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Tandy 1100FD, a few questions

Juror22 said:
I tried this a few years back, let us know if you have better luck than I did...

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?43861-Replacing-hard-drive-in-Tandy-1110HD&highlight=
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Well crap, I wonder if using one of these might behave differently? https://www.newegg.com/p/1B0-007S-0...e=sd_to_cf_adapter-_-9SIA86V3DZ5854-_-Product

I also have a few of these on order, I will throw in a small SD card and see what happens. https://www.newegg.com/p/2A7-00BD-0...=ide_to_sd_adapter-_-9SIA7BF34D7525-_-Product
 
Juror22 said:
I tried this a few years back, let us know if you have better luck than I did...

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?43861-Replacing-hard-drive-in-Tandy-1110HD&highlight=
Click to expand...

What size CF did you use, and what kind of adapter? I've got an adapter that's made for IDE laptops that plugs straight into a 44-pin header and pulls it's power straight from pin-20, so doesn't need an external power connector. See here.

I've also got a 16MB Canon card. See here. If indeed this controller is ATA-IDE and not XT-IDE, you're much more likely to get a CF card to read if the size is more appropriate to what it's original HDD would be, since hard drive controllers were limited at this time by how large a HDD geometry they could recognize (though that can likely be changed if you can upgrade the BIOS.
 
blackepyon said:
What size CF did you use, and what kind of adapter? I've got an adapter that's made for IDE laptops that plugs straight into a 44-pin header and pulls it's power straight from pin-20, so doesn't need an external power connector. See here.

I've also got a 16MB Canon card. See here. If indeed this controller is ATA-IDE and not XT-IDE, you're much more likely to get a CF card to read if the size is more appropriate to what it's original HDD would be, since hard drive controllers were limited at this time by how large a HDD geometry they could recognize (though that can likely be changed if you can upgrade the BIOS.
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I had used 512 MB CF cards, which were the smallest that I have, as well as a similar IDE to CF adapter (I'm pretty sure I tried both a female angled adapter as well as a straight adapter that would never fit, but was a different version) Neither was the type that uses external power.
 
Juror22 said:
I had used 512 MB CF cards, which were the smallest that I have, as well as a similar IDE to CF adapter (I'm pretty sure I tried both a female angled adapter as well as a straight adapter that would never fit, but was a different version) Neither was the type that uses external power.
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Yeah, 512MB would definitely be too large for that BIOS. If you can get a hold of an 8,16, or 32MB (I'd bet on the 16MB), those might work. The eBay page I linked has some on for somewhat reasonable prices.

Can I confirm that the adapters you were using were the 2.5" 44-pin variety, and that they were plugged in the correct orientation? It's all 5v, so you shouldn't be able to damage anything by accidentally plugging it in backwards (don't quote me on that). My 1100FD has a different header, so I'm unable to test any of this at the moment, unless I can obtain a technical manual or reverse engineer that pinout.
 
I have a 20MB on the way, if that works with the adapter I will start buying double the size and so on until it doesn't work.
 
blackepyon said:
...Can I confirm that the adapters you were using were the 2.5" 44-pin variety, and that they were plugged in the correct orientation? It's all 5v, so you shouldn't be able to damage anything by accidentally plugging it in backwards (don't quote me on that). My 1100FD has a different header, so I'm unable to test any of this at the moment, unless I can obtain a technical manual or reverse engineer that pinout.
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Yes, they were 44pin 2.5" adapters. As suggested, I'll try to get a smaller card and give that a go as well.
 
I was digging through some Tandy stuff and I found a 1100FD I forgot I had and it works fine. I suppose I can help in testing any 1100 to 1110 ideas that come along.

111FD.jpg
 
keenerb said:
It seems to me that it could be insufficient amperage, but I'm using a 2500mah 6v power supply which exceeds the 1800mah 6v battery by a handy amount.

I've also tried with 4 AA batteries, same problem.
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mAh, or milliamp-hours, is a measure of capacity, not of current. An 1800 mah battery can supply 1800 milliamps (1.8 amps) for 1 hour, or half that for twice as long, or double that for half as long, any combination of amperage*time = capacity.
At least theoretically. In real life, batteries can only provide so much current at time, but that maximum current is often more (sometimes orders of magnitude more) than the mAh value divided by 1 hour. Your laptop could need a large and sudden amount of current for something for a short amount of time, for example, starting up the floppy drive motor, and your power supply might not be able to quite provide that, whereas a battery would.
As for the AAs, I'd be willing to bet that AAs have a much poorer discharge rate than the SLA pack your laptop came with.
 
Anybody with an 1100FD able to get a value on R57 in the power section of the motherboard? The 1100HD has a different configuration and might not have that same resistor. At some point, it seems to have let out a little magic smoke, though the machine still works. My multimeter says 2.5R, but otherwise there's no discernible markings, and I'd like to replace it, along with a couple of the onboard fuses that had blown. I've got values for the fuses, and I jumpered them across in the mean time, but if somebody has a value for Resistor 57, I'd be grateful.

IMG_20190731_195639940b.jpg
 
blackepyon said:
Anybody with an 1100FD able to get a value on R57 in the power section of the motherboard? The 1100HD has a different configuration and might not have that same resistor. At some point, it seems to have let out a little magic smoke, though the machine still works. My multimeter says 2.5R, but otherwise there's no discernible markings, and I'd like to replace it, along with a couple of the onboard fuses that had blown. I've got values for the fuses, and I jumpered them across in the mean time, but if somebody has a value for Resistor 57, I'd be grateful.

View attachment 55013
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I'd have to take mine apart again - it's not laying flat, so I have to approach it from a different angle.

Screen Shot 2019-08-03 at 7.12.11 PM.jpg
 
I'm in no rush. It's working for the moment, I'm just making a list of parts for my next Digi-Key order. I also need to find an appropriate power brick for it. Mine never came with one, and I'm just running it off a bench-top power supply atm.
 
blackepyon said:
I'm in no rush. It's working for the moment, I'm just making a list of parts for my next Digi-Key order. I also need to find an appropriate power brick for it. Mine never came with one, and I'm just running it off a bench-top power supply atm.
Click to expand...

Mine's running fine off of a 9V 1500mA 273-356 with a N tip (I think). I don't have it charging any battery, but the system runs fine (floppy and all) from that PSU. Could very well be that resistor had something to do with the battery charging circuit.
 
I haven't tested it with the resistor removed, so I can't say if it's for the charging circuit or not. I only desoldered it to try and get a read off it, then I put it back in.

My benchtop PSU wasn't showing current draw past about 3/4 amp. That's with the battery plugged in, but dead (chemically broken), so it isn't drawing current. The 2.1A figure is probably assuming that the battery is charging. I've got plenty of 12V bricks of decent amperage, but I'm not sure if that'd be too much for the regulators. I'm kinda scared to crank the PSU up to 12v without a schematic to verify.
 
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