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SIO2MicroSD - An Arduino Project


Diskwiz

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When you mention having to buy a 'device' or 'software' for the Pi ... what are you reffering to? A Pi is $35 (model B). You would need an SD card, a network cable (or wireless dongle), a power supply and a GPIO-SIO cable adapter. This all ads up to about $50. By comparison, what does it cost to build an SIO2MicroSD?

 

I meant that if you were building something for someone to buy based off a Pi, they would need to buy the Pi and then the device. If you were looking to run a software emulator for SIO on a Pi, then I could understand. I actually wasn't even thinking of an SIO device when I wrote that. ;)

 

I am going to get a price list together here pretty soon on building the device. If you go to Gravitech and other places that have Arduino goodies, you will pay the extra money, but you know what you are getting. Getting the PCBs made gets up there in price as well. The PCB Fab I went through charges $5.00 per square inch for a board at a quantity of 3. It goes down to more like $1 per square inch if I order 20. That SD adapter is a little pricey, but I will probably go with the SMD buffer IC and 3.3v reg on the main board to save some money there. I wanted to design a board that any of us can make at home first. Buying an RBBB Arduino kit gets you a lot of the parts you need for the build and is cheap. You can spend $4.00 to $48.00 for an LCD display too. ;)

 

I'd love a CNC machine. Which one did you build, or did you design it yourself? I think your son WILL be impressed once you have a cutting tool. :)

 

I have a Zen Toolworks 7x7 model. It came with all the parts to put it together. Pretty cool. You then need a controller and power supply. I got it as a gift. The controller I have has to run off an older PC with a parallel port. That could be another project for an Arduino. :)

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Dunno if this would help. I find many cheap Arduinos and shields at DX.COM

http://dx.com/s/arduino

 

I should note that shipping times vary WIDELY between orders.

 

I had that site come up on a few of my searches. Some great prices. I don't have experience with ordering from them. Funny thing, I was ebay searching for some quantity ordering from China and found some US sellers that offered the same for sometimes less money. Who would have thought??? Now, I am sure they purchased from China too. They just must have bought by the 1000's.

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Well, the area I lived in "iced over" yesterday, so I had some time to do some PCB work. After spending some hours arranging parts on the board, there is only one way that it will fit for the smallest layout. Darn thing looks like an SIO2SD board. The LCD connector must be at the top left and the buttons at the very bottom (along with any taller parts) to clear the LCD to make it as small as possible. My demands on the layout were that any cables coming connected must be in the back also. That barrel connector and LCD are going to be close! This is one of those things where some designs looks great on paper and then you mock it up with parts and go....DOH!

 

I did create an Arduino shield also. That PCB has to be a little bigger so that the pins align on the Arduino properly. Due to the Arduino layout, the board would have to be double-sided and likely professionally done do to traces having to be connected on both sides at the actual pin connectors.

 

I should have them posted by the end of the weekend, if I get more time. I will try to work on the parts list this week as well.

 

I really wanted the LCD to be angled in the front, but that adds a lot of complexity to case design and forces the case to be much bigger than it needs to be due to the size and layout of the LCD board.

 

Don

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello All,

 

Please check out the updated board design and new 3d images I have created, if you are interested in this project. http://diskwiz.wordpress.com.

 

I am close to a finalized version of the PCB. I would like to know if anyone would be interested in a complete working board? I thought it would be better for me to do a run of 3 to make sure everything works as expected. If I could get the price to around $50-$60? I would not be making any money. This would just cover the cost of making the initial runs and things I need to build them. This price is just for the prototype run at this time. That is cheaper than buying an Arduino, LCD and SD Shield. If you don't like it, you can re-program it and have an Arduino with an LCD and storage with some buttons. :) :)

 

I don't have a case design done yet, but a good friend of mine and I are working on one. I have some ideas, but I have to physically get one together to know if it will work the way I would like. I am more of the 1's and 0's guy, and not a graphical designer. I need to throw about $200.00 at my CNC machine just to try some things out, if I am to try and make them on my own to make it affordable. I must admit, I get really carried away with this stuff also. If you would like to pay about $200 for one, I have some really cool case ideas!

 

If you are interested in a complete board, please email me at thediskwiz at gmail . I won't hold you to the fire and I won't take pre-order money. I will fund this with my own money. I just want to make sure I have people interested so that I can continue to move forward with this. If I am able to get a case made up, as expected, it will be offered to board owners as well.

 

Feel free to ask any questions in email. Of course, I will try to keep up on this thread as well and very much appreciate the interest.

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  • 4 months later...

Howdy, this is such a cool project... I successfully built the SIO2Arduino last night (and tweeted about it...), very cool :)

 

Now I would like to build the SIO2MicroSD :) I have a couple of questions:

 

the hex file on your website, is it the latest version?

Also because it's a hex file, which application would you suggest i use to burn it to my 328 chip via ISP. (I have an Atmel AVRISP Mark II programmer in the windows environment).

I'm used to using the arduino enviroment, but wondering if there is a handy little .hex burner you can recommend :) Congrats on this project it's great :)

 

Cheers :)

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Also because it's a hex file, which application would you suggest i use to burn it to my 328 chip via ISP. (I have an Atmel AVRISP Mark II programmer in the windows environment).

I'm used to using the arduino enviroment, but wondering if there is a handy little .hex burner you can recommend :) Congrats on this project it's great :)

 

Cheers :)

 

This is really amazing work. Big thanks for the Arudino solution... that will cost me some sleepless nights, as soon as I figure how to burn the hex stuff on the Arduino. This will kill the Arduino bootloader, right?

 

I guess you did not use the standart tools to code this and went directly into ASM or C, so there is probably no way to just use the Arduino software to burn it, right?

 

Thanks alot.

Dan

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So,... all stuff needed is in the post and hopefully will hit my doorstep the next days. I figure I will go with an Arduino version, as this is best and closest to my skills. ;) I still have some trouble with the SIO hookup. I got a cable and plug from a friend, but the colors differ. Any chance someone can hint me the excact pins for hookup on Diskwiz' list from here? (http://diskwiz.wordpress.com/sio2microsd/)

 

* Atari Connections *

* Atari SIO Black GND

* Atari SIO Orange on Pin 1 TX

* Atari SIO Green on Pin 0 RX

* Atari SIO Violet on Pin 8 Digital Input

 

Thanks.

Dan

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SIO pin 4 and 6 are gnd

SIO pin 7 is SIO Command Pin 8 digital Input

SIO pin 5 is SIO Data Out this would go to Pin 0 RX

SIO pin 3 is SIO Data In this would go to Pin 1 TX

SIO pin 10 is SIO +5 volts <- Question for all, does it make sense to use this pin to power the circuit instead of an external power supply? is there any disadvantage to doing it this way? I know you won't be able to setup your disks before turning on your atari, but other than that, is there any downfall?

 

pictures to come soon of my progress... (no laughing...)

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here are some pics of the progress...

I decided to put a 9 pin male connector as the SIO input, mostly due to convenience.

a totally non standard config with the first 5 pins being used:

 

Pin1 +5 volts for power depending on responses as to weather or not this is a good idea?

Pin2 Gnd

Pin3 Din

Pin4 Dout

Pin5 Command

 

that sort of thing...

 

http://www.flickr.co...N00/9189551666/ < a bunch of pics of this project and a couple of others...

 

http://farm3.staticf...1242682de_b.jpg

 

http://farm8.staticf...cea989ef5_b.jpg

Edited by Waltermixxx
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Great to see somone building this! Sorry it took a while to respond. I am behind on my email. My source code was written in the standard Arduino IDE. The hex code will NOT wipe the boot code and is a standard Arduino program. When you downloaded the Arduino application, it came with everything you needed. I did not use any special hardware or software, although you can. I burn just using the usb connection to the Arduino. You can use any USB style burner. Just use the command line: avrdude -V -F -C avrdude.conf -p m328p -c stk500v1 -P COM3 -b 57600 -U flash:w:sio2microsd.hex -v as listed on my Wordpress site. You may need to change the com3 parameter.

 

I have not updated my code since posting.

 

Please keep us posted on your progress and let me know if you have any problems.

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So,... all stuff needed is in the post and hopefully will hit my doorstep the next days. I figure I will go with an Arduino version, as this is best and closest to my skills. ;) I still have some trouble with the SIO hookup. I got a cable and plug from a friend, but the colors differ. Any chance someone can hint me the excact pins for hookup on Diskwiz' list from here? (http://diskwiz.wordp...om/sio2microsd/)

 

* Atari Connections *

* Atari SIO Black GND

* Atari SIO Orange on Pin 1 TX

* Atari SIO Green on Pin 0 RX

* Atari SIO Violet on Pin 8 Digital Input

 

Thanks.

Dan

 

I reference this link on my site. I hope it helps: http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/ATARI_8_bit_Serial_Input/Output_%28SIO%29

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I reference this link on my site. I hope it helps: http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/ATARI_8_bit_Serial_Input/Output_%28SIO%29

 

Hey, thanks. I already saw this and it is the other part of the information, but I could not find the colours for the wires. I would like to know which pin of the SIO plug goes to which on the arduino... Couldn't figure this out. Can you help me on this? Thanks a million.

 

Cheers,

Dan

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read my post above it tells you which pin on the sio goes to which pin on the arduino.

if you don't know which colour wire goes to which pin on the sio connector... you may have to rig up something so you can test.

my multimeter has a continuity tester so you know what pin goes to which coloured wire... My sio cable did not seem to have a standard wire color representing pins.... so a meter is the best way . :)

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read my post above it tells you which pin on the sio goes to which pin on the arduino.

if you don't know which colour wire goes to which pin on the sio connector... you may have to rig up something so you can test.

my multimeter has a continuity tester so you know what pin goes to which coloured wire... My sio cable did not seem to have a standard wire color representing pins.... so a meter is the best way . :)

 

Yes, if your cable is not one that can be taken apart easily, this is the sure way of doing it. I still have cable ends that can be taken apart with a screw.

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Hey, thanks. I already saw this and it is the other part of the information, but I could not find the colours for the wires. I would like to know which pin of the SIO plug goes to which on the arduino... Couldn't figure this out. Can you help me on this? Thanks a million.

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

SIO pin 5 (data out) to Arduino Digital pin 0 (PD0)

SIO pin 3 (data In) to Arduino Digital pin 1 (PD1)

SIO pin 7 (command) to Arduino Digital Pin 8 (PB0)

 

I had to look at the sio reference and my schematic to get that. :) I am used to looking at the Atmel pins and not Arduino these days. :)

 

Let me know if this helps. If so, I should probably add it to my site.

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SIO pin 5 (data out) to Arduino Digital pin 0 (PD0)

SIO pin 3 (data In) to Arduino Digital pin 1 (PD1)

SIO pin 7 (command) to Arduino Digital Pin 8 (PB0)

 

I had to look at the sio reference and my schematic to get that. :) I am used to looking at the Atmel pins and not Arduino these days. :)

 

Let me know if this helps. If so, I should probably add it to my site.

 

Great! That's what I was looking for. This Should help. However on monday our daughter was born and right now everything is upside down over here. Don't know when I will find the time to put everything together...parts arrived on monday as well. Life is strange, fascinating and right now with pretty less breaks for sleep. At least now I have something around me that is not controllable with a joystick and does not have a Run/Stop or escape key. ;)

 

cheers

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Thanks! I read on you blog about you starting all this to show your son some old school computing. ;) Some friends and me are trying to establish a center for old school computer and console culture around here in the Frankfurt area.

 

<highjack spam anncounce modus on>

The project is called digital retro park (www.digitalretropark.de - german only, sorry). The idea is to preserve and show the old hardware and great innovations to the younger people and those who almost forgot. The basic idea is to have a hands-on exhibition and have all the old computers and consoles up and running - hence park in the name (like a theme park). Electronics behind glass and turned off is only half of the experience. Things like the broken Atari 800 and the 5200 that the postmen bailed and broke (see my other thread) are going to be machines for the hands-on area now.

<highjack spam anncounce modus off>

 

Money is short, as usual, and so your way to go with an arduino for hooking up an SD card to SIO makes it really cheap compared to the SIO2SD from ABUCC or the AtariMax stuff - affordable for us now. ;) Bottom line: you help us show the old stuff to the younger generation and make it a hands-on experience. Same reason you build it for your son. Thanks for that. (y)

 

Baby needs some attention now... ;)

 

cheers

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Hey congrats as well!!

 

@diskwiz, what is your opinion on powering this device from the Atari vs an external 5volt supply...

 

Cheers!

 

I designed a small version of my device for the heck of it and planned on using the Atari 5v. That should not be a problem. If you used the switched 5v, the only issue you will have is Arduino boot time vs. Atari boot time. I have a sequence at bootup that loads D1-D4 per the last saved config that takes a second or 2 also. It could be tweaked. After I added the functions to support the Sdrive, it opened up the ability to simplify and not even use an LCD. I have to admit, I like the whole LCD and button interface though. :)

 

If you are using the full blown Arduino board, it would probably be happier with more than 5v, but will probably still work. If you made your own board, you could get rid of the 5v regulator altogether.

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<highjack spam anncounce modus on>

The project is called digital retro park (www.digitalretropark.de - german only, sorry).

 

That is cool. Good luck with that. I appreciate the kind words as well. These old 8 bit boxes are just great. My son is wondering why we already killed a Wii, a Nintendo Cube, and an iTouch while the good ol' 1980's Atari is still working.

 

I still have a couple of my v1 PCBs here un-built. It would be nice to see them go to projects that teach people about the old A8s.

 

Don

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