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My 750 gig Apple TV

Cave Man said:
I've not had time to work on it. I was hoping dyna would have the solution because I may have to tap the power supply, which I'd rather not have to do.
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As would I not like to tap the PSU.

From looking more at your problem, your doing this:

Logic_board --> 44pin_cable --> 44pin_adaptor --> SATA_adaptor

Right? or are you using a cable like I linked to above?
 
Havent had a chance to hook up and try it yet. Still waiting on my cable. Also got hosed up trying to image my 500GB eSata drive this weekend and ran out of time. Hope to maybe get something done this week.
 
curious, is there a reason why you don't just want to plug an external HDD into the Apple TV's usb? pretty easy to setup. I've got two drives hanging off mine, a 1T and a 500GB, works well... no need to open the ATV either.
 
The most significant reasons for me are (1) Apple updates breaking the mods for the USB port (which are transparent with eSATA), and (2) the speed of eSATA over USB. When I was running on eSATA it was really fast to ff/rew (1x, 2x, but not so much with 3x), and jumping to the next chapters (caching).
 
Cave Man said:
The most significant reasons for me are (1) Apple updates breaking the mods for the USB port (which are transparent with eSATA), and (2) the speed of eSATA over USB. When I was running on eSATA it was really fast to ff/rew (1x, 2x, but not so much with 3x), and jumping to the next chapters (caching).
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Thanks for that, you've made it clear.

Having the drive on USB sure can be a bit slower sometimes, and cleanly unmounting the drive after you've finished viewing is a pain (I do it in nitoTV).

I've got around 700+ divx encoded movies, so performing apple updates regularly isn't for me...
 
Cave Man said:
The most significant reasons for me are (1) Apple updates breaking the mods for the USB port (which are transparent with eSATA), and (2) the speed of eSATA over USB. When I was running on eSATA it was really fast to ff/rew (1x, 2x, but not so much with 3x), and jumping to the next chapters (caching).
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Ten Four that Cave Man. I hacked mine a while back mainly to try using 5.1 AAC in MKV which was all we had at the time. Now with the new 5.1 AAC in mp4 I have no reason to hack it ( I like my atv updates ) so this eSATA solution if it works should be the bomb (I hope).

I did have a hell of a time trying to use my original 40 GB hdd which only had 1.0 on it from back when I first upgraded to a 160 since the upgrade to 2.0 (which I did with my 160 installed) Now for whatever the reason the 40 GB atv drive will boot, but absolutely no action from the remote whatsoever, its just stuck on the Movies menu. No way to force a reset afaik without the remote. I would like to make sure my 40GB drive maintains the latest atv rev on it for a backup (as well, for imaging other drives 40 gb is quicker than 160 gb), but it appears its broke for > 2.0 . I wonder if its because the 2.0 update had the efi firmware update in it as well. What rev image did you use to update your esata drive Cave Man ?
 
One other question Cave Man: in your short test, did you notice how the eSata drive worked with the atv sleeping ? I know in stock form it keeps power to the drive so it can accept iTunes synching etc.
 
Cybix said:
I've got around 700+ divx encoded movies, so performing apple updates regularly isn't for me...
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That's the beauty of eSATA. Since it is your boot drive, when there's an update (and when a fix for your particular setup becomes available), just turn off the ATV, put the eSATA drive on your Mac, and copy the necessary files over. Much easier than patchstick, imo.
 
dynaflash said:
I would like to make sure my 40GB drive maintains the latest atv rev on it for a backup (as well, for imaging other drives 40 gb is quicker than 160 gb), but it appears its broke for > 2.0 . I wonder if its because the 2.0 update had the efi firmware update in it as well. What rev image did you use to update your esata drive Cave Man ?
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I have my original 40 gig ATV 1.0 drive image stored safely on a CD. I did a factory restore, then connected it to my Mac and zeroed the free space. A 2 hour pass through StuffIt resulted in a compressed image of 444 mb.
 
Ah, saw your thread on that as well. Nice work. So I got my 40GB drive to work again and updated it to 2.0.2. So thats fine. Just re-imaged my 500 GB eSATA and popped open the atv to run it with the eSATA to test the sleeping before my gender adapter gets here tomorrow and "BANG" fricken question mark hard drive on the tv. Suddenly its like the drive isnt there. So back to the drawing board. Either A. I hosed up the drive imaging or b. my sata controller crapped out one way or another. Hmmmm. The quest continues.
 
Hmm, so more issues I think. My original test was with the sata drive removed from the mybook enclosure and hooked directly to the atv (much like your pictures cave man). I cannot however get it too boot the remote drive when the drive is in the case and connected via the eSATA interface. Maybe an incompatiblity with the mybook eSATA board in the mybook case (I know wd mybook interface boards tend to suck)? So ... the testing continues. Cripes this is worse than testing HB encodes ;)
 
dynaflash said:
Hmm, so more issues I think. My original test was with the sata drive removed from the mybook enclosure and hooked directly to the atv (much like your pictures cave man). I cannot however get it too boot the remote drive when the drive is in the case and connected via the eSATA interface. Maybe an incompatiblity with the mybook eSATA board in the mybook case (I know wd mybook interface boards tend to suck)? So ... the testing continues. Cripes this is worse than testing HB encodes ;)
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Mine booted with my Seagate eSATA drive in its enclosure. Does your drive in the eSATA enclosure spin up when you turn on the ATV? I'm pretty sure eSATA drives require an "on" signal from the SATA controller. Without it, the drive won't even power up.
 
Cave Man said:
Mine booted with my Seagate eSATA drive in its enclosure. Does your drive in the eSATA enclosure spin up when you turn on the ATV? I'm pretty sure eSATA drives require an "on" signal from the SATA controller. Without it, the drive won't even power up.
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Nope, it doesnt even spin up. Frustrating.
 
Okee Dokee, so back in business with the (admittedly pos) mybook. Turns out the pata to sata bridge I had been using would not work with whatever sata controller WD uses in the mybook case (I have no clue why) or something. Either way I found what seems to be a decent bridge for $19.99 which seems to work great and appears to be physically smaller than the pata2sata bridge that your using cave man (though I see yours has two sata outputs, this only has one). So now all is well using the sata to esata cable right into the back of the mybook enclosure. seems to be fine when the atv sleeps. I couldn't resist so I went ahead and synced over 160 GB of HB goodness last night. Your right cave man, playback and fast forward, rewind and jumping chapters is instantaneous. Nice. Fedex tells me my gender adapter is due to arrive today, so tonight I plan to get the ribbon cable into the mix to finalize the mod.

One thought on getting the esata cable passed through the atv case is that I have left the rubber pad off of my atv since way back when I first upgraded it to 160 gb. I use four stick on furniture leg felt pads from home depot on the bottom of the atv as feet stuck right to the metal base. Which seems to help with cooling btw (using my manual thermometer). Since the back of the atv is more than full of ports already and I will need to find a place to get the cable out of the atv, I am thinking I will cut a hole in the bottom of the metal base and exit it there, the felt pads I use are about a 3/16" thick which is marginal to allow room for the cable under the base, but with taller feet, I think it will work fine. I would rather mod that metal base than the rest of the case as its already full of holes as it is.

What were your plans cave man for passing the esata cable through the case ?
 
Glad you got it working. It sure seems to perform quite nicely with eSATA. My plan for the cable was to bend a lip on the back edge of the bottom panel of sufficient size that I could get the eSATA cable out of the back. But I haven't got to that point yet - still trying to figure out this cable/voltage issue. Hopefully, you'll get it to work.
 
Cave Man said:
still trying to figure out this cable/voltage issue.
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Not to sound stupid or anything, but is there any chance you had the ribbon or adapter installed backward ? I only ask this because in one of my many test installs directly into the board, I had the bridge installed "backward" into the 44 - 40 pin adapter, the leds on the bridge lit up etc, but I got the question mark drive icon on the tv (which I think is what you are experiencing). After messing about I turned the bridge 180 degrees and bang, it worked. I was fooled into not checking that first though because the indicator lights on the bridge were lit up so I figured it was installed correctly. Possibly with the cable installed it was the same scenario ? Just seems very odd that 5" of ribbon cable would reduce the voltage a sufficient amount to render the bridge inoperable especially considering that cable has to supply 5 volts to the stock laptop drive in the atv (and it seems to me at least that the laptop drive should draw as much if not more current than the sata bridge), but I will see hopefully tonight.
 
Okay, so I got my gender changer, hooked it all up and nothing. sata card lit up but got the flashing question mark drive on the screen :( Removed the cable and plugged straight into the logic board and it worked fine again. Now a couple of things I am wondering about. in looking at the 44 pin side of the 44 - 40 pin adapter where number 19 is blocked out (where cave man's picture shows we opened it up with a pin) well since the adapter is actually being used backwards from its intended use, thats not really number 19 I dont think, but the logic board pin still goes in and makes contact so all is well when plugged into the logic board directly. So introduce the ribbon cable and plug that adapter into the end of the ribbon cable which has 19 blocked off and now I dont think we are getting a signal out of whatever lead is the inverse of 19. It obtuse to explain but as I sat there looking at what was blocked off, it occurred to me that those were opposite where the adapter plugs in where the atv drive used to go. Its late and its hard to wrap my head around it, but it seems like we need a 44 pin ribbon cable with the logic board ends on both ends instead of a drive and on both ends so nothing is blocked off. Basically we want all of the pins on the logic board to connect directly to their counterparts at the other end with the cable attached to make that stupid bend with nothing blocked off.

As far as the voltage drop goes, it just seems hard to believe that we are losing that much voltage from that little cable, plus my hitachi 160 gb drive specs out 5 volts @ 600 ma in order to run. You would think that if that cable is dropping that much voltage the hard drives would have issues. Damn, too bad there isnt a 90 degree adapter we could use and lose the ribbon cable altogether. Thoughts ?
 
Well:

1. It's a bummer you're having the same problem as I am, but...

2. It's kind of refreshing that we're both having it. That means there is an issue here that needs resolved.

I, too, am quite tired and am heading to bed. Perhaps a couple of days of thinking are in order. Also, I have the 5" of ribbon plus about 5" of red/black wire. It's surprising that there'd be a voltage issue, but it apparently is. I should remeter that just to make sure, though.

We're getting close - I think it's just going to take a bit more time. I hope to get on this again this weekend.
 
Tossing out a thought:

So, how about the 44 pin to 40 pin adapter right to the logic board as before.

Then use a short 40 pin ribbon cable with the logic board ends on both ends (so there is nothing blocked off on one end) to the pata/sata bridge. That way we can use the heavier power wire right off the logic board adapter to the pata/sata bridge which may have less voltage drop if thats the issue.

The vampire style connectors should be easy enought to take apart and reattach onto the 40 pin ribbon cable at whatever length is needed. By using the logic board ends on both ends, we should be able to insure that we have a one for one pinout from the logic board to the pata/sata adapter which we know works when plugged in directly. Also maybe some benefit as the larger ribbon cable looks like the internal wires are a bit heavier gauge and might carry the current with less reistance/voltage drop ? Downside is a bit more clumsy to fold into an acceptable shape to get that esata cable out the back.

For lack of something better I will try to fab up this solution this weekend as a test and see what happens. Sooo close yet so far.
 
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