IDE Controller

[tjetson]

Is is possible to have a chip that could read information from an IDE CD-ROM drive and communicate to a Picaxe through i2C?

 

[hippy]

I don't know of any I2C chip to do that but it is possible for a PICAXE to interface to IDE devices and should be possible to extract information from a CD-ROM.

 

[westaust55]

Not something I have thought about, but a quick search on the forum found many threadss includeing but far from limited to:
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-10878
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8706
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8620

 

[hippy]

Thanks for digging up the threads. Also ...

http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9461

Where I (half) controlled IDE drives using an 8-bit bus with a 28X1. PICAXE software included in Post #34.

The 28X2 has more flexible, bi-directional I/O and more internal RAM (scratchpad) so a full 16-bit IDE bus should be possible and data block handling should be easier.

Traditional IDE CD-ROM ( "PATA" ) seem to be being rapidly replaced by all-singing, all-dancing, DVD Writers using SATA interfaces in new PC's so they are going to get harder to find as time goes on. SATA doesn't seem likely to be usable with PICAXE or other microcontrollers until someone comes up with I2C/SPI to SATA interfaces or microcontrollers start including SATA interfaces on-board.