CF-Card / Harddisk

[verbeek]

Can I exchange the CompactFlash card?
Yes. The minimum size of the card is 256MB. The card must be bootable. Speed does not (really) matter. Almost any CF-card will do.

Not all CF cards work with Robotino, because some CF cards are not able to boot.

We tested two kind of CF cards.

The following do work:
- SimpleTech CompactFlash 4GB, SLCF4GM1U

The following do not work:
- SanDisk Extreme III 2GB
- TOSHIBA 4GB

The CF-Card needs to be set as a "fixed harddrive" and not a "removable" drive.
You might find a dealer that can "fix" the CF-Card to be a bootable CF-Card, or you are lucky to buy a "fixed drive" - no better way than try out, since the packaging will not tell this detail...

How to put the OS on the new card?
Look here.

[Commander]

SanDisk Extreme III 2GB does work if you toggle the "removable media"-bit first. This can be done with a DOS tool named ATCFWCHG.COM, which SanDisk eventually made available upon request in the past.

For this you need to put the CF Card via a CF-to-IDE adapter into a PC on which you boot DOS, and execute the command:

ATCFWCHG.COM /P /F

if the IDE adapter is on the primary IDE port, or

ATCFWCHG.COM /S /F

for secondary. This sets the bit to "fixed disk". The card must be configured as master. Calling the tool without parameters shows more options.

[MBellenberg]

the current CF-Card is a
- 1GB SanDisk SDCFJ - BB080705991b

before 08/2008
- 256MB SanDisk SDCFJ - AR061102758B

greetings
Markus

[MBellenberg]

Dear Ramon,

As you can read above, it is not enough to get the right CF.
You still need a dealer that can "fix" the card or you find the
right tools. If you have the tools you might find it easy to
get prity much any CF to run

Hi,
Apparently our local distributor does not find a CF with BB080705991b.
I would need the part number for these CompactFlashs. Something like:
SDCFJ-1024-388, or similar.
Thanks
Ramon

If you need a tested and ready to run CF-Card incl. the newest OS of Robotino - please take a look at: www.robotino.com / www.festo-didactic.com and order PartNo: 548693 (for about 68 EUR )

[Tobias]

Hi everybody out there,

as i could read it seems to be a real problem to find the "right" CF Card for booting the robotino. Therefore i want to tell you which CF Card i am working with.
I am using a Kingston "4GB 133x elite pro CF Card" -> ID: CF/4GB-S2.
Its working fine. After downloading the robotino image V1.7 and dd Tools V0.5 for windows i used a normal USB multi card reader to write the image on the brand new CF card. After plugging the card in the robotino it starts booting and works fine.

It seems to me that there is no need to "fix" this CF Card to "fixed drive" mode.
Maybe it is a good idea to start a new thread with working and not working CF cards.

I hope my information is helpfull for someone.

Greeetings, Tobias

[crystallattice]

After struggling for about a week to get a Sandisk Ultra II 1GB disk to work, I came up with this work around:

Install required version of software on CF card. Install same version on USB flash disk (I used a Lexar Jumpdrive 4GB Firefly) of same or bigger size. Connect VGA monitor to robotino and change the boot order in the BIOS so that the three USB devices are above the IDE0 and IDE1 devices (USB Key, USB FDD and USB HDD) ie. All USB devices must have higer priority than the IDE devices. Now with the USB flsh disk in the USB port and the CF card inplace, restart the Robotino. If all went OK you should be seeing a working Robotino.

I know this is a overkill solution but with the limited time I had, it was the only solution I could come up with. If you know something about GRUB and Linux, you could reconfigure the GRUB settings on the USB flash disk to point to the partitions on the USB flash disk instead of the CF, thus eliminating the need for the CF altogether. Most USB flash disks are bootable and are cheap enough to experiment with.

Maybe the FESTO guys could provide us with an image made for USB Flash disks and save the user from making changes to the GRUB config.

I hope this info helps people with the same problems as I had.

[MBellenberg]

Hi crystallattice
Thank you very much for your information.
It surely is interesting how you got your card running.

Of cause we are eager to make thinks as easy as possible for our cusomers.
The easiest way is to buy a ready to run and tested card at
http://www.festo-didactic.com/int-en...botino-reg.htm
The OS of Robotino needs no more than 1GB, so it would make no sense
to make all customers pay for a 4GB card, that is 75% empty.

The fact that robotino is shipped with an "fixed" cf-card has its reasons:
We are getting this cf-card from a company that sells industrial cards as well.
To always get the same cf-cards is quite hard, just try to get the same card in a store just a week later (they may look the same, but internaly they differ - sometimes you get fixed, sometimes you get removable drive cf-cards)

Industrial cards are all (!) "fixed drive" cards, therefore we cannot change it
to a fixed and removable drive version.

I'm sorry for the work you had to do to get a 4GB card to run - this is realy
a overkill (and if you change the code now, you do not know where it gets changed)

If we see the need for a 4GB card from many customers we will certainly
think of providing an (empty) 4GB industrial card that is fixed drive, or
provide you with the order information of the company selling industrial cards.

Hope you will understand the above reasons.
Greetings
Markus Bellenberg
(I'm out of the office until 07.07.09)

[raoul]

You need an Robotino, an USB-Stick, a floppy-disk, a VGA monitor, a USB keyboard and a new cf-card (i tested a sandisk, it will work probably with every card on the market)



Step 1 (at the PC)

1. generate a startdisk on your floppy A:, with windowsexplorer
2. Download the tool HPUSBFW_v2.2.3.exe from the internet
3. Download the tool ATCFWCHG.COM from the internet
4. insert the USB-Stick at any port
5. execute the tool HPUSBFW:
   
6. Select the path where your floppy is, probably (A: )
7. please load aditionaly all files from the floppy to the stick without autoexec.bat and config.sys those zwo you shall not overwrite!!!, copy the ATCFWCHG.COM file on the stick

Step 2 (at the Robotino)

1. In the bios place the USB-driver under Bootdevice on top of the list
2. now -Turn off robotino
3. plug in the Stick, plug in the CF-card and start Robotino again
4. under the path C: search for the file ATCFWCHG.COM
5. Execute ATCFWCHG.COM/P/F and as a result you should get „Done“,
   for more information on the tool: type ATCFWCHG.COM /?
6. now you have a bootable CF-Karte „fixed Disk“

Step 3 ( on the pc)

1. update the card to the the latest firmware (dd-Datei)
2. http://www.festo-didactic.com/int-en/services/robotino/robotino-cf-card.htm
3. execute the .bat file and you will have a brand new CF-card with new options

[trrwxsj]

SanDisk Extreme III 2GB does work if you toggle the "removable media"-bit first. This can be done with a DOS tool named ATCFWCHG.COM, which SanDisk eventually made available upon request in the past.

For this you need to put the CF Card via a CF-to-IDE adapter into a PC on which you boot DOS, and execute the command:

ATCFWCHG.COM /P /F

if the IDE adapter is on the primary IDE port, or

ATCFWCHG.COM /S /F

for secondary. This sets the bit to "fixed disk". The card must be configured as master. Calling the tool without parameters shows more options.

Hi Commander,
Thanks for your information here.
Which kind of CF-to-IDE adapter did you use? Can you show me a picture or give me a link or parameter description?
Thanks a lot for your help.