IDE Card Group Buy ?

[Swim]

5 minutes ago, mizapf said:

Is this an older IDELOAD? I am using V12 (06/12/2019), and its menu shows as last item "Set IDE clock".

Good point Mizapf. There are a few bug fixes after DSR V07 and everyone should be using DSR V12 now.

[Swim]

The latest version of Fred's DSR V12 is available for download on the Hidden Reef BBS 718-448-9402 24/7 for those that still have an old school 110 baud to 56k modem and land line hooked up to there 99/4a.

[Shift838]

Wanted to post an update.

 

I have the IDE card running stable with both a IDE2CF card adapter as well as a IDE2SD card adapter.  The only issue I am seeing is a strange time/date format in BASIC only.  In Extended Basic the time/date format shows correctly.

 

I will be sending Fred a new adapter board with the new clock chip (BQ4802YDW) for him to test on his system.  He may be able to adapt  his DSR to detect it as well.  Right now the DSRv12 will assume it's a BQ4847, which is fine as the datasheets shows it to be completely compatible but it's surface mount, that's where my adapter comes in.  The adapter converts the BQ4802 surface mount to a DIP, adds a crystal for the clock and 3v CR2032 battery backup.  I have also added a jumper/dip switch to be able to turn the Interrupt line off as sometimes if when the unit is powered up it will flag the interrupt at boot and freeze the system.  I currently just keep mine off as referenced on Fred's DSR page.

 

I have been smoke testing the board I built over the last few days after chasing down an issue where the card could not be found about 1/3 of the time.  Sending Fred some memory dumps he pointed me to the BUS so I hit the 74ALS245's again with a hot solder iron to re-flow the joints a few days ago and now the card has been stable ever since.  (I'm knocking on wood right now...)  

 

This IDE board is definitely tricky to get assembled and working correctly.  I know i have probably spent around 4 hours on the initial assembly of this board, then probably another couple of days chasing things down.  

 

Also for all of you Geneve owners out there, it will only currently work in ROMPAGE mode, which is how it has been since it was designed originally.

 

For everyone that has signed up for a pre-purchase please be sure you have included your email address in the form HERE as I will be communicating with everyone via email.

 

Once the deadline has passed for payment to lock in your pre-order I will be making the order of the boards.  currently I have requested 35 boards, the more we order the better the price for PCB production.

 

I an source a majority of the components from 2 sources.  there are a couple I have to get elsewhere.

 

I will be making the pre-order going up on my store HERE soon.  I'll post here and email everyone when it is available and how much each will be.  I will have the different options available for the IDE Pre-order to include bare board, components only, assembled, etc. as well as options to include a IDE2CF or IDE2SD card with memory cards.  I will post an estimated price soon based on how many I have scoped right now. 

 

Once the orders are in, i suspect it will be a few weeks before I see the boards and all the components.  I will be building the cards and smoke testing each one for 2 days to ensure stability.  Stability of the card will usually show itself pretty quick.

 

 

[+Schmitzi]

3 hours ago, Shift838 said:

Wanted to post an update.

...
 

For everyone that has signed up for a pre-purchase please be sure you have included your email address in the form HERE as I will be communicating with everyone via email.

...

 

 

 

 

Hi, I have re-entered it all into the Excel sheet, hope it saves   Edit: Seems OK.

Please also note, I don´t need extra parts (kits) anymore, if OK for you.

(If you already bought and cannot use them otherwise, I´ll take them)

 

So here, just as a backup:

 

 

 

[+retroclouds]

Upgraded from 1 assembled board to 2 assembled boards (clock with sram)

[Swim]

12 hours ago, Shift838 said:

Wanted to post an update.

 

I have the IDE card running stable with both a IDE2CF card adapter as well as a IDE2SD card adapter.  The only issue I am seeing is a strange time/date format in BASIC only.  In Extended Basic the time/date format shows correctly.

 

I will be sending Fred a new adapter board with the new clock chip (BQ4802YDW) for him to test on his system.  He may be able to adapt  his DSR to detect it as well.  Right now the DSRv12 will assume it's a BQ4847, which is fine as the datasheets shows it to be completely compatible but it's surface mount, that's where my adapter comes in.  The adapter converts the BQ4802 surface mount to a DIP, adds a crystal for the clock and 3v CR2032 battery backup.  I have also added a jumper/dip switch to be able to turn the Interrupt line off as sometimes if when the unit is powered up it will flag the interrupt at boot and freeze the system.  I currently just keep mine off as referenced on Fred's DSR page.

 

I have been smoke testing the board I built over the last few days after chasing down an issue where the card could not be found about 1/3 of the time.  Sending Fred some memory dumps he pointed me to the BUS so I hit the 74ALS245's again with a hot solder iron to re-flow the joints a few days ago and now the card has been stable ever since.  (I'm knocking on wood right now...)  

 

This IDE board is definitely tricky to get assembled and working correctly.  I know i have probably spent around 4 hours on the initial assembly of this board, then probably another couple of days chasing things down.  

 

Also for all of you Geneve owners out there, it will only currently work in ROMPAGE mode, which is how it has been since it was designed originally.

 

For everyone that has signed up for a pre-purchase please be sure you have included your email address in the form HERE as I will be communicating with everyone via email.

 

Once the deadline has passed for payment to lock in your pre-order I will be making the order of the boards.  currently I have requested 35 boards, the more we order the better the price for PCB production.

 

I an source a majority of the components from 2 sources.  there are a couple I have to get elsewhere.

 

I will be making the pre-order going up on my store HERE soon.  I'll post here and email everyone when it is available and how much each will be.  I will have the different options available for the IDE Pre-order to include bare board, components only, assembled, etc. as well as options to include a IDE2CF or IDE2SD card with memory cards.  I will post an estimated price soon based on how many I have scoped right now. 

 

Once the orders are in, i suspect it will be a few weeks before I see the boards and all the components.  I will be building the cards and smoke testing each one for 2 days to ensure stability.  Stability of the card will usually show itself pretty quick.

 

 

Just for giggles shift338 do you have the correct orientation with the three resistor packs at location R1, R2 and R3?

[Shift838]

1 hour ago, Swim said:

Just for giggles shift338 do you have the correct orientation with the three resistor packs at location R1, R2 and R3?

yes, they oriented correctly and I don't think it really matters on these since they are isolated resistors...  These are the chips are are very hard to find.  I'm building another card over the next couple of weeks.  to use some different isolated resistor packs (16 pin instead of 14), since they are the same measurements between pins it should be fine, just not use one of them.  We will see.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Shift838

[+Schmitzi]

yeah, I switched to SRAM on all clocks

[Astharot]

Hi Chris, 

final price for one board working and testing how much? Range 100-150$ ?? Or more?

[Shift838]

7 hours ago, Astharot said:

Hi Chris, 

final price for one board working and testing how much? Range 100-150$ ?? Or more?

probably be closer to $200.  Many of the components have doubled in price since t he first group buy back in 04/05 ish.

[Shift838]

I have to figure out my prices again.  I was working on them yesterday and getting ready to save and damn power went out!

 

I believe if I recall a assembled and tested board is going to run around $200each + shipping.  Will combine shipping of course.

I think the blank pcb $25-$30 USD each (this is dependent if I get at least 40 board orders (i'm close based on the spreadsheet).

Component kits(will get final figure in a bit) as I have to source them from 3 different vendors.  I want to test a different resistor network on the card since the 14 pin SOIC is so hard to come by.  I have some but not enough for the orders. 

 

I believe since they are isolated resistor networks that I can use a 16 pin SOIC as it's the same size as for as pin to pin measurements.  Will just have one extra resistor on the chip not connected..  But I need to test this when I get my other parts kit in I ordered over the next few days.

 

I have purchased a 3d Printer to offer cases a 3.5 or 5.25 drive mount case for a IDE to SD Card adapter.  Not sure how much I will charge to print those yet.  I need to do one first and see how they come out.  These will fit into a 3.5 to 5.25 adapter housing or a full 5.25 drive bay, both can fit and be powered by the PEB.

 

I will also be offering the IDE2CF adapter with CF Card as well as a IDE2SD card with SD Card and IDE cable.  

 

I have a line on the original BQ4847 chip at a reasonable price.

 

 

 

[Shift838]

I have updated pricing on the google sheets.

[Shift838]

i am building my 2nd card to verify changing resistor networks functionality.  Once done and verified I will be posting here for the preorders.

 

Question for all.  How long do you think I should keep the pre-order open for payments then cut-off for ordering the components.  I don't want to keep it open for 30 days, but I don't want to make it too short either.  I'm thinking 2 weeks??

 

thoughts ?

[wolhess]

Two weeks is OK for me.

[+Schmitzi]

I´m not in hurry

[CosmicBoy]

2 - 4 weeks are ok for me.

 

[Shift838]

I finished building the second card with the substituted resistor networks and it works like a charm.  I have also tested it on a Geneve and wired power from the card to power the IDE2CF adapter.

 

I will be burning it in this weekend.  If all goes well I will be posting the pre-buy this Monday for 2 weeks.

 

this one as you see as the original BQ4847 clock chip. 

 

All the boards I build will have the piece of electrical tape near the heat sync when I ship them.  I do this since the 10k resistor there is super close and some users have experienced knocking it off when inserting it into the PEB if you are not careful.  

 

On a side note.  If anyone has a dead BQ4847, or the battery is dead and would like to donate it to me that would be great.  I am wanting to design a board that will interface with the IDE controller but allow you to have a external 3v battery backup to revive the dead battery.  PM if you do.

 

 

[+Ksarul]

Just in case these come in useful to you. . .I think I've corrected any remaining errors in these, but if you find any, let me know and I'll update the Visio files and upload the corrected versions.

A3-Nouspikel-IDE-HDC-P1.pdf A3-Nouspikel-IDE-HDC-P2.pdf

[Txsaluki]

I’d like one assembled but not letting me

Edit the google doc

[Shift838]

3 hours ago, Txsaluki said:

I’d like one assembled but not letting me

Edit the google doc

i'll be posting the group buy soon.  

 

Try this link, it should work for you.  HERE

[Shift838]

I've been working hard to get everything on my store lined up for the different options for the group buy.  I think I have it all about done.  Need to double check a few things.  

 

Watch here and watch your emails if you have logged it on the spreadsheet.

 

 

[jwild]

Hello all,

 

I am interested in this project, but I'd like to discuss the utility of this for people that have TIPIs.

 

What are some use cases for the IDE Card + drives for people that already have TIPIs?

 

I hate to miss out on the buy, but I'm trying to figure out how I'd use it.

 

Thank you

[+arcadeshopper]

45 minutes ago, jwild said:

Hello all,

 

I am interested in this project, but I'd like to discuss the utility of this for people that have TIPIs.

 

What are some use cases for the IDE Card + drives for people that already have TIPIs?

 

I hate to miss out on the buy, but I'm trying to figure out how I'd use it.

 

Thank you

imho they are about the same thing.. a hard disk accessible from your 4/a..  you can make partitions on the ide drive  assuming you are running Fred's DSR:

A maximum of four partitions per IDE device.
A maximum of eight device names IDE1 through IDE8.
DSK1 and DSK emulating on IDE1.
 

while TIPI is one big drive only limited by your sdcard size with DSK1-4 emulation to point to any folder on the drive. 

DSK emulation on the TIPI drives

 

[+Ksarul]

I would say that the primary advantage would be that the IDE card is storing all of the data on the TI side of the interface. That is not a problem for most TIPI use cases, but it may make a difference.

[+retroclouds]

For me there is a very important difference between TIPI and the IDE card.

 

I love my TIPI’s, in fact I have multiple, be it as PEB card, sidecar and now also in the speech synth.

What I like so much about TIPI is that they basically are software devices. What I mean by that is that allmost all of its functionality comes from software running on the raspberry.

 

Me being a software guy, and the fact that tipi is very open (you find everything on github) allows me to try and extend things as I please. Having said that, at the same time I somehow get that “triton xt” feeling. What I mean by that is that on the other side of the line you have a device that is a LOT more powerful than the TI-99/4a itself and it somehow feels a bit like cheating.

 

So that is the reason why I also preordered 2 IDE cards. I want to built 2 systems. One with TIPI and new devices and a more classic one with devices that were already around a long time ago.

 

You just might call me crazy, because from a usability standpoint I’m sure TIPI is on par or beyond the IDE card. 

However, to me it’s not only about usability, but also letting my system be a “classic” (whatever that means, but you get the idea).