• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

(XT-IDE Derivative) Lo-tech ISA CompactFlash PCBs available now...

Okay,

Not to thread hijack but I am a bit confused at this point with all the variations and iterations of this great project :)

I guess there are two different projects to begin with:

1. XT-IDE - 8bit IDE controller designed to work with IDE hard drives and could be made to work with CF w/ an adapter
2. XT-CF: Originally envisioned to allow both IDE and CF then just CF. V1 and V2 boards had issues and now a V3 is in the works. In the mean time there are a number of derivative boards (such as the one referred to this thread).

Is that an accurate (super brief) summary? Or am I missing tons of info?

If I am on the right track one question:

1. Any ETA on the XT-CFv3 board?
2. Any chance of going back to the IDE/CF on one board design?
3. XT-FDC: I know it is a seperate project. However, would these two boards work with each other? Can they be combined (some of us have all 8 of our slots filled!) into one board?
4. One issue I have is the kit nature of the boards. Although I can do basic soldering it isn't something I am very good at and more imprtantly it is something I really don't have time for. Any plans on getting the CFv3 boards pre-assembled?
I like keeping my machines as stock as possible. However, it is nice to have a "Plan B" and I'd like to support the community which grows these awesome projects.
 
PCBs ordered to date have now been dispatched. Plenty left :)


Shadow Lord - you're pretty much spot-on - see here for my boards. Andrew Lynch runs XT-IDEv2 PCBs periodically I believe.

XT-CFv3 PCBs are available now if you want to take a chance. There are two boards with testers which AFAIK are working fine but for everyone this is a hobby so things take time. My last update on the XT-CFv3 is here. I have looked in to construction but it's just not feasible with the kinds of quantities we're talking here.

Re XT-FDC, the PCB design looks pretty well packed with chips leaving little room for more logic We could probably build a combined board with SMT and/or programmable logic, however both approaches limit take-up in my experience, while bigger PCBs of are (much) more expensive. On the plus side there is loads of capacity in the XT-CF series ROMs so if using the two cards in one system, only the XT-CF would need a ROM chip populated.

HTH!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the update and clarifications. I'll keep an eye out for the CFv3. I may just have to solder....
 
I finally got around to building this, but it's locking up after detecting the master. (It sees my cf card correctly, but never shows slave which should be not found)

Later,
dabone
 
And, after thinking for a min, I plugged it into a P-200 I had laying around, and it works in that.
Doesn't work in my Tandy 1000sx.

The 1000sx works fine with my XT-IDE v1 and V2, and a 16bit controller in 8 bit mode.

Later,
dabone
 
The problem is the BIOS (late initialisation specifically). Either build the BIOS yourself from source without the late initialisation module, or try this modified R566 build (which also includes master & slave functionality).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top