Got done about midnight last night, too tired to write it up until after the morning caffeine jumpstart:
- Modified through-hole style header by bending pins 90 degrees to mimic a surface mount part. Had to take the pins out of the carrier strip, bend them individually and reinsert into carrier to get consistent bends and not break the strip. Glad I bought extra connectors to play with first.
- Soldered header to board using rosin flux pen to apply flux to pins to make them wet better. Used small amount of rosin wire solder on each connection to supplement what was already on the pads. Shifted connector down on pads as far away from modem card as possible to minimize interference with HD ribbon cable connector. Not real pretty (eh, sorry SuperRob), but functional. Checked continuity from edge of pad to top of pin with meter, checked for renegade solder bridges with magnifier.
- Remove modem card from mobo. Still had to file away small section of edge of modem card to allow ribbon cable connectors (2 connectors on header end, same as iO cable) to be able to plug onto header. Reinstall modem card and verify clearance is OK.
- Built iO-style 'Badflash Special' ribbon cable from cable and 3 connectors. Based on where my hard drive will probably go, cable only needs to be about 1.5" long. My drive will mount with the top of the drive facing the mobo when all is done, not much room or clearance to fold or route the cable other than a straight shot. Most drives are spec'd to work in all 6 axes, shouldn't be an issue.
- Unplugged CF card & plugged in formatted/sys'ed drive (12.7mm 2.1G IBM, no other files other than system yet). Said short Hacker's Prayer (Pleeeease God, don't let this smoke) and powered it up.
- Gateway splash screen came up, followed by Win98 splash screen. Win98 screen disappears, leaving Gateway screen with bottom half of display all chopped up. Type cls to clear screen, everything gone but the C: prompt. Type dir to make sure drive is accessible, yes!
Some other observations:
- Looks like it's gotta be a 9.5mm drive to fit inside. The most likely place to mount is between the header and heatsink with thin double backed foam tape. The heatsink will need about 1/4" cut off for a drive to fit at all. More power tools (woof, woof!).
- Unless Jack at Badflash comes up with a different style ribbon connector, the modem card will need some edge filing. My connectors were from Badflash, the same type used on the iO cables.
- Getting into the BIOS would reaaaly help, keep trying different key combos/keyboards. The GTC keyboard has a spring loaded plastic piece on the upper right of the molding that has a small pushbutton switch underneath. Nothing in the meager docs describes what it's for, need further investigation.
I'll be loading the drive with an OS (ME if I can borrow the CD from the neighbor, yellow1's experiment said it works better than 98) and drivers today or tomorrow and continue to move forward on this thing. Need to get a 9.5mm drive before I button it up, but will work with the 12.7mm drives I have for now so I don't have to wait. I've been taking pictures of the hardware stuff as I go along, I'll post them on Yahoo photos as soon as I get a chance.
Gotta go now, that pesky 'family' thing requires my attention. Stay tuned....
"I feel good, I knew that I would...." - James Brown
B'Dog
