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Tandy 1000 Adapters - expressions of interest?

eeguru said:
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?
Click to expand...

That's a good idea but I wanted to give EX / HX owners the ability to use small ISA cards of their choosing - I'm using the CF-IDE combined with a Serial card and If I wanted I could use a dual serial card or other cards of my choice.

The other issue is 62 pin female headers are rapidly becoming extinct, I only know of one place with them left and that's digikey, they have about 700 max last I checked.
 
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So I've had a fairly productive afternoon and completed both the Tandy 1000 Printer Adapter and PLUS-ISA/R Adapter v1.1:

Printer Adapter - Front:
SPj4lT0l.png


Printer Adapter - Rear:
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PLUS-ISA/R Adapter v1.1 - Front:
gqTJDZlh.png


PLUS-ISA/R Adapter v1.1 - Rear:
1mTfJdRh.png


I guess I just need to order some parts now! :D
 
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I've had to make a minor change to the PLUS-ISA/R Adapter v1.1, I realised the solder pads where too close to the PLUS Socket (which is almost 2mm wider than it needs to be) by about 1.9mm and have tweaked it accordingly.

ZaskYsx.png


I've now placed an order for the Tandy Printer Adapter and PLUS-ISA/R Adapter v1.1 PCB's and the Tandy Printer Adapter components (34p edge connectors & DB25 Female Sockets).
 
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For those without Ram expansions in their EX / HX machines:

I had a chance to do some testing last night, I pulled my ram expansion out and installed my Lo-tech Compact Flash IDE board directly into the main-board .... and it worked great with no issues at all. The same went for a dual port ISA serial card, it worked fine too. My EX was definitely not as responsive but im not sure how much of that was caused by only having 256k of ram.

Anyhoo, I'll proceed with finishing the design of what I'm now calling the "PLUS-ISA Riser Card v1.0". :cool:
 
Sooo, I think the Tandy 1000 PLUS-ISA Riser v1.0 board is done - space is a real issue so I've made the following compromises:

1/ There is less space between the bottom slot and the middle slot - the idea is that a very slim card like a Lo-tech ISA CompactFlash IDE would go on the bottom.

2/ The middle slot would be ideal for a slightly thicker card like an original ISA Serial Card

3/ the top slot would be ideal for a slim card like a lo-tech ram card that doesn't require rear access.

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I'm happy to entertain others opinions on this design as I wont be needing one myself.
 
Just out of curiosity, do any 1000 EX owners wish they could install a SmartWatch compatible upgrade into their machines?

I'd like to do this myself but the RAM expansion is in the way of the ROM Socket (they moved it in the HX) - so im currently seeing if I can make a small PCB to rotate it out of the way. Here's my current version:

AfjJT7Tm.png
 
Nope, I'm mostly interested in having a working XT-IDE in the machine and maybe, as you pointed out, a Lo-Tech RAM card (that I still don't own, need to check his site). The clock feature doesn't looks too appealing to me; but maybe a 8-bit VGA would be interesting,...nah, too big to fit I'm afraid.
 
jltursan said:
Nope, I'm mostly interested in having a working XT-IDE in the machine and maybe, as you pointed out, a Lo-Tech RAM card (that I still don't own, need to check his site). The clock feature doesn't looks too appealing to me; but maybe a 8-bit VGA would be interesting,...nah, too big to fit I'm afraid.
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Cheers, I'm mostly playing with ideas until my ISA boards arrive. Besides my clock chip has dead batteries like most of them now so back to the drawing board.
 
I'd actually be very interested in the SmartWatch adapter, as well as the riser card and replacement floppy cable. I don't have the resources to create my own parts, so being able to buy replacements is a big help.
 
Just waiting for the PLUS-ISA/R PCB's to arrive from Elecrow - they were sent on the 5th so should arrive any day.

I haven't had any feedback on the "PLUS-ISA Riser Board" for machines without the Ram expansion so I've put that on ice for now. I'd like to add 512kb of ram into it so it only needs 2 ISA Slots - I've reached out to someone who has done something similar so this would make the board much more useful if it pans out..

I've also been designing a Dallas DS1216 clock board for the 1000 EX machines which is compatible with Tandy's "SmartWatch" software. Due to the location of the Bios ROM in the 1000 EX, the Tandy SmartWatch doesnt fit as it blocks the ram expansion board from being properly inserted. Also the SmartWatch batteries are all dying and my design uses replaceable CR1632 Coin-Cells. I'm just waiting on a few parts to test my prototype's physical design before ordering PCB's.

Btw, I have 1x External Drive Cable/Adapter Set left - if anyone want it PM me. (I can make more if there's demand)
 
LOL, went to the post office this morning and my PCB's were there! Excellent!! :D

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and mechanically everything fits as it should! :cool:

Tandy 1000 PLUS-ISA/R Adapter:
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Tandy 1000 Printer Port Adapter:
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Guess I need to do some soldering this weekend! :eek:
 
So I built a few units this arvo to test and the PLUS-ISA/R Adapters work great - I can finally close the lid on my 1000 EX! 8)

My printer adapter has an issues tho, I must have crossed the streams somehow! :(

Adapters:
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Fits perfectly:
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Some careful modding of an ISA slot-bracket will allow the lower slot to be supported nicely:
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My Lo-tech ISA CompactFlash host adapter fits nicely in the top slot:
GFEiKRol.jpg


Of course ISA adapters have the connectors on the top of the boards and PLUS boards on the bottom of the board - no big deal tho if you put the card with ports in the lower slot.

etCP6MRl.jpg


looks much better now with the lid on.
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dJOS thanks again for putting in the time and effort making the adapters! You've given my EX new life although my wife has made it clear that she liked it much better when it was in the closet vs our den. It's really not an issue though when she brings it up I tell her not to worry about it because she can't see the den from the kitchen anyways! She's a good wife :)

I was going through some PCM magazines and ran across the August 1992 issue which has a whole section on "Powering up the Tandy 1000 EX/HX". I scanned some of the pages that I thought you'd like and maybe give you some ideas for the next EX/HX project.

Here's the album: https://imgur.com/a/ODZcu
 
dlightman said:
dJOS thanks again for putting in the time and effort making the adapters! You've given my EX new life although my wife has made it clear that she liked it much better when it was in the closet vs our den. It's really not an issue though when she brings it up I tell her not to worry about it because she can't see the den from the kitchen anyways! She's a good wife :)

I was going through some PCM magazines and ran across the August 1992 issue which has a whole section on "Powering up the Tandy 1000 EX/HX". I scanned some of the pages that I thought you'd like and maybe give you some ideas for the next EX/HX project.

Here's the album: https://imgur.com/a/ODZcu
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, Im glad you are enjoying your expanded EX. :cool:

My Wife has gotten used to my study being full of retr0 computers ... took a while tho. :D

Thanks for the articles, they are amazing, I had no idea those products existed and it does give me a few ideas to work on! :cool:
 
I have a Tandy 1000 TL. I think the only thing that will fit my Tandy is the Parallel port Edge connector
 
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