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XT IDE Ordering interest? (Was: Xt-ide

XT IDE Ordering interest? (Was: Xt-ide

  • 1

    Votes: 59 52.7%

  • 2

    Votes: 38 33.9%

  • 3

    Votes: 8 7.1%

  • 4

    Votes: 5 4.5%

  • 5+ (please post how many below)

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Total voters
    112
This project looks very interesting indeed! I would really like to purchase one of these, I just don't have the money currently (and all my PC/PC-compatibles aren't funtional at the time).
 
framer said:
16 bit ISA bus ide adapters for AT class machines can be had on ebay for pennies.

framer
Click to expand...

the only downside to those is that they traditionally top out at 528MB hard drive size. If you can, get one that has a removable BIOS chip on it, and then pop in our BIOS (in 16bit/AT mode) and you'll have a drive up to 137G, possible higher.
 
hargle said:
the only downside to those is that they traditionally top out at 528MB hard drive size. If you can, get one that has a removable BIOS chip on it, and then pop in our BIOS (in 16bit/AT mode) and you'll have a drive up to 137G, possible higher.
Click to expand...

That's why I asked the question, actually, many of the 286 BIOSes that I've run into don't have a user defineable type, and I end up limited to 70 or 80 meg. I had 2 100meg hard drives in my AT for the longest time, not quite formatted to capacity. I have never seen a card with a BIOS chip on it (other than some newer VLB cards), wish I had one. I actually switched to SCSI as I had several old 1542 controller cards around and that is *way* better than IDE :) I would like the option of using a CF card with the 286 though, and don't believe the PC's BIOS would support logical block. So I take it it's not too late to get in on the order??
 
dano said:
That's why I asked the question, actually, many of the 286 BIOSes that I've run into don't have a user defineable type, and I end up limited to 70 or 80 meg. I had 2 100meg hard drives in my AT for the longest time, not quite formatted to capacity. I have never seen a card with a BIOS chip on it (other than some newer VLB cards), wish I had one. I actually switched to SCSI as I had several old 1542 controller cards around and that is *way* better than IDE :) I would like the option of using a CF card with the 286 though, and don't believe the PC's BIOS would support logical block.
Click to expand...

this card:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...7067-21-Promise-Tech-EIDEMAX-16-bit-ISA-cards
has a replacable BIOS chip, which should work well with our BIOS. I have 2 of them. They didn't work on a 286, and seem a little weird overal, but I think they would work well with our BIOS.

I would suspect that he's got more of them for sale.

That said, I have checked and the existing atmel 8k BIOSes that we are using on the XTIDE do not work on this card. It's a different eeprom. What I ended up doing was disabling the promise BIOS and then using a 3COM nic card with a BIOS slot to load our 8k BIOS off the atmel part. That worked really well. :)

You would then set your BIOS setup to have your hard drives set to "not installed", as the BIOS on the card takes care of adding it into the system.

So I take it it's not too late to get in on the order??
Click to expand...

Not at all. we've only got pre-orders for 70-80 cards, and 100 of them are being kitted.
 
XTIDE + any Multi I/O card would be the easiest solution if there is an extra ISA slot available. No need to find IDE controller with ROM socket and flashing will be possible when the EEPROM is connected to XTIDE. It should be possible to connect hard drives to sound card IDE interfaces since XTIDE Universal BIOS can be easily configured. I haven't tested this but i will once i find a good Sound Blaster with IDE.

On my 286 i have:
  • 16-bit Multi I/O card, IDE handled by motherboard BIOS
  • 16-bit Promise EIDEMAX (same as hargle mentioned) with ROM disabled, handled by XTIDE Universal BIOS
  • 8-bit XTIDE, handled by XTIDE Universal BIOS
They all work nicely together. XTIDE Universal BIOS could be set to handle the I/O card as well but i want to use motherboard BIOS for testing.

I don't recommend connecting any drives to XTIDE when using AT or better unless you just want to treat CF cards as diskette replacements (just remember that the computer must be reset when changing CF card).
 
Should we make a list, where users can sign in for an exact amount of needed cards? :)
 
Well I already placed an order with the assumption that I'd have an extra for the AT:) Glad to hear I can still get them though. You touched on something I was thinking about myself, there really isn't any reason the IDE controller and BIOS chip have to be on the same card. Several card (NICs) have ROM sockets, and one could even be hand-built without too much trouble I suppose. Is there much difference in the way the AT talks to the IDE controller? I assume not, as long as the correct address/IRQ/etc is used.
 
Jorg said:
Well, if we start adding additional only-in-the-US-items like keyboard adapters to the package, I'd dare to drop in a suggestion:

I can't find this over here, and shipping alone from the US is a bit expensive- if they do it at all:

http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/ATX-to-AT-Converter.php

That to replace old AT style PSU's with a modern ATX one- at least for my 386 (not sure if possible with older ones too).

Link is just an example, needless to say a bit cheaper version would be welcome too..
Click to expand...

SECONDED! :)

These could definitely come in handy for repairing many older systems with a defective PSU.
 
I have a box full of baby-AT power supplies if you guys need them. Not super high wattage like new ones but I'll let them go cheap.
 
Putting this thread back on topic:

I am taking over from Lutiana for kitting up the controllers and shipping them out. He's got too much on his plate in real life to deal with the headaches of this project too.

So, that said, I am ordering the parts today. That means that starting probably early next week, I can start taking orders and shipping!!!!!!!11!

I will have the final costs in a day or two, but I don't want to accept any money until I get all the parts in and have built one of the kits up, just to make sure everything is where it should be.
As it stands, there are also 30 some cards that need to be built. It will take me quite awhile before I get all those built up. If there are pro solderererers among you, and you want to make a few bucks, you might consider buying extra kits and then re-selling them to other members here. (not ebay!)

stay tuned, we're almost ready to roll...
 
Good timing!
the parts just came in today.
IMG_01571.jpg


So, before we get too excited, I need to kit a couple of them up, then take one kit into work and put it together and make sure it works, then the madness will begin.
I will be filling orders from the spreadsheet from the top down, and I'll send you a paypal invoice if I have your email address.

I still haven't exactly figured out the exact cost yet, as I have to accumulate several receipts from the pile of junk on my desk, plus estimate how long a card takes for soldering and charge appropriately.

So hang in there, but man, we're close!!!
 
Apparently you get your production boards from the same shop we get ours from at work -- same packing!

Can't wait for the XT-IDE board...I've already got the parts picked for it, just waiting on the bare board!
 
well, I've kitted up the first board, looks like all the parts are here, almost.
I goofed on the jumpers. They come in bags of 10, so I ordered 30, enough for 100 cards. they sent me 30 jumpers total. So I'm short 270 jumpers. This isn't enough to show-stop the train, but there are 90 unlucky people out there who will have to supply 3 jumpers per card yourself. I'm sorry.

The other goofy thing is that I ordered right angle headers for the IDE connector. They seem to be more like male-male connectors than headers, so the pins on the solder side of the board stick WAY out compared to normal headers. It looks stupid, but shouldn't have an impact on functionality. I'm sure you could also take a dremel to it to shave off some. Again, not a show stopper, but if you want to have the right angle header replaced with a standard straight header, I can probably swing a couple of headers out of my little stockpile that I have at the moment. When I finish soldering this first one up (likely on saturday) I will post pictures of the completed unit and let you decide.
 
According to the spreadsheet, people have signed up for 84 cards while the total production run is 100 cards. It means you should be able to get a few of the 16 spare IDE interfaces, but you'd better fill in your details in the spreadsheet. See page 11 of this thread for a link to it.
 
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