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Home / Other I-Appliances / Gateway/AOL Connected Touch Pad Making the compactflash a slave Or how to take over the internet and make youself a dictator!!!

Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I read that many many of the IDE compactflash units for sale across the web have a jumper on them to make them master or slave on the IDE interface. Has or does anyone know which pin on the CF pinout controls this ? I belive someone asked another thread about lifting a resister at a certain location to cause the CF to go to slave, I looked and couldn't find the thread. Any thoughts on this ? 05-23-2001 04:08:11

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) smee Profile The one from pcengines has the jumper. I keep forgetting to check which pin it is, however. I'll try and remember this evening. It will become more urgent when my second GCT arrives. http://www.pcengines.com/cflash.htm 05-23-2001 04:37:22

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I just got my CF readers from ebay from a guy in Hong Kong, on it the 14th row bottom pin (counting from the left as you are looking at the CF socket) is jumpered to make it a master drive, removing the jumper makes it a slave. If I have time tonight, I will trace the GTC's CF pins and see if such a mod is possible. These CF/IDE readers I got are nice, they include a case to install them in a 3 1/2 drive bay, they too are not hot swappable. http://baffin.50megs.com/drive.htm http://members.home.net/gctp/cfreader.pdf 05-24-2001 05:24:11

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Thanks to Baffin Shea who lives in Hong Kong who sold me a couple of external IDE/CompactFlash adapters, I have found how to make the CompactFlash a slave device instead of a master on the IDE bus. Pin 28 on the CF appears to be a signal pin for the IDE to detemine slave/master, on my external adapter, this pin was jumpered to make the CF master and not jumpered for slave. Traced pin 28 on the GTC CF socket and it stops at R88 and then goes elsewhere, so after a couple of cups of java to inspire me, I heated the soldering iron and lifted R88 and after putting a DOS formated CF in and attaching a hard drive, PRESTO! the hard drive booted and I had my hard drive as C: drive and a 32Mb D: Drive !! Here's a pic of R88 removed: http://members.home.net/gctp/cfslave.jpg 05-25-2001 09:22:00

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) smee Profile This should be easy to check, but I'm not going to be able to look at my GCT or IDE/CF adapter for a few days. Can you tell whether the resistor goes to +V or gnd (i.e., is it a pull-up or pull-down)? I don't think this matters for anything, but I'm curious. 05-25-2001 11:06:35

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BubbaDog56 Profile BigDog, You da dog! Though humbled in your presence, I still want to know if you took my suggestion for adding a header to the back of your HD caddy. Maybe not enough room? B'Dog 05-25-2001 14:41:29

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Ok, I figured out what you were talking about..... That might work, except there needs to something to retain the drive, perhaps the little door that's held on with a screw if cut right would keep the drive rom moving out. But there would still need to be something to keep the drive from moving up and down. 05-25-2001 19:29:52

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) mdetz Profile in case anyone is looking, newegg.com has 128 mb cf cards for $78! 05-25-2001 23:05:18

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email As an update on the R88 and CF master/slave, it appears that it is a zero Ohm resister, I am going to try to solder in a couple of wire leads to the pads were I removed the resister and connect them to a dual switch, with on pair switching R88 and the other switching the slave/master jumper on my hard drive and then mount the switch to the outside of the case so that the CF can be switch easily between master and slave for an easy dual boot. 05-27-2001 09:26:55

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Something has changed! I moved the r88 resister on three GCT's several weeks ago, and had no problem making the CF slave when the HD boots. I just got one in I ordered and another that I am soldering the header on and I can't make the the CF sockets slave! The ones I did several weeks ago worked fine and now on the latest batchs from Taiwan, it doesn't appear to work, anyone one got any ideas here? With the R88 removed and CF and hard drive installed, the unit stays at the logo screen, Sometimes I get a message invalid system disk; insert boot disk and press any key. Power it off and remove the CF and the HD boots. When I leave the CF in that has the orginal Midori image without the HD attached, I get the little red characters up in the top left corner like there wasn't a boot device. You don't suppose there are spies that are watching this board? My first thought was that I messed up something when it occcured to one, but then when I took the second one and the very same thing happened (or didn't) now I think someone is trying to stop the hacking (perhaps like the v1, v2, v3 ..... of the i-Openers??). I am open for suggestions here! 06-10-2001 21:06:22

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) *SF* Profile Since I Assume You did a Visual of the 2 boards, & don't notice any Differences in Componets or Markings. If it were Me, I would use My Chip Puller & Swap BIOS Chips. Keep up the Good Reports, Thanks, * StarFish * 06-10-2001 23:44:36

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I don't have the other older GCT's to compare it to nor swap bios. Has anyone else removed r88 other than me? 06-11-2001 04:31:31

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) smee Profile Is it possible that you're getting strange behavior because you've left the pin floating? Are there any other traces going to the pin other than the one to R88? I don't know if pulling it high or low is making it master. I still haven't looked at mine. Do you know if it's high or low? If there are no other connections (on the board or inside the compact flash), then it may be floating. You could try pulling it the other way and see if that helps. If it's floating, anything could probably happen in a nice, noisy environment like this. And it could easily have different behavior on different machines. This may be built in to the CF card as part of the standard, I don't know. 06-11-2001 04:56:41

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I have removed r88 and used a meter to ohm the line out. I don't think there has beed a physical change but rather a change in BIOs. If the auto detect was turned off for the primary drive controller, That would cause a problem and with the slave device? Oh, and another thing, I actually got the Midori to come up to a boot: prompt, the problem is I am not sure how I did it as I was trying key sequences in order to enter CMOS setup and it came up. Not being a Linux guy but having a little knowledge of what it was, I no clue what to do next! Sad thing was I couldn't re-produce it. I believe I used a ALT F1, ALT ESC or something like that. 06-11-2001 11:16:24

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) *SF* Profile On My BIOS, there is a Paper Sticker ."IA2B" Under the Modem, White Letters, ......"IA2 M/B REV:G P/N DAOIA2MB6G9" Under the Modem, next to connector, "IA2 INV REV:A P/N DAIA2INV6A3" White BarCode Sticker ....................."CHQ0B02012 H" 06-11-2001 13:16:05

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) SiliconIce Profile StarFish-- I have the same BIOS sticker. Have you had problems making the CF slave? I have not been able to do this yet and am wondering if I should expect a problem. BigDog-- How are you doing 'ALT', another keyboard? I read that the 'Instant AOL' key was really ALT, but it doesn't seem to work for me. 06-11-2001 14:00:36

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) *SF* Profile SiliconIce-- I have a GIA (Winning Name, as it's the one they put on the Box.) (GateWay Internet Appliance) Anyhow, I am Not done with my I-Openers Yet. Not sure what My Plan is for this GIA. I would like to See a Usable OS on the CF (WinAmp ?, Surfing & Email thur Ethernet) WinME is currently my OS of Choice. I would like to try the Touch Screen on an I-Opener, but need a Serial controller. My Keyboard Didn't work when I recieved the unit. Unplugging & Replugging the white Flat Ribbion cable Fixed the Problem. I bought a Lite-On SK-7100 AirBoard (Infrared Wireless Keyboard) Very Nice Keyboard, < $40 Almost as Nice as the WebSurfer Keyboard. This looks like What the GIA Keyboard was, before it was, ah, Customized ! yea, that's what they did to it ! I didn't want to put any money in GIA parts, I couldn't use on other systems, But this is a Great Keyboard. Presently, My GIA is laying Open, waiting for a Camera to take Photos. 06-11-2001 15:18:12

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Regarding the keyboard, yes I'm using one of the 7100's Similer numbers on my boards, the barcode sticker is CHQ0B01708H, however on the bios chips it has a pink sticker labeled IA2B with a blue dot almost like a feltpen marker because it has bled around the edges, this I don't remember on my first few (sticker yesm dt no). I just got two more in today for header soldering, I will compare those too and see if I can tell if there are any differences. 06-11-2001 16:11:01

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) djerikd Profile | Email Was anyone able to determine whether this was a bios revision or a problem with leaving the resistor floating? 01-20-2002 17:17:57

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email I have yet to figure out what the deal was, I planned to try working on it again when I got a chance but never got back to it. The R88 resister a zero ohm resister, I dont believe it's a floating issue, I am going to to re-trace my IDE CF drive (which has a jumper for master/slave) and be sure I had the pinouts right. I did get three GCT's to change, I have one sitting on my work bench and and will see if I can get it to change here in the next few days. 01-20-2002 18:30:54

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) tcbordp Profile Way up at the top you said that the r88 jumper / resitor was on pin 28. Is this pin 28 of the IDE connector? I would have to double check with the laptop pinout but on a standard desktop IDE cable pin 28 is CSEL which is used by cable select. The way it works is the connector that this line is connected to is master and it is left unconnected to the other connector so it becomes slave. The preceeding is assuming that both devices are set to work in cable select mode. Since a CF card doesn't have jumpers I would not be surprised if it wasn't set to cable select as a default. If this is the case you would need to have pin 28 grounded for the hard drive IDE connector to be master when the hard drive is set to cable select also. Pin 28 is normally just a ground run. To make this a little clearer, maybe. Assuming that pin 28 is CSEL on laptop IDE connectors, disconnect it from the CF card and ground the same pin on the hard drive connector. Then set your hard drive to cable select and everything should be just fine. The reason it may have worked once is that master and slave jumpered drives will work normally on a cable select set cable. Of course you have a master and a cable select setup but the CF card should have become the slave via its disconnect from pin 28. That isn't a standard setup though so I don't know what would happen, it would probably be very dependent on both the brand of HD and CF used in this combination. I can remember when certain IDE HD's wouldn't work as master and slave pairs, you had to be careful what brands you mixed. PeteB Pete 01-23-2002 21:04:29

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email The pin 28 I was refering to was on a desktop 40 pin IDE CF adapter that I have, the pin on the GCT that connects to the R88 resister was on "the 14th row bottom pin (counting from the left as you are looking at the CF socket)", I am not sure what actual pin number this is on the actual CF pinouts. I have a data sheet on the CF IDE pinouts specs and this coming weekend I am going to go over it and try to figure it out. 01-24-2002 17:44:36

RE:Making the compactflash a slave (modified 0 times) tcbordp Profile Pin 28 on a desktop IDE 40 pin cable is CSEL the cable select pin. I wouldn't be surprised if the pin that R88 is connected to on the GCT is not the same pin. I just checked and the first 40 pins of the laptop IDE connector are the same as the desktop IDE connector so 28 on the laptop connector is CSEL too. I just found the CF standard and pin 39 of a CF card in True IDE mode is CSEL. It is described in the standard as follows. (True IDE Mode) This internally pulled up signal is used to configure this device as a Master or a Slave when configured in the True IDE Mode. When this pin is grounded, this device is configured as a Master. When the pin is open, this device is configured as a Slave. This would conform to the cable select model as well since if the cable select is connected it is grounded and that is the master. Now to figure out what pin that is on a CF card it is link this. Put the card top down on the table with the holes facing you. Pins 1 through 25 are on the bottom, nearest to the table. Pins 26 though 50 are on the top. In case I have this backward you can also tell from the notches on the edges of the card. On side's notch is wider than the other, that is the side with pin 1. If you place the card with wider notch on the left, holes facing you, it is oriented as above and 1 - 25 are on the bottom, 26 - 50 on the top. Hope this all helps. PeteB 01-24-2002 19:09:05

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