XM301/SIO2SD Finished!

[flashjazzcat]

Well, I'm gonna bite the bullet over Christmas and desolder the SIO header and LCD pin arrays. The aim is to drastically tidy up the wiring. I have no intention of ever removing the PCB from the housing, so it's pointless leaving the clutter on the board.

[ataridano]

 

 

I think you might find the speeddrive a little too big for the XM301

 

Well, I was actually thinking that most of the brains would probably be on a seperate board, with the SD socket mounted in the XM301 case. That way you could keep the PBI cable short too. In a perfect world, I would have the brains of the speeddrive mounted on a daughter board inside my MIO.

[ataridano]

A custom circuit board would make life a whole lot easier. If I had the knowledge, skills and resources, I'd design and manufacture a batch of these things with a custom PCB. The Sdrive Nuxx is a thing of beauty, without a doubt (I'd certainly like one), but these little XM301s look pretty cool and it's a good use for a peripheral which is largely useless today except as part of a collection.

 

Ideally, the main PCB should support the switches and LCD at just the right height when screwed into the original mounting pillars. Then it would just be a case of drilling seven holes, cutting the LCD aperture, and a slot for the SD card.

 

Well, like I said, I had already considered this and would be willing to give it a try if there was interest. So do people prefer SIO2SD over Sdrive then? Would I need to mount SIO connectors in the back of the box, or just have a cable exit the box? Mounting height of the LCD and LEDs would be determined by how long the leads were left, and the mounting spacers used for the LCD. The switches would have to be selected such that they were the right height.

[flashjazzcat]

Re-wired my baby last night and finally got all the LEDs working (had to create hook-up for power LED as circuit on board appeared kaput).

 

 

The original power LED was red, with red tinted plastic over it. I managed to remove the plastic and made a new window by putting electrical tape over the hole on the visible side, then spreading epoxy resin on the inside. When the tape's peeled away, you have a perfect window. VERY effective, and I might do the same on my VBXE 65XE. Never liked the red power light.

 

Really, really pleased with this now it's done.

Edited January 5, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[+orpheuswaking]

Re-wired my baby last night and finally got all the LEDs working (had to create hook-up for power LED as circuit on board appeared kaput).

 

 

The original power LED was red, with red tinted plastic over it. I managed to remove the plastic and made a new window by putting electrical tape over the hole on the visible side, then spreading epoxy resin on the inside. When the tape's peeled away, you have a perfect window. VERY effective, and I might do the same on my VBXE 65XE. Never liked the red power light.

 

Really, really pleased with this now it's done.

 

Grrrr... again I need to do a new one of these, anyone got a spare XM301

[+Stephen]

 

The original power LED was red, with red tinted plastic over it. I managed to remove the plastic and made a new window by putting electrical tape over the hole on the visible side, then spreading epoxy resin on the inside. When the tape's peeled away, you have a perfect window. VERY effective, and I might do the same on my VBXE 65XE. Never liked the red power light.

That looks great! I can't cut up my original XM301 - I still remember my mom taking me to Rubber City Atari and buying it. But I'll certainly grab one from Ebay.

 

P.S.

fcz - It must be a UK thing (not liking red power lights), as I have heard this mentioned many times in the past. Most stuff over here uses it (until the damn blue LEDs caught on). Does a red light indicate trouble on the average gear overseas?

 

Stephen Anderson

[flashjazzcat]

That looks great! I can't cut up my original XM301 - I still remember my mom taking me to Rubber City Atari and buying it. But I'll certainly grab one from Ebay.

 

P.S.

fcz - It must be a UK thing (not liking red power lights), as I have heard this mentioned many times in the past. Most stuff over here uses it (until the damn blue LEDs caught on). Does a red light indicate trouble on the average gear overseas?

Thanks - I'm over the moon with it. I just had to take the LCD off and re-glue it again because it had drifted when the resin was drying last night. I still haven't done the stand-offs on the bottom of the case yet - it's held together with sticky-tape.

 

I'd cut that XM301 up: you'll be doing it a favour.

 

We do have red power lights over here, although the context is probably pretty blurred. My TV downstairs has a red power/standby light, while the LG has a blue one which changes to amber for standby. The kettle has a red light, but the PC's is green. I think it's the ST's green power LED which made me prefer that colour over red. And the functionality of a device which shows reads/writes and power status kind of leads one in the direction of green for power. The SIO2SD shipped with this configuration, and I'm really glad I stuck to it because to me the green looks ten times better. As I say, I'm definitely going to give my VBXE 65XE the same makeover.

 

There was some talk of "Instant Window" a while ago; a product which creates resin "windows" such as the one I've made today. Epoxy resin works just as well, though.

Edited January 5, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[+Philsan]

The final result is perfect, Jon.

Every production of yours is always perfect!

 

Regarding red light, like Stephen I prefer red power lights.

To me red color recalls fire and energy.

If I am not wrong in the past many devices had red power lights.

[+bf2k+]

 

Grrrr... again I need to do a new one of these, anyone got a spare XM301

 

I got one recently from B&C - they probably have more.

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

The HPC-301 (The card reader that reads portfolio cards on the PC) has basically the same case. It has a colorless/white power light.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[flashjazzcat]

The final result is perfect, Jon.

Every production of yours is always perfect!

 

Regarding red light, like Stephen I prefer red power lights.

To me red color recalls fire and energy.

If I am not wrong in the past many devices had red power lights.

Thank you! Believe me, though: not everything goes perfectly here. I make many expensive mistakes!

 

The power light question is interesting. I would posit that, in this case, yellow is the logical colour for reads, red for writes. Meanwhile, green means GO!

 

In any case, something different is always nice. It makes it individual, and I learned another good technique (making window inserts).