serial large data storage for micros.

Serial Data Flash from ATMEL ( and others ) have this, tho it is SPI.
http://atmel.com/dyn/products/devices.asp?family_ida6


This is a block orintated device.


A hard drive is block based and buss based flash chips are linear.

A block based device (hard drive or Flash Cards ) have some sort of file
system such as FAT16 / FAT32 or  others that don't seem to mater much.

So, I don't understand your question ??



USB drives are always FLASH based, I have never heard of a USB _ram_ drive.


This is one I have done some research on :

http://www.alfat.co.uk/alfat.html

but I have not used it.

I found is their docs that it apears kind of slow.
The max data rate is less then 1M Bit serial. Then there is the
programming time. Only one file open at a time.

I used a ATmega32 and a compact flash card and approched 4 MBytes/sec
transfer rate for 512 byte blocks.

This was only a read/write test, so I did not have any file system code.

Good luck

donald

Check out the uMMC from Rogue Robotics.  www.roguerobotics.com
It uses a SD card for storage.  Serial (TTL level) interface.  FAT16 format.

Don

Thank you Donald, and Donald, from Don :-)

As per normal, my initial question may not have explained fully what it
was I was chasing, but two very good leads. The Rogue Robotics device
seems close to my needs.

Don...



Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid 460

The ST25p64 series works for me.

Your search - ST25p64 - did not match any documents.
not a stock item in google.

is the number correct?

Cheers Don...




Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid 460

Maybe the M25P64 from ST ?

Yes, http://www.st.com/stonline/books/ascii/docs/10987.htm

I'll go have a read, thanks

Cheers Don...




Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid 460

You might want to consider the AT45DBxxx series of dataflash.
This has an SPI interface and SMALL sectors (up to 1 kB).
The advantage of small sectors is that file system typically do not need
garbage collection (or it is simplified).
The pages have "extra bytes" allowing erase count and other things useable
in a flash file system.
The devices start at 1 Mbit and go up to 64 Mbit in pin compatible 8 pin
packages.
Larger memories are in development.

You can also get 16/34/64 Mbit in MMC like Flash card packages,
so add an MMC connector to your board and you are in good shape.


--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

Don,

I've used the Atmel DataFlash memories that Ulf Samuelsson recommended
and found them easy to program (important) and also easy to wire to my
microcontroller (really important for me, probably less so for you). I
used the Atmel AVR microcontroller's built in SPI interface, but the
implementation is restricted to the basic SPI operations and shouldn't
be too hard to do "in code". In either case, the interface requires 4
i/o pins.
As I recall, the maximum data-clock rate for the DataFlash units was
about 7 or 8 MHz, but I used an old chip.  Atmel also likes to talk
about low power consumption, though that never factored in to my
particular implementation.

Gary



Ulf Samuelsson wrote:

Look here  

http://www.engelmann-schrader.de/usbstick.html     (in german but manual in
english)

This is not only a Usb Stick but also a kind of " Serial Stick".


Jouka

english)

thanks Ulf and Jouka,

I now have many good leads to check, and decide which direction to go.

Don...



Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid 460

Like this?

http://www.compsys1.com/workbench/On_top_of_the_Bench/MMC_Project/mmc_project.html

Try this:
http://chipdos.com/
Fat32/16 on a SD/MMC card, with RS232 or SPI interface

This chip is also available on a finished product, with Flash card
electronics, holder, etc., at Sparkfun.com. About half the cost of the
Chipdos dev board, but also without the RS232 (TTL serial only).

-- Gordon

Thanks Gary, Bob, Fleming, and Gordon.

My Spark Fun connection is timing out right now, but do these guys do
great work, or what?

Don...



--
Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid 460

It is now for me too, so it's not just your routing. Got me concerned
because we (Sparkfun and Budget Robotics) use the same Web host
provider. Or at least we used to. My site is still up, and there's comes
and goes. Might just be their box.

Yes, they do good work. And it's generally inexpensive. We need more
good, inexpensive stuff!

Unfortunately, their MP3 breakout board is currently out of stock, but
the DOSonChip and MP3 board would make a good pair for playing
sound/music/effects on a bot. OTOH, the price together is a bit high.
They also do a VS1002 MP3/SD module, and the Rogue Robotics uMP3 board
is a good option for those going in that direction. Choices, choices...

-- Gordon