seleryba wrote on 2020-07-01, 22:58:

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-07-01, 22:40:

That sounds like a great setup you have. Where did you find that awesome kvm ?

From the local auction site. I was sold as untested. Probably from some recycling company. The price was around 20 dollars.

Wow that's a hell of a deal you got.

Trying to figure out the 386 motherboard here. Apparently, the clock won't stay in sync and after a while, it loses the settings. Not sure if the RTC chip is acting strange or if the battery connections are bad.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-07-02, 08:43:

Trying to figure out the 386 motherboard here. Apparently, the clock won't stay in sync and after a while, it loses the settings. Not sure if the RTC chip is acting strange or if the battery connections are bad.

Is it a Dallas?

Today I tested the voltages of my old AT psu (1991 to 1995) and I discovered that all are ok on the 5V side more or less, but I wasn't expecting that they were so low on the 12v! On the molex connector I got 10,80 volts in one in another 11,40 volts. I tested it without any load only the psu, is it "normal"? The Enermax I'm using with the adapter for my 386 has instead 12,10 volts, 5.0x volts etc... I might accept some multimeter error but not that much.. opinions? Capacitors? I checked them all and they are ok but inside them who knows..

Try putting a load on the 12 volt rail some psu don't operate properly with low or no loads

TechieDude wrote on 2020-07-02, 10:49:

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-07-02, 08:43:

Trying to figure out the 386 motherboard here. Apparently, the clock won't stay in sync and after a while, it loses the settings. Not sure if the RTC chip is acting strange or if the battery connections are bad.

Is it a Dallas?

Negative. It's a Hitachi HD146818P RTC and the battery is separate from the RTC.

All though learning to draw 3D constructions might not sound very retro'ish, I think it counts anyways, as I have been drawing trays for my CPUs. Very much inspired by Matze79's design, but drawn all the way from scratch using Fusion360 which is free for non-commercial use (at least for the first year, it seems).

So, stackable 180x160 mm CPU trays and a lid. I plan to share .stl files when I am satisfied with the design 😉

Should of course be printed in ESD safe material - I didn't but let's not discuss that 😉

Finally got some new cache chips for my VLB board. They work like a dream.

They took fuggin AGES to get here from America. Sat at customs for god knows how long. (Too long, normally)

Glad to have them so I can finish this build finally! 😀

386SX wrote on 2020-07-02, 15:53:

Today I tested the voltages of my old AT psu (1991 to 1995) and I discovered that all are ok on the 5V side more or less, but I wasn't expecting that they were so low on the 12v! On the molex connector I got 10,80 volts in one in another 11,40 volts. I tested it without any load only the psu, is it "normal"? The Enermax I'm using with the adapter for my 386 has instead 12,10 volts, 5.0x volts etc... I might accept some multimeter error but not that much.. opinions? Capacitors? I checked them all and they are ok but inside them who knows..

You need a load on every main on any AT or ATX to proper read the volts. Most suggest at least a few amps draw on +12v and +5v (the -5, -12 do not need a load). Also if ATX you really should also load the +3.3v but if the +5 and +12 are drawn enough is not neccesary. A 386 board will barely draw the minimum. I always add a old spare 1/2 dead but spins HD to load the mains a bit more....

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2020-07-02, 20:12:

Finally got some new cache chips for my VLB board. They work like a dream.
They took fuggin AGES to get here from America. Sat at customs for god knows how long. (Too long, normally)
Glad to have them so I can finish this build finally! 😀

Yes US customs is holding items for quarantine 3+ extra days plus they are very slow during this china virus thing

Got my 386 all sorted out this time. Changed the battery from the CR2032 (voltage to the RTC was 2.42V-2.5V, which was too low) to 3x AA using an old DMG-01 bottom chassis that has seen better years and it works perfectly. Also got the SAAYM card to work as well after changing the HW address on the Sound Galaxy NX Pro to 240h. Great day today for computer and retro activity!

Finally replayed some Fallout on my glorious Packard Bell Chrom@.

Zero problems with the retail Windows version on Windows 98SE.
As usual, the DOS version doesn't run at all. But whatever.

Played about with some utilities on my BBC Micro to map keys to the Joystick, allowing me to use a Joystick in games that otherwise support only keyboard usage.

They all seemed to work ok with most games and ran well from my Gotek. However I wanted a more user friendly option than having to constantly change disk images on the Gotek just to add joystick support each time.

So with the help of BeebEm & Beeb Image on the PC, I created an .ssd disk image and ran MakeRFS to create a ROM file system including several useful joystick utilities. Wrote that out to a file and then used my MiniPro to program it to an EPROM. Put the EPROM inside my BBC and now I can just *ROM to access the joystick utilities at any time.

Today I am still trying to boot a 486 mainboard I started a thread on and as usual I found one of those mainboard that has almost no info about even if I've the bios ID; the board boot but no video signal, I've not ISA debug card.. I wonder if the bios uveprom got damaged and would need a reflash. I found having a similar 28 pin eeprom I may use to flash into it some generic similar bios to boot but I've no 28pin bios motherboard to use the usual technique (removing and installing with system on).
Would it be possible to adapt a 28 pin eeprom to a 32 pin eeprom socket?

Finally got everything setup...

Yeah it's kinda more nasty in there then it looks. And I still got a 5.25 floppy drive to add!

The board allmost didn't fit too. Had to gently push under against the HD cage. Might have scuffed the side of the movie a bit but atleast it's in place 🙁

It's a DataExpert EXP4044 for those curious.

Well. Now this just furthers my desire to pickup another 486 board! But atleast for now, the build is done.

ragefury32 wrote on 2020-06-23, 04:58:

Oh, more unavoidable fun with the Igel-J thin client. […]
Show full quote

Oh, more unavoidable fun with the Igel-J thin client.

4E3876A9-31A3-4174-BC2E-A02EEC5B7E56.jpeg

A) Ordered a bunch of FFC26 ribbons for the TEAC FD05HF breakout (and a Gotek to go with its hacks tomfoolery)

B) Started work trying to figure out how to drive a IDE CDROM drive using the single IDE44 breakout on the thin client - maybe one of them Amiga CD32 breakout cables that allows you to connect an IDE44 drive and an IDE40 CDROM drive, then use a JAE to IDE40 interface so I can reuse a laptop drive. I could use something like a Dell FP320 breakout board, but that would mean no CD audio output.

0F9F607F-5F50-44C5-AD3F-EAEDC6191D30.jpeg

Then there is the fun of taking apart an old Plantronics 590 headset to figure out why it’s not charging. It’s not the battery, and it doesn’t look like a continuity issue...

Oh, more fun with the Igel-J project. But first -

a) The Nintendo DS I gave to the missus developed a nasty stress fracture on the upper plastic and this led to some....LCD issues. When I pulled it apart the top LCD ribbon cable fell apart on my hands.. I guess it's LCD replacement time.

b) Replaced the battery on my 2014 MacBook Pro Retina. Those batteries are glued in and required a hot goo bag and a plastic card to scrape it off. *ugh* I do not want to go through it again.

c) Received my 40 Pin to 50 Pin JAE CDROM drive adapter...except it was poorly packaged. How poor was the packaging?

Pretty damned poor. Had to slowly and carefully unbend those pins. However , this does lead to:

The DVD burner now works with the Igel-J. It's a slimline laptop model and the 40 pin IDE to 50 Pin JAE adapter was needed. I had to pull pin 28 on the IDE cable to make it cable-select (since otherwise both the IDE44-to-SD adapter and the optical disk will both grab primary on the IDE channel). The question now is...how to make it fit. My guess is that once the CPU shows up (the K6-2+ ATZ was never shipped (and refunded), and I ordered a K6-2+ ACZ instead), it'll get the active cooling fan, the passive heatsink block will be pulled out, and I'll have to mount a Gotek and a DVD Burner in that general area. Oh, and I am missing a CD audio cable.

Oh well. One at a time => Q3A time.

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2020-07-03, 22:22:

Finally got everything setup... […]
Show full quote

Finally got everything setup...

IMG_20200703_160708.jpg
Yeah it's kinda more nasty in there then it looks. And I still got a 5.25 floppy drive to add!

The board allmost didn't fit too. Had to gently push under against the HD cage. Might have scuffed the side of the movie a bit but atleast it's in place 🙁

It's a DataExpert EXP4044 for those curious.

Well. Now this just furthers my desire to pickup another 486 board! But atleast for now, the build is done.

Nice ! Think you are wasting that 850 psu on a 486 build. Would be better for a P4... just my opinion ;p

ragefury32 wrote on 2020-07-04, 02:12:

c) Received my 40 Pin to 50 Pin JAE CDROM drive adapter...except it was poorly packaged. How poor was the packaging?
Bent Pins.png
Pretty damned poor. Had to slowly and carefully unbend those pins.

No way ! Some heavy cornered box must have been dropped on it but gut says: That adapter and box was probably bent before shipping.

Tested the Passport MIDI PC card in my 386/486DLC and the card only works with LucasArts titles and SoftMPU won't work with it. Ah well, the card was cheap anyways. Going to order another MPU-401 card sometime and look for a Tandy 3-voice card to insert it into the machine since I use the Tandy 3-voice card in my Packard Bell, but that's currently undergoing surgery at the moment, but I can use the Tandy card in my 386/486DLC for the time being.

Rebuilt my retro-environment with cable management and a second audio mixer to let me do multiple sound cards per build. Also routed audio cables separately from power/data cables to avoid noise. Took me the better part of the day, but it's in place and works...

...well, most of it. I was having trouble with some MIDI stuff, but never quite managed to figure out what the problem was. Now have: input port 3 on my Edirol UM550 patchbay is dead. Not at all happy with that - this is a 5 input, 5 output device and I really needed all 5 inputs :'(

Spent the day in the way back machine grabbing some CT sound card jumper pages (originals, not from TH99). After editing will zip them up and add to Vogons library as a small reference library.

Xtree. Had this on old PCeazy.

Cheers,