CF and adapter or ? for Vampire V2+ 500 advice needed

[Jeff]

Hello,

I have received my Vampire 500 edition and I need to order a disk drive solution. The videos on Youtube show something attached right on the Vampire without any ribbon cables. This is what I would like to order. Does someone have a link to the proper CF card and adapter on Amazon or Ebay so I can order it? I an excited to test it out. It looks like I need a short HDMI adapter of some kind too.

Thank you,
Jeff

[LoadWB]

I have some 4GB DoM I'm going to try with my Vampire sometime in the next week.

[Jeff]

I was going to ask about that route too. Is a DOM a better way to go than CF and is there a specific one that has been tested with the Vampire? I have a 44 to 40 pin adapter with ribbon cables and some old hard drives but I was hoping not to have to go that way. It would allow for the connection of a CD-Rom drive, but does the Vampire IDE even support optical drives? Thank you for the reply

[LoadWB]

I'm not aware of any that have been tried but I will definitely let you know when I do.

There's a good bit of conjecture around different threads and forums on the use of CFs in our retro machines.  If seems the CF has become a defacto standard for IDE drive replacement, but there's question as to whether the consumer or industrial CFs are better for reliability and longevity.  A DoM is inherently industrial.

I take a stance on the industrial stuff just because even if you expect these configurations to be temporary, temporary has a tendency to become permanent.  

Maybe not a huge thing if a CF suddenly dies and you can lose the data, but again I found recently that configurations and data I lost were, while not important, a kind-of bummer and pain-in-the-rectum to replace.

[Jeff]

I think I'll try the adapter with ribbon cable to a 3.5" IDE drive first since I already have the stuff. I am curious if I can run an IDE drive as Master and a CD-R drive as Slave both from the Vampire. The vampire will probably end up in my A2000.

[Acill]

I think I'll try the adapter with ribbon cable to a 3.5" IDE drive first since I already have the stuff. I am curious if I can run an IDE drive as Master and a CD-R drive as Slave both from the Vampire. The vampire will probably end up in my A2000.

That will work, I did that as well with mine when I first got it. Just be sure to set it as master.

I have used a 44 pin DOM, the vampire has large drive support built in so you can even use a 32GB one. I have listed two of the ones I use now from ebay. For the CF adapter you will need to use a needle or something to poke through the plug on the key pin. Its simple.

DOM: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kingspec-PATA-IDE-DOM-44PIN-32GB-Disk-On-Module-Vertical-Socket-MLC-Industrial-A-/252955166384?epid=859226258&hash=item3ae54d86b0:g:qMEAAOSwo6lWJgxw

CF Adapter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-to-44-Pin-Female-IDE-Adapter-Converter-/262348380210?epid=1500201531&hash=item3d152e9832:g:rwEAAOSw6BdXMKVA

[LoadWB]

That KingSpec 32GB is a pretty good price for a DoM (just over $1 per GB,) but I will warn you I have had a lot of problems with the KingSpec IDE SSDs on machines with real performance.  I think the controller just can't handle proper DMA speeds but it shouldn't be a problem for our old PIO systems.  YMMV.

[Acill]

That KingSpec 32GB is a pretty good price for a DoM (just over $1 per GB,) but I will warn you I have had a lot of problems with the KingSpec IDE SSDs on machines with real performance.  I think the controller just can't handle proper DMA speeds but it shouldn't be a problem for our old PIO systems.  YMMV.

Yup. I wouldnt use them on a good high end modern machine, but its perfect on the Vampire and even the 1200 and 600.

[save2600]

I'm using a cheap 2.5" IDE to CF adapter found on eBay with a microSD<>CF card adapter and a 32gb Sandisk microSD card bought at Wal-mart - works just fine. No ribbon cable, CF adapter fits right up top the Vampire. I did need to poke a hole through the connector on the CF adapter though as it was blocked (orientation key). Or could have bent the pin out of the way on the Vampire, but chose not to go that route.  

Other brand CF cards I've tested that work include Kingston, Sandisk and Transcend.

[Jeff]

You guys are Awesome, Thanks

[Jeff]

I finally bought one of these as recommended by Acill for my Vampire 500 V2+ with a Sandisk 32GB CF card.

CF Adapter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-to-44-Pin...EAAOSw6BdXMKVA

I installed the Vampire in my A2000 with a X-Surf 100 and a Rapid Road USB card. I also have an Indivision ECS in there too. The quality of the screen in high res laced is perfect without the Vampire installed but not so good once I installed the Vampire. I guess it will have to do until Gold Core V3 comes out. Does anyone know why the ECS screenmode quality is worse with the Vampire installed? Is there a fix? I also tried a Flicker Free Video but Workbench won't even load with the Vampire-FFV combo. The Buddha 20 year edition also seems to work. I wanted it installed for to use with a CD-Rom drive but I don't have it hooked up yet.

Many Thanks to every one that helped me. This old 2000 ROCKS now

[giZmo350]

The quality of the screen in high res laced is perfect without the Vampire installed but not so good once I installed the Vampire.

Are both OS installs identical or is the Vamp install newer? Just wondering if there's a difference with OS drivers or say, the Indi ECS revision in software or something...

I guess it will have to do until Gold Core V3 comes out.

Not sure of a Vamp core update that would stop any Vamp introduced interference. But, I don't own a Vamp.

Does anyone know why the ECS screenmode quality is worse with the Vampire installed? Is there a fix?

It would seem to me that there's some noise being introduced to the A2000 from the Vamp, either on the power supply side of the system or on the video signal side, and it's showing up on video output. In the old days we would use a scope to track down the interference.

You could always go hog wild and pop in a Matze RTG card! Filtering the Indie ECS video through an RTG card might cure any interference from the Vamp, permanently.

https://webstore.kryoflux.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=56

This old 2000 ROCKS now

Awesome.....

[Jeff]

Thank you for the ideas! I tried booting the system from a 3.1 install floppy and the ECS screenmodes look perfect through the Indivision even with the Vampire still installed. I think that proves it is a software problem. Perhaps I can build my own Vampire system based on 3.1 instead of using the Coffin OS 51 and see if that helps.