CompactFlash to PC parallel adapter: good for cannibalizing?

Hi all, 

I've been looking into how to interface huge and cheap consumer flash 
memory cards with hobby projects powered by an AVR, PIC, or MSP430.  A 
lot of the advice seems to be to use MMC or SD memory cards in SPI I/O 
mode.  That seems like a good approach, but (1) sockets for these cards 
might be hard for a new hobbyist like me to solder, and (2) I already 
have a bunch of CompactFlash cards I'd like to use.  

How about this PC parallel port CompactFlash adapter, apparently sourced 
from the RCA Lyra MP3 player?  

http://www.mpja.com/directview.asp?product=14260+CP

For $10, this offers the hobbyist a socket and some glue logic and doesn't 
require SMD soldering.  

I have one (bought the Lyra long ago), but I was wondering if anyone 
has reverse-engineered it for use with microcontrollers.  Anybody tried 
it, or come across something?  

Thanks!  
John

Happy Segfault wrote:
> Hi all, 
> 
> I've been looking into how to interface huge and cheap consumer flash 
> memory cards with hobby projects powered by an AVR, PIC, or MSP430.  A 
> lot of the advice seems to be to use MMC or SD memory cards in SPI I/O 
> mode. 

Do they support ATA interface?

  That seems like a good approach, but (1) sockets for these cards
> might be hard for a new hobbyist like me to solder, and (2) I already 
> have a bunch of CompactFlash cards I'd like to use.  
> 
> How about this PC parallel port CompactFlash adapter, apparently sourced 
> from the RCA Lyra MP3 player?  
> 
> http://www.mpja.com/directview.asp?product=14260+CP
> 
> For $10, this offers the hobbyist a socket and some glue logic and doesn't 
> require SMD soldering.  
> 
> I have one (bought the Lyra long ago), but I was wondering if anyone 
> has reverse-engineered it for use with microcontrollers.  Anybody tried 
> it, or come across something?  
> 
> Thanks!  
> John

In article <ed66a020.0405241658.393b8e20@posting.google.com>, Happy 
Segfault <happysegfault@yahoo.com> writes
>Hi all,
>
>I've been looking into how to interface huge and cheap consumer flash
>memory cards with hobby projects powered by an AVR, PIC, or MSP430.  A
>lot of the advice seems to be to use MMC or SD memory cards in SPI I/O
>mode.  That seems like a good approach, but (1) sockets for these cards
>might be hard for a new hobbyist like me to solder, and (2) I already
>have a bunch of CompactFlash cards I'd like to use.
>
>How about this PC parallel port CompactFlash adapter, apparently sourced
>from the RCA Lyra MP3 player?
>
>http://www.mpja.com/directview.asp?product=14260+CP
>
>For $10, this offers the hobbyist a socket and some glue logic and doesn't
>require SMD soldering.
>
>I have one (bought the Lyra long ago), but I was wondering if anyone
>has reverse-engineered it for use with microcontrollers.  Anybody tried
>it, or come across something?
>
I've made a CF to 8051 module, it isn't hard to solder the CF socket and 
doesn't need any glue logic. The only tricky bit is implementing FAT16 
in the software, but you'd have to do that with your solution as well.
-- 
Tim Mitchell

happysegfault@yahoo.com (Happy Segfault) wrote in message news:<ed66a020.0405241658.393b8e20@posting.google.com>...
> Hi all, 
> 
> I've been looking into how to interface huge and cheap consumer flash 
> memory cards with hobby projects powered by an AVR, PIC, or MSP430.  A 
> lot of the advice seems to be to use MMC or SD memory cards in SPI I/O 
> mode.  That seems like a good approach, but (1) sockets for these cards 
> might be hard for a new hobbyist like me to solder, and (2) I already 
> have a bunch of CompactFlash cards I'd like to use.  
> 
> How about this PC parallel port CompactFlash adapter, apparently sourced 
> from the RCA Lyra MP3 player?  
> 
> http://www.mpja.com/directview.asp?product=14260+CP
> 
> For $10, this offers the hobbyist a socket and some glue logic and doesn't 
> require SMD soldering.  

You still need to figure out the software translation from 8 bits
(parallel port) to 16 bits ATA mode or more bits in memory map mode.

For $8, you can get an IDE-CF adaptor from http://ide-cf.info-for.us

IDE's 40 pins 0.1" spacing is not any more difficult to prototype than
25 pins D-shell.  Basically, you write a 24 bits block address and
read/write a sector (512 bytes) at a time, all using the 16 bits data
port.

> 
> I have one (bought the Lyra long ago), but I was wondering if anyone 
> has reverse-engineered it for use with microcontrollers.  Anybody tried 
> it, or come across something?  
> 
> Thanks!  
> John

www.sst.com  have an app note on 80c51 and cmpact flash .

You will have to dig deep on the sst site to find the ap note.

JG

"Happy Segfault" <happysegfault@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ed66a020.0405241658.393b8e20@posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I've been looking into how to interface huge and cheap consumer flash
> memory cards with hobby projects powered by an AVR, PIC, or MSP430.  A
> lot of the advice seems to be to use MMC or SD memory cards in SPI I/O
> mode.  That seems like a good approach, but (1) sockets for these cards
> might be hard for a new hobbyist like me to solder, and (2) I already
> have a bunch of CompactFlash cards I'd like to use.
>
> How about this PC parallel port CompactFlash adapter, apparently sourced
> from the RCA Lyra MP3 player?
>
> http://www.mpja.com/directview.asp?product=14260+CP
>
> For $10, this offers the hobbyist a socket and some glue logic and doesn't
> require SMD soldering.
>
> I have one (bought the Lyra long ago), but I was wondering if anyone
> has reverse-engineered it for use with microcontrollers.  Anybody tried
> it, or come across something?
>
> Thanks!
> John