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1000HX max performance build

IDE (not ATAPI) Zip drive works out of the box..... but you have to have the disk in the drive when you start the machine in order for it to detect properly. Also it will only fit in the left bay, and you have to cut part of the ZIP drive casing away to make it fit. I also had to remove the plastic molex connector and and do some trickery with the cables to get it to fit.

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DJOS's latest shipment of Plus to ISA adapters and other stuff showed up today with only one thing crushed by the postal service. I did a step by step addition of cards using the adapters and watching the power demand on the original power supply. Everything went very well and I now have my HX running with FOUR cards on the bus! I hope it is a first in history but I vaguely recall a mention of an expansion box for ISA cards proposed for the HX but I have never seen so much as a picture of one.

The current load out is running off the original power supply and well within it's limits. At present it has a Tandy memory expansion card, XT VGA card, and plugged into a DJOS dual adapter is a dual UART serial card talking to a WiFi modem, and a XT-IDE card with a 512MB CF card. Soon the GoTek, serial mouse, and a few other surprises will be going in.

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RetroGaming Roundup said:
DJOS's latest shipment of Plus to ISA adapters and other stuff showed up today with only one thing crushed by the postal service. I did a step by step addition of cards using the adapters and watching the power demand on the original power supply. Everything went very well and I now have my HX running with FOUR cards on the bus! I hope it is a first in history but I vaguely recall a mention of an expansion box for ISA cards proposed for the HX but I have never seen so much as a picture of one.

The current load out is running off the original power supply and well within it's limits. At present it has a Tandy memory expansion card, XT VGA card, and plugged into a DJOS dual adapter is a dual UART serial card talking to a WiFi modem, and a XT-IDE card with a 512MB CF card. Soon the GoTek, serial mouse, and a few other surprises will be going in.

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Sweet!

Speaking of that XT-SVGA card, I'd love to know where nztdm is getting all those Trident SVGA chips, because he also uses them on his NuXT MicroATX Turbo XT motherboard.

My current card stack is a custom-built (on a protoboard) PLUS version of Lo-Tech's ISA-CF card, with an 8-bit multi-I/O card for serial and parallel (via a PLUS to ISA ribbon cable), both on top of the Tandy 384K memory expansion board.

If you're interested, I've dropped the flyer for that expansion box in my MediaFire
It's called a "Slot Box," and is basically an 8-bit ISA plane, with a dummy 8-bit ISA card that connects to a 36" ribbon connecting that plane to the PLUS header inside the EX/HX. It wouldn't be hard to make a replica to use with nztdm's 8-bit ISA backplane, if one can find a source of 62-pin female ribbon connectors (I had to solder mine).
 
I remember that being printed in Computer Shopper or some such equivalent back in the time I was trying to upgrade my HX. I owned a few of those cards but never saw the box, and I agree it should be easy to remake, but the idea of a cable that long with as noisy as that bus probably already is says to me they never tested that unit, but if someone made a workable card box I would buy one! Thank you so much for posting that it was a real blast from the past. I would love a PLUS CF card just to have one more true PLUS instead of an adapted ISA.
 
RetroGaming Roundup said:
DJOS's latest shipment of Plus to ISA adapters and other stuff showed up today with only one thing crushed by the postal service. I did a step by step addition of cards using the adapters and watching the power demand on the original power supply. Everything went very well and I now have my HX running with FOUR cards on the bus! I hope it is a first in history but I vaguely recall a mention of an expansion box for ISA cards proposed for the HX but I have never seen so much as a picture of one.

The current load out is running off the original power supply and well within it's limits. At present it has a Tandy memory expansion card, XT VGA card, and plugged into a DJOS dual adapter is a dual UART serial card talking to a WiFi modem, and a XT-IDE card with a 512MB CF card. Soon the GoTek, serial mouse, and a few other surprises will be going in.

View attachment 54783

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Nice! I've gotten 4 cards going too, but where you have the VGA, i went with a HardMPU to drive a MT-32 MIDI setup. I also have the zip drive in there and haven't had any issues powerwise (yet). I generally don't leave the HardMPU in tho because I want to be able to close the top.

It would be great if there was an easy source for plus to ISA ribbon cables, so we could stash cards in the various other cavities of the HX
 
I am working on a 3D printed hutch to go on the top cover and the original lid will slide into that, allowing for a bumpout to house 4 cards internally,
 
GrandPoobah said:
Nice! I've gotten 4 cards going too, but where you have the VGA, i went with a HardMPU to drive a MT-32 MIDI setup. I also have the zip drive in there and haven't had any issues powerwise (yet). I generally don't leave the HardMPU in tho because I want to be able to close the top.

It would be great if there was an easy source for plus to ISA ribbon cables, so we could stash cards in the various other cavities of the HX
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I ended up getting 62-pin female .100" connector and matching 62-pin card-edge slot, both of which are available from Digi-Key, and just soldering them to the ribbon cable directly. Not very elegant, and you have to remember to swap the A and B sides, but it works.
 
RetroGaming Roundup said:
I remember that being printed in Computer Shopper or some such equivalent back in the time I was trying to upgrade my HX. I owned a few of those cards but never saw the box, and I agree it should be easy to remake, but the idea of a cable that long with as noisy as that bus probably already is says to me they never tested that unit, but if someone made a workable card box I would buy one! Thank you so much for posting that it was a real blast from the past. I would love a PLUS CF card just to have one more true PLUS instead of an adapted ISA.
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You can always build your own!
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This is based off of Lo-Tech's ISA-CF. Initially, I was just going to use a PLUS to ISA adapter with one of Lo-Tech's cards, but with the ISA I/O card I have on top, there was no more room if I wanted it to close (which I do), so the only option was to build it straight onto a protoboard as a PLUS card. I recently added a couple more gates to use a two-colour LED in place of the stock power LED over my HX's keyboard, so that it flips from green to red when there's activity, but stays green otherwise even when there's no CF card installed. I'm working on laying out and making a proper PCB, but there's only so much time in the day, and my real work keeps me busy, so I wouldn't hold your breath.
 
blackepyon said:
I ended up getting 62-pin female .100" connector and matching 62-pin card-edge slot, both of which are available from Digi-Key, and just soldering them to the ribbon cable directly. Not very elegant, and you have to remember to swap the A and B sides, but it works.
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Ive debated doing that. Even just soldering one end of the ribbon to the top of one of djos’s Isa adaptors. You can easily stuff an XT CF in the space between the keyboard and the expansion bay. And it if the cards are small enough, you could jam two in the spare floppy bay.
 
GrandPoobah said:
I’d much rather have that than a “proper pcb”
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It certainly has it's charm, like arts and crafts, but you gotta make sure to plan out your routing so you can tie everything together neatly. Last thing you need is to accidentally snag something and have forgotten what went where. I find the best method is to use bent paperclips at each corner point of the wire bus.

Also, these are way too time consuming to be making more than one.
 
The project is coming along well! CGA and VGA programs tested display edge to edge, no artifacts, and wonderfully clear. I did a test load of a few CGA games and some VGA RIP BBS graphics and it all worked perfectly, this is going to be an ideal BBS machine. The next task to do is sort the CF HDD out and get it loaded up with system tools and quantify what I have, then load it up with games and other fun stuff.

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Getting all this hardware to play together and pushing the computer's limits is FUN, the "glee" is that the PC is supporting all this hardware and it is playing together considering it was never intended to. I am using a widescreen monitor because it is what is on the bench, I can press the button and have it display in 16:9, or use a native 16:9 monitor. This is an incomplete project still in the works.
 
Most monitors will stretch signals to the full height and width of the screen, which means that widescreen monitors will scale 4:3 signals to fit the entire size of the screen. Early laptops with screen resolutions above 640x480 (up until they started going widescreen) usually had the option to either stretch or centre lower resolutions, and most LCD TVs have the option to either stretch to fit or maintain the original ratio.
 
Respectfully, my first thought was, why 16:9 when 4:3 monitors are so cheap? But the Fraser River Valley (I have family that very successfully homesteaded on the east bank somewhat south of Quesnel) probably doesn't have the cheap thrift shops that Portland and Chicago have.

Following your work with interest and pleasure. I may have to drag my HX out again.

Mike
 
This is a GREAT time to drag out your HX, or at least grab the new adapters while they are available. The PLUS to ISA adapters are the smallest possible size and allow cards to fit neatly that could not have easily fit before. I bought some extra adapters (like the external drive) and a few I didn't need since you never know how long they are available. I have shelves full of 4:3 monitors, original CGA CRT monitors, and this particular monitor can do both aspect ratios, again this is testing and assembly on a project workbench, same place I test arcade PCBs and other vintage PCs. I hope the takeaway for other HX owners is that you can integrate some or all of these upgrades for XT class machines into your HX, that the VGA and CF BIOS play together and all the components work even with the stock power supply, and not necessarily which damn monitor is on my test bench.
 
Congrats, amazing work! I wish there was a project to mod the Tandy 1000 SL with 768Kb of memory, like the TL and the RL. It's my only gripe with the SL, having to steal conventional memory for the video.
 
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