Fully assembled XT-IDE CF adapter! Taking orders!

Hi there ladies and gents!

Here i'm offering fully assembled the Lo tech ISA Complact flash adapter rev 3, another popular alternative to the well know XT-IDE project.

The assembled boards will include the optional components too, which will allow the boards to work on XT slot 8 and for the LED activity jumper. I will also provide a properly programmed EEPROM with the BIOS of your choice (XT-IDE or XT-IDE+). In addition i can provide BIOS extensions for High Density floppy support on your XT class PC!

All you need to do is to tell me which CPU you are using (8088/8086 or NEC V20/V30) and the floppy configuration you need ex: (A:1.44 B:1.2MB).

Price for each board is 50€ + shipping cost (includes post and shipping material). Paypal fees are to be payed by buyer. I will charge 2€ extra if you require the extra HD floppy BIOS extensions.
It will ship inside an anti static bag!

To keep in mind: I'm not charging or selling the XT-IDE BIOS or the HD Floppy BIOS. Those are open source and can be found online. I am only charging for:

PCB + parts;
Assembly service;
EEPROM flashing;
Optional BIOS configuration and flashing;
Shipping costs which include post and shipping materials (this is due to me not having proper materials to ship safely).

lo-tech XT-IDE CF rev 3:
Attachment 104084

At the moment:

1 card left

i Declare interest in one as of 1/5 ;) atm no money but it has my interest.

I thought you meant the XT IDE adapter with CF slot. Just saw it today for the first time :-)

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

Carlos, having problems finding a XT keyboard?

Update:


XT-IDE cards are now fully assembled and tested, all functionality working well. Here some pics (Ignore the card in the middle):

Attachment 104139Attachment 104140

The 2 adapters on the right are the AT2XT keyboard converters, these haven't been tested and aren't yet for sale. Only one of them will be anyway, although if there is more people interested i might assemble more.

@ia2115
I don't mind reserving a board for you but keep in mind that there is more interested people around the first ones to finalize the deal will get the card(s). If this is the case and more orders are placed i will be assembling more cards in the near future.

@Half Saint
I think you are thinking of the XT CF Lite rev 2. I could eventually assemble these as well, but keep in mind that you would be totally on your own for the bracket which needs to be printed (3D printing service) so you would be totally on your own for this.

@sprcorreia
Not at the moment no, i own a cheapo that is good enough for testing and also a IBM Model F which i recently (cleaned/fixed). Plus i will certainly keep one of these converters so i don't think i'll need any more of them. As far as keyboards i'm looking into finding a portuguese layout IBM Model M and that's it. But thanks!

Most older cherry g80 series are switchable at/xt.

Does your XT IDE card come with a bracket? I'm interested either way.

Cheers

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Half-Saint

Does your XT IDE card come with a bracket? I'm interested either way.

Cheers

---

The XT-IDE CF cards are low profile and don't need a bracket. You can however use it with CF adapters all the ones who i have tested work fine:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CF-Compact...kAAOSwGotWo7w2

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-CF-Com...4AAOSwibFUXWtl

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2618019919...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The links above are just examples of adapters that work with the XT-IDE CF card.

One card reserved for Half Saint!

I should let people know about BIOS ROM options:

There are 2 main versions of the XT-IDE BIOS i can offer for this card:

IDE-XT : Works with 8088 and up CPU's.

IDE-XTP: Works with NEC V20 and up CPU's.

The IDE-XT is the best solution if you intend to experiment between 8088/8086 and NEC V20/V30 CPU's, or if you are not sure which CPU you will use. Needless to say if you do intend to use an 8088 you MUST ask for this version!

IDE-XTP: I recommend this version if you plan to use a NEC V20/V30 cpu and up exclusively.

This version makes use of assembly instructions that are not present on 8088/8086 cpu's (ex: PUSHA, POPA) and the system will hang if you try to use this version on an 8088 system. The advantage of this BIOS build is that it offers faster transfer speeds conpared to the normal version.

I can also glue a High Density Floppy BIOS in addition to the IDE-XT BIOSes. Advantage of this is that you can use High Density floppies from boot time, effectively making you able to boot from a HD Floppy, be it 1.44MB or 1.2MB. If you want this extension included you need also to tell me which configuration you are planning to use. Example:

"I want to use a 5,25" 1.2MB drive as the A: drive and a 3.5" 1.44MB as the B: drive".

Because every user might have different configuration needs i need to build a file and configure it specifically for every single user needs.

So for the people that are interested, you must contact me via PM and tell me the desired configurations.




I am now accepting orders for XT-IDE CF cards, so if you want one place your order so i can start a new batch of cards.

I decalre interest, will look up for the additional infos

Declare interest in an AT2XT keyboard converter :-)

AT2XT keyboard converter reserved for bjt.

I will assemble 3 more converters and obe of these also reserved for skyscraper, vogons forum member so 2 AT2XT converters still available.

AT2XT converter price is 25£ + shipping.

I'll withdraw interest for now. Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bjt

I'll withdraw interest for now. Cheers

---

No worries, 1 AT2XT converter still for sale, and 3 more to be built.

I will be doing another batch of XT-IDE cards so 9 more are available to order/sale. 3 are reserved/sold. I have received payment from Half Saint and from skyscraper (Vogons forums).

As far as AT2XT converters i am building 3 more. 1 has been reserved/sold.

I made a video where one can watch my most recently built XT-IDE cards being tested and in operation with High Density floppy BIOS in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qpPAQ9nQoU

Cards are shown working in slot 8, which is one of the additional features the optional components provide. The Hard Disk activity LED is also another one of those features.

I am interested in an AT2XT keyboard converter.

Payment received from ia2115, will post the card tomorrow.

PM'ed kylix.

Payment received from Half-Saint and card sent today!

Hi Carlostex - I am declaring interest for an XT-IDE card

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MMaximus

Hi Carlostex - I am declaring interest for an XT-IDE card

---

Sending PM.

I recieved mine, its super cool thanks for a fantastic product ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ia2115

I recieved mine, its super cool thanks for a fantastic product ;)

---

Cheers! Enjoy it mate!

- - - Updated - - -

In the meantime:

payment received by NMaximus and card sent!

Still 7 XT-IDE CF cards available for sale!

I have an IBM PC/XT 5160. I have an XT-IDE card, which is also enabled for Slot 8 use, driving a pair of CF drives. I also added a separate high density floppy adapter (an FTG-FA-100 high density floppy-drive controller that supports a half-height 3.5” 1.44MB bootable floppy drive and a high density 1.2MB and 5.25" floppy drive) with its own BIOS, but had to move the starting address of the XT-IDE BIOS up to not conflict with the loading of the floppy BIOS. I literally had to pull the XT-IDE controller BIOS chip out of its socket, find and bend a particular pin #12, wire it to pin #3 and re-seat the XT-IDE BIOS chip to shift the BIOS address from C000 to D000 given that the FDD BIOS need to occupy C000 in memory. Trying to reprogram the XT-IDE EPROM to stuff the FDD BIOS into it didn't pan out for me. I wanted to drive both a 1.44M A: drive and a 1.2M 5.25" B: floppy, but the 1.2M drive, while it works, also causes the CF cards to become corrupted on boot up (no one can determine the cause so far). So I've unplugged the 1.2M drive and just run with the 1.44M floppy off of the and the pair of CF drives. I also tried using some Mini/Micro high density FDD adapters without luck.

What I am wondering is if I can get both the 1.44M and 1.2M drives working and the pair of CF drives all in harmony if you build an XT-IDE card for me with that drive config loaded into the XT-IDE BIOS. Would I remove the FTG-FA-100 high density floppy-drive controller and drive the floppies off of the XT-IDE?

Regards,
Mike

Hi Mike.

Which XT-IDE card are you using? VCF project? Dangerous Prototypes? If your card is a Lo-Tech one, like the ones i'm selling, you have a jumper to change the BIOS addresses between C800h and D800h. I'm sure you didn't really mean C000h since this is the address where VGA BIOS starts.
From what you describe you don't seem to have a lo-tech card, and a lo tech one could be the best option for you. If you want a Lo-Tech card i can sell one to you.

Some clarifications about what i offer:

1 - When i sell my cards with the optional High Density Floppy BIOS extensions i arrange the file so that floppy BIOS starts first at address C800h and XT-IDE BIOS starts at CA00h. Removing the jumper will put the BIOSes respectively at D800h and DA00h.

2 - If i sell the card without HD Floppy BIOS the XT-IDE BIOS will be obviously located at C800h.

As i see it your problem is this: Both the cards are fighting to place its respective BIOS at C800h. Your Floppy controller should have jumpers so that you could change its address to something other than C800h. So you have some options if you get one of the cards i'm selling:

1- I'll sell you a card with HD Floppy BIOS extensions (which will use C800h for the floppy BIOS and CA00h for the XT-IDE BIOS) and you can use a 16-bit ISA multi I/O controller for the floppy drives;

2- I'll sell you a card as above and you remove the BIOS ROM from your existing floppy controller (if your floppy controller is indeed at C800h it may work but not guranteed); I CANNOT GUARANTEE THIS OPTION WORKS

3- I'll sell you a card with only the XT-IDE BIOS included (XT-IDE BIOS at C800h) and you can use the jumper to put it at D800h so it does not conflict with the Floppy controller BIOS;

Either way, you can always reflash the EEPROM if something doesn't work and i can provide you the files or you want to try something different. I really like the XT-IDE CF cards from lo tech as they are compact and work great including a good set of features.

If you want to buy a card send me a PM and we can go from there.

Regards,

Carlos

:thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CarlosTex

Hi Mike.

Which XT-IDE card are you using? VCF project? Dangerous Prototypes? If your card is a Lo-Tech one, like the ones i'm selling, you have a jumper to change the BIOS addresses between C800h and D800h. I'm sure you didn't really mean C000h since this is the address where VGA BIOS starts.
From what you describe you don't seem to have a lo-tech card, and a lo tech one could be the best option for you. If you want a Lo-Tech card i can sell one to you.

Some clarifications about what i offer:

1 - When i sell my cards with the optional High Density Floppy BIOS extensions i arrange the file so that floppy BIOS starts first at address C800h and XT-IDE BIOS starts at CA00h. Removing the jumper will put the BIOSes respectively at D800h and DA00h.

2 - If i sell the card without HD Floppy BIOS the XT-IDE BIOS will be obviously located at C800h.

As i see it your problem is this: Both the cards are fighting to place its respective BIOS at C800h. Your Floppy controller should have jumpers so that you could change its address to something other than C800h. So you have some options if you get one of the cards i'm selling:

1- I'll sell you a card with HD Floppy BIOS extensions (which will use C800h for the floppy BIOS and CA00h for the XT-IDE BIOS) and you can use a 16-bit ISA multi I/O controller for the floppy drives;

2- I'll sell you a card as above and you remove the BIOS ROM from your existing floppy controller (if your floppy controller is indeed at C800h it may work but not guranteed); I CANNOT GUARANTEE THIS OPTION WORKS

3- I'll sell you a card with only the XT-IDE BIOS included (XT-IDE BIOS at C800h) and you can use the jumper to put it at D800h so it does not conflict with the Floppy controller BIOS;

Either way, you can always reflash the EEPROM if something doesn't work and i can provide you the files or you want to try something different. I really like the XT-IDE CF cards from lo tech as they are compact and work great including a good set of features.

If you want to buy a card send me a PM and we can go from there.

Regards,

Carlos

:thumbsup:

---

OK, I'll PM.

Payment received from nc_mike and card sent today!

I just realised that I haven't dropped a message here about receiving the card.

Card received, thanks Carlos :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Half-Saint

I just realised that I haven't dropped a message here about receiving the card.

Card received, thanks Carlos :-)

---

Thanks and enjoy!!

First post updated, BTW, only 6 cards for sale now.

Card received today after being held by customs fo some reason... Anyway it works great, makes my XT so much easier to use, thanks :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MMaximus

Card received today after being held by customs fo some reason... Anyway it works great, makes my XT so much easier to use, thanks :)

---

Yeah i was wondering why it was taking so long. French customs must be checking everything in the recent light of terrorism.

Enjoy your card!

Hi Carlos,

The adapter arrived. I am getting a C8000 error on boot up.

Before I replaced my existing XT-IDE, I pulled the VTG FA-100 floppy adapter as well as an 8 bit multi-function adapter (which didn't have a floppy drive interface. I set up all of the jumpers on the new 16-bit multifunction adapter and installed it, reconnected my parallel, mouse, and both the 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives. The machine booted up fine at that point. It read both drives, allowed me to format the A: drive (as a 720K of course since the multi-function adapter has no FD BIOS). My old XT-IDE card and primary and secondary CF drives were recognized and the system booted fine off of the primary CF. My next step was to replace the old XT-IDE card with yours. I restarted the machine, 640K memory counted up fine, issued the video driver message fine, immediately followed by the C8000 with a message to hit F1 to continue, which I did, and then the system just hangs there. Thoughts?

Regards,
Mike

- - - Updated - - -

I thought I'd try re-seating the new XT-IDE adapter and the C8000 went away and the system booted off of the CF card. The only problem now is that that I get a 2h! when trying to boot off a 1.44MB floppy. I get a 2h! error. I can boot off of a 720K 3.5" floppy. I tried formatting a new 3.5" 1.44" disk and the format (and sys transfer) completed successfully, but when I tried to boot off of that newly formatted 1.44M floppy I get the 2h! error. If I boot off of the CF (C:) drive and try to do a DIR A: of the 1.44M floppy, I get a "General failure reading drive A: message, however I can read a 720K floppy just fine. Thoughts?

- - - Updated - - -

By the way, I can format read and write to the B: 1.2M 5.25" drive just fine - the trouble is booting/writing/reading a 1.44M 3.5" floppy.

Make sure your floppy controller is configured to 3F0h. I don't remember what error 2h means. I need to find the error codes. Do you have more multi I/O controllers to test? I remember having a similar problem that was solved by using a different controller.

Can you upload a picture of your 16bit multi I/O controller?

BTW do you know which version of system BIOS your IBM 5160 uses?

It could be that the HD floppy BIOS is not doing anything.

It still seems like there's some conflict at C800h. Remove all the cards except video, XT-IDE CF and 16 bit multi I/O controller and try again.

Latest IBM 5160 BIOS revisions have 1.2MB support so that's why your drive is probably working. There's seems to be something else in the system that uses C800h. Do you have an MFM controller in the system?

First thing you should try: Remove the JP2 jumper from the XT-IDE CF card i sent you. That will move the XT-IDE BIOS into the D800h region instead of C800h.

OK, I removed the JP2 jumper from the XT-IDE CF card had no difference, still got the 2h! if I try to boot off of the 1.44MB drive, and can't do a DIR A: on a good 1.44 disk after boot. Mind you the 1.44MB drive did work (boot and read) when I had it running off my VTG FA-100 FDC. In the past I also tried using a mini/micro FDC and got the same symptoms and 2h! error. I then pulled out my AboveBoard memory expansion, my SoundBlaster card, and my network card, leaving in only the video card, the multifunction adapter, the XT-IDE, and the Intel InBoard 386/PC card, which I can't take out unless I revert to the original CPU. I do have the latest 5160 BIOS revision (May '86) and attaching pics of the multi-function adapter. I am wondering if its the model of the 3.5" floppy drive that might be the issue?

Regards,
MikeAttachment 106643Attachment 106644

OK, let's try something. You seem to have the floppy controller set to port 370h. Please set JP3 to 1-2 position. On the picture JP3 is set to 2-3. The HD floppy BIOS extensions in the card i sent to you are set to port 3F0h. If you set the JP3 jumper on the 16 bit card to 1-2 position the card will be set to 3F0h. Try this please.

Also it might be a good idea to remove the 386 board and test it at least once. But try setting the JP3 jumper on the floppy controller to 1-2 positions first. You might also leave it there from now on. That's the position it should be on anyway if you only have 1 floppy controller.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CarlosTex

OK, let's try something. You seem to have the floppy controller set to port 370h. Please set JP3 to 1-2 position. On the picture JP3 is set to 2-3. The HD floppy BIOS extensions in the card i sent to you are set to port 3F0h. If you set the JP3 jumper on the 16 bit card to 1-2 position the card will be set to 3F0h. Try this please.

Also it might be a good idea to remove the 386 board and test it at least once. But try setting the JP3 jumper on the floppy controller to 1-2 positions first. You might also leave it there from now on. That's the position it should be on anyway if you only have 1 floppy controller.

---

Actually, JP3 was set to pins 1+2 closed (3F0h) and when I changed it to pins 2+3 (370h) I got no drive activity at all on boot. I did try an alternate 3.5" 1.44MB drive and a new floppy cable - made no difference. So odd that I can boot off of the drive at 720K and the 1.2MB drive is working. I'm stumped.

Mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nc_mike

Actually, JP3 was set to pins 1+2 closed (3F0h) and when I changed it to pins 2+3 (370h) I got no drive activity at all on boot. I did try an alternate 3.5" 1.44MB drive and a new floppy cable - made no difference. So odd that I can boot off of the drive at 720K and the 1.2MB drive is working. I'm stumped.

Mike

---

For some reason the HD Floppy BIOS i sent you does not seem to be working on your system, despite working perfectly on my XT clone with a similar setup (also using a 16bit controller). The reason you can boot from a 720k and 1.2MB floppies is because the 86 system BIOS in the IBM 5160 already had support for both 720k and 1.2MB. But because the HD Floppy extensions on the card i sent don't seem to be working you can't get 1.44MB support at all.

Attachment 106650

The picture above is your card on my XT clone. Do you see the Multi floppy BIOS message on your system like on the picture above?

- - - Updated - - -

You also might want to try to use your VTG FA-100 FDC instead. Try taking the 16bit controller off for now, put the VTG FA-100 FDC in. Remove the JP2 jumper from the XT-IDE CF card. This way the VTG FA-100 FDC will use C800h and XT-IDE CF will use D800h.

If we can't get the floppy BIOS on the XT-IDE CF card to work then its probably a good idea to reflash the EEPROM with only the XT-IDE BIOS.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CarlosTex

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nc_mike

Actually, JP3 was set to pins 1+2 closed (3F0h) and when I changed it to pins 2+3 (370h) I got no drive activity at all on boot. I did try an alternate 3.5" 1.44MB drive and a new floppy cable - made no difference. So odd that I can boot off of the drive at 720K and the 1.2MB drive is working. I'm stumped.

Mike

---

For some reason the HD Floppy BIOS i sent you does not seem to be working on your system, despite working perfectly on my XT clone with a similar setup (also using a 16bit controller). The reason you can boot from a 720k and 1.2MB floppies is because the 86 system BIOS in the IBM 5160 already had support for both 720k and 1.2MB. But because the HD Floppy extensions on the card i sent don't seem to be working you can't get 1.44MB support at all.

Attachment 106650

The picture above is your card on my XT clone. Do you see the Multi floppy BIOS message on your system like on the picture above?

- - - Updated - - -

You also might want to try to use your VTG FA-100 FDC instead. Try taking the 16bit controller off for now, put the VTG FA-100 FDC in. Remove the JP2 jumper from the XT-IDE CF card. This way the VTG FA-100 FDC will use C800h and XT-IDE CF will use D800h.

If we can't get the floppy BIOS on the XT-IDE CF card to work then its probably a good idea to reflash the EEPROM with only the XT-IDE BIOS.

---

OK, I removed the new multi-function card that had the floppy interface (I put the old multi-function adapter back in that didn't have a floppy interface), and removed the JP2 jumper from the XT-IDE CF card. I can now format, boot from, and read/write to the 1.44MB floppy (and the 1.2M drive is still functional. I then rebooted using the CF drive and the boot went fine, and the floppy drives are both functioning. I think that did it. The whole reason I needed to redo the floppy BIOS/XT-IDE is because although it all worked as above, I had pulled out pin #12 on the old XT-IDE adapter re-seated the XT-IDE BIOS chip to shift the BIOS address; that XT-IDE did not have a JP2 - it only had a JP1. After doing that I began to notice that the CF card would get corrupted intermittently, but it only happened when the 1.2M (B:) drive was attached. Now that everything is working I'll be happy as long as the intermittent CF corruption doesn't reappear. Maybe the #12 pin bending deal created some sort of instability? I guess we'll wait a few days (the corruption seemed to happen most frequently after the system lay cold for a while).

We're getting there.

Regards,
Mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nc_mike

OK, I remove the new multi-function card (put the old one without a floppy interface back in), and removed the JP2 jumper from the XT-IDE CF card. I can now format, boot from, and read/write to the 1.44MB floppy (and the 1.2M drive is still functional. I then rebooted using the CF drive and the boot went fine, and the floppy drives are both functioning. I think that did it. The whole reason I needed to redo the floppy BIOS/XT-IDE is because although it all worked as above, I had pulled a pin out on my old XT-IDE to shift the address; that XT-IDE did not have a JP2 - it only had a JP1. After doing that I began to notice that the CF card would get corrupted intermittently, but it only happened when the 1.2M drive was attached as B: Now that everything is working I'll be happy as long as the intermittent CF corruption doesn't reappear. Maybe the pin bending deal created some sort of instability? I guess we'll wait a few days (the corruption seemed to happen most frequently after the system lay cold for a while).

We're getting there.

Regards,
Mike

---

It could be that letting pins float could bring some unwanted noise. But i don't know if this is your exact issue. Some CF cards could eventually cause some problems, and also some CF to IDE adapters can also not be very reliable.

Also if you ever get hand of a Prime 2 multi I/O controller try with it too. There's a Vogons user called bjt that wasn't too happy about his 16bit controller (very similar to yours with Winbond chips). I also had some problems with one of my half height 16bit controllers too. Some 16 bit controllers might rely on the 16 bit connector to get additional 5V and 12V lines to power some components. But i don't think this was your problem.

Good to know its working now.

Declaring interest in one of these if still available please?

Many thanks

Yes still available.

Payment received from Deanp, and the card will be shipped tomorrow morning.

Card sent, and updated 1st post.

Card received (super fast delivery!) Will test and leave feedback soon. Many thanks Carlos.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Card working great - with some excellent support from Carlos. Great product, high quality production. . Feedback left.

Cheers!

Feedback returned. :)

Declaring interest for (1) XT-CF.

Payment received and card sent

Time for a new bump!

Card received, tested, and works great. Many thanks.

Some good news for potential interested:

An effective price drop underway due to the change of currency. I'm now back to my native country so now price is in Euros.

Shipping from Portugal is also cheaper, in some cases more than half the price from GB.

4 cards left for sale, with the last batch to be built per order. Grab one while you still can!

Price drop!