candle Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Bob, as for SDHC adaptor i've tryed this one too, but it seems it's stuck in "ready, accepting commands" mode and i can't get little bugger to do anything usuall whatever would i like to feed it with, it will return "ready, accepting commands" in status register as it would be locked in that state or require special initialization sequence to work and i have no clue what could it be anyways, there are 3 traces on bottom side of ehm, side pcb - just under C2 and C1 capacitors they are cs, ior and iow - there should be enough space between them to put 603 or 402 (that one will certainly fit, i'm not so sure about 603, but it shoudl) resistors in series (trace cutting required) to damped most critical signals data lines are buffered and i have never experienced problems on data bus side2 uses 33R resistor for these lines Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Bob, as for SDHC adaptor i've tryed this one too, but it seems it's stuck in "ready, accepting commands" mode and i can't get little bugger to do anything usuall whatever would i like to feed it with, it will return "ready, accepting commands" in status register as it would be locked in that state or require special initialization sequence to work and i have no clue what could it be Is that the one I sent? If so, it works with IDE Plus just as it is... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 It (SDHC card) seems to be even more sensitive to ringing - I can tweak the series resistors and get better, but not good, operation. The IOR and IOW lines go from IDE to CF to SDHC through a complex chip on the CF-SDHC adaptor. Being later technology, it is perhaps much too fast for our old interface. I'll try a 4-layer board. Otherwise, I think we can do better just talking to SDHC in native mode directly and forget about the IDE/CF circuit. Or, in addition to it - have an IDE and an SDHC interface. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Jon: yes Bob: true, i'll check native mode pretty soon (i hope) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 I have done the Xilinx update with the latest code from Candle - and since them it works very well. I was able to force erase and program mine as well. What's the latest flash code that should be used with the SIDE1? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Candle: I guess this is a little late, but.. Are these the three traces you were talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 yup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Well, it may have helped it, but it didn't fix the problem completely. Today I am going to get the CPLD erased/reflashed (hopefully). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 (edited) Candle. can you please verify that the JEDEC file that tf_hh linked to in post #18 of this thread is indeed the correct one? Because I programmed it into the CPLD and it appears to have made it worse, rather than better. Warerat and I both watched it program successfully. I have since tested it on 4 different machines, two of which were bone stock 65xe and 130xe. But now, not only does it still exhibit the problems it had, but it appears to corrupt the word CFA in the initialization message when it boots. It will print a couple of garbage characters in place of CFA. It still does work occasionally for short periods of time before locking up the CF card.. Edited May 29, 2013 by MEtalGuy66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+tf_hh Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 I was able to force erase and program mine as well. What's the latest flash code that should be used with the SIDE1? In my post #18 (which you´ve quoted) you can found the link to JEDEC file Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 In my post #18 (which you´ve quoted) you can found the link to JEDEC file Yes, got that for the CPLD I was asking about the code for the flash side, SDX, loader, etc. Candle. can you please verify that the JEDEC file that tf_hh linked to in post #18 of this thread is indeed the correct one? Because I programmed it into the CPLD and it appears to have made it worse, rather than better A quick look at the cart after CPLD update says it might be worse here too. And I'd swear ATR mounting was working before in conjunction with U1MB, but it certainly isn't now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 (edited) Well. I am open to suggestions of how to continue here. I have ordered some MORE CF cards that are hopefully of wider range of <speeds/series/standards> from various places and of various brands. I purposely looked for the smaller cards (2GB or less) thinking maybe they might be a little less critical where signal quality is concerned than the newer/faster/bigger generations of cards. This weekend, Im going to try to make an adaptor to put the logic analzyer and/or scope on this thing without too much hassle. Edited May 30, 2013 by MEtalGuy66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 FWIW, I have had nothing but success with a 5 pack of Transcend 2GB 80X CF cards. This is in the MyIDE and SIDE1 in a somewhat heavily modified NTSC 130XE, as well as a modified PAL 130XE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+tf_hh Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Well. I am open to suggestions of how to continue here. I have ordered some MORE CF cards that are hopefully of wider range of <speeds/series/standards> from various places and of various brands. I purposely looked for the smaller cards (2GB or less) thinking maybe they might be a little less critical where signal quality is concerned than the newer/faster/bigger generations of cards. No idea at this time, but info... I only use "old" CF-cards, my "newest" one is a Transcend 1 GByte "45x". Most other cards I have a below 256 MByte, some 8 oder 16 MByte (not _G_Bytes!). All of them work also with the KMK-IDE v2 w/o any issues. So it might be a good idea to test older cards... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Looking at the schematic, the edge-triggered signals don't have far to go. The series resistors are most needed when you are driving a 12-inch flat cable, so you may not see much with a scope. Can you 'talk' directly to the CF card? You may want to code your own diagnostic routines. What does this look like on the cart port? Bob Well. I am open to suggestions of how to continue here. I have ordered some MORE CF cards that are hopefully of wider range of <speeds/series/standards> from various places and of various brands. I purposely looked for the smaller cards (2GB or less) thinking maybe they might be a little less critical where signal quality is concerned than the newer/faster/bigger generations of cards. This weekend, Im going to try to make an adaptor to put the logic analzyer and/or scope on this thing without too much hassle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 one noete i considered only cf cards i could buy NEW, so these were 4GB and up, not below Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 You mean, these may not work? Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 i would not know smallest i've used was kingston 256mb have in mind that official minimal fat32 partition is 36mbytes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greblus Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 I'm using an old noname 128mb card taken from some industral sewing machine and it was working perfectly since I got this first Side from Zaxon. I've a few files which can hang the cart (red led keeps on all the time) but I was always considering these files somehow incompatible with Side loader. All other regularily used files/games are loading without issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted June 1, 2013 Author Share Posted June 1, 2013 (edited) I dont know why I didnt think of this before.. Phaeron's ANTIC DMA video player bangs the interface faster than the CPU ever will during normal operation and is actually a really good indication of the percentage of data read errors on any given card. If you use the third version that he posted, which has the error trapping bypassed, you can actually see "blips" in the video/soundtrack every time the interface reads bad data. And the frequency of these "blips" appears to remain pretty consistant with any given card. Examples: 4GB kingston 133x card seems to "glitch" only about 4 frames in an entire 3 minute video. Transcend 2GB 133x card seems to "glitch" every couple of seconds. Monster Digital 8GB 500X UDMA6 card seems to glitch about every 3 frames (pretty much continuously). Iomega 64MB card is just too slow to even work at all with Phaeron's player (puts pure garbage data on screen and soundtrack, nothing even recognizable). These results appear to be the same on 2 different 130XEs. Edited June 1, 2013 by MEtalGuy66 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 it also can be due to fact, that the given card is not fast enough for given usage so it's not reliable test Ken, not at all without knowing what caused the error you can't say if this was simple buffer underrun (card too slow) or actual read error caused by the interface rather than a card and even if you would say, that on pc card reader exacly the same card is prefforming better transfer wise, it's not comparable, that's because on pc you'll have card set up in DMA mode not in PIO mode Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted June 1, 2013 Author Share Posted June 1, 2013 All Im saying is that it appears to be the only consistant measure of operation Ive found so far.. Everything else either works or doesnt work so sporadically with this thing. At least his program is just doing raw reads and it produces the same behavior for long periods of time and repetitively. As far as FJC's SDX SIDE handler sucessfully mounting APT partitions or even recognizing the media. heh. Theres no rhyme or reason to that with any given card.. It just may or may not. Same goes for how long it will work before locking the card up, on the occasion that it does successfully mount and work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Doing some further tests it seems that the SIDE1 has problems using cards that are prepared and working fine in the SIDE2 and Incognito (the two of which can interchange cards successfully). Using the exact same model card and preparing it in the SIDE1 does work though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Problems of what kind? That would suggest a backwards incompatibility in software, and it's not something I have experienced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Taking the 2GB card from the Incognito for instance, and using it in the SIDE1 in loader mode results in a SIDE loader screen that contains the logo and a blank white bar and no file listing. Swapping the same card into the SIDE2 works correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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