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[Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6406

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[Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 18 Jul 2023 10:17
by Badwolf
Morning all.

I've made a second version of my byte-swapping IDE adapter for the Falcon which this time has some smarts in it.

The idea is data bytes are swapped but register and disk information bytes are not.

This means, if you use HD Driver's dual TOS/Windows partition mode, you can pull your SD/CF card out of the Falcon, slap it into a Windows or Mac (although not Linux ATM) and access your files directly on the desktop. Very useful for deploying Bad Mood, Basilisk II CDROM images or even just setting up MiNT configuration files, for example.

You can already do this with PP's PC-partition supporting IDE driver, but you can't autoboot that. Or EmuTOS, but that doesn't support 16 bit colour modes yet. Also both of those solutions suffer a slow down because of the logical (software) byte swap that's needed.

This adapter gives you the ability to auto-boot as normal, run in TOS as normal and not suffer the slow-down of logical byte swapping. It's similar to the "smart swap" technique Christian's Thunder, Lightning and TwiSTEr boards offer, although developed independently and not related.

Anyway, have at it. I don't promise it'll work with ATAPI or anything more complicated than the exact use case I've described in the video, but it's all open source, the firmware is there to inspect and upgrades and additions are obviously welcome.

Cheers,

BW




https://github.com/dh219/IDE_Adapter_Autoswap
https://www.pcbway.com/project/sharepro ... c9bda.html

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 18 Jul 2023 11:35
by exxos
Oh nice. Might allow me to finally get files from my PC to Falcon CF without stuff screwing up ?

Trudie also has "smart swap" :) Just makes life sooo much easier. Really need to finish the production batch off, never enough time.

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 18 Jul 2023 11:41
by Badwolf
exxos wrote: 18 Jul 2023 11:35 Oh nice. Might allow me to finally get files from my PC to Falcon CF without stuff screwing up ?
Ought to, although probably requires starting again if your card isn't already dual-compatibility partitioned. You might find a smiliar-shaped item in the box that's on its way to you at the moment. ;)
Trudie also has "smart swap" :) Just makes life sooo much easier. Really need to finish the production batch off, never enough time.
Oh cool. Didn't know that, else would have mentioned it.

BW

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 18 Jul 2023 11:55
by alexh
Looks cool. Thanks for the hard work.

For solid state drives (at least the ones I design) getting the data in the correct order will probably help with reliability.

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 19 Jul 2023 11:45
by exxos
Badwolf wrote: 18 Jul 2023 11:41 You might find a smiliar-shaped item in the box that's on its way to you at the moment. ;)
:D :D Hopefully can pick it up at the weekend.
Oh cool. Didn't know that, else would have mentioned it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJdIOmBgBVM

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 20 Jul 2023 10:04
by troed
Saw the video - nice work. Do you have additional details as to why Linux doesn't play ball?

/Troed

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 20 Jul 2023 15:12
by Badwolf
troed wrote: 20 Jul 2023 10:04 Saw the video - nice work. Do you have additional details as to why Linux doesn't play ball?

/Troed
No. My guess is that the compatibility trick relies on something that Windows tolerates but Linux doesn't. Linux detects nonsensical partition sizes.

Now this I've not tested for a while, but IIRC Linux actually suports AHDI Atari-format partition so if you want to use Linux, you don't need the Windows compatibility mode in the first place.

Didn't think about that during the video shoot.

BW

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 07 Aug 2023 13:22
by Steve
Just built up mine this morning! I've used pin headers for all the connectors since I'm not using the same kind of SD card solution BW is, I'll use very short IDE cables instead. Hopefully that'll be ok.

Next, programming it :)

Big thanks to Badwolf!

PXL_20230807_121933015.jpg
PXL_20230807_121926716.jpg

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 07 Aug 2023 13:54
by tOriman
Hi,

Nice piece of hardware :) Thank you. I find it useful.

tOri

Re: [Video] New Falcon auto-byte-swapping IDE adapter (enhanced twisted cable)

Posted: 07 Aug 2023 17:24
by Steve
I had lots of trouble getting the CPLD programmed! So odd! I basically just tried three of four times in a row and eventually it worked? So strange.

Check the chip is detected:

Code: Select all

pi@xilinx:~/IDE_Adapter_Autoswap/firmware-bin $ sudo xc3sprog -c sysfsgpio_creator -j
XC3SPROG (c) 2004-2011 xc3sprog project $Rev: 774 $ OS: Linux
Free software: If you contribute nothing, expect nothing!
Feedback on success/failure/enhancement requests:
	http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=170565 
Check Sourceforge for updates:
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/xc3sprog/develop

JTAG loc.:   0  IDCODE: 0x59604093  Desc:                       XC9572XL Rev: E  IR length:  8
Try to program, 1st try:

Code: Select all

pi@xilinx:~/IDE_Adapter_Autoswap/firmware-bin $ sudo xc3sprog -c sysfsgpio_creator -v -p 0 ide_autoswap.jed 
XC3SPROG (c) 2004-2011 xc3sprog project $Rev: 774 $ OS: Linux
Free software: If you contribute nothing, expect nothing!
Feedback on success/failure/enhancement requests:
	http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=170565 
Check Sourceforge for updates:
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/xc3sprog/develop

Using built-in device list
Using built-in cable list
JTAG chainpos: 0 Device IDCODE = 0x59604093	Desc: XC9572XL
Erase still running ff
Device is not blank
Programming Sector   0................................failed
Verify Sector   0
Mismatch at fuse    160: 1 vs 0
Try to program, 2nd try:

Code: Select all

pi@xilinx:~/IDE_Adapter_Autoswap/firmware-bin $ sudo xc3sprog -c sysfsgpio_creator -v -p 0 ide_autoswap.jed
XC3SPROG (c) 2004-2011 xc3sprog project $Rev: 774 $ OS: Linux
Free software: If you contribute nothing, expect nothing!
Feedback on success/failure/enhancement requests:
	http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=170565 
Check Sourceforge for updates:
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/xc3sprog/develop

Using built-in device list
Using built-in cable list
JTAG chainpos: 0 Device IDCODE = 0x59604093	Desc: XC9572XL
Erase still running 00
Device is not blank
Programming Sector   0................................failed
Verify Sector   0
Mismatch at fuse    192: 1 vs 0
Try to program, 3rd try:

Code: Select all

pi@xilinx:~/IDE_Adapter_Autoswap/firmware-bin $ sudo xc3sprog -c sysfsgpio_creator -v -p 0 ide_autoswap.jed
XC3SPROG (c) 2004-2011 xc3sprog project $Rev: 774 $ OS: Linux
Free software: If you contribute nothing, expect nothing!
Feedback on success/failure/enhancement requests:
	http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=170565 
Check Sourceforge for updates:
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/xc3sprog/develop

Using built-in device list
Using built-in cable list
JTAG chainpos: 0 Device IDCODE = 0x59604093	Desc: XC9572XL
Device is not blank
Programming Sector   0................................failed
Verify Sector   1
Mismatch at fuse    431: 0 vs 1
Try to program, 4th try:

Code: Select all

pi@xilinx:~/IDE_Adapter_Autoswap/firmware-bin $ sudo xc3sprog -c sysfsgpio_creator -v -p 0 ide_autoswap.jed
XC3SPROG (c) 2004-2011 xc3sprog project $Rev: 774 $ OS: Linux
Free software: If you contribute nothing, expect nothing!
Feedback on success/failure/enhancement requests:
	http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=170565 
Check Sourceforge for updates:
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/xc3sprog/develop

Using built-in device list
Using built-in cable list
JTAG chainpos: 0 Device IDCODE = 0x59604093	Desc: XC9572XL
Device is blank
Programming Sector 107.                            
Programming  time 15866.5 ms
Verify Sector 107
Success! Verify time 2206.0 ms
All times are UTC+01:00
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