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DEATH / HxC SD card floppy emulator / Virtual Floppy Drive (Announce)

posted by Arjay, 08.05.2010, 13:18
(edited by Arjay on 08.05.2010, 13:38)

> No, thanks for the link. :-)
 No problem.

> - works on the very lowest level maximum compatibility
 Yup that's what I like about HxC :) See the documentation for feature info.

> - Device needs paying for
 Yes, that is a downside although all the DIY details appear to be there too! Also SDiskEmul with a PC?

> - Another host PC needed
 I believe only to load the device initially. I also had the warped thought of using an HxC device on the same PC though; which appears possible to do.

> SD - Sucks as the Devil
 Well the bit bashing SPI mode of SD/MMC cards makes them very easy to implement. Most modern PC's happily boot off SD/MMC cards. Depending on your BIOS some older PC's will boot off an SD/MMC cards put into a cheap $1 / 1 euro / 1 GBP USB card reader which gets treated as if it was a USB stick. I know as I have done both.

> > compact flash adapter to IDE adapters
> I could test one some time ago
I have also experimented with these and can highly recommend them. I have however had problems getting some of them to boot my boot-able memory cards which have worked fine elsewhere. So if you get one ensure it says bootable.

> and it looks very good: less mass, less heat, less noise, less volume,
> less mechanical sensitivity and less electricity wasting
 Yup very suitable for industrial environments. With regards to a desktop PC it is worth knowing that you can run a PC off just a 12+volt supply taping the 5+volt off that and doing away with the negative voltages which are only needed for mechanical devices. In otherwords if you run a PC headless without a monitor and scrap the need for hard disks, floppy, CD drives you don't need the -5v or -12v. 12v adapters now widely exist for modern PC's but I was planning to try a DIY approach for a project using older stuff - to be honest I haven't yet had the time to do this but am aware that you can. Obviously getting rid of stuff/heat also reduces the need for cooling, large cases. Likewise the more you reduce the less battery/supply demand required to power it.

If you are in Europe don't forget that most PC's / monitors are 100-240v switchable meaning if you have a 100v-110v supply (i.e. industrial supplies) you don't need to worry about a 220v/240v supply as well. However re industrial environments it is important to have an understanding of mains filtering, earth differentials.... so speak to a qualified electrician :)


> I don't know about the lifetime, though :-|
 I initially thought about this and then remembered digital cameras use them a lot. I also remembered many early digital cameras with cards ran DOS - so the technology has been well tried and tested with DOS ;-) I have also been deliberately regularly abusing one card under DOS for months with no issues.... Until a few days ago when I went to do a bit backup. Before I could though the FAT's were trashed. I am blaming the *non-DOS* PC and cheap card writer.

Most annoying that card was a boot-able DOS with the source to loads of my DOS programs on it as I was booting/using it for development!!! Fortunately I have an earlier backup and have already taken several low level images of the card and can see my source in them but haven't been bothered yet to get it out. In this instance I believe the card is physically fine but the issue was an unfortunate OS driver/card reader conflict as this is the 2nd card trashed in this way on the same non-DOS PC and same reader hence I now know!

> Ken Kato's Virtual Floppy Drive for Windows also works really
> No value at all, sorry :-(
I disagree. I have been using VFD for years including for DOS projects.
On a similar note I highly rate the excellent Linux/Windows low-level disk work of John Newbigin


> Impossible :-|
 Nothing is impossible :) Only time limits the possible!

> A nice early PC (8086, 80286, maybe 80386, ISA SB, VGA, floppy 5+1/4 and
> 3+1/2, PC speaker, serial+parallel) full emulator (host DOS) would be also
> cool :-)
 I agree :) When do you hope to have it finished? ;-)

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