Using a PC hard drive in electronics project?

[Chaos Master]

Hello..

I'd like to know if someone has info on how to interface an IDE hard drive to
microcontroller or FPGA?

I want to do a device that uses a LCD/keyboard, to get data on HD such as free
space and possibly read file info (size, and content). The HD itself will probably
be formatted in the standard FAT16 or FAT32 file system (avoiding "exotic" file
systems like NTFS/HPFS/anything as long as it ends with FS).

I have been looking at www.mp3projects.com (hobbyst MP3 player projects which
often use HDD's) but there's not much info (lots of links are 404 not found).

I think I can use a PC power supply to power the HD and the logic.
Can I use a PC PSU, with the HD+IC's for logic as load?
Or would I need to design my own PSU from scratch?

Thanks!

 

[Ian Stirling]

Hello..

I'd like to know if someone has info on how to interface an IDE hard drive to
microcontroller or FPGA?

I want to do a device that uses a LCD/keyboard, to get data on HD such as free
space and possibly read file info (size, and content). The HD itself will probably
be formatted in the standard FAT16 or FAT32 file system (avoiding "exotic" file
systems like NTFS/HPFS/anything as long as it ends with FS).

I have been looking at www.mp3projects.com (hobbyst MP3 player projects which
often use HDD's) but there's not much info (lots of links are 404 not found).

I think I can use a PC power supply to power the HD and the logic.
Can I use a PC PSU, with the HD+IC's for logic as load?

Maybe.

Laptop drives only use 5V, so a regulated 5V supply should be fine.
3.5"/5.25" ones need 5/12.

 

[Rick]

Hello..

I'd like to know if someone has info on how to interface an IDE hard drive to
microcontroller or FPGA?

I want to do a device that uses a LCD/keyboard, to get data on HD such as free
space and possibly read file info (size, and content). The HD itself will probably
be formatted in the standard FAT16 or FAT32 file system (avoiding "exotic" file
systems like NTFS/HPFS/anything as long as it ends with FS).

I have been looking at www.mp3projects.com (hobbyst MP3 player projects which
often use HDD's) but there's not much info (lots of links are 404 not found).

I think I can use a PC power supply to power the HD and the logic.
Can I use a PC PSU, with the HD+IC's for logic as load?
Or would I need to design my own PSU from scratch?

Thanks!

--
________ Chaos Master® - Posting from Brazil
| | MSN/E-Mail address: [email protected]
| | Remove the NOSPAM / tire o NOSPAM.
___|____| "I login, therefore I am. Reality is for people without

Internet."

lots of discussion of this type thing over at comp.arch.embedded. Here is a
link to interfacing a pic to a compact flash:

http://www.circuitcellar.com/echips-pdfs/0201/c0201mspdf.pdf

Not full IDE, but there are others. Here is one from MIT:

http://vadim.www.media.mit.edu/Hoarder/Hoarder.htm

still not operating the compact flash in true IDE.

Lots of info about the FAT 16 file system:

http://www.mcselec.com/an_127.htm

Dang, I know I found one or two links about interfacing a uC to a hard drive in
true IDE mode...I wasn't interested in IDE mode at the time, so didn't mark
them, sorry. But they are out there! :=p

If you are interested in the compact flash true IDE mode, download the free spec
here:

www.compactflash.org

Hope this helps a bit,

Rick

 

[j.b. miller]

One of the easiest ways is to use a standard old fashion 'Super I/O' card.
They're free or next to it,real easy to wire any micro to, and give you 2
hard drives, 2 floppies, 2 serial,printer, and a game port.
OK, this is a 'low tech' solution, no programming of FPGAs,etc. but it does
work.I used this for some 8052 projects some years ago, then for a PIC16F877
datalogging system.With the wealth of info NOW available, programming is a
lot easier han it was 15 years ago.

hth
jay

 

[Mike Eck]

A few years ago I designed a PC board that uses an Atmel AT90S8515
microcontroller which interfaced to an IDE drive, a 4X4 keypad, an
Hitachi-type LCD display, and a barcode scanner. The board includes 128k of
static RAM, an MP3 decoder, and a "Boomer" stereo amplifier.

The hardware for an IDE interface is trivial; mine consisted of 2 74HC245's,
2 74HC374's and a GAL decoder. The software is the hard part. You need to
familiarize yourself with the ATA/ATAPI standards. I downloaded the
information from various places on the internet, and including the packet
interface specifications for CDROMS the manual is about 2" thick. A search
for "ATA/ATAPI" and "T13" should get you started.

 

[F;,VN[OWIR]

Try this link, it has the source code for a hard drive interface to an 8051.
The hardware uses an 8255 3x 8-bit I/O chip.

http://www.pjrc.com/

Good luck

Hello..

I'd like to know if someone has info on how to interface an IDE hard drive to
microcontroller or FPGA?

I want to do a device that uses a LCD/keyboard, to get data on HD such as free
space and possibly read file info (size, and content). The HD itself will probably
be formatted in the standard FAT16 or FAT32 file system (avoiding "exotic" file
systems like NTFS/HPFS/anything as long as it ends with FS).

I have been looking at www.mp3projects.com (hobbyst MP3 player projects which
often use HDD's) but there's not much info (lots of links are 404 not found).

I think I can use a PC power supply to power the HD and the logic.
Can I use a PC PSU, with the HD+IC's for logic as load?
Or would I need to design my own PSU from scratch?

Thanks!

--
________ Chaos Master® - Posting from Brazil
| | MSN/E-Mail address: [email protected]
| | Remove the NOSPAM / tire o NOSPAM.
___|____| "I login, therefore I am. Reality is for people without

Internet."