SD card via parallel port?

[Nutterts]

Hi,

At the moment I use a 100MB parallel Zipdrive for easily getting software to my precious x86 machines. With some machines like the Toshiba T1000 it's the only way I have to transfer data to it (besides serial/floppy). But I love programming, been enjoying myself with micro controllers lately and was looking for a project to waste allot of time on.

Basically I was thinking of using a micro controller to hook an SD card to the parallel port and write drivers and utilities for it. Sounds simple but, biting of more then I can chew. I've written lots of stuff but never a dos device driver. Which is also why I'm thinking about doing it... feels like something I should have learned but never did. I think some of you recognize the feeling.

I was basically wondering if I'm an idiot and unaware of some other solution that does this or if there are other people who'd also want something like that.

 

[SaviorX]

DOS Parallel/Serial Interlink is (one of) the easiest way to get things to an XT class machine

 

[Nutterts]

Yeah it is. Downside is that second system you need to be physically connected to.

 

[Dr_Diesel]

Sounds like a great idea! Although writing a DOS device driver could be a considerable challenge I would imagine. What driver are you using with ZIP drive currently? Guest.exe or PalmZip? Would be nice if it ran on an 8088 as well.

 

[Nutterts]

Palmzip... don't remember the man's name but he deserves a nobel price. To be honest I almost always just use it on my Compaq Concerto (a 486SX) so .. Guest.exe. I know of Palmzip. But my zipdrive is a Z100P2, haven't gotten around to hooking it back up and testing the demo driver with my 8088 systems. I think my odds of it working are slim.

But yeah It should be 8088/86 compatible. It's exactly that problem (palmzip not support all 100mb drives) that made it seem a great thing to do.

Yeah the drivers are going to be a challenge. The hardware side is relatively simple. I'm looking thru the attic for a "How to write ms-dos device drivers" book I'm almost sure I still have. It should have examples for a ramdrive driver. My thinking is that I should be able to use that as a skeleton driver.

It should also work with a non-bidirectional parallel port. No SPP, ECP, EPP. Probally a nibble mode kind of protocol but I have a theory I can't wait to try out for something a little faster.

 

[Bryce]

There's a working project that connects an SD Card directly to the Amstrad CPC Printer port. It doesn't even use a microcontroller. http://pushnpop.net/topic-336-1.html

Bryce.