eeguru
Veteran Member
I've kinda hi-jacked the ISA USB thread but I've been talking to myself for the last half dozen posts and my pet project has evolved into something no longer ISA specific. So I figured I would post a new thread and see if some additional discussion develops.
My original motivation was not specifically a USB-IDE emulator but a focused project (any project) with the goal of learning basic EDA and HDL skills. The road I took has lead me to this. A small board with a 40-pin TTL IDE header on one side and a USB type A connector on the other. Plug a single USB mass storage device (eg. flash stick) into one side and the board emulates an IDE hard disk to host controller on the other side.
This idea has been kicked around here some, but it always ends in lack of a .1" PDIP hobby-friendly tech dead end. Unfortunately I still see no way around it - SMD is pretty much locked in. However the design I've been working on is compact enough that I doubt it would use all of 2x3" without delving into the world of leedless components. Right now it consists of a TQFP-100, TQFP-48, TSOP-32, SOIC-8 (x2), SOT-23, SOT-89, XO, crystal, and a few dozen 0603 caps and resistors. And the 40 pin right angle header could be pinned downward with standoffs in the corners for mounding as a daughter to any other IDE project design (XT/IDE, N8VEM, etc); input welcome on mechanical recommendations btw.
Using leedless, the board could be made a lot lot smaller - small enough it could be supported by a 40 pin female header alone - but that drives up cost significantly as I don't feel comfortable soldering BGAs in high volume. And farming it out costs $$$.
I have eval modules right now for various CPLDs and FPGAs plus the FTDI VC2 USB controller. I've already started playing around with firmware design and coding. I've also designed and will soon be ordering an ISA carrier board that lets them all play with each other (see the ISA USB thread). But it won't be available for ~5 weeks. I am comfortable enough with this design path that I can start laying out the production prototype immediately with limited boards available in a similar time window.
My original motivation was not specifically a USB-IDE emulator but a focused project (any project) with the goal of learning basic EDA and HDL skills. The road I took has lead me to this. A small board with a 40-pin TTL IDE header on one side and a USB type A connector on the other. Plug a single USB mass storage device (eg. flash stick) into one side and the board emulates an IDE hard disk to host controller on the other side.
This idea has been kicked around here some, but it always ends in lack of a .1" PDIP hobby-friendly tech dead end. Unfortunately I still see no way around it - SMD is pretty much locked in. However the design I've been working on is compact enough that I doubt it would use all of 2x3" without delving into the world of leedless components. Right now it consists of a TQFP-100, TQFP-48, TSOP-32, SOIC-8 (x2), SOT-23, SOT-89, XO, crystal, and a few dozen 0603 caps and resistors. And the 40 pin right angle header could be pinned downward with standoffs in the corners for mounding as a daughter to any other IDE project design (XT/IDE, N8VEM, etc); input welcome on mechanical recommendations btw.
Using leedless, the board could be made a lot lot smaller - small enough it could be supported by a 40 pin female header alone - but that drives up cost significantly as I don't feel comfortable soldering BGAs in high volume. And farming it out costs $$$.
I have eval modules right now for various CPLDs and FPGAs plus the FTDI VC2 USB controller. I've already started playing around with firmware design and coding. I've also designed and will soon be ordering an ISA carrier board that lets them all play with each other (see the ISA USB thread). But it won't be available for ~5 weeks. I am comfortable enough with this design path that I can start laying out the production prototype immediately with limited boards available in a similar time window.