Ok I'm finally ready to admit my MAX32 is no longer "state of the art". In fact it is a dinosaur in danger of becoming a fossil.
People would just give me a blank stare were I to proclaim the power of the Intel 80386SX-16 when mated with a 80387 math coprocessor.
I had to move this machine from a friends property because they were moving on. At the time I bought it I did not have a suitable place for it so it went to my friends place. It was easier for all using it to just leave it there even after I moved to a property with a great shop space.
Once it was moved into my shop, (just through the door actually, the riggers were in a hurry to hit the pub and catch a game) it sat for nearly a year before I finally moved it into position with a large crowbar and lots of blood. sweat and tears. That move could be measured in hours per inch. After that experience I am fully decided on spending the required cash needed for proper machine moving skates and toe jacks the next time a move is required.
Next I had to wire up the CNC rated RPC, then wire the machine to it once I had proven I had good stable and balanced 3 phase and identified the ghost leg. Things were on a roll now, until I noticed I didn't have the PC side key... but that is a different thread. Getting past that I finally flipped the switch and.... no boot.
The Rayovac 844 extenal PC battery was as dead as the dinosaurs, the CMOS setup config was lost so it could not read the HDD without setting the C_H_S numbers and installed mem config.
I have since obtained a 4x AAA battery box with switch and leads which I soldiered the connector from the expired Rayovac to. I measured an open circuit voltage of 6.6V with 4 batts and the Rayovac 844 was a 4.5V unit so I will make a dummy batt so that there are only 3 batts in the box providing power. I have not hooked this up yet, as I have not had a chance to fab the dummy batt.
This system has a Seagate ST3145A which lists a capacity of 130.6MB I also have a ST3144A which has the same C-H-S and final capacity. Is there a utility that can make a complete drive clone so that I have a ready to go HDD? should the original die - remember these parts are 20+ years old and those cabinets get really hot even with all the fans.
Part of why I worry is that I have the box the Max32 upgrade came in, complete with the dust jackets for the floppies, but there is no actual media so if this dies I have a blue boat anchor and no boat.
What are other users using to replace the HDD - I know its a sticky problem because its early IDE-AT before the hardware actually communicated the drive parameters ( pre-Plug & pray ) and you have the 386 BIOS limit of 504MB.
I would like to try a IDE compact Flash adaptor with a 512Mb card - but I'm at a loss as to how to clone the functional HDD into the CF. Going to CF would be nice as I could pull the card and make a dupe as needed to have a complete system backup complete with the machines entire loaded program library.
From messages on the screen it appears the maximum memory the board can handle is 8mb - can this be confirmed because I have 8 4mb chips I could use if its supported. Right now it looks like I have 4mb installed.
Future projects will include trying to come up with a functional way to replace the CRT's with LCD's and this is targeted for the MaxII and Max32, and maybe even Max-3 but I have not laid eyes on that hardware and don't know of a machine I could test on for Max-3.
People would just give me a blank stare were I to proclaim the power of the Intel 80386SX-16 when mated with a 80387 math coprocessor.
I had to move this machine from a friends property because they were moving on. At the time I bought it I did not have a suitable place for it so it went to my friends place. It was easier for all using it to just leave it there even after I moved to a property with a great shop space.
Once it was moved into my shop, (just through the door actually, the riggers were in a hurry to hit the pub and catch a game) it sat for nearly a year before I finally moved it into position with a large crowbar and lots of blood. sweat and tears. That move could be measured in hours per inch. After that experience I am fully decided on spending the required cash needed for proper machine moving skates and toe jacks the next time a move is required.
Next I had to wire up the CNC rated RPC, then wire the machine to it once I had proven I had good stable and balanced 3 phase and identified the ghost leg. Things were on a roll now, until I noticed I didn't have the PC side key... but that is a different thread. Getting past that I finally flipped the switch and.... no boot.
The Rayovac 844 extenal PC battery was as dead as the dinosaurs, the CMOS setup config was lost so it could not read the HDD without setting the C_H_S numbers and installed mem config.
I have since obtained a 4x AAA battery box with switch and leads which I soldiered the connector from the expired Rayovac to. I measured an open circuit voltage of 6.6V with 4 batts and the Rayovac 844 was a 4.5V unit so I will make a dummy batt so that there are only 3 batts in the box providing power. I have not hooked this up yet, as I have not had a chance to fab the dummy batt.
This system has a Seagate ST3145A which lists a capacity of 130.6MB I also have a ST3144A which has the same C-H-S and final capacity. Is there a utility that can make a complete drive clone so that I have a ready to go HDD? should the original die - remember these parts are 20+ years old and those cabinets get really hot even with all the fans.
Part of why I worry is that I have the box the Max32 upgrade came in, complete with the dust jackets for the floppies, but there is no actual media so if this dies I have a blue boat anchor and no boat.
What are other users using to replace the HDD - I know its a sticky problem because its early IDE-AT before the hardware actually communicated the drive parameters ( pre-Plug & pray ) and you have the 386 BIOS limit of 504MB.
I would like to try a IDE compact Flash adaptor with a 512Mb card - but I'm at a loss as to how to clone the functional HDD into the CF. Going to CF would be nice as I could pull the card and make a dupe as needed to have a complete system backup complete with the machines entire loaded program library.
From messages on the screen it appears the maximum memory the board can handle is 8mb - can this be confirmed because I have 8 4mb chips I could use if its supported. Right now it looks like I have 4mb installed.
Future projects will include trying to come up with a functional way to replace the CRT's with LCD's and this is targeted for the MaxII and Max32, and maybe even Max-3 but I have not laid eyes on that hardware and don't know of a machine I could test on for Max-3.