Sigma Data "Quick Easy Disk" Adapter / Model 70 

This page comes from William Walsh, the original is HERE. I have edited it to fit 600 pixels, titles, and show the components in a table. 


I really do not like those darn snaps that are used in the 50 and 70...especially when I don't have the tool handy!

Sigma Data is still around. They sell assorted hard disk and memory upgrades these days. Most of their current product lineup looks to be ThinkPad oriented.Their support site does have files for nearly all of their products. Believe it or not, this includes the QED adapter.

Because companies don't always last forever, you can also get the drivers here. I also have the QED/5Z-XXXX (for 50Z?) and QED/68-XXXX (for Sigma Data IDE Adapter) files here. Drivers are for OS/2 and MS or PC-DOS. You download them strictly at your own risk. I can't take any responsibility for any result of using these files.

QED 70 Riser Front

Components:

U1 - Lattice 20L8BNCS PAL
U2 - Texas Instruments 16L8 PAL -15
U3 - Samsung 74HCTLS174N
U4 - Samsung 74HCTLS174N		 U5 - Lattice PAL 16L8BCN PAL
U6 - Samsung 74HCTLS245N
U7 - Samsung 74HCTLS245N
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Grey items are populated on the reverse side of the adapter. P2 is the "floppy disk A" connector and is the standard "edgecard" type.

QED 70 Riser Back

Components:

J1 - IDE Connector
JP 1, 2 - no idea 
P2 - Reverse of floppy connector		 P3 - Power +5 -5 -12 +12 in that order. 
P4 - DBA ESDI connector
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Caution! The Model 70 power supply does not have an overabundance of capacity. DO NOT use a high power draw drive with this adapter. Stay under 500mA on both +5 and +12V if you can. Remember, this adapter supplements your DBA ESDI drive...so it is still drawing power, along with any optional memory cards, NICs, CPU upgrades or video cards you may have installed. With only 132 watts of power available at best, it might not take long to get into trouble with your power supply or planar.

The hard disk included with mine is marked as a "Quick Easy Disk Part # QED70/120, S/N 10046" It is a Maxtor 3.5" 7120AT IDE hard disk.

This is a real simple IDE adapter. I doubt very much that it is bootable. There is no onboard ROM and it does not have a card-ID. The computer it is installed in boots into OS/2 Warp 3 and loads a Sigma Data supplied device driver to allow access to the drive. At this time, the computer locks up when trying to initialize the drive. I have not yet determined if this is a problem with the drive itself or the controller board. For now, bypassing the device driver works although I cannot use the drive that way.

This is probably supported under DOS, Win 3.x and OS/2 only--not for Win95 or NT, as usual... Ah well... The quest will continue for more information as I have time..

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