Flash Memory chip question

[Prophes0r]

I apologize if this is not the place for this question. Feel free to move it.


I have been mucking around with 3 non-working flash drives today, and a 4gb ipod nano (Gen 1) that has a completely dead battery. After doing some research involving how flash devices work, i have decided to focus my mad-scientist tendencies on hacking a NAND flash device to use more memory.

The devices i have at the moment, however, do not use chips that are currently available to me (or are no longer in production). I have some data sheets on various chips from Samsung/Toshiba/Hynix but I'm unable to decipher whether a larger capacity chip can replace a current one and be compatible.

I know that the pin functions line up (IO/Power/Ground/etc..) but I just don't know enough about the chips to make a determination.

Also, how do i go about finding the controller chip and figuring out how much memory it is capable of addressing?

what do i need to look for to get a better knowledge, without going and getting a degree in EE?

I have a workable knowledge of simple circuit design and i can solder surface mount components, but the real technical stuff is beyond me at the moment. Any help would be appreciated.


The Prophes0r

 

[r_manic]

Hey props... I'm no electronics expert, but maybe you dissect another flash drive to see how the drive controller hooks up to a NAND, then just try to copy that?

 

[photonboy]

You would have to Google the EXACT device you are trying to add a larger capacity flash drive to and find specific instructions.

Some may have a firmware chip (like your motherboard BIOS) on the device itself containing an operating system while some may have the OS on the flash drive itself.

They are all different. At your level of expertise it sounds like you need to find a site that spells out exactly what you need to do, STEP by STEP.

It seems like companies like Apple have gone to quite a bit of effort to make it difficult to buy a lower capactiy device and simply upgrade it. This is because they can charge more for the memory. It's ridiculuos that many of these expensive devices don't have an SDHC slot.

 

[505090]

manufacturers go out of their way to make what you are tempting to do very difficult. There are literally dozens of x-boxes and i-pod gen 1. And very few of the parts are compatible between each other.

You will need to identify what version you have, find the schematics for that version, and then start specing out the chips.

 

[MrLinux]

I'm no expert (or is that ex-spurt?), but from what (little) I know, most FLASH controllers are programable devices, they need to be programmed with the characteristics of the FLASH devices they are controlling (probably by JTAG, or something like it) as part of the manufacturing/testing process; if this is true (and if I'm not talking out of my...) they could be re-programmed...