exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I am interested, but as also in for one of smonsons shifter boards, cost will play a part. Are you able to give me an idea of how much it'll be?

I've got a couple of boards well placed as test rigs, including one with a PAK 68/20 which would be quite interesting to try it out on.

rubber_jonnie wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:35 pm I am interested, but as also in for one of smonsons shifter boards, cost will play a part. Are you able to give me an idea of how much it'll be?

The IDE board will be less than £10 I imagine, its not going to include many parts.

exxos wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 2:29 pm

rubber_jonnie wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:35 pm I am interested, but as also in for one of smonsons shifter boards, cost will play a part. Are you able to give me an idea of how much it'll be?

The IDE board will be less than £10 I imagine, its not going to include many parts.

In that case, I'm in too.

Btw, do you have a list of what you've tested yet? I've got a few bits and pieces lined up when I buy the kit.

Forgottenmyname wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 7:10 pm Btw, do you have a list of what you've tested yet? I've got a few bits and pieces lined up when I buy the kit.

Not yet, its on my "to do list".. I will start a new thread on it Monday.

One box full of random IDE drives acquired, ready to try and break the IDE board

Forgottenmyname wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2019 7:34 pm One box full of random IDE drives acquired, ready to try and break the IDE board

Got some random laptop drives and an IDE to CF adapter and a couple of cards that need playing with.

Here are some tips on how to setup your DEV boards for BETA testing

Grabbing the ACSI_10 line:

We need to tap off of Pin 10 of the ACSI connector port. I found the best way on my ST was to trace Pin 10 from the connector and find a via which was near the printer connector on this board. Putting a single header connector in the via allows for easy connection or you can disconnect if not using the IDE board.


MOD 1
Patching the board:

So this wouldn't be a DEV board without some patches so you will need to cut two tracks and put in two patch wires.

The picture below shows the two patch wires and track cut on the bottom side of the board. Cut the track where the ORANGE mark is and put in two patch wires marked in YELLOW and PINK.


One more track cut is needed on the top side of the board.


Sorting out the IDE header:

When putting in the IDE header don't run it all the way along, leave out the 5V and GND near the middle / top of the board. Use a header from the bottom of the board to provide the power rails to the IDE device.

Also you will have to remove one of the pins in the IDE header where the key is. Its easy to spot as there is no hole in the board there.


Plugging in the board

Plug the board into the DIL socket where your CPU used to be for me I only needed one more extra socket in the stack to get the right height to clear the other components on the ST.

Plug the ACSI_10 line in and also plug in your IDE device and power it from the power header.


Additional tips on the board

The below picture shows you where to plug in the ACSI_10 line.

For the resistor networks this one shows 4116R's but instead you can just solder resistors in the holes instead using 4116R's.

The TOS select jumper is the left most jumper on the board where you can switch between TOS104 and TOS206.


Good luck with your builds when you get your boards

Small Update:

We have been doing more tests with the board and other devices connected. With a few tweaks to the firmware we have refined the interface a little more and are now looking forward for the BETA testing to begin.

Below is a parts list for the board:

Sweet, probably already have some of this list