Tiny Atari SD Card Disk Drive

[Ynot.zer0]

http://rossum.posterous.com/a-little-atari-810-disk-drive


nice concept....

[Bryce]

That is seriously cool and the case is so well made. And I thought my PCBs were tiny

Now where's my soldering iron, my 800XL is getting one of these

Bryce.

[arnoldemu]

really nice.
So does this emulate the controller as well?

[Bryce]

Which controller do you mean? The Atari uses a serial Protocol (SIO) to talk to peripherals and doesn't really know what's actually connected to the other end, so the device is just answering SIO commands and doesn't need to emulate an FDC if that's what you meant.

However, the designer chose a very powerful ARM micro-controller IC, which also isn't very easy to program.

Bryce.

[SyX]

How Bryce said there is not controller for the Atari (how in the case of the C64) his disk drive is attached  to a "glorificated" serial port. You can read more info about the SIO port here.

Really nice that mini-me disk drive ... I like too this project, well i dream with one of that for the cpc with the bonus of an NMI button for Multiface or Action Replay emulation for debugging from the pc via usb 

[Bryce]

@SyX: I'm working on a CPC Parallel to USB card, but it's far from finished because I'm too busy doing other things. Unfortunately the CPC has no real serial options to use, so it has to use the 50 way expansion port. I'll let you know when there's any progress so that you can start developing software for it

Bryce.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

That's really neat. Clever things these modern microcontrollers - this one has 32KB flash, 8KB RAM, up to 50MHz ARM Cortex M0, serial, and more.


Who wants to make a tiny DD1?

[Ynot.zer0]

Who wants to make a tiny DD1?

I'll buy at least 4 if anyone ever does make a tiny DD1      (I'll settle for a design and 'make it yourself' instructions, if someone has the know-how but doesn't want to build it)

[fano]

I'll buy at least 4 if anyone ever does make a tiny DD1      (I'll settle for a design and 'make it yourself' instructions, if someone has the know-how but doesn't want to build it)

That would be sooo lovely <3

[Bryce]

Here it is. And I didn't even need an ARM Processor, just Gimp and about 5 Minutes

Bryce.

[MacDeath]

wow this is so tiny cuty

KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIII !

[SyX]

@SyX: I'm working on a CPC Parallel to USB card, but it's far from finished because I'm too busy doing other things. Unfortunately the CPC has no real serial options to use, so it has to use the 50 way expansion port. I'll let you know when there's any progress so that you can start developing software for it

Nice!!!     Give me an I/O port and I will move the world!!! 

Here it is. And I didn't even need an ARM Processor, just Gimp and about 5 Minutes

Mr. Bryce... You are the Best!!!  

[MaV]

http://rossum.posterous.com/a-little-atari-810-disk-drive
nice concept....

CUUUTE!

If I show that one to my wife, she'll want one!

Here it is. And I didn't even need an ARM Processor, just Gimp and about 5 Minutes

So, if we give you another day, you'll do a work of concept out of this, then after another week, you're ready to ship us the completed boards, am I right?

[Bryce]

Dream on...

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Indeed, the best thing about this thingy is its form factor. I'd die for a CPC one...

[MaV]

Indeed, the best thing about this thingy is its form factor. I'd die for a CPC one...

There are two versions needed. One that acts as a second drive for 6128s and 664s (like a tiny HxC Floppy Emulator) and another one that implements a complete Floppy controller on top of that for the 464s.

Given that the ARM uC on the Atari Drive "just" implements the SIO protocol, a tiny CPC version would need a lot more effort hardware-wise, especially the 464 version.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

There are two versions needed. One that acts as a second drive for 6128s and 664s (like a tiny HxC Floppy Emulator) and another one that implements a complete Floppy controller on top of that for the 464s.

Given that the ARM uC on the Atari Drive "just" implements the SIO protocol, a tiny CPC version would need a lot more effort hardware-wise, especially the 464 version.

Yeah, the Atari has the benefit of being a serial interface which makes this device simpler to make, but slow.


A 464 version would need the floppy controller and AmsDOS ROM, and presumably a parallel to serial convertor to the drive. You're probably better off starting the design with a low-end FPGA really...

[Gryzor]

Whatever! I'd settle for something that looked like it even if it had a hidden box connected to it somewhere else!

[steve]

How about an SD controller + SD card that occupied a rom slot in a rombox?

Or plugged into the z80 socket

Here is something that would work.http://www.zxbada.bbk.org/zxmmc/

[SyX]

I have a cold and when i have a cold i read strange pages

Take a look!!!  I prefer the Atari version, but it's really nice, too.

[TFM]

Which controller do you mean? The Atari uses a serial Protocol (SIO) to talk to peripherals and doesn't really know what's actually connected to the other end, so the device is just answering SIO commands ...Bryce.

So a RS232 can be used as input device?

[Bryce]

It's slightly different to RS232, but generally, Yes.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

I have a cold and when i have a cold i read strange pages

Take a look!!!  I prefer the Atari version, but it's really nice, too.

So. Damn. Cute.