Old Hard Drive --> Microcontroller

[Shalmezad]

Is it possible for me to use an old hard drive I have laying around as a micro controller? Before anyone says anything about buying, assume that I have absolutely NO money to spend.

 

[3v0]

That is not totally unlike saying you want to use a washing machine for a vacuum cleaner.

The processor in the hard diskdrive is not the sort that you can reprogram.

 

[Papabravo]

Feasability study #1: Can you identify the processor in any HDD your care to name or have on hand?

Feasability study #2: Can you round up free development tools for the processor you have identified?

Feasability study #3: Can you remove the processor from the HDD board, with the tools you have on hand or have access to?

Feasabilty study #4: Is the part eraseable and reprogrammable?

Feasability study #5 : Can you build or acquire the tools required to program the part?

My guess is that the answers to each study will be negative or founder on the rocks of your limited budget.

Why not try MPLAB and simulation while you wait for your ship to come in?

I'm just curious about how you're paying your ISP if you have absolutely no money.

 

[Hero999]

I'd be surprised if a modern hard drive has an MCU on it, I would have thought that they would use an FPGA.

 

[Papabravo]

I'd be surprised if a modern hard drive has an MCU on it, I would have thought that they would use an FPGA.

FS#1 - Flameout! Crash! Burn!

 

[HarveyH42]

I'm just curious about how you're paying your ISP if you have absolutely no money.

There are a number of ways to gain free access to the internet these days...

Many schools give limited access (adult content censored, ect...)

Local library

Some cities (Saint Cloud, Florida for one) have free wireless internet. I don't have the hardware, wouldn't think it's too secure, and a little suspicious of the company that manages and administrates (marketing firm).

My dial-up ISP is $9.95/month...

 

[Papabravo]

That should make for an efficient development cycle.

Edit Compile Burn might look like
1. Cart all my hardware and software down to the library
2. Install everything
3. Edit the source code
4. Compile it
5. Download it
6. Debug it
7. Leave all your stuff there while you go home to get the scope you forgot to bring
8. Oh never mind!

 

[john1]

Is it possible for me to use an old hard drive I have laying around as a micro controller?

Well, i think early computing machines used to use 'reel to reel' tape decks in a manner very
similar to the way ram is used.
With clever use of simple chips, you could probably use sets of home-written subroutines to be
read from the drive, it would require in-depth knowledge of how information is stored and
processed.
I think that even simple subroutines that tried to use a hard drive to shuffle information
around like a microcontroller does, would find that the access times would get ponderous
compared to routines handled by a processor, even a 'slow' microprocessor.

It might be possible to do this, but quite unreasonable ammounts of writing custom sub
routines. One might do a few little easy routines, just to prove it, ... as a bet maybe.

John

 

[Papabravo]

One gets misty eyed at the memory of "chase buffers" in an IBM 1620. A machine that couldn't add and didn't even try.