Sporniket's log on hardware stuff

[sporniket]

Thanks. For the Blitter, @agranlund made an adapter to plug on the CPU location, to hold the CPU and the blitter.

See https://exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =18&t=2879

Edit: typos

[nokturnal]

@sporniket Yes I'm aware of this, although I'm in different situation, because I've already use storm st etc + tos decoder. Probably I will end up with doing stand alone cpu addon..

[sporniket]

In my happyness, I forgot to test writing into the C:\drive. Will do that later, as well as buying the full version. Then I will build my C: drive little by little.

Long story short, I had trouble with writing data on the CF card (reminder : I have installed the Smartboard STe by Blackcat, with support for IDE disk on module). I had not applied the DMA Pull up on databus fix -the only one I can apply, as I have soldered CPU, so I won't be able to put an HC type cpu-, so I finally took some times last week to do it.

So, this is the battlefield. Because I am lazy, and I believed I had enough space to perform the fix, I did not feel like removing the smartboard beforehand.

2024-12-30--01-the-battlefield.jpg (96.27 KiB) Viewed 128 times

2024-12-30--02-the-battlefield-closeup.jpg (101.94 KiB) Viewed 128 times

And even if the socket did suffer a little bit, I had enough space to do the fix without melting things around. Also, I used C303 to get VCC as the closest and easiest to reach location.

2024-12-30--03-done.jpg (167.74 KiB) Viewed 128 times

Now, I have no problem to copy files into the CF card, for instance I successfully copied Maxymiser and all its files, then power cycle, and then successfully launch from the CF card (I did not go further than starting the program, I had not plugged the mouse).

[Steve]

I suppose you probably already know this but it'd have been way neater to solder it on the rear of the motherboard. But glad it fixed your problems.

[sporniket]

I have not thought about that, as all the the pictures shown are done like I did.

Now, I wonder if I would have gone the extra step of removing the motherboard from its base to do it like that, as I also wanted to go quick.

[sporniket]

Finally finished to build a small batch of my adapter pcb to use a power brick to power a ST :
2024-01-03-ready-to-test.jpg

Next step is to test them and see how much are OK. Then I plan to sell some of them.

I did not advanced on this, and I will likely have to do things differently.

To sum up :

What is good

It works nicely for a stock machine with a gotek (my initial configuration)


What is bad

I had a problem with my SmartBoard STE with custom ROMs (patched 1.6/1.62 by Arne to support IDE, and his special KaosTOS for flashing the EPROM storing the ROMs) : the determination of color/mono screen was inverted. After much tests and fiddling (some times it was working after moving some wires), it turned out that the power switch made the power ramp up bounce and were somehow triggering the problem. Workaround : switch the power plug where the power brick is plugged (the power switch of the Atari is already switched on). So I can at least enjoy my moded STe.

Adding a debouncing circuitry (e.g. using a mosfet, with some filter or a reset watchdog) will likely drop the voltage, so likely will cause problem.

==> I believe that I will have to power with higher voltage (somewhere in 12V~20V) and use a DC-DC converter inside (I have something to finish here : https://github.com/sporniket/dop-module ... own-xl4005 )

What is HAZARDOUS

By keeping the regular plug socket (I moded some standard plugs to install the jack barrel there), the danger for the future will be when someone will end up with this unit without the hacked plug, and will try to plug it to mains (because, it's still the regular plug). Something bad will happen.

==> I MUST remove the socket and replace by a panel with a mounted connector that will prevent confusion.

Anyway I won't work on that this year, no time for that.