Workshops / Background reports / Book introductions
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Workshops / Background reports / Book introductions
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(AMIGA aktuell 03/2001 - Workshop: How to fit a Silversurfer and Express-Adapter into a Desktop-A1200)
Warning! Smoking is danger... oops.... Tinkering with your hardware can lead to serious damage to your hardware and even destroy your computer completely. You do everything described herein on your own risk, the author will take no liability of any kind!
Here I'm describing a modification for the "IDE-Fix Express" adapter, which seems to be better and more stable than the version in my first article.
First I should mention that I couldn't manage to make the Express adapter work properly with my Blizzard 1230 IV.
When making a cold boot, the computer crashed 20 to 30 times before it worked properly. It couldn't have been because of patches, because even commands like "Assign" or "Setpatch" led to a crash.
When the system finally was up and running, I achieved a transfer speed of 4.9 MB/s.
Now I went to try and remove this annoying effect caused by the connector pins.
We need: scissors, a soldering tool and tin-solder.
First cut the cable connecting the Express adapter to the 4-way circuit board (close to the connector), after remembering where each signal went. Then unsolder the connector on the Express board itself.
Having managed that, solder the wires of the cable directly to the board (take care not to turn the cable around!).
Now we should have the circuit board hanging from the cable..
If we now assemble the board into the computer, we will notice that the the case now fits properly (only the opening for the harddisk frame is still blocked). We also don't need the rubber fitting from the first article anymore. Just connect the cable with the 4-way adapter and away we go!
The case closes properly now, but we still have to insulate the contacts with tape or they might be shorted!
Meanwhile I bought a Blizzard 1260. Oddly enough, I don't get the high transfer rate of the 1230 with this board. I achieve now only 3.6 MB/s compared to 4.9 MB/s with the 1230.
But it's still better than 2.2 MB/s without the adapter. But the most important thing is that the system now starts up without problems!
Dirk Wenk <Dirk@wax7.de>
