Unusual SFF socket 478 mobo (no psu used + low profile)

Frosty_axe said:
The hfs is a problem. Maby a pair of brackets from a xeon? they are smaller then the p4's IIRC..
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I'm not too worried about that, I could just make a mounting plate and use something like this:
SSHD_LARGE.gif


Or maybe use a P4 Heatsink Retention Module.
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=WRP4-16W1-51&cat=CPU
 
SJetski71 said:
got the same email. The guy at the other forum claims chaintech tried to charge him $50 when he persisted...
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Got a response.
okey, we got it. the price for the adapter is $49 + $10 shipping. so please
complete the attached form, sign and date it, and fax back to us @
510-656-2297. please dont forget to sign cuz we cannot process it without
the signature.

Regards

Chaintech America Corp.
Customer Service Dept.
[email protected]
FAX:(510)656-2297
Click to expand...

Atleast it's not more then $100 unlike one of those other links, I might go for it and order a board later on.
 
Frosty_axe said:
I just posted the power solution and the power/reset locations.. look at the BACK side of the bord..

The hfs is a problem. Maby a pair of brackets from a xeon? they are smaller then the p4's IIRC. I'll check that out when I get my bord. Ive got 2 retail xeon hfs/hold down sets in my basement.

Nortbridge? find a small old HS and get some thermal epoxy.. done...
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ahh, lol, didn't see the part about "the back of the board" going to check again.

The problems i mentioned certainly aren't unsurmountable, just a lot more than even i expected ;)

Great news, there is a tiny sw_pw power button that actually "clicks" on the back. There's a port to hook up an lcd, a port to hook up an inverter and another odd looking KB keyboard port. How could i have forgotten the back of the mobo?! was too busy investigating power requirements i guess....
 
starhawk said:
if someone can post the proper pinouts, i can design a psu for it.
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Thats generous of ya man, some may actually take ya up on the offer :)
 
SJetski71 said:
ahh, lol, didn't see the part about "the back of the board" going to check again.

The problems i mentioned certainly aren't unsurmountable, just a lot more than even i expected ;)

Great news, there is a tiny sw_pw power button that actually "clicks" on the back. There's a port to hook up an lcd, a port to hook up an inverter and another odd looking KB keyboard port. How could i have forgotten the back of the mobo?! was too busy investigating power requirements i guess....
Click to expand...

So there is an auctuall power BUTTON on the bord? does it look like something someone wiht decent soldering skills could remove and replace with leads to go to a remote power on?

Does anyone auctually have the bord in hand who can post some hi-res pictures?
 
guess i might as well explain about the psu that i was thinking of using...

i do not understand fet transistors quite yet, as to how they would work and all... but i do know a much older way of making a psu work for something like this: transformers and vacuum tubes. these would be used to rectify and drop the voltage.

thing is, i'm not entirely sure how to smooth the current once it gets out of there. transformers and vacuum tubes are rather harsh on current, and it usually fluctuates pretty badly when it leaves them.

Edit: i will continue to consider a solid-state solution to this problem and how it might work.
 
Frosty_axe said:
does it look like something someone wiht decent soldering skills could remove and replace with leads to go to a remote power on?
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My intitial gut-reaction is a "no" but that may be due to my aversion of toying with electronics. I tend to drop things at inopportune moments (my cameras !) :(

It's tiny, about 1/5" square, soldered in all 4 corners, and seems to be lifted off the board a smidgen. Similar to the way a HSF looks when its installed but miniaturized. Yea i guess i can see an electronics hobbyist altering it... I'd probably recommend you buy two mobo's in case i'm wrong though ;). It is a true "button" btw, made of metal to boot.

another idea would be to drill a hole in the bottom of the case and use a lever type system from underneath, the lever would snake out the front of the case of course... a makeshift idea but it would be easy to implement
 
I have 2 of the mobos on the way, I will try to get high res (5mp) shots up on my host as soon as I get it

my guess on the power pinouts is that one is ground one is 12v one is 5v and mabie one is 3.3v (or close), it shouldn't be that hard to just unsolder the power conector and solder your own on after you have made your own psu

most laptops that I have seen take 18v but I think that is to help charge the batteries, this thing has no battery so I doubt a lappy brick will work, my guess is that the higest voltage it needs is 12v but then again I am probably wrong

edit: I have seen some lcd moniter power bricks that use a 4 pin power hookup that is close to what this may use
 
darksaga said:
I have 2 of the mobos on the way, I will try to get high res (5mp) shots up on my host as soon as I get it

my guess on the power pinouts is that one is ground one is 12v one is 5v and mabie one is 3.3v (or close), it shouldn't be that hard to just unsolder the power conector and solder your own on after you have made your own psu

most laptops that I have seen take 18v but I think that is to help charge the batteries, this thing has no battery so I doubt a lappy brick will work, my guess is that the higest voltage it needs is 12v but then again I am probably wrong

edit: I have seen some lcd moniter power bricks that use a 4 pin power hookup that is close to what this may use
Click to expand...

Read the other thread that was linked. One of their members had one of these up and running till he fried his cpu due to his temp cooling solution failing. He was useign a hacked dell power brick. The mainbord takes ONE +19/20V line and ONE common/ground accordign to the guy who got it running the pins are just jumped together on the PCB.

The hi-res pics wlll be nice, i'm sure you will get yors before i see mine (dam west cost companies).
 
Frosty_axe said:
Read the other thread that was linked. One of their members had one of these up and running till he fried his cpu due to his temp cooling solution failing. He was useign a hacked dell power brick. The mainbord takes ONE +19/20V line and ONE common/ground accordign to the guy who got it running the pins are just jumped together on the PCB.

The hi-res pics wlll be nice, i'm sure you will get yors before i see mine (dam west cost companies).
Click to expand...

doh that will teach me not to read the whole post
 
I just got mine. This thing is freakin wierd to look at! lol

Looks straightforward if you have the proper power supply.

My LCD panel from my old dead Acer Treavelmate 732 doesn't look like it would work. It has two connectors that don't match up to anything on this board.

The keyboard looks good though!

edit: just ordered one of those AC adaptors from Ebay, too....

edit2: got my LC dscreen apart, it's a rathe rnice 15" Hitachi. I have the inverter for it, so I guess I just need two cables, LCD and inverter to the motherbaord. Does anyone know of a good source for these?
 
valve1138 said:
edit2: got my LC dscreen apart, it's a rathe rnice 15" Hitachi. I have the inverter for it, so I guess I just need two cables, LCD and inverter to the motherbaord. Does anyone know of a good source for these?
Click to expand...
Your answer is def in here somewhere, saw many links last month, might need to get creative with your search. I'll try to help ya search later tonite. Be forewarned that site will make you drop your mame box and build a front projector instead :D


http://www.analog.com <-- ?
 
Hey! its nice to get some recognition - I am the processor toaster!

I am not sure the processor is exactly toast - I replaced the cpu fan with a 3-with a 3-wire unit and the thing acts like it's booting now.

Only problem is I cant see a thing.

I need to get an LCD working so I can maybe activate the CRT interface - anyone have a clue how I can mod an IBM or SONY laptop display to work on this MOBO???

TIA.

Strae
 
Exelent.. It appears mine are going to be late.. somethign about my package loseing its barcode in OH etc. Atleast now i've got some decent pics to drool over.

When I get mine, and dig up the ram/processor for it I'm probilby just goign to toss it on a digtially controlled varable DC power supply and see what happens. I'm rather curious as to what kind of tolarence it has in regards to input voltage.
 
strae said:
Hey! its nice to get some recognition - I am the processor toaster!

I am not sure the processor is exactly toast - I replaced the cpu fan with a 3-with a 3-wire unit and the thing acts like it's booting now.
Click to expand...
I've dealt with a few bad processors, and quite often the CPU fan etc will be spinning when in fact the processor is bad. Have you verified its operation in any other computer?

I read the other thread (btw, welcome to the forums) and you said that you cleared the cmos and had one shot of hitting the bios with video?(assuming I understood what you were saying correctly) I don’t see why the system would stop doing that unless some part failed.
 
Frosty_axe said:
I read the other thread (btw, welcome to the forums) and you said that you cleared the cmos and had one shot of hitting the bios with video?(assuming I understood what you were saying correctly) I don’t see why the system would stop doing that unless some part failed.
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THX 4 the welcome!

Yeah, I know - I am just hoping for some luck - it's not just the processor fan though - it's the status lights that look good. Plus my monitor gives me freq out of range with a 25hz freq - the only other time I got that was when the CRT was turned off and the thing booted.

I think there is something tied into the cpu fan speed sense too. But you are right - it doesnt explain why I cant get video after a reset.

I have moved everything to another board (same type) and the problem follows - I have also tested the ram in another system - I cant test the processor as these are the only p4 boards I have so I have to test in the other direction with another processor - but I would like to know that my luck with the video wasn't a fluke.

Anyway, I have another cpu on order along with 2 more of these boards.

Anyone here know of a clip-on-the-socket cooler for mpga socket478? The clip points are on the socket and I am positive there are socket mounted heatsinks for some SBC's?

I will try to build a socket-a cooler adapter using stone knives and bearskins (dremmel and plexiglass).

If anyone gets one of these up, please create a blind walk-through to navigate cmos setup to the video selection to turn on the CRT. If anyone knows how to mod the bios to default to CRT enabled, well..please do so?
 
SJetski71 said:
i've bookmarked all these new links.

http://www.digitalww.com bam!

http://www.mouser.com/ <- freaking huge pdf catalog

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/620/902.pdf <-- is this what you need ? (bottom)

http://www.diybuildergroup.com/store/lcd/index.htm <-- check out this group-buy 17.3" lcd
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I'm not sure about that mouser cable, but it does look like the right one for the LCD panel.

The inverter appears to be another story altogether, it has a really funky connector on it :(
 
Thanks for the pics! Anyone have the pinout for the power/reset switches yet?
 
CrimandEvil said:
Thanks for the pics! Anyone have the pinout for the power/reset switches yet?
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Crim, don't think they exist. the only pins i notice are for fans, usb2.0, and cdrom/audio. I believe that small button on the back is the only way to power/reset (outside of windows software or hotkeys).

Notice all the power related stuff on the mobo? I'm nearly convinced its either decent multi-stage power regulation or a 3/4 of a psu soldered onto the board.

22 mobos left in stock btw
 
SJetski71 said:
I believe that small button on the back is the only way to power/reset (outside of windows software or hotkeys).
Click to expand...
Yeah thats what I'm talking about. If I desolder them I want to replace them with leads so that I can use standard desktop parts with that too but I need to figure out which are which to reterminate them.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Thanks for the pics! Anyone have the pinout for the power/reset switches yet?
Click to expand...

Just break out your multimeter and check it yourself. There will be 2 pins shorted on each side, so you need to install leads on the pins that arn't shorted, kinda like this:

+------+ one wire here
|||||0|||||
+------+ and the other one here

top view of switch.

Easy. I'll check my board tonight just to make sure.... now to get a hold of a P4 and some memory....
 
CrimandEvil said:
Thanks for the pics! Anyone have the pinout for the power/reset switches yet?
Click to expand...

For anyone interested in hacking in a new power switch:

the 4 contacts are in 2 pairs - if you grab either 2 it should work - here is the layout of the pins:

SW_PW
X---X
Y---Y

Where the SW_PW is the reference to the label on the board and the ---- indicates the 2 x's and 2 y's are already shorted - you need to connect an x to a y

I imagine we can get ourselves a reset switch too. and expect the pinout would be the same, as havinmg 2 different switches that look this much alike wounld probably not happen.

By the way - IMO - it might be better/easier to leave the switch in and solder pins onto the switch for your external power switch. It looks like they are spaced 2mm apart, which means a regular set of pins should be a perfect fit.

I am goioing to try to flatten the ends of a standard jumper header to improvise a surface mount header. I am nervous about strain on the thing, so I will be hot-gluuing a male-female jumper right onto the mobo, although another alternative comes to mind:

by those power chips, (q2 and q5) theres 2 holes about 2mm apart right next to each other. They have no connections that I can make out.

What if we place a 2-pin header there and run jumper wires to the switch (like wire-wrap wire)?

We could do the same for reset (provided it even is operable), although, I don't see any holes as nicely spaced and conveniently located-we could just have pins that arent right nect to each other, though - the ones by the mini-pci might work...

I checked - the 2-pin header fits nicely in those holes.
 
strae said:
What if we place a 2-pin header there and run jumper wires to the switch (like wire-wrap wire)?
Click to expand...

I plan on just soldering on leads and not even bothering with trying to get a pair of pins on that. Just a single ~22AWG wire to each side will be a very easy job.

I should have my bord today.. now I just need to find a p4 and some ram to play with.
 
Well, the xeon hold down is also not quite the right size. I guess i'll have to go out and aucutally buy a mpga socket 478 HSF
 
I added headers for the switches - just wanted to post some pics for anyone interested:

wired-in power switch with header:
power-wired.jpg


closeup of power switch connections:
power_sw-closeup.jpg


closeup of board-side header:
power_sw-header-closeup.jpg


wired-in reset switch with header:
reset-wired.jpg


closeup of reset switch connections:
reset_sw-closeup.jpg


closeup of board-side header:
reset_sw-header-closeup.jpg


top-side view of reset header on board:
reset-header-on-board.jpg


Not tested yet (still no processor) .

If these work, I plan on using 5-minute epoxy to glue down the wires and gluing the pins into the MB holes.
 
Frosty_axe said:
Well, the xeon hold down is also not quite the right size. I guess i'll have to go out and aucutally buy a mpga socket 478 HSF
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Umm, if you find a source and/or part number, would you mind sharing it?

Everything i locate for mpga socket 478 turns out to be a standard monstrosity.

MTIA!
 
strae said:
Umm, if you find a source and/or part number, would you mind sharing it?

Everything i locate for mpga socket 478 turns out to be a standard monstrosity.

MTIA!
Click to expand...


Ive got one bookmarked on the system in my dorm room, but I went home for the weekend. Its like $28, and it is an MPGA 478 socket HSF that uses the mounting holes. But I did get my bord today and after a little play time wiht some power tools i modded a swiftech unit to fit. I'll have a link for you in a day or so for the part most deffinately.
 
if it used the holes, it probably wont work - the holes oon this board are too close together for a standard 478 heatsink - we need a unit that clips onto the socket like the old socket 7/370/A-type does - the clip tabs are there, but I can't locate a cooler that fits like this.

I found some single-board socket478 systems that have no cooler mounting holes, so I assume they HAVE to use a clip-on heatsink. But again, I cannot locate a seperate cooler listed for these boards.

Some boards seem to have a little add-on tab that's like an extension of the tab on one side of the cpu socket - as best as I can see, this allows the use of a socket 370 cooler.

As I noted on the other board, I think we need to aim for a Taulatin cooler - the heat spreader on our 478's make the chip a lot higher and whatever we use to cool these, we probably want to avoid having it clip in too tightly.

Anyway - I am breaking out my dremmel tomorrow and will be carving a strip of plexi to scvrew over those mounting holes and allow a socket370 cooler to clip on. My plan is this:
little squares over the holes as spacers to allow motherboard component clearence then a strip between the 2 holes, then a piece of sheet steel for reinforcement, then another strip of plexi (all epoxied together)

I will make 2 of these and carve a notch with clip-tabs for the HS mount - the notch is the hard part and I will post pics if it works out
 
strae said:
if it used the holes, it probably wont work - the holes oon this board are too close together for a standard 478 heatsink - we need a unit that clips onto the socket like the old socket 7/370/A-type does - the clip tabs are there, but I can't locate a cooler that fits like this
Click to expand...


I know its not standard, but this cooler is listed speciffically as a mpga 478 HSF, and its on some car-pc parts site to boot.I'll probibly be back at school later tonight so i'll toss up a link then.
 
Great_Melinko said:
the conector that looks like a floppy power connector, could it be an internal power connector?
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it's a jumper from the motherboard to the HDD.

FYI this cable can be made easily from a dead power supply - find a lead with both small (floppy drive-type) and large (hdd-type) connectors on it - cut it off the supply and you have the cable. Cut it really close to the connector and you have a nice SAFE cable - otherwise, you might wanna cover the open wires with heatshrink tubing or something.

I grabbed one with 2 molex connectors and now have a nice, 2-device power connector.
 
BLIND KEYSTROKES TO ENABLE CRT AND TV:

After Delete to enter setup:

(3)down<enter>
(6)down<enter>
(3)down <enter>(crt+tv) OR (2)down<enter> (TV ONLY) OR (1) down<enter>(CRT only)
F10 Y <enter>

FYI - my first chip did NOT burn out - I had switched to a monitor that didnt support the MB's output of 25hzX60hz

The clear cmos only works for SOME monitors - it gives you a single boot at 25hz - my princeton monitor locks out anything below 30hz.

I have also verified that NOTHING will make this board work with my princeton eo900 unless i boot the MB to my compaq v700 first, then move the cable to the eo900. Any attempt to boot with the eo900 gives me an out-of-freq-range error from the monitor - but booting to the compaq then moving the cable works - weird and beware of monitor incompatabilities...

Oh yeah - my MB switch mods work perfectly - including the previously unavailable RESET function.
 
Many Thanks for the vital info and pics Strae

Welcome to the forums and be sure to stick around :)
 
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