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Need CF to IDE for IA-1 (modified 0 times) bloop_9 Profile I just got an IA-1. The mobo uses a regular VIA apollo MPV4 chipset and should support the CF slot as a regular IDE drive. I've heard people have been able to get these things to boot off the CF. I'm looking for a CF to 40 or 44 pin IDE connector/dongle/breakout so I can use a regular HD. This is like a poor-man's version of IBM's microdrive. Maybe a "macro-drive"? There are several IDE->CF boards so you can use a CF card on an IDE cable, which lets you have solid state storage on a PC, but that's not what I need. So far I've found pages for the Pretec CompactIDE on the web, but Pretec doesn't seem to make this anymore. There is also a developer-style breakout board at http://www.sycard.com/180hib.html but no price listed. Any electronic hardware with "developer" in the name is usually pricy. Fujitsu Media Devices makes an unbranded CompactFlash to IDE card, but they only sell 'em to OEMs. Frack. I can't find anything out there. I requested a CF socket (sounds backwards but technically, the card has the "socket" part and the device with the extractor has the "header" or "plug" part) and card housing from Molex, and I guess I'll try to make a breakout CF card. Hopefully those tiny leads can be soldered by a human instead of a wave solderer. Anybody willing or capable of doing a short run of double sided PCB's? Anybody got a better idea or an existing available product, lets post it. Slap a drive and a USB ethernet dongle on this baby and you've got a full-stop flatscreen PC. -bloop_9 08-04-2001 20:10:34

RE:Need CF to IDE for IA-1 (modified 0 times) ranman Profile bloop_9, What you are looking for is EXACTLY what I was looking for a while back before I bought a 340mb microdrive. I have the microdrive in the IA-1 now, and it runs windows 98 okay. Got the linksys usb 10bt connected to it and can use it just like a normal computer albeit a fair amount slower. However, I still have some things in the device manager to work out - some things showing up wrong. Sound works, haven't tried the modem (have a driver though), but it doesn't like the cyberblade video driver, keeps wanting to use the trident super vga. Installing windows on this was much more difficult than on a regular PC due to space limtations, and the ia-1 hanging on bootup with all the ACPI stuff loaded. I would certainly prefer to have a bigger HD connected to the IPAQ but I was unable to find any of the adapters that you described. On the compact flash, I have jailbait running with the most important thing not yet working - the linksys 10bt - it needs a different usb module. If you come across that adapter, let me know, as I would like to have one. But then where you we get the power source for the hard drive? Good luck finding the adapter! ranman 08-06-2001 11:01:53

RE:Need CF to IDE for IA-1 (modified 0 times) bloop_9 Profile If you are using the Jailbait image that some guy posted on slashdot, I think it's set up to use a Pegasus chipset NIC and the Linksys USB10T is a Kawasaki based NIC. Could this be your prob? I'll be getting a spare SMC2102USB NIC from a friend which is also Kawasaki based, so I might run into the same problem. The folks at /http://www.expresspcb.com will print 3 PCB's for $59. You have to layout the board with their software, but it appears to work pretty well. I got an automatic email back from Molex, but hopefully they'll send me the CF connectors. IDE headers are everywhere, so it looks like I could get the parts. I'm still researching the pin connections and the layout, but if I make a connector and I get it to work, I'll post here. The only alternative I've found is the sycard breakout CF card. They got back to me and that thing is $99. You still have to make something to go from the 4 26pin headers to a 40 .1" or 44 2mm IDE connector, so it starts to be a kludge. As for power, from the screenshots of the board, there don't appear to be any open power connectors. I imagine there is 12v at the power supply somewhere, but I don't have my ipaq yet to check. I like the microdrive, but my friend just got a 1gig IDE drive at the used computer store for $15. I wish the microdrive was $15 :( -bloop_9 08-06-2001 19:21:54

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