Hi folks,
Just got my first IO, kind of by accident, I was planning to buy a load of monitors off a guy on eBay, just chanced a look at what else he had, and there was the IO, alrighty I thought, that looks like a fun toy, may as well bid on that too, will probably just add a couple of bucks to the shipping, bid a little over the odds for it... Then I went and lost the bid on the monitors, so this little sucker ended up costing me about $70 all in, doh. If I had set out to buy one, I guess I could have got something delivered here for $30 or less with a HDD in it, but oh well... maybe my second... :D
So, I'm now the somewhat poorer, somewhat wiser, owner of a bare iOpener, no keyboard, no PSU. I just picked up a splitter from Summit Direct, so guess that's the first item covered, and so now I need a PSU. I've got some laptop PSUs I could borrow, for testing, but I can't seem to find mention anywhere of the correct polarity of the power input plug. Been looking around these forums for a few days, and I'm not finding the search feature terribly helpful for specific concerns. So could someone tell me or point me in the right direction for that please, also full input power specs would be helpful as well.
So I also need to know the version of the beast, I've got an ungooped BIOS chip, all the IDE pins, a C6-180 and a yamaha sound chip, so it would seem to be a version 1 by all the info I can find here. However there is a label on the back of the front facia moulding that says...
Foxconn
EAIA1002016
Rev: 3B
Date: 2000.01.13
Which is throwing me a little, though that date seems to put it in the version 1 era by the info I can find here.
So, theoretically, if it's a version 1, all I should need to do, if it hasn't had the BIOS stealth updated, is to make a cable, plug in a laptop HDD and off I go?
Oh, would anyone happen to know though, how durable these little gizmos are WRT static shocks to the shielding. Now, I know "static is baaaaaad, mmmkay" and I'm real careful when I've got my mitts inside anything, but when I was taking the thing out of it's 15 yard (I'm not kidding, it arrived in something the size most people would pack a 20 inch monitor in) cocoon of bubblewrap, I got a charge off the wrap before I realised it and **KAPOW**, I felt and heard a hefty discharge between my finger and the RF shielding, through the ventholes :( So I'm hoping the poor little thing isn't dead before I start.
Now, should I get her up and running, I will seek to put her to work. I had a winchip2 powered machine, so know that this CPU isn't going to be up to much, but have a couple of K6-2 boxes still performing sterling service as general web hacks. I am wanting to use the IO for a sidekick IRC and websurfing box beside my main rig. And I might want to play the odd game of scrabble or bookworm on it. I guess I could live with a 300Mhz CPU, but 400Mhz would be nice. I've got a handful of K6-2 400s, so I could cherrypick one for heat and low voltage stability, but I don't mind hacking a hole n the IO and having a fan hanging out the back. Now, the thing I'm wondering about faster CPUs, is where exactly the power and heat bottleneck is, is it main PSU power starvation or mostly onboard issues or a combination of both. Hearing of people running IOs off 12V I'm thinking a nice beefy 10A 12V supply might make for less external power worries and less internal heat from power conversion, ergo better overall stability at higher speeds.
Here's an idea of my level of experience, so you know what level to pitch things. Been overclocking and hacking things around a bit since 486 days, lot of experience with hacking K6-2s in to non super socket 7s, kind of futz around with electronics, never seem to be clear headed enough for all the theory, but know the basics, performed a couple of graphics card voltage mods, seem to have about a 30/70 break/fix ratio :D
Here's some of the hardware I've got available to play with in case it gives you an idea of anything I could try...
Various K6-2 CPUs,
K6-233 AFR <--- this sucker burns up linear voltage regs like mad, should I let it anywhere near my IO?
P200MMX
P200 P54
Winchip 2 266
256Mb Sandisk USB flash stick.
Several low capacity 2.5inch drives, 40, 40, 60, 80. (might be able to steal a 800Mb one out of a lappy)
Several SODIMMs 3x64Mb, 1x32Mb
Parallel port CDRW
Parallel port 5.25 floppy
couple of 2.5inch 44pin cables, couple of 2.5-3.5 adaptors,
Parallel port laplink cable (Plip cable)
Thanks in advance for help and ideas,
Road Warrior
iOpen00b, go ahead, blast my fragile illusions with the megatonnage of reality :D
