dlightman
Experienced Member
I'm interested in several ISA adapters and at least one of the parallel / floppy adapters.
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Tandy 1000 Adapters - expressions of interest?
- Thread starter dJOS
- Start date
dJOS
Veteran Member
Cheers, I just placed an order for another 20 right angle headers with digi key, hopefully that will cover the interest. 
waltermixxx
Experienced Member
Hi there, I have a Tandy 1000 EX and would love to get an ISA adapter for it.
Please let me know how much to pay (assuming i am lucky enough to get one.)
and what shipping would be to Canada. fingers crossed.
Cheers.
Please let me know how much to pay (assuming i am lucky enough to get one.
)and what shipping would be to Canada.
fingers crossed. Cheers.
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dJOS
Veteran Member
Hi there, I have a Tandy 1000 EX and would love to get an ISA adapter for it.
Please let me know how much to pay (assuming i am lucky enough to get one.
and what shipping would be to Canada.
Cheers.
No worries, when I get a chance I'll put names down in the first post so I can track the interest.
Postage to Canada is the same price as the USA but reports are that it can take 2 - 8 weeks, not sure why.
waltermixxx
Experienced Member
Thank you
looking forward to it.
cheers.
looking forward to it.
cheers.
keenerb
Veteran Member
I'd be more than happy to get mine in "kit" form whenever you actually start selling them, if you want to save the time of assembling.
dJOS
Veteran Member
No worries, that might be an option.
dJOS
Veteran Member
Folks, I've hit a snag with the PLUS to ISA adapter - v0.8 it doesnt allow you to close the expansion bay cover! :roll:
Anyhoo, not a big deal, I've come up with two new designs that im just finishing off.
PLUS to ISA adapter v1.0 is for those with Ram Expansions and requires one adapter per socket - it has a 62 pin header on the bottom and a right angle Edge Slot on the top for the lowest possible profile. Price is the same as v0.8. (this design isnt 100% finished but is really close)
PLUS to ISA adapter v2.0 is for those without Ram Expansions and Im hoping will provide 3x ISA slots in a riser format - this image is just a teaser as the auto routing is rubbish and I havent had time to finish the design properly yet. I havent worked out cost yet.
Anyhoo, not a big deal, I've come up with two new designs that im just finishing off.
PLUS to ISA adapter v1.0 is for those with Ram Expansions and requires one adapter per socket - it has a 62 pin header on the bottom and a right angle Edge Slot on the top for the lowest possible profile. Price is the same as v0.8. (this design isnt 100% finished but is really close)
PLUS to ISA adapter v2.0 is for those without Ram Expansions and Im hoping will provide 3x ISA slots in a riser format - this image is just a teaser as the auto routing is rubbish and I havent had time to finish the design properly yet. I havent worked out cost yet.
jltursan
Veteran Member
Definitely I'm interested in one of your ISA adapters 1.0 (I've plans to use it with a XT-IDE) and an external floppy cable.
dJOS
Veteran Member
Cheers.
dJOS
Veteran Member
Regarding the PLUS-ISA adaptors for those with a RAM expansion, I had a bit of a brain wave last night, I think can create even more room in the vertical by putting large edge-connector style pads down on the top and bottom of the PCB (like you see on an actual ISA expansion card) and soldering the edge connector directly on to them so the expansion cards would be installed at the same height in the expansion bay as a PLUS card would be.
The reason I think I need to do this is there's just bugger all height and even a small thin card like the XT CF-IDE adaptor is going to have space issues.
sort of like this Amiga 500 side expansion:
I think I'll do a 5 board run and test my theory out before proceeding with selling boards to others - I dont want folks to buy something that only has the ability to install one ISA card via the lower expansion connector before running out of room.
The reason I think I need to do this is there's just bugger all height and even a small thin card like the XT CF-IDE adaptor is going to have space issues.
sort of like this Amiga 500 side expansion:
I think I'll do a 5 board run and test my theory out before proceeding with selling boards to others - I dont want folks to buy something that only has the ability to install one ISA card via the lower expansion connector before running out of room.
jltursan
Veteran Member
XT-IDE is even bigger than XT-CF, maybe I need to check first if it's really impossible to fit this card in the expansion bay of my 1000EX as is...
dJOS
Veteran Member
XT-IDE is even bigger than XT-CF, maybe I need to check first if it's really impossible to fit this card in the expansion bay of my 1000EX as is...
I was referring more to thickness than pcb board area. I'm putting this in mine as it's tiny (and a small serial card for a mouse).
waltermixxx
Experienced Member
I sent a link to Niel Blanchard of the Coco Crew Podcast and Tandy Assembly, the latest podcast mentioned he was building one of these adapters by hand, I sent him the link to this thread and asked him to check it out... he currently has a 1000 ex and a 1000 hx... lucky bastard...
dJOS
Veteran Member
I sent a link to Niel Blanchard of the Coco Crew Podcast and Tandy Assembly, the latest podcast mentioned he was building one of these adapters by hand, I sent him the link to this thread and asked him to check it out... he currently has a 1000 ex and a 1000 hx... lucky bastard...
nice!
dJOS
Veteran Member
I finally got my replacement power plug last night for my EX!
and my Tandy 1000 EX lives!
and boots DOS 5.0 off my external floppy drive using my FDD Cable & Adapters! So they work which is awesome!
However I do have some issues with my 1000 EX that I need to sort out and didnt have the time to properly investigate last night. On top of that I think my 240-110v Step down transformer is too weak to properly power my 1000 - I've got another one in my HT that can provide more current and will hopefully solve the problem. I cant get it to power up with the PLUS Ram expansion in it, I don't even get fan spin in the power supply, which is why I suspect my step-down transformer being a bit gutless - it does this about 1 in 3 times without the expansion installed too.
and my Tandy 1000 EX lives!
and boots DOS 5.0 off my external floppy drive using my FDD Cable & Adapters! So they work which is awesome!
However I do have some issues with my 1000 EX that I need to sort out and didnt have the time to properly investigate last night. On top of that I think my 240-110v Step down transformer is too weak to properly power my 1000 - I've got another one in my HT that can provide more current and will hopefully solve the problem. I cant get it to power up with the PLUS Ram expansion in it, I don't even get fan spin in the power supply, which is why I suspect my step-down transformer being a bit gutless - it does this about 1 in 3 times without the expansion installed too.
Trixter
Veteran Member
Very cool! Makes me wish I had time to muck with my own EX and HX.
dJOS
Veteran Member
Well chaps, I'm one very relieved EX owner right now! Last night I found the cause of my problems, I'd removed the stupid rubberised EMF shield and the mainboard must have been contacting the steel bottom shield - anyhoo, some thin metal washers place under the mainboard solved the problem, my EX boots first time every time now and the RAM expansion works now too!
I just need to test my adapter design so I can proceed to the next step.
I just need to test my adapter design so I can proceed to the next step.
dJOS
Veteran Member
Update: Im making fast progress now, I built a couple of POC adapters last night to make sure my design works ..... and it does! :D
Phwoar!!! PIO mode with BIU offload using the XTP (V20 Plus version) XT-IDE R566 Bios gets almost 1/2 a Megabyte a second, pretty darn impressive for a 7Mhz machine and a non-DMA HDD host adapter!
So next step is for me to finish the next revision of the PLUS-ISA adapter is this version works but it's too tall, you can put a card into the lower slot and close the lid, but not the top slot.
Phwoar!!! PIO mode with BIU offload using the XTP (V20 Plus version) XT-IDE R566 Bios gets almost 1/2 a Megabyte a second, pretty darn impressive for a 7Mhz machine and a non-DMA HDD host adapter!
So next step is for me to finish the next revision of the PLUS-ISA adapter is this version works but it's too tall, you can put a card into the lower slot and close the lid, but not the top slot.
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eeguru
Veteran Member
James has opened the hardware design for that card. I'm not sure of the license, but it would be easy to check with him or his site. Why not recreate it with a modified edge header for the CF adapter or go direct to a purpose built plus adapter for XT-IDE like functionality?