Enabling Esata on V1.3 Sheeva Plug - Progress Report.

[c128]

Hey guys,

I need couple of more Sheevaplug with eSATA, but I am too lazy to repeat the process. I think I will talk to Globalscale and get some units of Sheevaplug with eSATA port. It probably will be a little bit more expensive than their regular unit. Anyone interested, please send a message to me and I will give you feedback after I check with Globalscale.

http://www.newit.co.uk/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3

[pingtoo]

Does it mean Globalscale will have it too? It was said NewIT get their stuff from Globalscale. I am in Canada I can not use any of the model supplied by NewIT.

[MarkF]

In case any of you missed it. Here is NewIT's thread about their new esata plug.

[pingtoo]

In case any of you missed it. Here is NewIT's thread about their new esata plug.

Got it, thanks.

[Takigama]

Hi Guys, im feeling like a bit of an idiot or i've missed something. I've seen a list of components people are using, and roughly were they go but nothing to match the two up.

Any chance someone who's done the esata mod can post a couple of pics of the board where the components went and what type they were?

Thanks.

[superpat]

@Takigama

Hi,

If you  go to:- http://www.plugcomputer.org/index.php/us/resources/downloads?func=fileinfo&id=56

You will find an 11 page pdf entitled  Sheeva-PowerPlug-V1.3-GTI-090906

Use this to determine the values of the unpopulated components.

There are 4 series caps that go in the data feed to / from the esata connector

There  are 4 caps and a ferrite inductor that produce a pi filter to provide 3.3v to the sata part of the Marvell SOC.

The Sheevaplug has an adequate silk screen which will point you where the components have to go.

This has been discussed before in this tread, I would suggest you read it carefully!  There are even part numbers for the esata connector here.
 
Be warned.. These components are mainly 0402 caps,  the size of a grain of salt. They are NOT easy to solder.

regards

Patrick

[damocov]

I'm tempted to buy one of NewIT's eSATA plugs rather than a standard one, but have a couple of questions:

1. Is it a powered or unpowered eSATA socket (i.e. do I need to use a secondary PSU for my disk)?

2. Can you boot from the eSATA drive ?

Damocov

[superpat]

hi,

It is a normal data plug, no power.

I boot linux from my sata drive through my modded sheevaplug. 

I assume that the new esataplugs are similar, i.e. v1.3 pcb's, with all the components fitted.

cheers

P

[Takigama]

@Takigama

Hi,

If you  go to:- http://www.plugcomputer.org/index.php/us/resources/downloads?func=fileinfo&id=56

You will find an 11 page pdf entitled  Sheeva-PowerPlug-V1.3-GTI-090906

Use this to determine the values of the unpopulated components.

There are 4 series caps that go in the data feed to / from the esata connector

There  are 4 caps and a ferrite inductor that produce a pi filter to provide 3.3v to the sata part of the Marvell SOC.

The Sheevaplug has an adequate silk screen which will point you where the components have to go.

This has been discussed before in this tread, I would suggest you read it carefully!  There are even part numbers for the esata connector here.
 
Be warned.. These components are mainly 0402 caps,  the size of a grain of salt. They are NOT easy to solder.

regards

Patrick

Yeah, I did see the parts list and even the connectors that need soldering (think its all on first page), but theres nothing there that says c164 is a component x... The PDF is exactly what I needed, thanks for that.

Regards, Paul

[cjm]

Hi all,

just to complete the story around external SATA enclosures: I got an eSATA SheevaPlug from NewIT and an eSATA 2.5" enclosure from Akasa with a 250GB Seagate drive. I installed Debian Squeeze, using an SD card for /boot and the enclosure connected as a USB drive. After patching sheevaplug-setup.c to turn on the SATA chip and recompiling the kernel, I tried to hook up the enclosure via eSATA but this failed with errors around bringing up the link. The eSATA connection as such is detected when I plug in the drive; furthermore, rmmod sata_sv stops the drive LED blinking and modprobe sata_sv starts the drive LED blinking again, accompanied by the errors messages about not being able to bring up the link. Thus, the cable as such seems to connected in one way or another...

Looking on the web for information about the enclosure, I stumbled across the following link:

  http://www.initio.com/Html/INIC-1611.asp

While the spec sheet for the 1611 chip seems to indicate that Initio has finally arrived in the SATA II world, the problems when connecting Initio chips to the Sheevaplug seem to be the same as those reported by superpat. Like the 1610 chip, it doesn't seem to have a bypass for eSATA, thus is involved in all aspects of the SATA protocol. I assume the enclosure will work just fine when connecting it to a regular PC but I never tested it.

It looks as if there's an issue with the sata_mv driver and Initio chips. The Initio chips may be crappy but since they seem to work with regular PCs, it would be interesting to see whether there's something in the sata_mv driver which causes the problems.

Any takers?

Thanks,
--Christian

[alfon]

Hi all,

I received my esata plug a few days ago. I have also bought an el cheapo 2,5" e-sata case, which uses the Genesys Logic GL830 IC. Haven't tried it yet, as no free sata drive available yet. Any guesses on whether it will work?

Best regards,
Alf

[portnawak]

Hi everyone,

I posted a message in the General Discussion forum, I'm having issues with the eSata Port Multiplier under Debian (U-boot does recognize all the drives, but not Debian).

May be here is a better place to discuss such technical issues (?)

If someone has an idea : http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=1211.msg8171#msg8171

Thanks in advance.

[UnaClocker]

This is a good old thread. I still want to do this mod to my Sheeva.

[pistacik]

Well, I'd like to have eSATA on my Shheva, too.

Bright sides:
- my Sheeva is revision 1.3
- seems all smd parts are installed, only thing missing is eSATA connector.
Not so good:
- Can't get trough the hole version of connector. I won't order from US due to excessive postage (and customs is mess nowadays, too). I tried to salvage connector from USB-to-eSATA stick, but it has SMD version of connector, which is "upside-down". (Yeah, could be mounted on wrong side of pcb with slight modding, but I simply do not like the idea.)

I am thinking cuting regular SATA cable and soldering it directly to board. I don't use Sheeva in original case nor with original PSU, so it does not matter. (Anyway, cca. 8cm piece of cable can be easily hidden in original case in cas it is not used.)

I hope DENX uboot will work out-of-box just by setting machid of eSATA version of Sheeva.

http://mark.ossdl.de/2010/04/howto-extend-the-sheevaplug-by-esata/
http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/uboot-upgrade.html

[UnaClocker]

Yeah, it doesn't seem like the through-hole version of the ESATA connector exists anymore. I spent a week or two digging all around the net and failed to find it. It's a real shame. Aside from that, I'd have completed this mod already. If anyone can find me that connector in stock, in single quantities anywhere, please let me know.