#western digital

It's finally in my hands. The Western Digital / WD Easystore 20TB HDD. I'll be backing up my entire CD-R and DVD-R archive after I fully digitize my vinyl library. When that's finished, the ultimate undertaking awaits: digitizing my entire VHS collection.

I cashed in my milestone award with the company right before I was let go. $300.00 worth of rewards. I was told I'd receive them in early October, but it was nearing December, and I was still waiting. I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it is when you can't speak to someone directly over the phone, but are told to e-mail a hands-off 3rd-party company with a.i. on the other end.

After two months of looping and repeated attempts through escalations, I finally got it. I checked my customer account to make sure they did send them, and...whoa! I have $600.00 in rewards?! Wow. Either they compensated me for all the trouble they put me through or it's an error on their part.

The HDD was on sale for $400.00, so what else to buy with the extra $200.00?

The SteelSeries Arctic Nova 1 is my first gaming headset at $60.00, and the Insta360 Link 2C webcam went for $150.00; the lowest price available for a 4K model.

The new PC is complete!

(Part List Below)

Western Digital has introduced a new line of #SanDisk microSD cards featuring #Pokémon designs, such as Pikachu, #Gengar, and Snorlax.

These cards are specifically designed for the #NintendoSwitch and offer read speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speeds of up to 90MB/s, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted gameplay. This collaboration with The #Pokemon Company aims to improve the gaming experience by providing convenient game storage and reliable performance.

In the immortal word of [Usagi Electric], Wrap030-ATX says, "Hellorld". This can only mean one thing — serial I/O is working!

Getting serial working should be relatively straightforward. The UART I'm using is an 8-bit peripheral which needs a Chip Enable and an Output Enable signal, just like the ROM. It's a little slower, so it will need an extra wait state or two, but it should be easy enough to modify the bus controller state machine to address the UART as well. It didn't take me long to add the necessary logic, solder on the new parts, and fire it up for a test run.

Nothing happened.

I went through all the normal steps — double check the wiring, make sure my test leads haven't come loose, make sure the chip is seated properly in its socket and not shorted out …

… I burned my finger. And not just a little 'ow that's a bit warm to the touch', but a proper second-degree burn. That UART chip was hot.

That kind of heat can only mean there is a direct short somewhere in the chip. It could just be a defective part, but since they are out of production and I only have a few on hand, the best thing to do is confirm the problem isn't on my board somewhere before trying another one (and potentially destroying it too).

The PCB layout passed Design Rule Check, so I didn't have any overlapping traces. The schematic didn't have any obvious errors where maybe I had inadvertently tied an output signal to power or ground. This was not an existing library part — it was one that I had to create — so it was possible I had gotten pin assignments wrong.

I pulled up the datasheet and opened the part in the library and started confirming all of the pin assignments matched the datasheet. Bus & I/O pins were all fine; but the very last power supply pin was assigned to Vcc, where the datasheet had it marked Vss. So I had a +5V power supply capable of sourcing in excess of 25A of current running into what should have been a ground pin. No wonder it was hot enough to burn; it's a wonder it didn't release the magic smoke immediately.

This is a challenge. I need to swap a power pin for a ground pin on a PLCC socket. On a simpler project, I might've gotten away with just cutting the trace running to that pin and soldering a bodge wire to it.

… But this is a 4-layer board. There is no mere trace running to that pin — there is an entire inner layer attached to it. My best bet would probably be removing the offending pin from the socket, but depending on how it's constructed, I may not be able to remove the pin.

Through-hole PLCC socket pins are staggered. Some go straight down through the board, but alternating pins make an L-shape so that the socket can have two rows of through-hole pins at a 0.1" grid spacing. The L-shaped pins would be trapped under the plastic base of the socket.

Luckily, the pin in question was the first on its side, so it went straight through the base. I started by bending up its contact, and then with the heat turned up on my soldering iron, I was able to pull it out of the board and completely free from the socket.

I had some wire on hand that was just the right width to match the slots for the contacts in the socket. I bent a flat loop to make contact with the chip lead and shoved it down into the slot. It worked perfectly. I ran it over to a nearby jumper that had a ground lead, and there I have my first bodge wire for this project.

It still didn't work.

This is the part of debugging that is the most frustrating. There's a problem and it takes a considerable amount of effort to identify not just the cause, but also the solution. And then after working through those steps and finally implementing a fix, it still doesn't work because there is another problem. Back to square 1 with debugging.

Why is it not working? It's not burning hot, so that problem was indeed solved. I'm getting data to the chip, and the read/write strobes are functional. The chip select signals are ... wait, why isn't chip select working?

... Because I forgot a chip, that's why. Insert Picard facepalm GIF here.

The UART I'm using is a Western Digital WD16C552. It's a lovely chip designed for 386 era PCs contain two 16550-compatible UARTs and a Centronics Parallel port as well. It is three peripherals in one package. To save I/O on my bus controller CPLD, I used a 74'139 2-to-4 decoder to further break down the address for this serial/parallel I/O chip into the three specific peripheral select signals I needed. And I simply forgot to solder that chip onto the board.

Two headers and one 74LS139 later and finally my terminal came to life. The Wrap030-ATX whispered its very first greeting, "HELLORLD". Serial I/O is working and I can move on to the next step. And oddly enough, I tested that first chip that flirted with fire and it actually still works!

My Adata HD330 2TB External Hard Disk Drive Review (with my Paper Dolls) - Part 2 [May 11, 2022]

Hello! This is Part 2 of my new item review, the Adata HD330 External Hard Disk Drive (with my paper dolls).😁

In this part, I'm going to show ya my comparison between my recent external hard drive (on the left) & my old broken one (on the right) is my Western Digital My Passport Essential 500GB.

But before that: I would like to apologize for the long delay. My parents are busying extending our house to make more space 🏠🔨, plus the voting election in my country 🇵🇭🗳️, and of course... Umm... I felt emotional & depressed. The latter was the concern of my 160GB (3.5 inch) hard disk drive's life that was on the line 😟 because I made a dumb decision when I disassemble it & see what's the problem via following instructions without my knowledge about the hard disk drive. That 160GB HDD contains my artworks 🎨🖌️, photos 🖼️ & other files 📁 that are my precious memories from 2016 & beyond, and I can't retrieve them anymore. So, I REALLY NEED to find a good professional disk recovery store to save my files, but it'll be very expensive to pay & I don't have enough money. I guess, I DO REALLY NEED a job to earn my profits. *sigh* Without my precious files, there will be no... ME. And my life will be a downward spiral of depression.😔

Anyway, back to my topic... If you haven't seen my previous part, then please [CLICK ME!].

So, without further ado, let's get started:

1st & 2nd Image(s) ↑:

• [1st Image] As I said in my intro, you're looking at my two external hard disk drives. Despite the design & look, my Adata HD330 is taller than my old WD (short for Western Digital).

• [2nd Image] Another thing was the HD330 had shock & drop proof with built-in silicon case around the plastic shell case & also the interior 2.5 inch HDD, though I still need to buy a rugged hard case for extra protection. Whereas my old WD My Password Essential has nothing but four rubber pads on the back.

Little story 📖: My former BF actually purchased this Western Digital external HDD at the local tech store for me as a token of our friendship, and I was very surprised back then when I was in my high school days. *Sigh* 😌 Memories, I would never forget that moment.

3rd to 6th Image(s) ↑:

• Here are their side to side comparison, sandwich style.

• [5th Image (left)] On my old WD external hard drive, you may notice that there's a tiny hole on the left side. That's the light indicator when plugging the Micro-B USB port through the computer via cable.

• [6th Image (right)] And speaking of ports, both Adata HD330 & (old) WD My Passport Essential are sporting USB Micro-B 3.0 port. Well, actually 3.2 gen 1 port for the Adata HD330, meaning it's far superior port than the old 3.0 variant. (Well, I think) It'll be awesome if the HD330 will be sporting the USB type C cable for a modern look & less hassle plugging than the irreversible USB Micro-B. (Just suggesting)

7th & 8th Image(s) ↑:

• [7th Image] Finally, their USB Micro-B 3.0 cables. On the left is from Adata HD330 & on the right is from WD My Passport Essential, which shows up aging from rust on the USB type-A male, but the male Micro-B was surprisingly quite intact & shine.

• [8th Image] On top of that, the old USB Micro-B cable 3.0 is longer than Adata's short-length cable. Also, that cable strap remains wrapped around, to this day.

9th & 10th Image(s) ↑ [without flash for no. 10th]:

• My paper dolls said that these two external HDs are both blue! 💙Well yeah, of course not because I love blue, duh.😊 One is brand new & the other was very old, due to the signing age of fading WD logo on the front, scratch surface, etc. Not to mention not very functional, and hoping it will revive my old one (hoping my old files remain intact without a single corrupt), anytime soon. As soon as I want the 160GB hard drive will be an attempt to save it first (if possible).🤞😟

Overall:

• Well, nothing new. But, I would say it was a pretty good short comparison between my two existing portable/external HD (not High Definition) or HDD. 🙂👍

• Right now, I have nothing to transfer my files for my next & final part. 😟 So, I'm not sure if I could finish this topic this month (May) or not. But, here's hoping that I will find the way while my 160GB HD is putting in rest mode.

Well, that’s all for now. If you want to see my previous topic from March, as well as my current topic from April, then I’ll provide some links down below.↓😉

My Oria 120 in 1 Screwdriver Set Review:

• Part 1 [Mar 15, 2022]

• Part 2 (Final) [Mar 19, 2022]

My Adata HD330 (2TB) External HDD Review:

• Part 1 [Apr 12, 2022]