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XT IDE Ordering interest? (Was: Xt-ide

XT IDE Ordering interest? (Was: Xt-ide

  • 1

    Votes: 59 52.7%

  • 2

    Votes: 38 33.9%

  • 3

    Votes: 8 7.1%

  • 4

    Votes: 5 4.5%

  • 5+ (please post how many below)

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Total voters
    112
lynchaj said:
Have you tried connecting the bracket to the PCB? If so, how did it fit in your computer? I am curious to know if the dimensions are right. They should be but you never know until the real stuff arrives.

Please post a photo of PCB with bracket installed and your impressions of its fit into a PC/XT/clone
Click to expand...

I did attach a bracket to one card just to see if the holes lined up, and I think it will work. It's off by a tiny fraction, but I think if you get both screws started and then tighten them down together rather than doing one at a time, everything will work out. I only had one screw to work with at the time, but it looks like it'll be doable. I did not put the card with the bracket into a machine, but I'll do that. I'll post a photo with the new silkscreen too.
 
Hi Hargle! Did you ever get a chance to post a photo of the rev 2 XTIDE board? I am curious as to how it turned out. Are there any issues with the mounting bracket?

There are occasionally minor variations between ISA cards and PC cases that make mounting rather tight or even not work at all. One way to fix it is to put in the screws for the mounting bracket but keep them a little loose so there is some play in the bracket. Install it in the backplane and use a screwdriver to tighten once it place after its made adjustments.

It is too bad there is no published standard for ISA boards mounting brackets. It seems every board is unique and that is very odd to me. There are rough outlines of the ISA boards and a quasi-standard but nothing rigorous especially if you consider the amount of variations in ISA boards in any given collection.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Short answer, not yet. Been having a personal crisis:

I've been having a total "dear liza" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There's_a_Hole_in_My_Bucket series of unfortunate events with my old machines. Take for example saturday's hours were spent like this:

I'm trying to reorganize my entire PC collection, since I don't have a lot of room, I have to stack machines on top of each other. I don't want to put a machine at the bottom of the stack until they are "finished" (all the cards I'd ever need inside them, and all working) because they are all heavy and moving them is a PITA. I couldn't get my XT finished because I wanted to test out the new BIOS that was released. Since I'm using SEEQ parts, I need to move the jumpers on the card, so the machine had to be pulled from the stack and opened. In order to get the new BIOS onto the machine, I had to transfer the files from the internet to 3.5" floppy, then to 5.25" floppy. In order to do that, I needed my 486 machine which has both drive types. That machine was already disconnected from a previous operation, so I hooked it up again and turned it on. Now that machine has a CMOS error, so I decide to try and locate a new battery for it. I couldn't find one handy, so I ended up taking apart my AT and stealing the battery pack from it... It's really ridiculous! By the end of the day I had no less than 4 machines torn apart and my office looked like the Tasmanian devil had gone through it. I've got barely a path into my office now, and I was so short on storage space for a bit that I had a VGA monitor sitting on the countertop in my bathroom. Do not let yourself sink to my level!

Anyway, I am trying to recover from this, then forward progress can continue. Tonight I have some hours to spend again.
 
Real simple question that I didn't see in the FAQ but is it assumed that we connect an additional power supply to power the drive or is there a connector on the card itself? Depending on the requirement a potential feature set might be a custom bracket with a mounted power connector so you can just connect the additional PS to the back of the system/card, although that does make me nervous if it'd be sturdy enough.
 
Wouldn't you connect an IDE hard disk with a regular Molex connector, hopefully powered from the same supply that powers rest of the computer? Or does your PC have a such weak power supply that it wouldn't be able to power one more hard drive, even if you disable any older MFM drive? For that matter if you add a IDE to CF adapter, usually you don't need any external power to that one.
 
Power is up to you. It depends on the type of drive you want to run on it anyway. Regular PATA IDE requires a 4 pin molex from your power supply. All the CF-IDE adapters I have use the mini 4 (or 2, it only needs 5v) pin power leads, like what is commonly on a 1.44mb drive. microdrives and notebook drives would require different power and or adapters to make work.

With all the different possibilities, we didn't want to force anyone into any particular configuration, so we didn't include any hardware for power. Some could call it forward thinking, others may call it laziness. ;)

------

edit: and where are we now?

The Atmel parts are in. I am planning on pre-programming them before they ship out, and ran into a tiny issue getting the code just right on my XT (see above rambling). Once I can verify that the code is ready, I will spend an evening or two programming up all the parts and then I will ship everything to lutiana for kitting and delivery. As of yet, the main bulk of the parts has not been ordered yet. (lutiana personal stuff is taking time)
Soon though. Very, very soon.
 
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And how do we order our collector's edition kits ;-) I want some blessed sharpie on one if I can get it from the main devs (though a daunting task probably since the team seemed pretty large).
 
finally got a bracket installed and photos taken!
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/xtide2fit1.jpg
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/xtide2fit2.jpg

things of note:
1) the screws required for the bracket seem smaller than most ISA screws. It took me 5 cards to locate a pair of screws that worked. We're buying a bag of screws for the kits, so hopefully they are the exact ones we need.

2) it looks like our front silkscreen lost the jumper info for all the jumpers. :( I didn't really even notice until just now; I'd been looking at how wonderful the back is all this time. Luckily, we have the wiki which can show everything.

3) the fit of the card seems perfect though! These pictures are on my zenith 8088. My XT and PC are closed up already.
 
Some people are also ordering AT/XT keyboard converters in that spreadsheet - does it mean they are already available as well?
How much are they? I'm definitely interested, especially if I can have them shipped together with XT-IDEs, thus saving on shipping costs...
 
yes, keyboard converters are ready and shipping already.
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?15907-AT-to-XT-Keyboard-Converter/page15

$7 each + $3 postage if you are in the USA, $5 if you are overseas.
Available in kit or pre-built form. No price difference. There are about 12 left I think.

For overseas customers, we might not be able to say that we can just write off all shipping charges when you order them together. Here in the USA, we have a flat rate box. You could ship gold bricks or feathers and it would be the same cost. It might be different by air mail. We can iron those details out after things ship. If we need you to send an extra buck or two, we'll get it from you one way or another. ;)

edit: BTW we're waiting on Lutiana's personal life to settle out a bit before we can start the XTIDE ordering process. ETA is soon. That's all I have.
 
Combined shipping is also the preffered option for me. Transmitting Cash should be easy and relatively fast with several methods, for example PayPal. Time is not a thing which matters, for me. When it's done, make a complete price for the Keyboard Converter and the IDE Controller. :)
 
Well, if we start adding additional only-in-the-US-items like keyboard adapters to the package, I'd dare to drop in a suggestion:

I can't find this over here, and shipping alone from the US is a bit expensive- if they do it at all:

http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/ATX-to-AT-Converter.php

That to replace old AT style PSU's with a modern ATX one- at least for my 386 (not sure if possible with older ones too).

Link is just an example, needless to say a bit cheaper version would be welcome too..
 
k2x4b524[ said:
so when we gonna get to pay for these gems and get a final price?
Click to expand...

Well I have been missing for a bit since I have been dealing some personal shit (I'll give you a hint it starts with D and ends with ivorce), but I am more or less settled again. Hopefully I can not focus more attention on this and get these things out ASAP.
 
I would love to get a couple of these boards, just thought I'd double check and make sure I'm not too late (I just discovered this thread, gotta check in here more often!). Also, is there any reason this wouldn't work in an AT or AT clone?
 
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