Re: [NTLK] ATA support on the eMate

From: Brian Mayton (bmayton_at_mac.com)
Date: Tue May 13 2003 - 15:50:12 PDT


> Are you sure they're SD cards? (instead of MMC cards?)
> I had an SD card (sent it to a Newton user) and it didn't work
> because SD cards use a specific protocol extension of ATA protocol.
>
Yeah, they're SD cards. One is a Lexar 64 MB card, and the other is a
Palm 16 MB card. The Macally adpater card must do some kind of active
conversion to the normal ATA protocol. Disk Utility on my PowerBook
indicates that the card is ATA, so there must be some conversion going
on.

> I know some users who, as a workaround, set the sleep time in ATA
> Support preferences to never.
>

Will setting the sleep time to never make it so the card never powers
off, even when the Newton is asleep? Or will the card still shut off
with the Newton?

---
Okay, I did some basic testing of the problem.  I went into the ATA 
support preferences, and set the sleep time to 5 seconds.  Each test I 
started doing after a fresh restart.
For the first test, I used only the power key.
The newton can be powered on, powered off within five seconds, and 
powered on immediately after and it is fine.
	( restart, mount card, wait less than five seconds, power off, wait
	less than fifteen seconds, power on = good)
Powering on, waiting more than five seconds, powering off, and then 
immediately on again, causes a restart.
	( restart, mount card, wait more than five seconds, power off,
	power on = crash)
Powering on, powering off within five seconds, waiting five seconds, 
and powering on again is fine.
	(restart, mount card, wait less than five seconds, power off,
	wait five seconds, power on = good)
Powering on, powering off within five seconds, waiting more than 
fifteen seconds, and powering on again causes a restart.
	(restart, mount card, wait less than five seconds, power off,
	wait more than fifteen seconds, power on = crash)
Conclusion: the Newton can be on with no card accesses for five seconds 
or off with no card accesses for fifteen seconds and it's fine, 
otherwise there is a crash when it tries to access the card.)
After powering on, mounting the card, waiting more than five seconds of 
not doing anything on the Newton to access the card, nor powering off, 
and then pressing Extras causes the eMate to crash and restart.
	(restart, mount card, wait more than five seconds, access
	card = crash)
Powering on and making sure that the card is accessed at least once 
every five seconds to prevent it from going to sleep is good.
	(restart, mount card, tap extras, open file from card, close
	 file, open file again, etc, as long as card never goes to
	sleep = good)
Conclusion: Once the card goes to sleep, it cannot be awakened without 
a crash.
I repeated the first set of tests closing and opening the lid rather 
than using the power key, and got identical results.
Here's a scan of the cards I'm using: 
http://resources.ilabrats.org/cards.jpg
Hope that helps.  In my tests it seemed to have nothing to do with 
closing the lid at all, but was accessing the card after it had been 
put to sleep that caused the crash.
If there's anything else you want me to try, let me know.  I'd like to 
get this working so I'd be more than happy to try out any other 
sequences of events to test for a crash.
Brian.
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