VOGONS


First post, by Gramcon

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Well, I had this old, empty case sitting around, and a 386 board that needed a home. Pics attached. It was kind of a kludge getting it to fit -- the case didn't even have a power button installed, and even the PC speaker was gone. It's all working well now, but I kinda wanted to install a turbo switch. It would have to be external, as the case does not have a turbo button. The board has a 3-pin turbo header. Can I use a 3-terminal rocker switch, or would that not work? I don't really have any spare turbo buttons sitting around. How would I wire a homemade switch? Thanks for the help, as always!

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Reply 3 of 5, by jade_angel

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For a switch, you just need any SPST switch - a rocker, a toggle, a latching pushbutton, whatever works best for where you intend to mount it. If you have a 3-terminal rocker, that's probably an SPDT switch, which will work fine (just ignore the third terminal).

Main Box: Macbook Pro M2 Max
Alas, I'm down to emulation.

Reply 4 of 5, by Gramcon

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Well, before I mess with any switches, I tried shorting pins 1 & 2, 2 & 3, and 1 &3, and running Maxspeed. CPU speed didn't change, kept displaying 23-24 (it's an AMD 386-SX25). It could be though that the turbo switch doesn't do anything for the clock speed but might disable cache instead. I guess I'll have to run a game or something and try it from there to see if the speed changes.

Not sure if the turbo can be switched via keyboard commands or not -- I originally assumed it could not because it has the header pins -- but that's another avenue I can try. It's quite the no-name board, can't find a manufacturer anywhere.