exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

HigashiJun wrote: 03 Apr 2025 12:04 Yay !

The case fan should reach me tomorrow.

Can't believe it almost took one month to be delivered.

I also managed to get the missing 1206x4 1K isolated resistor arrays, and the 10K should arrive soon.

Damn, these ones were a real PITA to get...

Good stuff, should be completed soon then?

rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Apr 2025 12:11 Good stuff, should be completed soon then?

Yes.

Fitting the fan is easy, and soldering four resistor arrays to the XT CF mini won't take me long.

HigashiJun wrote: 03 Apr 2025 12:24

rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Apr 2025 12:11 Good stuff, should be completed soon then?

Yes.

Fitting the fan is easy, and soldering four resistor arrays to the XT CF mini won't take me long.

Great, looking forward to pictures.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Apr 2025 12:25 Great, looking forward to pictures.

8-)

I have finally fitted the new PSU fan.

The beauty and the beast...

And the final result, with cables routed.

The missing resistor arrays should arrive tomorrow, so I can finish the XT CF mini.

Nice :)

:thanksyellow:

While waiting for the missing resistor arrays, I've finished the VGA card install:

I had to file down the metal bracket in order to let it seat properly on the plastic slot cover, drill 2 holes on each side of the bracket and add 4 washers on each side to the VGA connector screws (between the connector and the bracket) so that the bracket is now aligned horizontally.


Looks quite good for me...


And with the top lid closed.

I now have 3 expansions in the Tandy: the RAM & DMA card, the VGA card and the XT CF mini.

I would prefer to have the PICOmem instead, bus as I wrote in another post, I don't want to modify the lid for that.

The hardest part is done !

:D

Just looking at your photos and the Tandy seems to have space for a PicoMEM, you could probably use it without a backplate, so I'm not 100% sure why the lid would need a mod.

Are all your slots full height? My XT-IDE has been hard to configure and seems to hang my Amstrad, but the PicoMEM works flawlessly.

@rubber_jonnie

Indeed, the Tandy has space for three "Tandy plus" expansions.

The RAM & DMA board is a "plus" expansion, but the VGA card and the XT Cf mini are not.

Each plus expansion lays in front of its respective slot cover, but if you fit a standard ISA card you will always have the second slot unpopulated whatever you do (unless you remove the RAM & DMA card).

Since I want to keep the DMA, there is no other alternative. I can install a PICOmem instead of the VGA card, so the PICOmem will occupy the third slot, and the VGA card in the last connector but I will then have to cut the top lid to let the VGA connector out.

And as you suggest, I can try to fit the PICOmem without a bracket (that is what I wanted to do), but I'm not sure if the protruding SD card will not collide with the vertical plastic of the top lid.