gompertz wrote:

Does anyone know of any alternatives?

Yup. Just install an IDE-SD adapter inside of an old removable drive bay for IDE HDDs. 😁

I also want to make such a front panel access. Unfortunately, the cheap chinese IDE-SD adapters on ebay seem to be getting more crappy: Lacking mounting holes and not specifying which chipset is used.
So I ordered a SD-card extension cable instead, to use with my adapter which plugs directly onto the IDE header. There was one cable for sale which looked well-made, but when I received it today it was not as pictured; Therefore I will return it. Despite that, it would likely work as intended.

For what it's worth this is the one I bought off eBay ~12 months back and have had no issues with it on my PA-2013 board with DOS/Win98

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/182483849339

If there was some sort of IDE to USB2/3 pin header adapter one could also use a modern day multi-card front panel reader. I haven't seen any such thing however.

Jo22 wrote:

gompertz wrote:

Does anyone know of any alternatives?

Yup. Just install an IDE-SD adapter inside of an old removable drive bay for IDE HDDs. 😁

May be the way I end up going as my adapter has mounting holes 😀

gompertz wrote:

For what it's worth this is the one I bought off eBay ~12 months back and have had no issues with it on my PA-2013 board with DOS/Win98 http://www.ebay.ca/itm/182483849339

Yes, at least yours has these mounting holes. What chip is on it? On some ebay sales I can read out "Sintechi" or something.

Years ago I bought two adapters with "KTC FC1306T" chip and they behaved well so far. Mine have the female connector. Shown here (with angle bracket mod).

Sintechi comes up when auto-discovering during boot. Maybe I have been fortunate thus far with it 😀

I have just send an email to http://eshop.sintech.cn , asking about the difference between "KTC FC1306T" and "Sintechi".

I'd also prefer a front panel one too, but while I'm still looking, I got rear panel SD adapters instead for my retro PCs. (The link is sold out but if you're interested I'm sure you can find an equivalent at your preferred cheap-from-China supplier.)

These fit in any spare ISA/PCI slot and allow you to change the SD card without opening the case, but you do have to reach around the back of course which is a compromise. I even cut one down and successfully mounted it in one of those parallel port cutouts in the case, so that it didn't use up a slot.

One thing I've noticed is that if you change the SD card, the device stops responding until you power cycle it (a reset doesn't work) so it's unfortunately not possible to swap cards while the PC is running. I'm not sure whether a front panel version would be any different, but it'd be worth testing otherwise I think it would limit the usefulness.

gerwin wrote:

I have just send an email to http://eshop.sintech.cn , asking about the difference between "KTC FC1306T" and "Sintechi".

My initial question got a small reply, but it is not sufficient. I don't think they will reply to my second email:

Thanks for your answer, but we need more details. Pincount of 128 is the same, but board layout is different: KTC chipset is alw […]
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Thanks for your answer, but we need more details. Pincount of 128 is the same, but board layout is different:
KTC chipset is always paired with external EEPROM . But no EEPROM paired with Sintechi. Why?
Datasheet KTC FC1306T: http://www.dzsc.com/uploadfile/company/68075/ … 92910412561.pdf
Datasheet Sintechi: unknown....please supply.

>pcadapter.cn [at-sign] gmail [dotcom]
>Dear Sir，
>The chipset are same, just printing is not same.

>>Your add shows adapter with "KTC FC1306T" chip, in the picture. But many new
>>chips are actually marked "Sintechi" Do you know the difference between
>>these two chips. Are there datasheets available. Thanks.

Malvineous wrote:

I'm not sure whether a front panel version would be any different, but it'd be worth testing otherwise I think it would limit the usefulness.

Will not be different. Shutting down the system to swap a card is not that bad; DOS boots up fast.

For my 486 a front panel SD Adapter seems like the way to go, because:
-No USB connectivity to swap files.
-AT case has no side panel.
-Front of the PC is much easier to reach then the backside.

gerwin wrote:

Will not be different. Shutting down the system to swap a card is not that bad; DOS boots up fast.

It's more the health of my power supply that bothers me, switching on is stressful for it and since my old CRT is also plugged in via the PSU, it means I have to switch off and back on both the PSU and the CRT monitor, just to swap out an SD card! It'd be fine if a reboot was all it took but a power cycle is annoying.

Yes, I can see your point.
I tried it myself too, and when I am in the BIOS doing nothing, the adapter will still get thrown off when you remove and insert the same SD card.
Next I tried to do the same but also removed the 5 Volt power supply cord before removing the SD Card. Some LEDS on the adapter stay on regardless, but it did work: I reinserted the SD card, plugged in the 5V again, and after exitting the BIOS the system booted to DOS.
For this to be practical a switch on that 5V cable would be desirable.

Interesting, that could be a solution. I wonder whether you could tie that to the SD card slot somehow, so removing a card either cuts the 5V line or activates a reset pin on the chip?