Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 st3500320as sd35

[VideoRipper]

this Sparkfun thingy is a peculiar board with a peculiar behaviour.

That explains a lot

You have in the above THREE statements:

1. MAX232 powered with +5V:
   
2. MAX232 transmits @5V
   
3. HDD transmits @3.3V

#1 is a "real" statement, as I preeume you know what you power your interface with

#2 is EITHER an assumption OR you measured the signal on the board TX wire

#3 is - by your own words - an assumption based on your trust in what I said

1. Yes, measured with a Fluke
   
2. "Assumed" the datasheet doesn't lie (Tin = VCC - 0.3V, Rin = VCC + 0.3V)
   
3. I don't have an oscilloscope anymore to check, so I had to trust you

Without actual measurement of signals of BOTH your circuit and of a sample of the Sparkfun thingy it's hard to say.

I still have an old TiePie HandyProbe lying around somewhere, so maybe I will hook that up

(along with a DOS-PC) in the near future, just to see what the exact specifics are.

After all maridadi is NOT using the RS232 SMD shifter, but rather a Prolific USB to TTL adapter

Indeed, so let's rest this discussion for a while, since it won't help him in any way.

Greetz,

Peter.

[jaclaz]

Indeed, so let's rest this discussion for a while, since it won't help him in any way.

Yep.

Just for the record, this is the post where I already posted this kind of considerations:

Only hypothesis, of course.

This:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/2708a51f9c861e6c8625681000648c4a

seems however to confirm the general idea:

Problem:

I have a National Instruments DAQ product that supports digital operations at 5 V TTL logic levels. I need to drive 3.3 V TTL. Is there anything that I can do?

Solution:

Almost all of National Instruments digital DAQ products support only 5 V TTL logic, as this is the most prevalent. If you need to read 3.3 V signals as an input, you may generally directly connect the signals to the DAQ board because 5 V TTL considers anything above 2.2 V to be a logical high. However, if you are outputting signals to a device that requires 3.3 V signals, you will need to reduce the voltage. The best way to do this is to use a bus transceiver with voltage shifting, such as these:

SN74LVC4245A, OCTAL BUS TRANSCEIVER AND 3.3-V TO 5-V SHIFTER WITH 3-STATE OUTPUTS

SN74ALVC164245, 16-BIT 3.3-V TO 5-V LEVEL SHIFTING TRANSCEIVER WITH 3-STATE OUTPUTS

These can also be used for voltage shifting on input, should it be necessary.

NOTE: There are 3.3 V devices that are 5 V tolerant. For those devices, you can directly connect the digital output without any bus transceiver. Also, both R Series and HSDIO products support 3.3 V natively.

jaclaz

Edited June 29, 2010 by jaclaz

[maridadi]

Followed directions as stated.. I am still getting "unable to open com4. Check port settings"..HArd drive is not attached to PCB..insert a card stock between connections and only 3 screws on the pcb and HDD

Now getting the echo..

In that case we're almost there!

First disconnect the power to the shifter!

Remove the PCB from the harddrive and connect:

• The TX of the shifter to the RX of the harddrive
  
• The RX of the shifter to the TX of the harddrive
  
• The GND of the shifter to the GND of the harddrive
  (Be extra carefull not letting the wires touch each other)

Next:

• Apply power to the shifter
  
• Open a connection with HyperTerminal (using the settings from my earlier post)
  
• Apply power to the PCB (remember: the harddrive itself is not attached now)
  
• Press the CONTROL and Z-button at the same time

Now tell me what you see (you can copy and paste the text you see in HyperTerminal

in your next reply between [ CODE ]-tags for clarity).

Greetz,

Peter.

[maridadi]

Jaclaz,

I am using a RS232 shifter purchased from SParkfun. As far as the Prolific (USB to Serial Cable) is a medium between PC and Rs232 shifter.

Really I cannot understand what is the difficult part in this.

As said n times this Sparkfun thingy is a peculiar board with a peculiar behaviour.

Another board (including yours) may behave in a completely different way, but this one, from the posted reports, behaves EXACTLY as advertised.

And again with all due respect, you are missing some logic.

Let's see, we are now talking of your self built interface:

MAX232 powered with +5V:

MAX232 transmits @5V -> harddisk DOES understand

HDD transmits @3.3V (I have to believe you on that one) -> MAX232 DOES understand

(because of the valid threshold-levels in a MAX232)

You have in the above THREE statements:

1. MAX232 powered with +5V:
   
2. MAX232 transmits @5V
   
3. HDD transmits @3.3V
   

#1 is a "real" statement, as I preeume you know what you power your interface with

#2 is EITHER an assumption OR you measured the signal on the board TX wire

#3 is - by your own words - an assumption based on your trust in what I said

Now, logic tells that if I say two things, you cannot trust my word for only one of the two, you have to choose if EITHER believe BOTH or NONE, i.e. I'm EITHER reliable or I am NOT.

On the other hand the same logic says that if you actually measured the signal on the board TX wire (and thus #2 is NOT an assumption) you have the means (oscilloscope or signal analyzer) to measure the signal levels, if it is so , you can well measure the signal on the HD TX pin and thus need not to trust me, and need not to assume #3.

I have NOT the faintest idea at what level works what, I simply draw sums out of data.

From this, which remains probably the only thing I can understand :

http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html

A "proper" TTL (@3.3V) will understand a signal at anything over 3.3 V as "a suffusion of yellow".

It is possible that the whatever is on the stoopid seagate disk understands something more than this let's say 4V and your particular interface sends data at a lower level than the maximum 4.7 V that the (@5V) TTL/CMOS allows, say 3.99999 whilst the Sparkfun thingy, if powered at 5 V actually sends signals at 4.6999999 V.

Or it is possible that for any reason your interface actually produces 3.3V level signals and thus works allright.

Without actual measurement of signals of BOTH your circuit and of a sample of the Sparkfun thingy it's hard to say.

UPDATE:

After all maridadi is NOT using the RS232 SMD shifter, but rather a Prolific USB to TTL adapter:

jaclaz

[VideoRipper]

Followed directions as stated.. I am still getting "unable to open com4. Check port settings"..HArd drive is not attached to PCB..insert a card stock between connections and only 3 screws on the pcb and HDD

That's a problem with the convertor itself and has nothing to do with your harddrive.

You probably removed the shifter from the USB-connector while a connection was still

active in HyperTerminal.

The easiest way to resolve this problem is to give your PC a cold boot (turn it off,

then on again).

After that, just start from the top (connect it to harddrive PCB and apply power).

BTW: Did you manage to get a 3.3V supply; either from an orange wire from a SATA

power connector or using two 1.5V (or one 3V) battery?

Greetz,

Peter.

[maridadi]

The Orange and black wires did the magic..my hardrive is restored. Thank you and all who have put in the hard work to find a solution to this problem...

Followed directions as stated.. I am still getting "unable to open com4. Check port settings"..HArd drive is not attached to PCB..insert a card stock between connections and only 3 screws on the pcb and HDD

That's a problem with the convertor itself and has nothing to do with your harddrive.

You probably removed the shifter from the USB-connector while a connection was still

active in HyperTerminal.

The easiest way to resolve this problem is to give your PC a cold boot (turn it off,

then on again).

After that, just start from the top (connect it to harddrive PCB and apply power).

BTW: Did you manage to get a 3.3V supply; either from an orange wire from a SATA

power connector or using two 1.5V (or one 3V) battery?

Greetz,

Peter.

[maridadi]

Jaclaz,

Bow down to you!!! The orange and Black wires did the job..Thank you very much for the detailed explanation and your patience... My hard drive is restored and i am everjoyed.

B

Jaclaz,

I am using a RS232 shifter purchased from SParkfun. As far as the Prolific (USB to Serial Cable) is a medium between PC and Rs232 shifter.

Really I cannot understand what is the difficult part in this.

As said n times this Sparkfun thingy is a peculiar board with a peculiar behaviour.

Another board (including yours) may behave in a completely different way, but this one, from the posted reports, behaves EXACTLY as advertised.

And again with all due respect, you are missing some logic.

Let's see, we are now talking of your self built interface:

MAX232 powered with +5V:

MAX232 transmits @5V -> harddisk DOES understand

HDD transmits @3.3V (I have to believe you on that one) -> MAX232 DOES understand

(because of the valid threshold-levels in a MAX232)

You have in the above THREE statements:

1. MAX232 powered with +5V:
   
2. MAX232 transmits @5V
   
3. HDD transmits @3.3V
   

#1 is a "real" statement, as I preeume you know what you power your interface with

#2 is EITHER an assumption OR you measured the signal on the board TX wire

#3 is - by your own words - an assumption based on your trust in what I said

Now, logic tells that if I say two things, you cannot trust my word for only one of the two, you have to choose if EITHER believe BOTH or NONE, i.e. I'm EITHER reliable or I am NOT.

On the other hand the same logic says that if you actually measured the signal on the board TX wire (and thus #2 is NOT an assumption) you have the means (oscilloscope or signal analyzer) to measure the signal levels, if it is so , you can well measure the signal on the HD TX pin and thus need not to trust me, and need not to assume #3.

I have NOT the faintest idea at what level works what, I simply draw sums out of data.

From this, which remains probably the only thing I can understand :

http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html

A "proper" TTL (@3.3V) will understand a signal at anything over 3.3 V as "a suffusion of yellow".

It is possible that the whatever is on the stoopid seagate disk understands something more than this let's say 4V and your particular interface sends data at a lower level than the maximum 4.7 V that the (@5V) TTL/CMOS allows, say 3.99999 whilst the Sparkfun thingy, if powered at 5 V actually sends signals at 4.6999999 V.

Or it is possible that for any reason your interface actually produces 3.3V level signals and thus works allright.

Without actual measurement of signals of BOTH your circuit and of a sample of the Sparkfun thingy it's hard to say.

UPDATE:

After all maridadi is NOT using the RS232 SMD shifter, but rather a Prolific USB to TTL adapter:

jaclaz

[jaclaz]

Only to happy to hear there is another happy bunny in the basket :

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128727&st=10

jaclaz