adnan@rice.edu (Sarmad Adnan) (07/06/90)
Hi you Gurus out there.
I would like to know if it is possible to shutdown ones Hard-drive
(MFM or RLL) using some kind of a system call, interupt, Assembly
Language call, prayer etc.
My application program(in MSC) runs on an on-board computer on a mobile robot.
I would like to be able to shutdown the harddrive using some kind of a
function call or somthing before the robot starts moving.
Is it advisable to simply use a relay to cut the power to the drive down.
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Sarmad Adnan (adnan@rice.edu)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~alanf@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (Alan Grant Finlay) (07/08/90)
In article <9660@brazos.Rice.edu>, adnan@rice.edu (Sarmad Adnan) writes: > > I would like to know if it is possible to shutdown ones Hard-drive > > My application program(in MSC) runs on an on-board computer on a mobile robot. > I would like to be able to shutdown the harddrive using some kind of a > function call or somthing before the robot starts moving. > > Is it advisable to simply use a relay to cut the power to the drive down. You probably don't need to shut down the drive, just park the heads. I am not sure how you would go about getting a park function - normally parking utilities are supplied as .com type commands. Another possibility is to use a drive which automatically parks after a period of no activity. I have a 40 Mbyte Miniscribe model 3650 which does this after about 30 seconds of no activity (though I have disabled this function). Even if you use a power cut relay you still need to park the heads first. I must admit I don't know if it is safe to rotate the axis of a spinning drive even if the heads are parked. That shouldn't worry you if you mount the drive with the axis aligned vertically.