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8-Bit IDE Controller

bare bones is fine. I have a CGA monitor, 320k is fine, but if you want to augment it, I won't mind a bit!
As soon as I pick all of the parts to the 486 project I'll get right to. The mrs is already tired of looking at all this stuff if the Florida room (my favorite place to play).
 
PCBs are in!

Got all the parts from jameco today too, so this weekend I think I will be spending some quality time with the soldering iron.

Don't get excited yet, I still need to check everything out and make sure we haven't lost functionality, but I'd easily say by the end of the weekend we'll know if this is a home run or not.

Got the keyboard converters too, but haven't received the parts from digikey yet, so I can't build them. too bad for it that xtide is going to take up most of my time for awhile.

yay.
 
PCBs are in!

Got all the parts from jameco today too, so this weekend I think I will be spending some quality time with the soldering iron.

Don't get excited yet, I still need to check everything out and make sure we haven't lost functionality, but I'd easily say by the end of the weekend we'll know if this is a home run or not.

Got the keyboard converters too, but haven't received the parts from digikey yet, so I can't build them. too bad for it that xtide is going to take up most of my time for awhile.

yay.

Like a kid in a candy store! :D Good luck with the iron.
 
Bah!

Jameco sent more SEEQ eeproms. I specifically asked them not to. There is no way to order atmel directly from them, they just list all eeproms as "major brands". I've filed an RMA request, hopefully they will be able to work with me.

(out of the last batch of 10 that I ordered, 4 of them went bad. At $3.75 each, I cannot afford that high of a fallout rate, especially if we do 100 units)

Luckily, I've got 2 eeproms that I can steal from the earlier prototypes to at least get rolling with...
 
I've made a little update to the SETCARD program.

Instead of writing all 8 KB, it now only writes the first 64 Bytes. It is VERY many times faster, and I strongly recomend that you download the new file. You find it on the Wiki.

I actually suggest that you keep a copy of all the utilities on a bootable disk with DOS 2.0 or newer. This disk should be bootable without the XTIDE card installed. Very handy to have in cause you accidentally corrupt the EEPROM on the card.

If you have problems reaching the server, drop me an PM with your email address.
 
We have a home run on our hands!

I just threw one together, did the most craptacular soldering job on it, and it booted right up. The dipswitch diagram is correct (at least with the defaults) and the ROM enable/disable jumper is working. I haven't tested much else.

I didn't order any of the resistors for the LED, assuming that I'd just kipe some from the bins at work. I totally forgot to do that, so my LED is dead for the moment, but I'm sure it'll work when I get it wired in.

Everything else seems to be as solid as ever. I love it.

I'll post some pictures of my next build, but I'm going to do that with a real soldering iron at work tomorrow and not this shabby job I just pulled off at home.

Some notes:
1) We may consider shifting the back side silkscreen over and down some; it's almost completely in the upper right hand corner, and looks a little funny. It's also really hard to read with all the holes drilled through the board.

2) Three pin jumpers are a PITA. (CSel) I figured I could just cut apart some headers, but they just break apart.

3) the way this board is designed, you will have to drill your own holes for the mounting bracket. This is by design, and there's plenty of room to do it, but just remember that you'll have a little bit of work to do after assembling it. I also am in very, very short supply of ISA brackets. The only place I could find them only had 10 in stock, so we can't even fill half of this prototype build, let along the projected 100 cards on the next go. You have to do without or supply your own. (hence having to drill your own holes)

congratulations andrew, on another round of quality work!
 
3) the way this board is designed, you will have to drill your own holes for the mounting bracket. This is by design, and there's plenty of room to do it, but just remember that you'll have a little bit of work to do after assembling it. I also am in very, very short supply of ISA brackets. The only place I could find them only had 10 in stock, so we can't even fill half of this prototype build, let along the projected 100 cards on the next go. You have to do without or supply your own. (hence having to drill your own holes)

I'd figured on stealing one from another ISA card. The place in San Jose I go has tons of 'em for like $3.
 
We have a home run on our hands!

Hi! Thanks! That's great news!

I just threw one together, did the most craptacular soldering job on it, and it booted right up. The dipswitch diagram is correct (at least with the defaults) and the ROM enable/disable jumper is working. I haven't tested much else.

I didn't order any of the resistors for the LED, assuming that I'd just kipe some from the bins at work. I totally forgot to do that, so my LED is dead for the moment, but I'm sure it'll work when I get it wired in.

If you'd like you can substitute your VOM and it should sense the presence of voltage. Probably I'd just wait to install an LED though.

Everything else seems to be as solid as ever. I love it.

I'll post some pictures of my next build, but I'm going to do that with a real soldering iron at work tomorrow and not this shabby job I just pulled off at home.

Some notes:
1) We may consider shifting the back side silkscreen over and down some; it's almost completely in the upper right hand corner, and looks a little funny. It's also really hard to read with all the holes drilled through the board.

No problem. There is no substitute for real hardware prototypes for finding "look and feel" issues like these.

If it is readable at all, we may consider if this is worth another tooling charge or not. However, I will feel more comfortable after some additional testing to see what other regressions or issues may have crept in.

I suggest a list of all the "go fixes" on the wiki.

2) Three pin jumpers are a PITA. (CSel) I figured I could just cut apart some headers, but they just break apart.

I use a strip of the single row jumpers and an exacto knife or razor blade to "rock" through the cut lines. Just keep your fingers on both sides of the strip since once the blade cuts through the little stinkers go flying. Please just be careful with the cutting!

Also, you can get three pin jumpers which may be worthwhile if you are going to be making a lot of these. You could also just solder a wire instead of the jumper in if you have a particular preference in mind.

3) the way this board is designed, you will have to drill your own holes for the mounting bracket. This is by design, and there's plenty of room to do it, but just remember that you'll have a little bit of work to do after assembling it. I also am in very, very short supply of ISA brackets. The only place I could find them only had 10 in stock, so we can't even fill half of this prototype build, let along the projected 100 cards on the next go. You have to do without or supply your own. (hence having to drill your own holes)

congratulations andrew, on another round of quality work!

Thanks!

Chuck brought up the idea of the Keystone 9202 bracket. I adjusted the PCB so that should fit although the dimensions are right on the edge of not fitting. If it is possible to drill holes without destroying the PCB, we may consider just using the Keystone 9202 blank brackets.

Alternatively, here is a kooky idea... use some of the Keystone brackets for 9200-8 (the 50 pin SCSI cut out) and mount 50 pin IDC dual row headers with eyelets. Then make a custom ribbon cable from the IDE connector to the bracket so builders can mount their CF cards externally. You'd have to either find a 40 pin bracket cutout (not 9200-8) or just mount the CF card to one side.

http://www.keyelco.com/pdfs/M55-prod45.pdf

I don't know how feasible this is but it might work for those who *really* want external access for CF cards.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Hargle, are you looking for something like a Keystone 9202--or are your requirements different? Not saying (yet) that I have a source, just curious...

that is in fact exactly what I'm looking for! damn you're good. I'd take 115 of them if you can source them for me.
 
that is in fact exactly what I'm looking for! damn you're good. I'd take 115 of them if you can source them for me.

Hi Hargle! Try Digikey. I searched on Keystone 9202 and they came right up. Don't know if they are in stock though.

I suppose you could contact Keystone directly and ask for a distributor list.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Hi Hargle! Try Digikey. I searched on Keystone 9202 and they came right up. Don't know if they are in stock though.

Newark claims to have 25 in stock, though my own experience says that the number may not reflect reality.

Worst case, you could use the 9203 (PCI) with the tabs on the wrong side of the bracket and a couple of standoffs.
 
I'm three for three now!
I built two more up at work over the last couple days.
these cards are unstoppable. My LEDs now work too, now that I've stolen a few 150ohm resistors from work. (shhhh!)


Andrew, i will have a PCB, parts, and the original wire wrap prototype off in the mail to you in a day or so. I'm going to be out of town again this thursday-monday, but next week I can start filling orders for these. Pricing will appear shortly.

Before I can properly put together some kits to sell, I need to get some single row headers, some more resistors, and some of the little bolts to go into the bracket. I should probably buy a bag of jumpers too, and probably pick up a roll of static bags for shipping. I may have to turn my office into a shipping and handling department when we really get rolling.

Jameco ignored my RMA request to return the SEEQ parts and get atmel. I will contact them again tomorrow, but I doubt they will listen to me. So far, I've put 2 of the SEEQ parts in, and they are working.
 
hey guys... i tried using my prototype on my 386 DX/40. it's an everex motherboard. it was working fine for a bit, then it just stopped running the option ROM on boot. i freaked out, thought the card got borked somehow but i put it back in my XT clone and it works fine. any idea what the problem is? i even removed all cards except the video (tried two different ones) and the XT IDE card and it just won't run the option ROM no matter what.

ANY clue what the issue could be?? i've reset the BIOS to defaults and everything. this is really crazy! what exactly are the DIP switch settings for the card? i've never changed them from what it was when i opened the package i got in the mail.

the DIP switches just to the left of jumper 1:

1 - on
2 - on
3 - on
4 - on
5 - off
6 - off
7 - on
8 - on

the other one:

1 - off
2 - off
3 - on
4 - off
5 - on
6 - on
7 - on
8 - on



i played with a couple switches and the machine wouldn't boot past the POST because of a DMA #1 error, so i put them back to the old configuration.

maybe there's an option ROM mapping conflict, or an IRQ/DMA conflict??? i wouldn't imagine so because as i said i've tried just the video card and the XT IDE card. i completely disabled the mobo's onboard serial and parallel as well to be safe. i've also tried various different ISA slots. no help.

maybe i need to update the option ROM? i *NEVER* have out of fear of some freak accident making it totally unbootable. :eek:
 
hey guys... i tried using my prototype on my 386 DX/40. it's an everex motherboard. it was working fine for a bit, then it just stopped running the option ROM on boot. i freaked out, thought the card got borked somehow but i put it back in my XT clone and it works fine. any idea what the problem is? i even removed all cards except the video (tried two different ones) and the XT IDE card and it just won't run the option ROM no matter what.


I'm having the same issue. After several boots (the number varies) the computer no longer sees the option ROM. Sometimes I can reflash and it works. Other times nada. This is on a 1000sx and a Compaq Prolinea 486/25.
 
I'm having the same issue. After several boots (the number varies) the computer no longer sees the option ROM. Sometimes I can reflash and it works. Other times nada. This is on a 1000sx and a Compaq Prolinea 486/25.

Must be the EEPROM. You may try to reflash it, then bend up the /WE pin and tie it to VCC with a resistor. This should put it to Read-only. If you still got problems with it, you'll have to replace the EEPROM with another EEPROM or an ordinary EPROM.

Is "nada" a proper english word? It kind of sounds like the norwegian "neida" (originates from "nei da"), which literary translates to "no then" (the closest translation that makes sense is "oh no").
 
Is "nada" a proper english word? It kind of sounds like the norwegian "neida" (originates from "nei da"), which literary translates to "no then" (the closest translation that makes sense is "oh no").

"nada" is Spanish for nichts.
 
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