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x86 card revival thread

dr.zeissler

Well-known member
...still searching for a PC-Card for my macintosh that has LPT/COM Output via cables to hook up different pc-things.
my OrangePC620 does not work properly...always gives my K6-256 beside jumpred to K6/400 and does not offer cd-rom acess (...not ready) regardless IDE or SCSI CD-Drives.
 

Nathan_A

Well-known member
I have a patched BIOS that will make it properly recognize your CPU. It's just a mapping problem in the BIOS that causes that mislabeled speed.
 

dr.zeissler

Well-known member
That would be interesting, but before that I have to fix what I found under the CPU.
Does not look that this should be like this...
 

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jessenator

Well-known member
Does not look that this should be like this...
Yikes!

Yeah it's a weird way to orientate the caps, but doesn't look like they would fit otherwise. Looks like you'd have to carefully heat and push the one side back and just reflow the broken joint.

Long as it's not lifted the pad, it should be okay

Oh and now I see C39 is displaced as well. Good luck with the repair.
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
That would be interesting, but before that I have to fix what I found under the CPU.
Does not look that this should be like this...
I pulled mine out to compare. The cap is in a precarious position due to the sliding lock on the socket, so it needs to be tilted inward to avoid being broken off when the CPU is released. Maybe that was the cause?

IMG_2364.jpgIMG_2365.jpg
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
Good grief, that's quite the construction...
Orange Micro had some odd execution choices on earlier cards too. The ISA stabilizer bracket on the 386 card is a few milimeters short, so tightening the screws all the way will bend the board significantly (and the metal cuts are sharp enough scrape through the board's solder mask.)

I also took some better quality photos of these Orange386 and OrangePC 290 cards.
OMI_OrangePC290.jpg
Orange386-2.jpg
To add to these earlier photos, a few more cards in better quality: OrangePCs 620, 340, and the LC630 version of the Houdini II board.
OrangePC_620small.jpg
OMI_OrangePC_340small.jpg
Apple_Houdini-II_LC630small.jpg
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
Coming into this thread a little late (and having not read all of it - so apologies if this is answered somewhere within the thread)

Dose anyone know what changes Orange Micro actually made to the the second revision Mac286 card to make memory upgrades work / work better? I'm currently working on a clone of the Mac286 and it would be nice to be able to incorporate this into the clone (the board I am cloning from is the bog standard AST version)
 

macinbot

Well-known member
OrangePC cards are strictly a MacOS 9 affair (no OS X support), correct? Could they be run in the 9.2.2 Classic Environment under OS X (PPC 10.4 Tiger would be the target OS)?
 

MrFahrenheit

Well-known member
OrangePC cards are strictly a MacOS 9 affair (no OS X support), correct? Could they be run in the 9.2.2 Classic Environment under OS X (PPC 10.4 Tiger would be the target OS)?

I would not think so. Classic environment is essentially a virtual machine, and as far as I am aware, the Blue Box which it runs within cannot touch hardware.
 

dr.zeissler

Well-known member
Currently I want to buy a Q610, but it's very hard to get the suitable PDS adapter for the houdini2 card.
I am also thinking about the downgrading of the DX2/66 to a SX25 in order to match the Q610. Don't know if this works. I only recognized a jumper on the Houdini2 that says SX/DX but I don't know where to set the multi and the fsb.

6100/610 PDS NuBus adapter bracket.
 

slomacuser

Well-known member
Currently I want to buy a Q610, but it's very hard to get the suitable PDS adapter for the houdini2 card.
I am also thinking about the downgrading of the DX2/66 to a SX25 in order to match the Q610. Don't know if this works. I only recognized a jumper on the Houdini2 that says SX/DX but I don't know where to set the multi and the fsb.

6100/610 PDS NuBus adapter bracket.
I have it. I moved mine DOS card to Quadra 650 because 6100 had problems with it (overheating) ...
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
Does anyone have the pinout to the multi-port cable used on the 530 and other such cards?
I've made a first pass at toning one out and am going to recheck my work before I formalize it into a more readable doc, but this will be coming.

Tangentially, I'm not precisely sure if there are differences in these cables. I know of OMI p/n 90CAB00301 and p/n 90CAB00302 which look visually identical (both include audio jacks.) I grabbed a 00302 loose in hopes that it would work with the 340 and it seems to have no problems that I've been able to find with audio or video, but I haven't tested the gameport, serial, or parallel ports yet. In either case, I've seen boxed examples of 530s with 00302 included, so this should work for you.

I also need to grab an RCA breakout to finish the audio contacts, but that's a preview.
Screen Shot 2023-01-03 at 7.33.06 PM.png
The psd is there in case I disappear, but expect mistakes! Final shouldn't be too long now.
 

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jeremywork

Well-known member
@Powerbase here's the completed version. The xlsx and photoshop files should corroborate each other.

Screen Shot 2023-01-03 at 10.26.46 PM.png

I don't seem to get any contact on the init/error pins for the LPT or several of the gameport pins I'd expect would be needed for a complete implementation, so there may be more to discover there.
 

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