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FS: Tandy 1000 HX with XT-IDE card, CF IDE adapter & CF card

G

geoffm3

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2009
Messages
1,272
Location
Huntsville, AL
I have a nice condition Tandy 1000 HX that I'd like to get rid of. It includes the memory expansion/DMA card for 640kB RAM total, and I've got an XT-IDE card installed in it along with a CF IDE adapter and 32MB CF card. Boots off of the XT-IDE and I've loaded a few Sierra games onto the CF card. Everything works great. Cosmetically I'd say it's about a 7/10, and the floppy drive is a little sticky on the ejector but works otherwise (just needs some cleaning).

$80. I'm located in North Alabama.
 
For whoever's on the fence about this... get it. It's a great price - remember that the XT-IDE is about $45 of the cost, and that the memory expansion can often snag the asking price.
 
I don't have really that much nostalgia towards the PC compat side of the world, but this does sound like an interesting rig, and if I was gonna go PC, it'd definitely be via a Tandy 1000, so why not? PM sent. Time to start looking for Wizardry somewhere.
 
I have a taker for it now... Sold. Thanks for all the interest. IMO these are the coolest of the Tandy 1000 series. Not as expandable as the desktop case models, sure, but expandable enough with the XT-IDE card. A good friend of mine growing up had the EX model and I'd always wanted one of the compact models of my own. I've had it for about 3 years now and my interests have moved on.

I had a couple people ask how I interfaced it to the XT-IDE card. There's a Tandy 1000 FAQ floating around which has a section about interfacing standard PC ISA cards to the PLUS connector in the 1000EX/HX. Cliffs: they are pin compatible once you add the DMA card (if you don't need DMA I suppose you could get by without). I used an edge card connector and ribbon cable to the pin header for one of the two expansion ports.
 
A tandy HX with XTIDE looks a lot like this:
http://waste.org/~winkles/tandywdrive.jpg
http://waste.org/~winkles/tandyfit2.jpg

In the time that I've taken those photos, I trimmed down the pin header coming off the DMA card, so the XTIDE lays flat now (it just barely fits!).
This then gave me enough room to fit a CF adapter mounted on a bracket in there as well, so I have nicely pimped out HX with an 8 gig hard drive and a CF slot off the back of the machine for quick removable storage. It's awesome.
 
Yeah, I keep meaning to get back to mine. I've got the Plus cable with my after-market 640kb DMA card, and I've two drives in my HX. I'm thinking that the XT-IDE with CF is about the perfect solution for it, though for some odd reason, I haven't gotten back to it. FWIW, I've an EX with the official Tandy 640kb DMA card as well - also a nice unit. I've got it on "extended loan" to Chomedome45, and I keep telling him that he oughtta do the same thing w/ a spare XT-IDE... :)
 
The HX must have a slightly wider expansion bay. I was never able to fit my XT-IDE in my 1000EX.
 
Anybody remember where they purchased the connectors to do this? I'd like to add an XT-IDE card to my EX or HX, but have not been able to find 62 position edge card or IDC socket connectors. :(
 
jharre said:
Anybody remember where they purchased the connectors to do this? I'd like to add an XT-IDE card to my EX or HX, but have not been able to find 62 position edge card or IDC socket connectors. :(
Click to expand...

The ISA slots came from Jameco I think, or you can desolder one from a dead board. I totally ghetto-rigged a 62 pin female IDC plug from 2 IDE cables with a dremel and superglue. Works just fine.

I see now that hargle trimmed the PLUS header. That's one step farther than I wanted to go. Shame there's not a half height version of the XT-IDE.

I'm glad this sold quickly. It's a nice machine. And it makes me feel less guilty for jacking the thread. :p
 
Hatta said:
The ISA slots came from Jameco I think, or you can desolder one from a dead board. I totally ghetto-rigged a 62 pin female IDC plug from 2 IDE cables with a dremel and superglue. Works just fine.

I see now that hargle trimmed the PLUS header. That's one step farther than I wanted to go. Shame there's not a half height version of the XT-IDE.

I'm glad this sold quickly. It's a nice machine. And it makes me feel less guilty for jacking the thread. :p
Click to expand...

I didn't have to booger the PLUS header to get it to fit the HX... I did leave the back of the IDC connector off since it would be too wide to fit otherwise. I suppose another option might be to carefully remove the plastic header and save it for later if you wanted to put it back. Should be possible to remove it with a little persuasion.
 
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