BloodyCactus wrote:

built a new workbench, so now I have room to put my ISA boxes on the shelf! […]
Show full quote

built a new workbench, so now I have room to put my ISA boxes on the shelf!

now I dont have to futz about on the floor with backplanes and cords! whoooo.

That is a beautiful setup!!

At this moment iam doing actually nothing then wasting some time.. But lately i was being busy on my Year 2000 build, installed the motherboard, installed windows 2000 sp4, installed the drivers for the board and iam now in testing mode.. I have several other same socket motherboards for testing.. I know this is very time consuming, so i stopped with that and set my priority to the things that having much hurry..
Recently i bought some retro stuff on ebay and some black paint.. I want to set my priority first to my ST juko 8088 turbo XT class system to get it for 98 - 100% done..
The biggest show / time stopper is to get the case cleaned and have to re-do some paint work.. I really dont want to use the first black paint that it would arrive here, but first have to test of this black paint would match the original black thats on the case when it came out off the factory.. And have to remove some rust spots.. If this painting is done, then the rebuild would quickly be done as well because most parts where tested already..

When this build is done iam starting with my windows 95 pentium 1 build..

Woot, Internet got connected at the new place, life can begin 🤣

I hooked up a modem while house hunting, 8000 sync speed, quite slow but good enough. Now Dodo has connected me and sync speed is 22000! Over the moon. This is almost double the speed as the old place 😀

Still unpacking and sorting everything out. But my DOS corner is already up and running!

It's my Pentium 100 time machine with 60 GB MS-DOS 7.1 installation, AWE 64 Gold, MT-32, CM-32L and Sound Canvas.

In my old lab the PC would constantly get buried under stuff, so now I can play some games, but also work on a GOG compatibility project (what DOS games from GOG work on a real PC).

Good news Phil. Looking forward to some more Youtube goodness in the next few weeks.

I spent time over the last week making up a XT2AT keyboard adaptor and the ISA compactfash PCB for my Super Turbo 8088 XT machine. I had some fun
figuring out how to get the eprom sorted so it works with a CF card, but all working nicely now. Will post some photos later.

Nopileus wrote:

massive ground planes and multi-layer PCBs do not lend well to hand soldering since the heat goes anywhere but the part you're working on.
I'm using a fairly high end Hakko soldering station but ideally you'd want a proper powered desoldering tool.

Which Hakko do you have? I have an FX-888D and I think I aimed too low. It's certainly a lot better than the cheap iron I used to use, but I still get frustrated with lead-free multilayer boards. Most people rave about the 888 but most people don't solder on the heavy lead free boards that we do. I'm thinking I would be happier if I had saved up for the FX-951. Is that what you have?

shamino wrote:

Which Hakko do you have? I have an FX-888D and I think I aimed too low. It's certainly a lot better than the cheap iron I used to use, but I still get frustrated with lead-free multilayer boards. Most people rave about the 888 but most people don't solder on the heavy lead free boards that we do. I'm thinking I would be happier if I had saved up for the FX-951. Is that what you have?

It's the FX-951, it was an ebay find missing parts and in mediocre condition but it works great now.
The handpiece was missing and since the original is super expensive i use a chinese clone, luckily with this station all the important bits are in the cartridge tip and performance isn't impacted.
Always use genuine tips, the clones just do not cut it.

Lead free is horrible to work with, i always add leaded solder and use loads of flux but even then it gets problematic, a proper desoldering station would probably make it painless.

I slightly regret my decision anyway, the Hakko distributors in europe mostly refuse to serve consumers and prices are sky high.
An FX951 is something like €350 plus VAT while in the US amazon has em for $250.

Photos of the ISA 8-bit compact flash PCB adaptor I made up this week, and a shot of Alleycat on my Dell monitor, the colour is a bit off on the photo though.
For Anyone who has or is thinking of making up one of these PCB's, 4 10k resistors can be used instead of the isolated resistor pack mentioned in the BOM, also
a regular eprom can also be used, but You need a programmer for that.

fussing with the final hardware configuration for a Rendition 2200 / Voodoo 2 build. I started with a BH6 motherboard and a C300A @ 450 (the good old days...) all 100mhz - and tried upping it to a P3-533B/133mhz fsb setup. While the BH6 bios doesn't have appropriate agp/fsb and pci/fsb ratios it boots and runs extra smooth but I don't want to OC the GPUs in any way. So, reverted back to the C300A @ 450 and considering changing motherboards if I go ahead with and up-gunned 133 fsb version - an Abit VA6 is standing by if necessary for that.

Or - I may try setting the 533 to run @ 100mhz (100 x 5 or 5.5 = 500 or 550) so that the fsb ratios remain "normal" for the GPUs.

I'll do some more testing of the C300 build - mainly Glide based flight sims from the 1998-99 period this box was built for. If anything seems to call for more juice I can slap together the 133 setup. Probably won't need it, but I did notice the graphics in Longbow 2 ran exceptionally smooth with none of the occasional little scenery "shifts" you can get, and are present with the OC'd C300A.

The box is part of a "Glide Trio": a P233/S3/Voodoo 1, and a P3-933/V5 being the other two. They showcase the Glide experience at it's critical 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 junctures of development. I'm aiming to tune each without trying to usurp the capabilities of the next more powerful box. So #1 covers needs on 1997-97, #2 1998-99 and #3 2000-2001+ as Glide rode off into the everlasting sunset. #1 shows you what all the fuss was about, #2 represents the Glide workhorse of the day, and #3 brings maximum native Glide performance with FSAA.

You'll note #2 has a Rendition V2200 as the primary GPU (actually a legend QDI 8mb card) - probably not the optimal period correct part (TNT2 or GF/GF2 more natural choices), but the V2200 allows a few other neat games to run in "real 3D" like IndyCar Racing 2. I'm not a big fan of the bare look of early D3D so have little interest in exploiting the potential fps performance superiority a D3D card with so much good Glide optimized stuff floating around. If fps are an issue, install to the next more powerful box..

SquallStrife wrote:

Got my new workbench set up!! […]
Show full quote

Got my new workbench set up!!

That looks lovely!

Some new episodes maybe? 😊

I installed X-Wing on my 486 and tried playing it with a CH Virtual Pilot I bought for 2 bucks -- which still works after all of this time, which is why I only buy CH joysticks. 😀

I pulled a 266 Mhz Pentium II from my broken Compaq and swapped out the P3 I have in my retro machine. Suddenly I get the Adlib sound in Monkey Island and Loom 😁

I will have to fix the cooling though, the Pentium II has a huuuge heatsink that doesn't fit (a heat sink on the mobo is in the way). I'll have to cut it partly off.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Woot, Internet got connected at the new place, life can begin :lol: […]
Show full quote

Woot, Internet got connected at the new place, life can begin 🤣

I hooked up a modem while house hunting, 8000 sync speed, quite slow but good enough. Now Dodo has connected me and sync speed is 22000! Over the moon. This is almost double the speed as the old place 😀

Still unpacking and sorting everything out. But my DOS corner is already up and running!

It's my Pentium 100 time machine with 60 GB MS-DOS 7.1 installation, AWE 64 Gold, MT-32, CM-32L and Sound Canvas.

In my old lab the PC would constantly get buried under stuff, so now I can play some games, but also work on a GOG compatibility project (what DOS games from GOG work on a real PC).

Glad to hear you're getting yourself all set up! Quite an impressive sync speed. If thats ADSL2 or ULL, you must be sitting right next to the exchange.

Dodo, dodo the internet that flies!

...unlike the extinct bird.

🤣

-

orinoko wrote:

Glad to hear you're getting yourself all set up! Quite an impressive sync speed. If thats ADSL2 or ULL, you must be sitting righ […]
Show full quote

Glad to hear you're getting yourself all set up! Quite an impressive sync speed. If thats ADSL2 or ULL, you must be sitting right next to the exchange.

Dodo, dodo the internet that flies!

...unlike the extinct bird.

🤣

The extinct bird is indeed the mascot 😀

Yup it's ADSL2+

There must be a second exchange in this town. A few streets east houses have NBN connections (fibre).

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

The extinct bird is indeed the mascot :) […]
Show full quote

The extinct bird is indeed the mascot 😀

Yup it's ADSL2+

There must be a second exchange in this town. A few streets east houses have NBN connections (fibre).

Yeah I know hahah I work for one of their competitors in Melbourne 🤣

Oooo is that FTTN NBN or FTTP NBN?

orinoko wrote:

Yeah I know hahah I work for one of their competitors in Melbourne 🤣

Oooo is that FTTN NBN or FTTP NBN?

Oh, nice!

I doubt it's FTTP, but I don't know to be honest 😀

But because it's just a few streets away, there is me hoping that the NBN roll-out comes my way 😊

EDIT:

Making progress with my new home. A dedicated room for my new ComputerLab 😀

It can fit 6 computer stations / test systems at once. This will let me work on multiple projects, but also let finished projects sit for a while in case people have follow up questions. In the past I packed everything away and couldn't test anything beyond what I tested.

The Windows 98 benchmarking system got a permanent spot now. Hopefully I can make some progress.

And the good old capture computer, packed with gear from Creative, AVerMedia and Epiphan to capture VGA, DVI, HDMI and audio in all shapes and forms.

Started work on building my hybrid 386 vlb build and currently cleaning a 1990 vintage case, looks like I will have to strip down the psu and bust the rust but it tests out fine.

Only retro activity, other than moving a monitor from my basement to a storage locker, was I received a $149.99 check in the mail !!!! What does that have to do with retro activity? Well, I bought RAM in years 1998 to 2002, which means I involved myself in the settlement for DRAM Antitrust Litigation Settlement! I barely remember doing anything to be part of it...and thought maybe the check will be $5. But, its a nice chunk of change!

dogchainx wrote:

Only retro activity, other than moving a monitor from my basement to a storage locker, was I received a $149.99 check in the mail !!!! What does that have to do with retro activity? Well, I bought RAM in years 1998 to 2002, which means I involved myself in the settlement for DRAM Antitrust Litigation Settlement! I barely remember doing anything to be part of it...and thought maybe the check will be $5. But, its a nice chunk of change!

Just asking. How did they find you after all these years?
They must really have used quite a bucket of cash in order to track down all those people, in order to ship a check.

-