XT-IDE on PCjr

[monzamess]

I too am interested in a preassembled model. I guesstimate I have a 20% chance of assembling it right myself, and that's being generous.

[GHiero]

Ditto for preassembly. I think the best option in this case could give jmetal88 the money for the component kit and the soldering work and he can buy the kit from Alan, assemble it and ship it out to the ultimate buyer.

[geoffdaddy]

I'm pretty quick with an iron usually. I'll have a go at building one up and see if I think I can offer up my services as well.

[jmetal88]

I've thought about it, and I think I'd be willing to assemble these for $30 a board. If I remember correctly, it was about an afternoon's worth of work to assemble my prototype (say 4 hours), and I'll give you guys the undergrad price on labor, haha. PM me if you want to work out payment or shipping or anything.

[bloguidice]

Sounds like a very fair deal. Thanks for doing it.

[Brutman]

Please everybody, remember, they are not that hard to assemble yourself. A $15 soldering iron from Radio Shack with a new tip is about all that you need.

For those of you who are thinking about assembling for others; you are taking on the risk that you will damage something during assembly. You also have to diagnose the completed board and figure out what is wrong (if anything) and it might be something nefarious like a bad part. Keep in mind that you are taking on this extra risk.

(I'm not trying to drive the price of assembly up. But I don't want to see anybody getting burned either.)


Mike

[jmetal88]

Please everybody, remember, they are not that hard to assemble yourself. A $15 soldering iron from Radio Shack with a new tip is about all that you need.

For those of you who are thinking about assembling for others; you are taking on the risk that you will damage something during assembly. You also have to diagnose the completed board and figure out what is wrong (if anything) and it might be something nefarious like a bad part. Keep in mind that you are taking on this extra risk.

(I'm not trying to drive the price of assembly up. But I don't want to see anybody getting burned either.)


Mike

Yup, I already planned on that. I'm pretty confident in my ability at this point, so I think the chances of my causing any problems will be pretty slim.

[geoffdaddy]

Kudos to Alan. I just received the PCB and connector from him. The board looks great.

I built up an XT-IDE a while back and that board took me less than an hour to build and worked the first time. This one doesn't look that much more complicated (apart from the PLCC sockets of course), but the pin densities are the same. I wouldn't have any qualms about soldering one up if I were a newbie. As long as the main parts are all socketed and you have a good temperature controlled iron (which can be had inexpensively) I think this is within most people's abilities with a little practice.

[jmetal88]

I think the main thing that made this board's assembly so time-consuming (at least for me) was that 60pin connector for the PCjr's bus.

By the way, Alan decided to go ahead and send me four or five of the boards so that I can get a head start on assembling them. So now you can contact me directly if you don't want to self-assemble.

[alanh]

So the 60 pin'er isn't soldered. It's a friction lock connector. You press it in with a vice or a rubber mallet and firm surface. Just make sure you have it oriented correctly before going all the way. The only way to get it back apart again (or salvage an existing one) is to push each pin out with a pair of needle nose.

If anyone attempts the mallet method, place the female side of the pins (connector oriented towards the JR) down on a flat surface. Place the male pin shroud over the male pins on the top side. Start lightly tapping the top of the shroud increasing pressure gradually. For the final few millimeters, you will be smacking the crap out of it but the shroud edges can handle it. The female pin tails on the flat surface will keep them from protruding from that side of the connector or bending. The tricky part is to keep the stack aligned correctly with the card floating unsupported while you pound. So stop frequently and check and recheck the squareness of the connector stack verses the card. Then continue.

-Alan