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General Category => NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! => Topic started by: genesis8 on 11:00, 27 March 19

Title: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: genesis8 on 11:00, 27 March 19
Hello,
do you know any reliable source of new type I PCMCIA SRAM card 3,3 mm (as seen in this forum) for any notepad ? I can see industrial vendors which seems to sell this (even with 2 included batteries, one replaceable, the other isnt but can keep the data when you change the replaceable one), but no thickness information.

Or maybe a hardware emulator ?
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: Bryce on 11:06, 27 March 19
These are getting very hard to find and stupidly expensive ( I've seen them on offer for >€80! ). I think I may still have a 2MB version somewhere if you are interested.

For information: ALL Type I should be 3.3mm, Type II are 5mm.


Bryce.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: pelrun on 15:55, 27 March 19

http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm (http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm) claims to have 1MB cards explicitly compatible with the NC100 for US$15.

2MB will *sort* of work, but the A21 line in the NC100 is floating, which will cause all sorts of weird corruption issues as the card flips between the two 1MB banks are random. Not sure how the NC200 is set up. Eventually I soldered a wire from A21 to ground, which forces the notepad to only use the low 1MB.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: LambdaMikel on 17:49, 27 March 19
Quote from: pelrun on 15:55, 27 March 19
http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm (http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm) claims to have 1MB cards explicitly compatible with the NC100 for US$15.



I got mine from Best Electronics (Bradley) as well. I didn't do much with the NC100 yet, but the card works fine for CP/M and such. I can testify that.



Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: Bryce on 08:45, 28 March 19
Quote from: pelrun on 15:55, 27 March 19
http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm (http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm) claims to have 1MB cards explicitly compatible with the NC100 for US$15.

2MB will *sort* of work, but the A21 line in the NC100 is floating, which will cause all sorts of weird corruption issues as the card flips between the two 1MB banks are random. Not sure how the NC200 is set up. Eventually I soldered a wire from A21 to ground, which forces the notepad to only use the low 1MB.

Learnt something new :) I don't have an NC100, only any NC200 which can handle 2MB without issues.

Bryce.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: GUNHED on 16:31, 28 March 19
Quote from: Bryce on 08:45, 28 March 19
Learnt something new :) I don't have an NC100, only any NC200 which can handle 2MB without issues.

Bryce.


That would be nice, but the NC200 also only works up to 1 MB.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: Bryce on 08:31, 29 March 19
Quote from: GUNHED on 16:31, 28 March 19

That would be nice, but the NC200 also only works up to 1 MB.

Possibly, but it obviously has A21 tied low or high because the card works reliably.

Bryce.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: genesis8 on 21:20, 30 March 19
I ordered 2 cards from best electronics.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: GUNHED on 15:36, 31 March 19
Quote from: Bryce on 08:31, 29 March 19
Possibly, but it obviously has A21 tied low or high because the card works reliably.

Bryce.


Not in my case. Maybe there was an update of the PCB at some point. If I use a 2 MB card, it will fail very soon. Even formatting of the card raised problems.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: Bryce on 07:37, 01 April 19
Hmm, maybe I modded it and have forgotten??

Bryce.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: Munchausen on 21:20, 04 June 19
Some years ago I installed a switch to so you can select which half of a 2 MB card to use: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/nc100-and-1mb-memory-cards/ (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/nc100-and-1mb-memory-cards/)


From my post, it looks as though it is A20 (i.e. the 21st address line counting from A0, so that 2^21 = 2MB) that is floating, rather than A21.
Title: Re: Reliable source of 1 Mb SRAM PCMCIA card ? Or any hardware emulator ?
Post by: pelrun on 10:36, 05 June 19
I was reciting from memory, so not surprised if I'm off by one :)
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