It's sporting an 8 bit Ethernet card, an 8 bit Aztech SoundGalaxy soundcard, as well as an XT-IDE setup.
The XT-IDE ROM lives on the network card, it's configured to use a 16 bit IDE card in the XT's 8 bit bus. As long as you use an IDE device capable of 8 bit transfers, such as a CF card, this is perfectly fine and works.
On the right you can see the bare bones IDE card that I use. It was meant to provide a secondary IDE channel for CD-ROM drives in a time when these weren't standard yet. Hence why it has those two chinch connectors. They just route the drive's analog audio out to the back of the PC with no amplification even. There is barely anything on the card except for some buffers and logic.
The IDE bus originally was just the ISA bus in cable form.
On the right you can see the bare bones IDE card that I use. It was meant to provide a secondary IDE channel for CD-ROM drives in a time when these weren't standard yet. Hence why it has those two chinch connectors. They just route the drive's analog audio out to the back of the PC with no amplification even. There is barely anything on the card except for some buffers and logic.
The IDE bus originally was just the ISA bus in cable form.
Bun's Lab
Photo
The clunky 20 Mb MFM drive is deactivated because it's way too loud for my nerves.
Usually the MFM controller card would throw an error, if the hard drive gets no power. However, I found a hidden jumper that was fixed with a jumper wire. I put a jumper header in instead. If unset, the controller too is deactivated. Which makes it possible to leave it in even if unused. Eventually I'll expand that into a switched configuration. Enabling me to turn the MFM portion of the system on and off as I please.
The XT-IDE can happily coexist with the MFM drive.
The XT-IDE can happily coexist with the MFM drive.
The specs:
4.77 MHz 8088 CPU
Optional 8087 FPU
640kB of RAM
360k 5.25" floppy drive
20Mb Seagate MFM hard drive
Hercules graphics, 1 bit color depth
SoundGalaxy BX
Ethernet
2x Serial, 1x Parallel
128Mb CF card used by my hotrodded XT-IDE set-up
4.77 MHz 8088 CPU
Optional 8087 FPU
640kB of RAM
360k 5.25" floppy drive
20Mb Seagate MFM hard drive
Hercules graphics, 1 bit color depth
SoundGalaxy BX
Ethernet
2x Serial, 1x Parallel
128Mb CF card used by my hotrodded XT-IDE set-up
Bun's Lab
For those interested: here are the insides of my XT.
Thinking about it .. maybe this long cable is to blame for my file system corruption issues. I need to think about it, maybe scope it out.
Bun's Lab
I'll probably have to take off the uppermost SIMM socket. I can see corroded traces underneath. And although I have traced it all out and everything checks out, there could be still sufficient unneutralized base under there that provides enough of a current…
I did that and scratched off the oxidation layer. All traces have continuity and no cross conductivity. There are no traces that I didn't already know of from my earlier deduction. Wasted effort. In the parts bin it goes until I can either source a working replacement MX83C305FC or I can use it to fix something else.
The next repair project: these horrible Chinese desolder guns. The muzzle part breaks off. It's being held on by a tiny bit of plastic that just gives out after a bit of use. I fixed one of them with a pipe clamp and copious amounts of glue. Works great. Next problem however: The release mechanism for the solder collection vial breaks.
Seriously, these things are awful in every regard. And so is the base station as it runs a tiny cooling fan at like twice the voltage.
Seriously, these things are awful in every regard. And so is the base station as it runs a tiny cooling fan at like twice the voltage.