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Need help when use isa-to-usb card in IBM 5160!

This is a quick view of the progress to solve my problem.
When I first received this isa usb adapter,my XT 5160 can not pass the POST test."Press CTL TO start E-DISK" is printed because the rom bios failed to detect CTL key pressed.F6400 ROM ... is printed is because of the wrong address decoder of it,the rom bios is mapped in several addresses.
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This is the screen when I remove the w27c512 rom chip from the adapter,and load the dos driver of it in CONFIG.SYS,usb disk can be recognized as C:\ disk.
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When I fixed the addressed decoder with a 74ls11,and modified the rom bin file to jump over the CTL key detect routine,I tried to boot my XT 5160 from usb disk.
This is the "MIssing operating system"error I got.
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the modified version added a 74ls11
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This is some tests when I study on the rom bios source and tried to modified it to work.I used a freedos copy.I tried a lot of disk management tools to test.
stack overflow error
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can't find command.com error
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This is the final screen when I succeed to boot from usb.
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This is the modified version.
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this is the modified bios rom.
View attachment burn(w27c512).zip

Hope it's useful.For some strange reason I can't make it work again now,But I believe you can do it after some careful research.
 
Hi

I have recently just assembled by revision 1 board and have problems getting it running. I have Olivetti M240 with NEC V30 and two FDD drives (3" and 5").

When flashing, I had to remove my MFM controller as it seemingly listened on same port. After that, the ROM on wiki page flashed successfully.

Sadly on booting my machine hangs on Starting CH375 V1.5. I do not get the error messages ineverland did and holding down CTRL also skips the USB booting and resumes booting from FDD.

When not pressing CTRL, I get a * after a long wait. I have also noticed that my 5" FDD activity led stays lit.

Should I try flashing the ineverland ROM? The 5" activity led sound suspicious to me - is it conflicting with it somehow?

Thanks in advance
 
Hi

I have recently just assembled by revision 1 board and have problems getting it running. I have Olivetti M240 with NEC V30 and two FDD drives (3" and 5").
I'm pleased to hear there is another built board, I was starting to think i had the only one! :)

Sadly on booting my machine hangs on Starting CH375 V1.5. I do not get the error messages ineverland did and holding down CTRL also skips the USB booting and resumes booting from FDD.
The original Boot rom bios is set to IO 260 and the CH375 on the lo-tech card is listening at 2C0 so the IO address needs changing to 2C0 in the bios.

When not pressing CTRL, I get a * after a long wait. I have also noticed that my 5" FDD activity led stays lit.
Yes, Wrong IO address, I also have the same problem with the floppy led lights.

Should I try flashing the ineverland ROM? The 5" activity led sound suspicious to me - is it conflicting with it somehow?

Thanks in advance
You will need to change the IO address to 2C0 yourself and adjust the checksum byte before flashing, Or PM me your email address and I'll send you a copy. The ROM Boot bios has issues, I could only get it to work in my 486 (with issues). However the DOS driver worked fine in my XT and 486.
 
PM-d my e-mail address.

I haven't disassembled and recompiled before, but changing couple of constants doesn't sound too complicated. I would be glad to try it out if someone could give some instructions on what tools to use and where to look.

Thanks in advance
 
And BIOS configured for 2C0 sent, Have you tried the DOS driver CH375DOS.sys, Just put a line in your config.sys as so:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\CH375DOS.SYS @2C0 %2
PM-d my e-mail address....
 
Hello everyone. I recently built the Lo-tech ISA USB adapter and I'm having trouble to get it to work. I'g getting: "CH375: I/O data error". I have tried v1.9 and v2.0 of the driver. Tried Jumper JP4 both positions. JP3 Closed. The LED comes on. My config.sys is DEVICE=CH375DOS.SYS @2C0 %2
I boot form floppy A: MS-DOS 5.0 and 3.3. No other ISA adapter connected. All my ISA slots are tested and working. At first I thought my CH375 is faulty so I replaced it with new one, but with no result. Any suggestions? 01_0BOARD.jpg01_BOARD.jpgIMG_20161201_123931.jpgIMG_20170130_234650.jpgIMG_20170130_235654.jpg
 
JP3 should be open its only for slot 8 on an IBM 5160

Why is C10 on your board a 100ohm resistor ?
Check all the SMD parts especially C12 and C13, as a test you can even leave those two caps off.
 
You also have the boot rom enabled in the pic, Disable it and just use the V1.9A dos driver in an XT class machine.
 
Why is C10 on your board a 100ohm resistor ?
Check all the SMD parts especially C12 and C13, as a test you can even leave those two caps off.
No excuse. I will post again after the correction. Thank you so much for this!
 
I replaced the C10 with a ceramic one but not SMT. C12 and C13 measure the same resistance. I still have the same results. I use the v1.9A driver.
Is anybody selling an assembled & tested adapter please?
 
As pietja said i would check all SMT components, Go over all solder joints and re-flow any that look suspicious, AFAIK there is only 3 of us that have reported in with built boards out of the 2 batches that James sold, My board is working Thanks to pietja who found the discrepancy in the IO address. I doubt if anyone is selling tested and working adapters, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a Rev 2 board when available.
 
C12 and C13 measure the same resistance.
C12 and C13 are capacitors and shouldn't measure anything on resistance.

Test your board without those two capacitors, it may change the timing but that only affects the USB port itself and not the ISA interface.

Do you have a picture of the bottom of the board and a detailed one of the area around the CH375?

Currently the only assembled adapters are from china https://world.taobao.com/item/8333503617.htm?fromSite=main&spm=2014.21345292.0.0
 
I've got this card too... But without the ROM. And it works well with my 5160.
I have the Schematic diagram of this card, it says the rom plug is designed for 27c256...But you've got a 27C512 on it.
There's a different between these two types:
Pin1 of 27C256 is Vpp, it has 12.5V voltage when programming and has 5v when reading.
Pin1 of 27C512 is A15, I think it should be 0V when reading 0-256k but not 5V
if you use 27C512 on this card , I think you'd better connect this pin to GND.

And this card won't work if you put it in slot 8.
 
The website of WCH has the full Schematic diagram/ROM code/PCB file/DOS Driver for downloading...
This card is the official designing which you can find it on it's website.
And CH375 supports ISA to USB/LPT to USB/COM to USB/PC104 to USB, These kinds of products can be seen everywhere in China。。。
 
The real reason why the address problem happened is using wrong type of ROM chip, I guess...
 
C12 and C13 are capacitors and shouldn't measure anything on resistance.

Test your board without those two capacitors, it may change the timing but that only affects the USB port itself and not the ISA interface.

Do you have a picture of the bottom of the board and a detailed one of the area around the CH375?

Currently the only assembled adapters are from china https://world.taobao.com/item/8333503617.htm?fromSite=main&spm=2014.21345292.0.0


Here's the datasheet of this card, and 27C256/512 ROM's datasheet.

222.jpg

3333.jpg

If you put 27c512 on this card, the A15 pin will always HIGH, and the data you got from the ROM is wrong cause the wrong address.
So you have to remove the pin15 and connect it to GND if you're using 27C512.
 
Thank you very much for the answers and all the information. I started replacing the smts with normal components. Unfortunately I damaged one contact at the C12 and the contact at pin27 of the CH375. So I made bridges. Possibly I made things even worse. Still no results. If someone wants to help by fixing this (via postage), I would be really grateful!
Or else I'll go for the Chinese one. This is beyond my skills.
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Look for someone local who does electronics, at this stage old computers are not involved only quantity soldering.
The bigger rom doesn't mater whatsoever becase you are using the dos driver so you can even remove the rom to eliminate any problem's there.
 
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