First post, by Ozzuneoj
- Rank
- l33t
I saw this in a scrap lot recently and could have cried.
It's an Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 with the entire ISA connector cut off. I asked the seller about it and he said he bought the boards pre-stripped so he doesn't have the connector.
I've looked at some close up pictures of these cards and it seems fairly easy to trace each pin on the ISA connector to a nearby test point on the board, so theoretically it wouldn't be impossible to wire it up to another connector. Without the original connector though, it would be nearly impossible to get another connector attached at the correct angle for the card to be usable, not to mention getting it to be sturdy enough to not just snap off in the slot (ISA slots can be extremely tight).
I don't desperately need another project, but these cards are quite rare, so I'd tinker with it if it wasn't totally impossible.
I've seen posts about ISA connectors with holes for soldering pins and such, so I wonder if it'd be possible to get some kind of riser card to act as a dummy, just to use its edge connector. Connecting the actual card with a couple short ribbon cables wouldn't be that hard since the pins and the solder points were in order and very accessible. If anyone has any ideas or experience with this kind of thing, let me know!
I frequently see useful cards with their edge connectors ("gold fingers"... 😒 )removed, but never a card as rare as a Soundscape. This is the first one I've seen for sale anywhere that wasn't selling for "collectible" prices, so naturally I'm interested in it. If there's a somewhat reliable method for bypassing demolished edge connectors, I'd try it. I've had pretty good results with vintage hardware repairs lately, so I'll try anything as long as the needed components aren't as expensive as buying a functional card.
Now for some blitting from the back buffer.