot and stay in unconfigured state = Prepcard can read basic card information but nothing else works. It is almost certainly some kind of hardware incompatibility (perhaps writes are not accepted by the card).

[lesta_smsc]

@Toni Wilen - I believe you're correct. Maybe we could make a thread of compatible cards and whether they work for IDE/PCMCIA interface.