David@ixibbs.iximd.com wrote:

> 1. Was it easy, medium, or hard to make?
> 2. Did you have electronics skills before attempting it?

He wrote in his page that please don't ask about the hardware
and all information may be used at your own risk ;-)

Anyway, I guess it is hard to make the board without
proper knowledge and practice. It is still very experimental
and there is no warranty about the circuit, so you might
have to modify it during the test.

> 4. Did you have to open your DC case to make it work OR does it just
> hook to pins in the EXP. port?

He wrote:
>> My DC modem unit was destroyed to get a DC expansion port connector.

So, maybe you have to open the case to get signal lines
if you cannot get the expansion port connector for the cable.
(Required signals are mentioned in the bITmASTER's circuit.)
If you will use the serial upload slave to load your kernel,
you also have to get a serial cable and make a signal voltage
level converter. Maybe a power supply for the HDD is also needed.

> 5. What have you tried with it: CD-ROMs, ZIP Drives, HDDs, 120 MB
> Drives (So that we can use floppies), Etc.?

He wrote:
>> I'm using a "IBM DTLA-305040" IDE drive.
>> ATAPI devices are not tested. 

I think the hardware design is still in the early development stage
so he would focuses to get wdc (i.e. HDD) driver working first.

The interrupt driven driver is still required for better performance,
but it is very cool that the DC boots without servers as his comment:
"This is the first step to make my dreamcast a standalone workstation."
---
Izumi Tsutsui
tsutsui@ceres.dti.ne.jp