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See my previous post. Thanks.

I just want to clarify something here. This project must be thoroughly planned and thought out, it is not "trivial" as it seems to be.<snip>

Now, my question "Moog", in the Canon/ML firmware does the CF functions as a TRUE IDE mode (as a Compact Flash storage card) as in CF specifications, as you and the others expected?

Just so I'm understood; I'm not "expecting" anything here, I'm also not a developer (although I did contribute some code a long time ago).  I do however have experience in electronics design.  I find this project fascinating but my expectations are not unrealistic.

I'm just looking at the problem and making contributions as they come up, not everything I have contributed is in the right direction but I am very careful to qualify my statements when I am unsure of something.  Over the past few days my understanding of the situation has increased greatly, your comments have challenged me to push that further to make sure we're all moving down the right path.

As to your question I'm not able to answer that as I don't have a CF capable camera, but careful observation of pin 9 (~ATA SEL) and 38 (VCC) by someone who does may shed some light on this.  If ~ATA SEL is held low during power up of the card socket then it is in True IDE mode.  This may happen at a different time to the camera power, as it's also possible to power down the CF socket while holding ~ATA SEL low to reconfigure a CF card into IDE mode.

I think g3gg0 may have answered this question better as I'm typing my reply.

Pin 39 on the CF connector is ~CSEL for Master/Slave select, however this is fed through from the CF host to the IDE device so I wouldn't imagine you need to manually set this.

Also a drive configured with jumpers should ignore the state of this line regardless.

Pascalc, on your IDE connector, is pin 9 left floating? Measure it with a voltmeter, check the other CF side too, if it is floating, then it is configured as a slave. Before tying to GND make sure it is not tied to VCC. To act as a master it must be tied to GND. WARNING: Caution, if you measure any voltage higher than GND potential, leave it and we'll investigate.

Am I missing something here?  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe pin 9 is the master/slave select.

Pin 9 on the CF connector is ~ATA SEL, should be grounded by the host during power up to enable True IDE mode (i.e. to inform the CF Card that it's now in IDE mode).  I would not recommend grounding this on your adapter, as it would potentially load up the pin should the host try to set it high.

^ If this device can be sourced it may be your best chance of getting something working.

pascalc, if I was attempting to solder wires to a CF connector, rather than hacking open a card I would use on of these

and cut the (male) CF socket off, and solder wires to the pads on the (female) plug.  The connector has pads on both sides of the board and therefore gives a much coarser pitch to solder wires to, it also appears to have generous sized pads.

You would need to be careful to make sure none of the pads are connected to each other electrically before soldering any wires on.

This guy has made a CF host to to 2.5" IDE device work by soldering wires directly into the CF socket (not ideal).
The interconnect between the two interfaces looks legitimate though and could be the "last inch" needed for a CF to SATA converter.

http://www.natrium42.com/blog/?p=39

[NOT]

Okay I think I understand the difference between 50p CF and 50p IDE and they are NOT the same.  Therefore I feel it is safe to assume that we will NOT be able to use the above listed CF-ZIF adapter in a CF slot.  It looks like Samuel H will have to pick up his soldering iron again.

The 1.8" Toshiba IDE drives use a connector with the same pitch and pin count as CF, however the pin out is very different.
The 50p IDE is essentially 44p IDE offset by 3 positions (6 pins in total).  The first 4 pins are used as master/slave jumpers, and the other two are unused.

From
http://pinout.net/pinout-scheme/416/Ultra-slim%20fast%201.8%20inch%20Winchester%20disk%20drives

mrwolf that's right, the CF to ZIF adapter I linked to presumably converts 40p ZIF to 50p IDE (but not true CF).  Hence my concern about compatibility between ZIF "drive" and CF host.

There is clearly a difference between 50pin CF and 50pin IDE, which the Eskabel site clearly warns about.  Even though it is the same connector.

I had a friend install a CF card in place of a 1.8" IDE drive in an old iPod.  The first attempt resulted in a very hot CF card, it was later discovered that an adapter such as this (1) was required and worked well once installed.

What we are attempting to do is essentially the reverse.  I was hopeful that the known (to me) issues with connecting a CF to an IDE host would not manifest in this situation however the warning suggests otherwise.

(1) http://www.ebay.com/itm/IDE-ATA-to-Compact-Flash-CF-Adapter-1-8-Toshiba-iPod-/221189190420?pt=DE_Computer_Speicherkartenadapter&hash=item337fe73314

No, not bidirectional. But from the pictures and description it is intended for connecting a ZIF host to a SATA device.
Adding the CF-ZIF adapter and cable effectively gives a CF host to SATA device adapter.  The next question is, will it work?

The JMicro JM20330 IC (which this board appears to have) has mode pins which can be configured to work in host bridge or device bridge mode.  In this case I assume they are just tied to the appropriate logic level rather than brought out to a switch.

The datasheet for the IC can be found here if anyone is interested, someone who knows more about CF/IDE/ATA may be able to extract meaningful information from it.
http://www.mcuol.com/download/upfile/20080424025139_JM20330_Spec_Rev.%202.3.pdf

Here is my take on a solution that may work using only off the shelf parts.  I do not have a CF capable camera so have no way of testing this.

The plan goes like this
CF Host : CF->40p ZIF adapter (1) : 40p ZIF cable (2) : 40p ZIF to 7+15p SATA SSD adapter¹ (3): SATA extension (4) + power injection² (5) : SATA SSD

My biggest concern would be if there is any reason why a 40P ZIF drive wouldn't work when connected to a CF socket (as opposed to a 1.8" 50p IDE/CF) socket (or worse, damage the CF host device).  Also the adapter would be getting power from the CF socket, however I wouldn't anticipate this being a problem, it also shouldn't be impossible to fix but would require modifications to the electronics.

¹This does appear to correctly convert a SSD drive to work with a 40p ZIF host, also appears to be JMicron JM20330 Serial ATA bridge capable of 1.5 Gbps (150MB/s)
²To prevent SSD drawing power from CF host, depending on SSD used yellow line might need 5V or 3.3V

(1) http://www.ebay.com/itm/40pin-1-8-CE-ZIF-HDD-to-1-8-toshiba-Hard-Drive-CF-50pin-converter-adapter-229-/181116022590?pt=US_Drive_Cables_dapters&hash=item2a2b5b2f3e
(2) http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-pcs-FFC-FPC-40-pin-0-5mm-Pitch-Ribbon-Flat-Cable-Wire-ZIF-HDD-15cm-Long-New-/110952424273?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d547a351
(3) http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-converter-board-Adapter-for-Half-Slim-SATA-II-22PIN-SSD-to-1-8-CE-ZIF-PATA-/261214036476?pt=US_Drive_Cables_dapters&hash=item3cd191e1fc
(4) http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-SATA-7-Pin-Male-to-Female-Extension-Cable-FIA-L12R-/280645965548?pt=US_Drive_Cables_dapters&hash=item4157cd96ec
(5) For 3.3V http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-4-Pin-Molex-to-15-Pin-SATA-Power-Cord-for-SATA-I-and-II-Hard-Drives-w-3-3V-/270819912831?pt=US_Drive_Cables_dapters&hash=item3f0e1fec7f
OR for 5V http://www.ebay.com/itm/Serial-ATA-SATA-Power-Converter-Adapter-MOLEX-to-S-ATA-/200268115376?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item2ea0e8edb0

This CF extender may be helpful in your research.

http://store.calexium.com/en/316-cf-extender-290-mm-with-flat-ribbon.html

Using a CF reader as a lab rat is an excellent idea.

The packed data looks pretty messy.  Dealing with this the most efficient way seems more important than rounding errors.

Once the packed data has been pulled apart, before repacking at a lower bit depth, it may be worth considering implementing something like this for a cleaner roll-off in the highlights.


(from the apertus site, http://apertus.org)

If the knees were aligned with bit boundaries it should be possible to implement with only shifts and adds?

Hi guys, It's been a while since I've posted on here.

My feature request is similar to the force vga mode for video, but for LV photo mode over HDMI.

I am trying to set up a simple photo booth with an IR shutter release and a DVI monitor connected to the HDMI output.
The problem I am having is that after a photo is taken the camera changes resolution when it reviews the picture (and when switching back to LV).  My monitor (and my TV) take so long to adapt to the new resolution that I have to the review time to 8s to be able to see the picture that was just taken.

Would it be possible to not switch HDMI resolution during the image review (i.e. keep it at whatever LV uses over HDMI)?

(also worth mentioning might be the possibility of a full featured photo booth mode that supports printing tiled images without the need for a PC, on-screen count down graphics etc...)

P.S. My camera is a 550D.

Morgan L

550D w Nikkor 55mm F/1.2 Pre AI
600D w Nikkor 28mm F/2 Pre AI
Zoom H4N w onboard mics + line from desk

Morgan

Hi, I've been overseas for a few weeks so this is my first post in the new forum.  Great work everyone involved

So my feature request is to change the behaviour of the REC PictureStyle feature to that the style selected in the Canon menu is always used during recording, and an optional style be used while NOT recording.
The issue with the current behaviour is that if you swap cards and forget to change the REC PictureStyle you will record with the wrong style.

I hope that makes sense.

Regards, Morgan.