I just ordered a Roland VS-880EX from Japan to replace my Akai DPS12, which I have been using as a mixer . The reason for this is the "issue" discovered and described in this thread : Noisy AWE64 recording from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc) + upcoming AWE64 comparison

The VS-880EX is not perfect and it definitely is not new, but

a) it has an uncompressed mode, but that is limited to 6 tracks, which is enough for me
b) it has 6 analogue balanced inputs
c) it has S/PDIF output
d) its hard drive is 2.5MM, IDE and can be replaced by a CF card or likely an IDE to SATA converter
e) it has a universal PSU
f) it is relatively inexpensive

Wish anal retentive perfectionist me luck. Hopefully the VS-880EX will not be worse than my DPS12 😉

EDIT: I would have just bought a modern mixer, but finding one that has S/PDIF output (USB is what they all have) and does not cost multiple arms and legs is practically impossible .

Today I received a couple of curious vintage hardware, the first was a bit of a gamble. From the layout it looks like a graphics adaptor, but the DA-15 connector does not corroborate. With little info on the silkscreen and labels I became intrigued by this little 8 bit isa card. Puled the trigger on it, and now I have a more clear picture, the 28 in ic (U1) is a 6264 static ram. The logo on the main ic and pcb, is from a company called "Video Associates Labs". I now think that this thing is MDA for a CNC machine, probably reusable on a xt class pc.

The second piece of vintage hardware is an IBM classic, the iconic IBM PS/1 model 2011 ( @ least for me ) :

The special thing about this machine is a rare PS/1 sound card, besides being a cute little box :

@ last but not the least, a book about the ISA interface, this is a good reference book from 1995, so a bit late for the lifespan of the ISA "standard", and that makes it a very thorough book:

Xicor wrote on 2020-09-22, 11:57:

The second piece of vintage hardware is an IBM classic, the iconic IBM PS/1 model 2011 ( @ least for me ) :

That PC looks great! And seems to be in good condition as well 😄

Picked these two boards up with CPUs and RAM. Both are seemingly unique/rare/odd/unknown as far as I can tell.

ASUS ISA-486SV2 rev. 3.1. Can't find any other pictures of this model in revision 3.1 with VLB *and* a blue OverDrive socket (there's no number on the socket). Nasty little Varta was clipped off; there is some leakage/corrosion but VERY minimal. 256KB cache installed. Came with 486DX2-50. I think I found jumper settings online but most things seem to be for the G/GX/GV (or whatever) boards.

Softek 5HXA. This guy is even weirder. Seems to have 430HX chipset (no USB, bummer). PS/2 mouse header. 256KB cache on board (I think pipelined burst, even?) with COASt socket for additional cache. I think if you put in 256KB you get 512KB, but if you put in 512KB it disables the onboard and uses the module only (never heard of 768KB of cache...). Not sure if the tag chip on the board is big enough to cache 512MB of RAM (430HX is supposed to be able to cache up to 512MB), but it's socketed so that's good? There's a 'hard-bridged' jumper on the board with labels for P54C and P55C that is soldered to P54C. Right next to it is an unpopulated area that looks like it would get filled with VRM components for the split-plane P55C voltages. ZERO information about this board online. Not sure if the southbridge is PIIX3 or not, the serial number sticker is on that chip. This might have been a replacement board; the seller said it arrived at the recycler he works for as a whitebox and amazingly enough had a 'shadow layout' diagram with jumper info on it in the box. I think Softek was the hardware division of Soltek, but that's all I can even MAYBE find online about it.

If anyone can fill in the holes in what I know of these boards or point me to manuals, that'd be awesome!

devius wrote on 2020-09-22, 12:11:

Xicor wrote on 2020-09-22, 11:57:

The second piece of vintage hardware is an IBM classic, the iconic IBM PS/1 model 2011 ( @ least for me ) :

That PC looks great! And seems to be in good condition as well 😄

Haven't tested yet, but all looks good, and the seller @EvilBay had several pics running, so fingers crossed until later tonight ..... This is my 3th 2011, it didn't had a monitor, keyboard, and mouse but my other 2 do 😉

a few sound cards :3

...some 8-bit goodness
some generic old adlib clone with an OPL2 clone chip?
ESS SoundPlus-ES488 with SOP OPL2
and a Rainbow Arts Soundmand with OPL2 and Covox support

and I finally have a GUS card too now ^^ ...thanks to Predator99 for not bidding on this one 😉
it's miraculous the card survived being buried under heaps of other scrap all the way on the bottom of the package it came in... only the PCB has a slight curve all the way through, but not too bad, cleaned up good :3

Nice. I belive the Adlib Clone was originally sold as a "PC Symphony" card.
https://collection.batyra.pl/soundcards/adlib/pcsymphony
https://collection.batyra.pl/soundcards/adlib/goldstarclone

Batyra's sealed box is one that I sold him. I still have another sealed one.. one with a really beat-up box and I think a couple bare cards.

That card was the first sound card I ever bought (used for $5 from a local electronics store).

Found somebody that had a couple sealed NIB ones and bought them and then sold the one.

ah, thank you :3
I wonder if it was sold under different names or just that one, as the card itself seems very generic ^^

Some PCX CineFX goodness from Japan for me.

Boxed Winfast PX350

Bare Gigabyte NX59128DP and locally sourced Quadro FX 1300 for comparison.

Received a lovely P3 933 today

Got these VGA cards today:
PCI Hercules 3D prophet II MX

AGP TNT Vanta

Cool cards, imi! As usual;-)

Hmm, does anyone know a cheap way to adapt PC/104 to ISA bus?

Both pointless, but both so cheap that my response is just "ah why not". The Advantech PCM-4825 with a 5x86 133, Via chipset and CHIPS T65550 video. The Little-PC 386 with its all-in-one 386sx-40 chip. Both have Disk on chip modules, 8MB on the 386 and 16MB on the 486. The 486 loads up some weird dos GUI program that seems to need a touchscreen to operate.
The little 386 I haven't checked yet since I've no way to connect video up to it - something like this would work, but I checked and the adapter is like 100$: https://adis.ca/entry/2001/a-wireless-router-story/
I'd rather spend the time making a PCB up for an ISA adapter...
This looks like a good option, not quite what I'm trying to do but probably a great starting point: http://www.wisirc.tuxfamily.org/wakka/wakka.php?wiki=pc104

I love industrial boards like that 😁 not pointlesss at all, they're awseome... for startes you could just use some pin headers, ribbon cable and an ISA slot, the pinout is 1to1 the same as you can also see on that custom pcb.

I bought a NES-001 as is for $5 at a thrift store. I figure the shell goes for more than that.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2020-09-22, 20:06:

Hmm, does anyone know a cheap way to adapt PC/104 to ISA bus? […]
Show full quote

Hmm, does anyone know a cheap way to adapt PC/104 to ISA bus?

IMG_0629-crop.jpg

Both pointless, but both so cheap that my response is just "ah why not". The Advantech PCM-4825 with a 5x86 133, Via chipset and CHIPS T65550 video. The Little-PC 386 with its all-in-one 386sx-40 chip. Both have Disk on chip modules, 8MB on the 386 and 16MB on the 486. The 486 loads up some weird dos GUI program that seems to need a touchscreen to operate.
The little 386 I haven't checked yet since I've no way to connect video up to it - something like this would work, but I checked and the adapter is like 100$: https://adis.ca/entry/2001/a-wireless-router-story/
I'd rather spend the time making a PCB up for an ISA adapter...
This looks like a good option, not quite what I'm trying to do but probably a great starting point: http://www.wisirc.tuxfamily.org/wakka/wakka.php?wiki=pc104

Hey that's a DMP Vortex, if I'm not mistaken. A not very common processor with a cool story to it... that I can't recall right now. 😀
The DIP-packaged "DiskOnChip" is neat aswell. Is the RAM hidden under the battery holder? RAM expansion between the buzzer and the CPU?

NautilusComputer wrote on 2020-09-22, 14:28:

Softek 5HXA. This guy is even weirder. Seems to have 430HX chipset (no USB, bummer). PS/2 mouse header. 256KB cache on board (I think pipelined burst, even?) with COASt socket for additional cache. I think if you put in 256KB you get 512KB, but if you put in 512KB it disables the onboard and uses the module only (never heard of 768KB of cache...). Not sure if the tag chip on the board is big enough to cache 512MB of RAM (430HX is supposed to be able to cache up to 512MB), but it's socketed so that's good? There's a 'hard-bridged' jumper on the board with labels for P54C and P55C that is soldered to P54C. Right next to it is an unpopulated area that looks like it would get filled with VRM components for the split-plane P55C voltages. ZERO information about this board online. Not sure if the southbridge is PIIX3 or not, the serial number sticker is on that chip. This might have been a replacement board; the seller said it arrived at the recycler he works for as a whitebox and amazingly enough had a 'shadow layout' diagram with jumper info on it in the box. I think Softek was the hardware division of Soltek, but that's all I can even MAYBE find online about it.

If anyone can fill in the holes in what I know of these boards or point me to manuals, that'd be awesome!

The Softek 5HXA is actually a rebadged Soyo SY-5TF mainboard, you should be able to find info on that board. I happen to have the original board at hand. The onboard tag chip is just 8 bits wide, so only 64MB cachable area. There are no more than 8 data bits on a DIP28 cache module, so no way to get to 11 data bits on the tag RAM to obtain the whole 512MB cachable area. And the worst news about that board: I traced all the pins on the coast socket, only to find out that the coast socket also has just the low 8 tag RAM bits connected. The remaining three tag RAM bits seem to not be fed out from the 82439HX south bridge. Thanks to the BGA case, you also can't simply add bodge wires to the three high tag RAM bits, so tough luck on that.

The south brige is indeed the PIIX3.

stoof wrote on 2020-09-22, 21:32:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2020-09-22, 20:06:

Hmm, does anyone know a cheap way to adapt PC/104 to ISA bus? […]
Show full quote

Hmm, does anyone know a cheap way to adapt PC/104 to ISA bus?

IMG_0629-crop.jpg

Both pointless, but both so cheap that my response is just "ah why not". The Advantech PCM-4825 with a 5x86 133, Via chipset and CHIPS T65550 video. The Little-PC 386 with its all-in-one 386sx-40 chip. Both have Disk on chip modules, 8MB on the 386 and 16MB on the 486. The 486 loads up some weird dos GUI program that seems to need a touchscreen to operate.
The little 386 I haven't checked yet since I've no way to connect video up to it - something like this would work, but I checked and the adapter is like 100$: https://adis.ca/entry/2001/a-wireless-router-story/
I'd rather spend the time making a PCB up for an ISA adapter...
This looks like a good option, not quite what I'm trying to do but probably a great starting point: http://www.wisirc.tuxfamily.org/wakka/wakka.php?wiki=pc104

Hey that's a DMP Vortex, if I'm not mistaken. A not very common processor with a cool story to it... that I can't recall right now. 😀
The DIP-packaged "DiskOnChip" is neat aswell. Is the RAM hidden under the battery holder? RAM expansion between the buzzer and the CPU?

I'm not sure this is related to a DMP vortex, but it's been sold under DM&P, ALi & Nvidia branding from being passed around over the years 😀 Looking at the 2 RAM chips on the board, it looks like it's got 4MB of EDO RAM: GM71C18163CJ6. So yep, those sockets are for upgrading the system ram.
Looking harder at the situation on the Advantech PCM-4825, I'm more keen to buy an ES1869f chip, an LM4863M amplifier and what looks like a small serial 93LC66 EEPROM for the PnP stuff. I'm keen to bodge together a PC/104 to ISA connector so the little 386 can be plugged in like an ISA SBC. I've got a sacrificial ISA riser already, just wiring up the almost 100 pins isn't much fun.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2020-09-22, 22:50:

I'm not sure this is related to a DMP vortex, but it's been sold under DM&P, ALi & Nvidia branding from being passed around over the years 😀 Looking at the 2 RAM chips on the board, it looks like it's got 4MB of EDO RAM: GM71C18163CJ6. So yep, those sockets are for upgrading the system ram.
Looking harder at the situation on the Advantech PCM-4825, I'm more keen to buy an ES1869f chip, an LM4863M amplifier and what looks like a small serial 93LC66 EEPROM for the PnP stuff. I'm keen to bodge together a PC/104 to ISA connector so the little 386 can be plugged in like an ISA SBC. I've got a sacrificial ISA riser already, just wiring up the almost 100 pins isn't much fun.

I found adapters for $45.00....then saw you were in the UK. So I checked UK....GOOD GRIEF! I can see why you don't want to buy one! The part number to hunt is AR-B1052, but you likely knew that already.

I sent him a PM with that info earlier. 😜