Adam wrote:
> > >Adam wrote
> > >Although, it wouldn't work if I want to mass produce it.  This is why I
>am
> > >looking into purchasing a cd-drive unit and controlling it myself.  I
>guess
> > >not too many people have done that here..  =(
> >
> > Can you use an IDE CROM drive?
>I had never seriously considered using an IDE drive...
>
>I guess the fear of
>- interfacing it... ~40 lines

16 data I/O and about 5 control lines at the minimum.

>- processing time (not sure how much it takes)

All you are doing is reading from & writing to a few registers.
You can talk to the drive as fast or as slow as you like/need.

>- building a seperate audio driver... which I would have to if I was using a
>cd-drive unit...

Just use the drive's audio stereo output. (Or am I missing something?)

>hmmm...
>
>Do you know if interfacing to IDE is difficult... takes a lot of processing
>time... etc?

You can do it with a 16F877 for a simple hardware solution. If you use external
latches,etc you can do it with a smaller PIC. I have done a commercial project
with an IDE CDROM. It is a bit tricky - not one for beginners !
Regards...

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