mSATA to SATA project

Thread Starter

cyrusfox

Joined Feb 26, 2011
3
Ok, so this should be pretty simple project but I am in over my head. I have the new Intel 310 SSD 40gb Hard Drive and I would like to hook it up to my desktop computer. I have the pin out for the device(pg 11-12) thanks to the spec sheet from Intel. It is an mSATA device, so it should be able to directly hook up to the SATA interface without any controller. The pins for 7pin sata data and 15 pin SATA power are found on the Wikipedia page.

Here is what I am thinking of doing. I am thinking of connecting a male mini pcie with pin out to a normal sata male 7 +15 pin. Then I can plug the device into the mini pcie slot and also hook up a sata data and power cable and I should be good to go.

So the mini PCIe has 52 pins out, but only 23 need to be connected to the sata pin (P:2,4,9,15,18,21,23,24,25,26,27,29,31,33,34,35,37,39,40,41,49,50,52) 13 of those are ground, 5 are 3.3V and the other 5 are unique(data paths: A+, A-, B+, B- and Device Activity Signal / Disable Staggered Spin-up). ON the normal Sata side I have 8 ground plugs and only 3 3.3V plugs and 1 for 1 on the unique 5.

So I have a couple of question. Firstly what would be the best method of joining these two male pins together. I have never used a custom pcb or bread board and I am worried that these components are much to small for that(the mini pcie has a pitch of .8mm, while the sata has a 1.27mm pitch). I plan on soldering this together. I'll list the tools I have along with my experience at the end so you can make a judgement call. I am looking for a relatively cheap solution so there is room for error. What would be the simplist and easiest way to do this? Secondly, how should I split up the grounds(13 to 8) and the 3.3V(5 to 3) connection? can I pool them all together? I just figured I would split no more than 2 to a line and call it good.

I was looking for the easy solution, just buy an mSATA adapter, but they really don't exist yet for consumers. Trust me, I have looked for adapters online, and because this is a new interface, I could only find two solutions, and only one of them guarantees compatibility but it would cost me $58 shipped and I have some minor skill in soldering so I would like to give this a try.

Tools and Experience
I have a Weller WESD51 Digital Soldering Station with Power Unit, Soldering Pencil, Stand, Sponge with the standard tip. I have a spool of High-Tech Rosin-Core Silver-Bearing Solder and a bunch of electrical tape. That's about it for pertinent tools. As far as experience goes, I have removed a dead DC power port from a laptop motherboard and replaced it. I have installed a back-lit screen on a gameboy advance(required soldering a cable on a couple different spots on the board). Also a few custom case mods for PCs to get an old case led and power button to work with a new motherboard. Really small stuff. This seems like a lot of work and I don't know where to start.

So what do I need to buy and any other advice/wisdom is most appreciated. Thank you
 
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Thread Starter

cyrusfox

Joined Feb 26, 2011
3
no love on my project:(

Oh well. Parts are all here. Man, .8mm pitch is tiny, as is the 1.27mm for the sata side. I am going to design a pcb layout and etch it I guess. I got enough spare parts to do 4 runs. Hopefully I get this working. Does anyone know of an easy pcb layout program, I am currently in eagle 5.11.0 trying to figure out how to get it to link the pins I want. I almost feel like I could accomplish this faster in paint!
 

R!f@@

Joined Apr 2, 2009
9,918
The Ground shud not be pooled together. They are laid in such a way to minimize data interference and cross talk and all that.

Just make a PCB that connects it straight from, pin to pin. No jumps. Lay the ground between each trace
 
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