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Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Steve Cassidy
Does this exist?
A posting that doesn’t impart information, but solicits it. Is there such a device as a direct drop-in replacement for a DVD drive which uses CF or USB flash memory? Technically, what I believe I am hunting for is a device plus some software, which allows me to present an ISO file on flash storage, as if it was an especially rugged rotating DVD-ROM drive.
This is because, like many second hand car enthusiasts, I now have a car with a DVD-based navigation system which is several years old, and entirely plumbed into the rest of the car’s systems. I have the updated DVDs and I know that they are amenable to being made into ISOs; I have no intention of illegal duplication, I just want to take the rotating machinery out of the equation. So I need a thing that goes from IDE, across to CF or USB flash store; and a utility that writes an ISO to that solid state storage.
Any suggestions?
18 Responses to “ Does this exist? ”
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December 14th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Hi
Just searched flea bay for “ide cf” and came up with
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Compact-Flash-to-IDE-ATA-Converter-Adapter-CF-to-40-pin_W0QQitemZ270310119337QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL?hash=item270310119337&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1300|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318
just copy all files (xcopy) to the cf
Ian
December 14th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
But that gives me a R/W, Non CDFS end reault, doesn’t it?
December 15th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Do you plan to use a CF-IDE adapter where the internal DVD was inserted?
December 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I plan a something to IDE – the “something” has to fully and transparently emulate the DVD drive, so that whatever is talking to it (in my case, a Mercedes COMAND system, so it ain’t Windows!) believes it is reading a DVD, in all respects.
How this is achieved, I don’t care: the cost of a new DVD mechanism from Mercedes is so enormously far above the mass market price of a bare IDE-DVD drive that the research is worth the bother.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Well, I think you’re facing a huge challenge due to the nature of trying to mount an ISO image from CF or USB drive. I’ve heard of USB sticks with the ability to present themselves as CD-ROM drives.
However It may be that they use x86 code in the emulation, so this could prove to be an issue if the device in your car doesn’t use an Intel x86 cpu or even support the mechanism required to find the emulation code in the first place. The same issue may apply for compact flash, as some don’t emulate a hard disk but rather a floppy disk.
So far nothing of use has turned up on the search engines, except for bits on XBOX 360 / PSP and Embedded Linux. I’d really like to get hold of one of these ‘Emulated’ USB sticks, just so that I can see how they’ve done it.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Try my first suggestion and set the CF to read only? Is it worth the gamble at only £5.00 cost.
It depends on the programming of the merc’s systems, if it expects to see CDFS or any filesystem.
Good luck, (you will need it)
Ian
December 15th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Why would it expect CDFS when it’s a DVD system?
And it may not matter, look at Linux, once a DVD is mounted. You’ve no way of knowing its actually a disc. It’ll depend on how the merc’s system was written.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
This is more or less as I expected; there’s an immense market pf people with gradually declining satnavs out there, and while everyone can more or less identify the building blocks that might sort it out, and they are kind of next-door-neighbours to the PC business, nobody has yet productised such a thing…
It’s tempting to imagine that a 2003 Satnav might have close similarities to a Linux system…but immensely difficult to work out whether this is really the case, or not. Which is kind of where I came in!
December 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
So what format is the DVD? Is it really CDFS (or ISO9660 to name it properly)- or is it UDF ? That would be the first check to make. Then one of the IDE-CF adaptors would make the hardware link, assuming you can get it physically mounted.
Then you just need to either write an ISO9660 image to the drive as a direct byte-for-byte write (presumably onto unpartitioned space), or format it as UDF and drop the files on. mkisofs and dd in Linux would probably be a good starting point for the ISO9660 attempt.
Here is a link that may help:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f3/format-usb-drive-cdfs-217832/
December 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Thanks Alyn, I’ll follow those up. That should keep me busy while the great Escape is on over xmas!
February 6th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Hi
I also own an mercedes and I’m interested in this “no rotating” upgrade, specially for the nav DVD in the trunk.
I know the DVD is ISO9660. It is easy to format any memory device with the same format and data.
Any thing like
dd if=/dev/mydvd of=/dev/mymemorydevice
should be ok.
But I have other questions:
Do you know if the the original drive is IDE?
Standard IDE (40 pins) as desktop computers or small IDE (44 pins) as laptop computers?
I still didn’t have time to unmount and open my nav unit.
If you are sure it is IDE, then it would be possible to use a DiskOnModule
like these
http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/Modlist.asp?CatNo=87
or microsd solution
http://www.tri-m.com/products/engineering/sdide44.html
I own several IDE DiskOnModules but not that size.
I’ll order a large one (or two) as soon I know it is IDE.
Even it is IDE, it may not work. But I’d like to try.
February 8th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I would be very surprised to find that there is no IDE stage somewher einside the unit, though I know that the link to the front of the car is fibre-optic. I’m going to ask over at benzworld.org to see if anyone’s got a scrap DVD unit or has been inside one. The Transcend blob looks like a very good option, at least physically.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 pm
cd mass duplication…
I never thought I will agree with this opinion, but you know… I agree partially now…
May 12th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Just to keep this topic updated:
Last week I removed my nav unit, I opened it and I dismonted the included DVD reader.
This last task required a “T7″ screwing tool.
The reader was connected to the main board through 3 connectors:
1 connector with 5-8 wires that I believe were power lines and eject button links.
1 flat cable with 8-12 lines
1 flat cable with 14-18 lines
So, I believe it’s not IDE, ATA or any other format I know.
If anyone knows any reference to this DVD drive format please post it here.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
All, this is exactly what i was planning to do. I’m so bored of £200 nav disc being scratched or copies i made not being properly read by COMAND.
So Migas, i have a COMAND APS with built in dvd drive for navigation, but the logic should work same for both of us. here is a picture of COMAND2 CD based nav system:
http://www.mercupgrades.com/pictures/COMAND2/back-section-no-front.jpg
i guess what you found looked like this right? I’ll be disassembling my unit this coming weekend. i’m very keen to get rid of optical and moving parts. hope we could all do it. please share your findings here.
June 27th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Guys, i do not know you’re still following this thread but here it goes. i had a chance to disassemble my sat nav today. (Comand APS DVD) . The dvd rom is slim type Toshiba with the JAE connector. i ordered a converter and some compact flash adapters which should arrive next week. i’ll give it a go and let you know.
fingers crossed
cheers
June 27th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Excellent news… is this in the dash or in the boot?
Steve
(I have a guy looking at the whole concept, who has previously done some work for Kenwood. I suspect there’s a lot of people circling it wondering if there’s a market, and whether they will be hit mightily over the head by the various car companies…
June 30th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Steve,
i probably should have mentioned. it’s the dash type (for w203). i’m waiting for the adapter to arrive from hong kong. if it arrives this week i’ll try it on weekend.