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XT IDE Ordering interest? (Was: Xt-ide
- Thread starter Lutiana
- Start date
kishy
Veteran Member
What kind of price is involved? I imagine that's probably buried in the "big thread" but for someone who hasn't been following the project in depth that would be a nightmare to work through.
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Here is the original quote from Hargle
We are hoping that some bulk purchasing will get a reduction on the PCB and the parts, but we won't know till we get an accurate idea of how many we can expect to sell, I am pretty sure Hargle and I don't want to be sitting on 50+ boards.
Hargle said:
We are hoping that some bulk purchasing will get a reduction on the PCB and the parts, but we won't know till we get an accurate idea of how many we can expect to sell, I am pretty sure Hargle and I don't want to be sitting on 50+ boards.
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kishy
Veteran Member
Thanks for the info. Certainly reasonable and well justified but I can't do it so count me "out".
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This should have been posted in the "PCs and Clones" section.
My primary interest are XT-class machines, and I definitely want to buy a few such cards, but I nearly missed this topic, as I hardly ever browse this section...
My primary interest are XT-class machines, and I definitely want to buy a few such cards, but I nearly missed this topic, as I hardly ever browse this section...
offensive_Jerk
Veteran Member
What is the drive size limitation?
Hmm, not sure why I thought to put it where I did... o well no matter its fixed now. ;D
Terabytes...
offensive_Jerk
Veteran Member
I'm down for 1.
hargle
Veteran Member
ok, I'll try to answer all the questions in one post. We did a thread like this a few months back, and I think we came in at just about 100 cards, so that's the target. I do think it's good to double check though. We can get some nice price breaks if we do 100 of everything.
What this is:
An 8-bit ISA IDE controller for PATA hard drives. Plug one into your IBM PC, XT, Tandy 1000 series or other 8-Bit ISA bus. It features a flash upgradable EEPROM for BIOS updates. The BIOS has some neat features like a boot menu that allows you to boot from your B: drive.
It looks like this:
http://kotisivu.dnainternet.net/ttilli/Tandy/IMG_0197.JPG
What it supports:
From what we've seen, fairly modern (2000 era) IDE drives, in the 2-10Gig range work really well. Very old IDE drives in the 200mb-1Gb range are sometimes less consistent with regard to signaling and specification adherence, so the newer the better. Not every drive works, but there are certainly enough of them out there that we are sure you'll find one that does.
It works with CF->IDE adapters too. We've had quite good luck with booting CF devices.
The card can support up to 137G hard drives and upwards of 2TB. Your operating system however, is likely to impose a *much* smaller limit, based on partition sizes. Really, do you need THAT much space on your 8088? (for example, DOS 6.22 can use 8.4G of space, spread across multiple 2G partitions)
CD-ROM support is forthcoming. It requires an entire driver to be written, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work.
Price: The card will cost between $25 and $30 shipped anywhere in the world.
Note this is for a *kit* that you build yourself. If we reach our bulk target of 100 cards, the price may drop a couple bucks. I'm certain that pre-built and tested cards will also be available from people willing to put one together for you. Prices will vary for that service.
When will they be available?
As soon as you sign up and we get a tally, we will be ordering. It doesn't appear there are any hardware issues left to resolve, it's time for production.
You probably won't get one for christmas, but you might be starting the new year with a happier 8088 machine.
What you will need: For a kit, you need a soldering iron, electronics solder, 3 jumpers, an 80pin IDE cable, and you may also need a couple tiny screws for mounting the card to the bracket. (I'm trying to source them right now, but if I can't, steal some off an old modem bracket or something)
All the other components are supplied with the kit, and the BIOS will be pre-programmed with the latest version.
The card really is pretty amazing. It works as you'd expect it to on a modern machine. You plug it in, attach a drive, fdisk and format the drive, and then you can boot to it and start loading in files. You can even take the drive out, put it in a modern machine and read/write files to it.
The *entire* project is open source, from the schematics, layout, utilities and BIOS. We're doing this because we love our old machines, and we love you.
By purchasing one of these cards, you must promise to not attempt to re-sell it on ebay. You will be publicly humiliated and shamed if you attempt it.
What this is:
An 8-bit ISA IDE controller for PATA hard drives. Plug one into your IBM PC, XT, Tandy 1000 series or other 8-Bit ISA bus. It features a flash upgradable EEPROM for BIOS updates. The BIOS has some neat features like a boot menu that allows you to boot from your B: drive.
It looks like this:
http://kotisivu.dnainternet.net/ttilli/Tandy/IMG_0197.JPG
What it supports:
From what we've seen, fairly modern (2000 era) IDE drives, in the 2-10Gig range work really well. Very old IDE drives in the 200mb-1Gb range are sometimes less consistent with regard to signaling and specification adherence, so the newer the better. Not every drive works, but there are certainly enough of them out there that we are sure you'll find one that does.
It works with CF->IDE adapters too. We've had quite good luck with booting CF devices.
The card can support up to 137G hard drives and upwards of 2TB. Your operating system however, is likely to impose a *much* smaller limit, based on partition sizes. Really, do you need THAT much space on your 8088? (for example, DOS 6.22 can use 8.4G of space, spread across multiple 2G partitions)
CD-ROM support is forthcoming. It requires an entire driver to be written, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work.
Price: The card will cost between $25 and $30 shipped anywhere in the world.
Note this is for a *kit* that you build yourself. If we reach our bulk target of 100 cards, the price may drop a couple bucks. I'm certain that pre-built and tested cards will also be available from people willing to put one together for you. Prices will vary for that service.
When will they be available?
As soon as you sign up and we get a tally, we will be ordering. It doesn't appear there are any hardware issues left to resolve, it's time for production.
You probably won't get one for christmas, but you might be starting the new year with a happier 8088 machine.
What you will need: For a kit, you need a soldering iron, electronics solder, 3 jumpers, an 80pin IDE cable, and you may also need a couple tiny screws for mounting the card to the bracket. (I'm trying to source them right now, but if I can't, steal some off an old modem bracket or something)
All the other components are supplied with the kit, and the BIOS will be pre-programmed with the latest version.
The card really is pretty amazing. It works as you'd expect it to on a modern machine. You plug it in, attach a drive, fdisk and format the drive, and then you can boot to it and start loading in files. You can even take the drive out, put it in a modern machine and read/write files to it.
The *entire* project is open source, from the schematics, layout, utilities and BIOS. We're doing this because we love our old machines, and we love you.
By purchasing one of these cards, you must promise to not attempt to re-sell it on ebay. You will be publicly humiliated and shamed if you attempt it.
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carlsson
Veteran Member
But as long as the stock lasts, we're allowed to point people to this forum for them to sign up on a waiting list themselves even if they didn't know on beforehand they'd need an XT IDE interface? :-D
Cimonvg
Experienced Member
2 for me
2 for me
hello
Two 'do it your self' kits for me please :D
By the way, Hagle , if you want to investigate how it works , you can borrow the old JUKO ide. I was waiting for a SIIG sc-je0012, but it did (of cause) not work in my old XT. (SIIG enhanced bios 8 bit card).:eh:
/cimonvg
2 for me
hello
Two 'do it your self' kits for me please :D
By the way, Hagle , if you want to investigate how it works , you can borrow the old JUKO ide. I was waiting for a SIIG sc-je0012, but it did (of cause) not work in my old XT. (SIIG enhanced bios 8 bit card).:eh:
/cimonvg
There will most likely be sales tax for Cali residents depending on how we end up buying the parts.
Is the US we hope to use the flat rate mailing boxes and I would guess that we can comfortably fit up to 3 cards in there, so $5. International would be a bit different, but I doubt it would cost much more. Most likely we will need to look at it on a case by case basis.
I will consider this poll closed on December 6 and we will go from there. Most likely we will order about 5 or 10% more than what the closing number will be. More instructions on how to actually order will be listed then (Hargle and I will need to iron out the finer details of the process).
I am hoping the turn around time on the kit is about 5 days, but the assembled cards will take longer (10 business days at least, if not more).
Yep, you will be roasted alive. I will however setup a section the wiki to list how many assembled cards and how kits we have in stock with instructions on how to order.
So post a link to this forum on any other old PC forums you belong to as it will helps us get a far more accurate count and make sure we meet the demand.
k2x4b524[
Veteran Member
this would be awesome, i have 3 xt's and a Zenith Z-159 that would love this..
May I suggest this be plugged into a "normal" board and set up with Dos and an ID Flash Drive adapter then moved back to an XT board (just makes it quicker to setup). This would make a very quiet and very smooth Dos web server. If you were to use an over sized AT power supply and remove the fan, one would have a no moving part web server. Hmmmm. One can buy a 40GB Maxtor for less than $7 dollars, I just purchased 12 from a corporate upgrade. While looking for a 100mb "vintage" drive was going for over $35 and with a million miles on it.
Jorg
Veteran Member
Is there going to be any instruction about the 'build yourself' part either included, or better on the wiki? Maybe some nice pictures?
I'm not too afraid of it, but I am not an experienced 'solderer'- and I can imagine that those questions will come up for more people.
That also to avoid any unnecessary claims and unhappy customers ('nobody told me the solder I used for my roof tiling was not ok')
- making sure you have the right gear and materials
- maybe a photo instruction step by step (there must be a 'most practical sequence'.. you guys should know it by now )
I'm not too afraid of it, but I am not an experienced 'solderer'- and I can imagine that those questions will come up for more people.
That also to avoid any unnecessary claims and unhappy customers ('nobody told me the solder I used for my roof tiling was not ok')
- making sure you have the right gear and materials
- maybe a photo instruction step by step (there must be a 'most practical sequence'.. you guys should know it by now
)hargle
Veteran Member
There are build instructions on the wiki already. I haven't added my pictures to it yet, but will as soon as I chop them down a bit in photoshop.
There was thought to distributing a "driver and utilities" disk (360k floppy of course!) with each one; build instructions could certainly be put on there too, but it is probably best to use the wiki:
http://wiki.vintage-computer.com/index.php/XTIDE_project
There was thought to distributing a "driver and utilities" disk (360k floppy of course!) with each one; build instructions could certainly be put on there too, but it is probably best to use the wiki:
http://wiki.vintage-computer.com/index.php/XTIDE_project
Jorg
Veteran Member
Thanks for RTFM-ing me! LOL!
jackrubin
Veteran Member
XT-IDE pre-order
XT-IDE pre-order
Please put me down for 3 kits. I'll also be glad to build kits for others if it would be helpful.
Jack
XT-IDE pre-order
Please put me down for 3 kits. I'll also be glad to build kits for others if it would be helpful.
Jack
hexsane
Experienced Member
I'll sign up for a kit. You guys have done an outstanding job on this project so I showing my support.
-Matt
-Matt