BIOS screens and some benchmarks:

thanks for sharing the fun Mau1wurf1977!
that desoldering station seems to be doing a great job!

Personally I am dissapointed from every 286/386/486 I have tried ... the only exception was a SOYO SIS pci-based build, it was awesome.
All the older builds were plagued by incompatibilities, AMIBIOS 🤣 and other strangeness... meh

Eh.. the AMI HiFlex BIOS was the industry gold standard. They managed to throw away that market advantage when they released the WinBIOS (everyone switched to Award 4.x cores after that!) Just about the only folks that weren't using AMI at the time were OEM vendors and Micronics. They stuck with the crusty Phoenix A486 BIOS for some reason.

AMI didn't recover until the release of AMIBIOS 8. They seem to be doing very well in the UEFI market nowadays with Aptio.

Ha, that WinBIOS does suck, what were they thinking?

What a neat little board, looks about the size of an iPad! What's that empty socket for? A math co-pro I assume?

Why is norton telling you that your CPU is ~9 points slower than an Intel 386 33? Is it the SX / DX factor?

Yea the de-soldering station is pretty cool 😀 Not cheap, but for larger components like an ODIN or DALLAS it's quite the time saver.

I got two other 386 boards, also new models, with the same type of BIOS and they also work. Certainly far less jumpers than on a 486. But I haven't done anything demanding with these boards yet.

Yes the SX is just as fast internally as the DX, but the external data bus is only 16 bit. But the board is also cache-less, so this also plays a factor.

Yes that socket is for a coprocessor.

Still it feels ideal for Wing Commander. Just the right speed it seems.

Now regarding the battery. While it does have a header for an external battery, could I still buy new barrel batteries or get a coin battery holder and solder that?

The battery is a GP60BNKX3 3.6V 60mAh. A 2032 has only 3V, but is this really a problem?

Motherboard on Stason.org: http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/F/FO … ml#.UpPYwcQSbzY

And I found a PDF version and attached it to this message!

On my motherboard the jumpers for clock speed are hard-wired or don't exist. Might be a newer revision with the jumpers.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Now regarding the battery. While it does have a header for an external battery, could I still buy new barrel batteries or get a coin battery holder and solder that?

Yes I've bought new barrel batteries from Jaycar and soldered them on for that authentic look. I'm never sure about the coin battery in place of the barrel battery though, it's my understanding that the solder point for the barrel battery recharges, where the external battery header does not, and if you recharge a battery that isn't designed for it then bad things happen. I think you'd want to connect a coin battery to the external battery header to be safe, but someone will correct me I'm sure!

I've always just used one of these (see link below) on the external battery header whenever possible, also purchased from Jaycar. Any particular reason why you wouldn't go with one of these?

http://attachments.techguy.org/attachments/14 … 409/battery.jpg

Oh they are rechargeable, I wasn't aware of that 😊

You're right, the external battery pin would be much easier to use. But IMO not as neat 😀

JPl. &temal battery connector
Pin 1: vDD(6V) Pin 4: Gnd
Pin 2,3: Rechargeable battery pin
Note:To clear the CMOS configuration, place a jumper cap on pin3-4
and then place the cap back on pin 2-3 for normal operation.

Might just see if I find a new battery replacement and solder it onto the board. Or solder a battery holder.

EDIT: What about this one:

http://www.mwave.com.au/product/varta-36v-15m … battery-aa84443

Good brand. It's NI-MH vs NiCad. Does this matter much?

This one seems ideal: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB1645

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

... It's NI-MH vs NiCad. Does this matter much?

Shouldn't matter much for this application.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

This one seems ideal: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB1645 […]
Show full quote

This one seems ideal: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB1645

That looks like just a pack of three A23 size 1.2V batteries soldered in series with a connector attached. If you're in the mood you can practise your soldering skills and DIY your own pack.

What brand of de-solder station are you using?? Does there exist a de-solder station that can be used for smaller components??

TELVM wrote:

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

... It's NI-MH vs NiCad. Does this matter much?

Shouldn't matter much for this application.

That looks like just a pack of three A23 size 1.2V batteries soldered in series with a connector attached. If you're in the mood you can practise your soldering skills and DIY your own pack.

Cool. In that case a standard battery pack would also work?

A question about the voltage. The manual states 6V for the external battery. But the on-board battery is only 3.6V. Most external battery packs have 3 batteries which is either 4.5V or 3.6V depending on type.

Can I conclude that the exact voltage doesn't matter that much?

Robin4 wrote:

What brand of de-solder station are you using?? Does there exist a de-solder station that can be used for smaller components??

It's this one:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Desoldering-Statio … n-/141113965963?

It comes with three nozzles. I believe I'm using the largest one at the moment.

For SMD reworking I believe people use a hot air gun?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Now regarding the battery. While it does have a header for an external battery, could I still buy new barrel batteries or get a coin battery holder and solder that?

nope, you can't just use a CR2032 battery instead of the old-style barrel ones because the old ones are rechargeable and the CR2032 is not. So you can have a small explosion or something 🤣 🤣 🤣
The solution is to use a diode between the mobo's (+) point and the battery holder's (+) point, in order to prevent current going to the battery but at the same time allow current to leave the battery and feed the mobo.
It's a classic trick used in amigas, if you are interested I can provide more info if you like 😊

I think I will just get the parts for a few options (battery pack, replacement rechargeable battery) because you never know when you need a part again 😀 They don't cost much money anyway. The battery pack and using the external battery header is likely the easiest, it's just a bit of a bulky solution for my liking.

One advantage of rolling your own is that you can give it a nice long cable length - a PC speaker wire is perfect, and has the right plug on it too.

The pre made ones have a short-ish cable so it's still not always possible to get the battery clear of the motherboard; obviously even modern ones can still leak.

I'm handing out this advice because I recently modded an RTC and put on a coin battery holder, but I used a tiny little cable so a) the battery is still sitting directly on the motherboard and b) I have to remove the PSU to replace it! Idiot!

I decided to order a replacement battery from Varta. Seems the easiest solution for me...

I have a question regarding motheboard cache...

How standard was this? I did have a 386 as a teenager, but simply can't remember if it had cache or not.

This board doesn't have cache, but I have two other 386 boards (they are very new though) and they do have cache.

Also how about early 486 ISA only systems? Was motherboard cache something that got added a little bit later? Like with a 486DX2?

I usually press F2 in the AMI BIOSes to get the blue/grey color scheme for color monitors. The default scheme that appear so colorful on a color monitor is actually the for monochrome monitors to give a good contrast.

Usually 386SX boards didn't implement cache.

Ha I like the colours 😀 Reminds me of my first 386.

About the cache, this system without cache is much faster than my two 386DX-40 systems with Cache disabled in the BIOS. Why would this happen? Are cache mainboards simply super slow when the cache is disabled?