HDFOX

Connect a harddisk to the FOX


HDFOX

IDE interface

The Etrax processor on the FOX board contains an IDE interface that can easialy be used to connect to a harddisk.
It is also possible to hook up a CompactFlash card through an IDE/CF adapter.
All signals that are needed are brought out through J6/J7 on the FOX board and can be directly connected to a harddisk.


HDFOX The Etrax supports 4 IDE ports of 2 devices each, unused signals need to be pulled down, otherwise the FOX can become slow to respond.
All that is needed is a bunch of resistors for pull up/down and damping.
The Etrax IDE interface is not capable of driving more than one interface at a time directly, otherwise buffer ic's are required.
For reliability connect only one device and use short cable (about 10 cm).
The schematic shows how to connect the FOX to the harddisk.


HDFOX Schematic


ATX Connector

ATX Power Supply

An easy way to power the FOX and the harddisk is to use a PC power supply.
Make sure to measure the output voltages of the power supply, because some types don't work properly when used with light loads !


ATX Cable View In case of an ATX supply, you'll need to jumper pin 13-14 of the connector to turn it on, or connect the wires to a pushbutton for a more permanent setup.
When using a CF only 5V is required, and a PC supply is not recommended.

SDK 2.01 Config

Presently Etrax IDE support in kernel 2.6.15 appears to have compilation issues.
To work around this problem:
  • Rename 'os/linux-2.6/include/asm-cris/arch-v10/ide.h' to 'ide.h.bak' and copy this 'ide.h' to that location.
  • Rename 'os/linux-2.6/drivers/ide/cris/ide-cris.c' to 'ide-cris.c.bak' and copy this 'ide-cris.c' to that location

    The IDE interface is shared with several other interfaces, that cannot be used at the same time.

    • To make a flash image with IDE enabled, do a 'make kernelconfig' in the devboard directory and enable/disable these items (assuming a default glibc setup):

    In the 'Drivers for ETRAX 100LX built-in interfaces' section
  • Disable serial port 1, 2 and 3
  • Enable 'ATA/IDE support'
  • Leave 'IDE reset pin' on 'Port_PB_7'
  • Disable USB port 2
  • Save and exit config
    This only leaves the console (serial port 0) and USB port 1 available.

    To be able to mount the harddisk later on:
  • Copy this 'post' file to the 'configure-files' directory, or add the contents if the file already exists
  • Extract this 'makefile' in the devboard directory (it creates 'afm/devices')
  • Run './configure' and 'make'


    • Optionally if you have a LX832 FOX, you can make it a Samba server by doing a 'make menuconfig' and enabling 'SMB support' in 'Applications->Networking'.
    You'll also need to enlarge the RO-RW partition in the 'Advanced Settings->Partition the FOX for 8MB Flash' section.
    There will be a Samba config file in the '/etc/samba' directory on the FOX.

    Flash the FOX board with the new image file and connect a harddisk.
    The system log should show similar entries to this: 
    Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: ide: Assuming 50MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: ide: ETRAX 100LX built-in ATA DMA controller
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: ide: waiting 10 seconds for drives to regain consciousness
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: hda: QUANTUM FIREBALLP KX13.6, ATA DISK drive
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: ide0 at 0x10000000-0x10000007,0x2c000000 on irq 4
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: hda: attached ide-disk driver.
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: hda: host protected area => 1
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: hda: 26771672 sectors (13707 MB) w/418KiB Cache, CHS=26559/16/63, DMA(mode 2)
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel: Partition check:
Jan  1 00:00:17 axis kernel:  hda: [PTBL] [1666/255/63] hda1
    You can mount a msdos formatted harddisk by typing 'mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/0' in a FOX console.
    Below are some FOX images that also have Linux ext2 tools and support.

    For more information about how to configure SDK options, visit the ACME Systems website.

    Files

    These files are copyrighted, they are free for non-commercial or evaluation use.
    They come without any warranty whatsoever, it's up to the user to verify their suitability for a particular application.

    SDK 2.01:
    post, copy to 'devboard-R2_01/configure-files'
    makefile, extract to 'devboard-R2_01'
    ide.h, copy to 'devboard-R2_01/os/linux-2.6/include/asm-cris/arch-v10'
    ide-cris.c, copy to 'devboard-R2_01/os/linux-2.6/drivers/ide/cris'

    Images, dhcp enabled:
    Classic Red FOX IDE kernel 2.6.15 image (3.2 MB)
    LX832 FOX IDE+SMB kernel 2.6.15 image (4.1 MB)
    Classic Red FOX IDE kernel 2.4.31 image (3.0 MB)
    LX832 FOX IDE+SMB kernel 2.4.31 image (3.9 MB)

    Hardware:
    Schematic
    PCB layout
    Component layout
    Bill of materials



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