Post by thread:[OT] Using an ISA card w/laptop

Hiho all, All this talk about XT's with IDE drives got me thinking about a project I'd thought about in the past, but shrugged it off. (But that was BEFORE I got wired into you guys!) Here's the situation: I use a PC live with musical group for synthesizer sequencing, lighting control, etc. In the past 5 years, we've damaged 2 CRT's and crashed ~4-5 Hdrives. I'd like to use my laptop instead, but we use an internal ISA MIDI card; short of buying a docking station, is there any way to connect it to the laptop? (via its PCMCIA port, maybe?) John ______________________________________________________________________________ John Leonard, Instr. Tech. Electron Hacker College of Science & Engineering Bit Banger Saginaw Valley State University Fretless Bassist University Center, MI USA 48710 Dad _____________________________________________________________________________

If you have a true "Docking station" for your laptop, you could install the ISA card in that Dock & be handled. Other possibilities: Find a MIDI PCMCIA card? They may well exist. I know Parallel Technologies - a local company I've worked with in the past - makes a parallel port MIDI adapter (Or at least it "should" be on the market by now! They're fast to get things running.) That might do you! Make a custom PC up that uses a laptop drive, mounted in shock mounts (I can suggest how to make these, basically think cutting a regular laptop drive mount apart & using foam tape and rubber to hold things together.) Cheapish & pretty shock safe. Find a SanDisk solid state IDE drive. Use in the above rig instead of a laptop rotating media drive <G> Mark Willis, spam_OUTmwillisTakeThisOuTnwlink.com John P. Leonard wrote: > > Hiho all, > All this talk about XT's with IDE drives got me thinking about a project > I'd thought about in the past, but shrugged it off. (But that was BEFORE > I got wired into you guys!) Here's the situation: > > <snipped>

John P. Leonard wrote: > In the past 5 years, we've damaged 2 CRT's and crashed ~4-5 Hdrives. > I'd like to use my laptop instead, but ... But why FGS? Laptops surely cost *three times* as much as basic PCs and are twice as easy to damage. Are you trying to tell me laptop drives are more robust? *Gong!* As described, I'd just keep buying the cheapest drives and monitors. They make bike helmets from styro, don't they? I think you can get it in cans. Just spray styro over all the non-ventilation areas of your PC and monitor or glue low-density 2" stock panels all over them. (Low- density has more "squish" than standard mould-set.) May do to add a fan to the monitor. Then cover them in carpet. -- Cheers, Paul B.

Paul B. Webster VK2BZC wrote: {Quote hidden}> > John P. Leonard wrote: > > > In the past 5 years, we've damaged 2 CRT's and crashed ~4-5 Hdrives. > > I'd like to use my laptop instead, but ... > > But why FGS? Laptops surely cost *three times* as much as basic PCs > and are twice as easy to damage. Are you trying to tell me laptop > drives are more robust? *Gong!* > > As described, I'd just keep buying the cheapest drives and monitors. > > They make bike helmets from styro, don't they? I think you can get it > in cans. Just spray styro over all the non-ventilation areas of your PC > and monitor or glue low-density 2" stock panels all over them. (Low- > density has more "squish" than standard mould-set.) May do to add a fan > to the monitor. Then cover them in carpet. > -- > Cheers, > Paul B. Guessing here that it's the bass component of the sound that's doing the damage; Maybe use a shock mount for a desktop HDD (3.5" HDD in a 5.25" slot, would do) if you want. (Could you run the whole thing off floppies? Probably not, it's a WinApp of course.) Sound absorbing blocking between the room's speakers/monitors & the system case, maybe? Another thought, could you run the PC in another room, through something like a Cybex Extender? (Not cheap but cheaper than replacing HDD's again & again!) I don't know how long a MIDI cable can be, but this can remote your keyboard/mouse/monitor up to 100 feet with good usability... Also, for this application, I'd NOT use a Quantum Bigfoot drive (I'm told they're quite sensitive to tilt and roll-type motion as the head arm is so long, and tend to head crash if tilted or rolled while spun up; I imagine lots of bass volume would perhaps have the same effect!) Nothing against them so long as not used in high vibration environments...