CF adaptor on RAQ3 not working

[lleo19]

Hi All,
I would like to test your flash optimized images, but whenever I put the CF to IDE adapter on my RAQ3i it is not recognized.
I have tried at least 3 different adapters which all work on regular PC systems, but are not recognized by RAQ3i.
Based on you mentioning SYBA, I also got this one, but also no avail.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822998002

I have two RAQ3i to play with and both behave similarly. What could be wrong?
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance, Lorant

[weizen_42]

Any documentation on the power connector of the adapter?
Looks like a floppy disk connector   

[lleo19]

yes, it is a floppy connector and I use a molex to floppy mod to power it.
It gets power correctly as the leds light up, etc. except on the serial console nothing is detected.
Of course, booting fails as the rom is set to boot from disk /dev/hda1 and it is not found.

[Davesworld]

First things first, are you using a serial console (nullmodem) cable so you can see if the rom actually sees the flash drive? The other is that it is easy to plug the direct to board Syba adapter in wrong where you are one pin off of center. The other obvious hardware issue is that the really cheap CF adapters that only support type I will not work with newer UDMA capable type II CF cards. The Syba has worked with everything I have tried to plug in on a Raq3, Raq4 and Raq550.

Before we go any further, do you have the latest ext3 1M flash rom installed? You'll need it before you'll get very far. Also, if you use the lcd buttons to set the boot disk, it has to be hda4 NOT hda1. The new rom automatically looks for a bzipped kernel in hda1 anyway but it has to know the root partition as well so it can find /lib/modules. The wording on the lcd menu is a misnomer, when the lcd says set boot partition, it really means root. If you are in the serial console menu after hitting the spacebar and get to that submenu, boot means boot and root means root.

[lleo19]

Hi Dave,
to answer your questions:
- yes, I use the serial console and there I can see that nothing is detected. from memory I think it shows:

Initializing IDE: done
  IDE 0:
  IDE 1:

- the root device is hda4, and I verified this with the read_root_device command in the boot menu

- as far as the ROM goes, the version I use is 2.10.3-ext3 from Duncan's old website, now offline (cobalt.iceblink.org). it is still mirrored at few places on the internet. I think in the past I have tried the sourceforge version as well.

- on my cobalt raq 3i I have the plastic socket around the IDE connector with a notch on one side and pin 1 marked. it would be very difficult to plug in incorrectly.

- I have tried several 40-wire and 80-wire IDE connectors as well.

I am thinking that these two particular raq 3i I have are different. I had hard time finding harddrives that were recognized, where in theory any drive would work, albeit in LBA24 mode only.
One of raqs has a TSOP module on it so that the rom chip can be swapped easily. The other is identical PCB and chips, but with a fixed ROM chip.

[Brian Ridgeway]

I have had the SAME problem in 3 different Raqs now.  2 Raq4i's and 1 Qube3.

Dave when he said the CF Adaptor is easy to have off by 1 pin is likely correct.

Please take off the CF adaptor and try placing it back on the IDE port.  This solved the problem on 3 of mine. 

By the time the 3rd one happened it was easy to diagnose but I swear that it was on center and on the correct pins all 3 times however pulling it off and placing it back on worked....  go figure. 

I personally cannot see how a CF adaptor would not work as it is detected just like a normal IDE HDD to the Raq or any other PC for that matter.

Also did you leave the jumpers stock?   And what size card are you using?

Brian

[lleo19]

yes, it happened to me as well, but only when I used 2.5" drives attached to laptop-IDE (44-to-40 pin) adapters. There the male connectors are standing free and indeed is easy plug it in incorrectly.
On my raq, however, there is a plastic socket around the connector, similarly on the CF-IDE adaptor as you can see it in blue on the newegg picture (link in the first post)
I do not think it is possible to plug this in incorrectly, or at least I never noticed it.

One more thing I just remembered, on modern 3.5 IDE harddrives and IDE devices, there is 1 pin that is missing, the one in the middle, opposite the notch on the plastic socket.
Both on the raq and the CF-IDE adapter this pin is present, so I can only use IDE cables that do not have this pin blinded.