Possible use for spare IDE channels on Mk1?

I was looking through Slashdot the other day (as you do) and found this link to some guys who had made a homebrew half width 1U web server.

The intriguing thing was that instead of a hard drive, they used a CompactFlash card which can behave as an ATA drive if wired up just so.

It got me thinking...

Take a Mk1 with two IDE channels going spare (and no room for another HD) or a single drive Mk2. Hack in one of these modified CompactFlash cards (say 48MB) Now it isn't going to be any great shakes for storing music, but it would make a nifty shock-resistant permanent RW partition for some cool projects...

Is this even remotely feasible, or am I suffering from sleep-deprivation induced fantasies???

Just a thought...

Geoff
---- -------
Got one of the first Mark 2 empegs...

I have an adapter IDE to Compactflash
Bought at www.tapr.org
item no 940-383-0000
(or is that the phone no?)
PCB no LSC-5 94V-Ø 3688
I can put up an image if you want

so it´s theoriticaly possible to connect 4 drives to a MK1 !??

bobo

Yup, as it it comes with two IDE interfaces and each IDE interface can
handle two disks - just like any normal PC.

You'd have to make/aquire new cables, as the ones used in the MkI are
just 2 connectors with ~10cm of cable between them.
And, of course, somewhere to put the other disks...

/Michael

Are two IDE headers also available for the Mark2?
How are the HDs configured? Two Masters or one Master/Slave pair?

It would be quite cool if you could push a play list onto a compact flash card for one of those tiny mp3 players. Drive up listening to a playlist. Dump the next 45 minutes onto a compact flash. Jam the flash into an tiny mp3 player. Walk around still listening to the same playlist. Jump back in the car. Tell the empeg to skip up to the place you left off. Hobby job? Next Rio product bundle?

-jim <MkII:080000260 18G blue>

Are two IDE headers also available for the Mark2?

No, the Mark2 has a simplified design with only one IDE header. Two drives on a Mark2 are configured as a master/slave pair.


___________
Tony Fabris

That's a bummer, but I still really like having a volume knob...


-jim <MkII:080000260 18G blue>