Wilco has already announced the bus expander and the M-SLOT on several Spanish web pages. I will put here the English translation and some clarifications from mine.
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NEW BUS EXPANDER AND M-SLOT FOR THE ENTERPRISE"
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Here I present you the new hardware in which gflorez and I have been working lately.
It is a little expander card for the Enterprise computer that will allow you to connect three interface cards at the same time. And if you need more room it can be expanded with a wagon card that will allow connecting 3 more additional interface cards."
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And, what additional advantages you will find?:
- The expensive EDGE connector is replaced by an IDC connector much easier to find.
- It has a 7805 voltage regulator that allows to externally feed the interface cards in the event that the internal source of the Enterprise is not enough.
- Buffers are included for the main signals of the Enterprise.
- Optionally EDGE connectors can be soldered in place of the IDC in case you want to use interfaces compatible with the original bus expander(
03-19 Enterprise Expansion Motherboard, never produced)
or the current ones of the Hungarian scene(Meszaros).
- It has the blessing of the Hungarian scene(....)
, so it is expected the development of new hardware for this expander.
- We already have an interface for this expander that allows to connect some cards for MSX in our Enterprise.
Although the M-SLOT interface (as it is called) has already be shown by gflorez, I will comment some aspects about it." [ Guests cannot view attachments ]
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It is an interface converter of the MSX bus to the Enterprise bus, which will allow us to connect some existing cards for MSX in our Enterprise.
Will all MSX interfaces work? Obviously not, as we will have port conflicts in some of them but we are actively working to support some of them.
Here you can see the converter connected to the expander plate and an MSX cartridge:"
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Well, the subject is already mature enough to put it at your disposal and make a batch of cards.
I still have not calculated the exact prices, but as a guideline I can tell you that the expander kit (plate + components) unmounted will be around € 15, while the M-SLOT kit will range about € 10(excluding post)
Those of you interested can express their will in this thread while I'm managing the exact prices."
Well, I have to mention that the end connector allows the connection of a direct expansion card like the Microteam, only changing the EDGE connector to SIL. Other added option is the possibility to feed 9v to the slots to use the old Meszaros expansion cards. And most important, thanks to Zozo's advice a 9pin header will be provided to install pull-ups to the Z80 I/O bus, just in case of ghost memory segments error.
Yes, you have read correctly, only unsoldered kits will be available, but both kits have very few components. The only dangerous components are the SMD chips, but really, it was my first time and they had been very easy to solder with an standard iron. They have very big legs.
On the other side.....ask your geek friend for some aid, do not miss this opportunity.
If you can't, no problem the two projects will be put on the public domain, so anyone person can in the future order a batch of them.
I would appreciate the creation of an Hungarian thread about this same topic. Also a Wiki section will be a good idea.
