Falcon Restoration Project

[hunsra]

Hi Forum,

I recently acquired a "for parts" Falcon 030 system board and I'm about to start an attempted restoration. I have a long road ahead, and I have no idea the status of the board other than it is missing its ROM, a GAL, power supply, and the original case and keyboard. I'm posting in the forum to ask for help in deciding where to start with the restoration. I've had just a little experience with working on and troubleshooting 80s/90s PCBs and would appreciate any advice or suggestions on how to proceed. In addition, the board seems to have a number of modifications (see pictures). I believe it has the timer clock patch and the C-Lab audio mod, but there's another mod I can't identify, and something else that appears to have been done to the CPU and then removed. Can anyone identify these from the pictures and confirm or advise me on what they are? Also, is anyone interested in me posting my progress here and/or seeing video of the work?

Thanks for any help!
TheHunsra

Overview

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Copyright

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Revision

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Mod 1

mods-1.jpg (545.29 KiB) Viewed 2944 times

Mod 2

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Mod 3

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Mod 4

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Mod 5

mods-5.jpg (521.43 KiB) Viewed 2944 times

Mod 6

mods-6.jpg (511 KiB) Viewed 2944 times

[frank.lukas]

Apart from the modifications to the CPU pins, everything else is original Atari or even C-Lab. The modifications correspond to the latest version of the schematics diagram or Service Manual.

I would replace the CPU completely if the pads on the board are still OK and solder a new NVRAM Modul in ...

[exxos]

I presume it is one of the C-lab modded machines. Probably don't need to worry about that not at this point anyway.

Id suggest getting a ROM ( there are in the store). The missing GAL you might have to get from BEST electronics.

RTC chip I am out of stock unfortunately. But the falcon should at least be flashing the keyboard floppy light to indicate its trying to boot up even before doing anything else.

Looks like the CPU might have had its clock trace cut and bodged back on ?

Looks like either the floppy or IDE port has been half destroyed for some reason ?

If the Falcon does not show any sign of life, then you could have likely inherited someone else's nightmare.

[Cwiiis]

I can't help, but I'm certainly interested in seeing your progress

[hunsra]

Apart from the modifications to the CPU pins, everything else is original Atari or even C-Lab. The modifications correspond to the latest version of the schematics diagram or Service Manual.

I would replace the CPU completely if the pads on the board are still OK and solder a new NVRAM Modul in ...

Thanks for the feedback. I'll consider replacing the CPU once I have a chance to test things. It's good to know the modifications are consistent with the latest version of the board.

[JezC]

I can't help, but I'm certainly interested in seeing your progress

Same here....I have a long-term goal to do the audio mods to my Falcon....

[hunsra]

I presume it is one of the C-lab modded machines. Probably don't need to worry about that not at this point anyway.

Id suggest getting a ROM ( there are in the store). The missing GAL you might have to get from BEST electronics.

RTC chip I am out of stock unfortunately. But the falcon should at least be flashing the keyboard floppy light to indicate its trying to boot up even before doing anything else.

Looks like the CPU might have had its clock trace cut and bodged back on ?

Looks like either the floppy or IDE port has been half destroyed for some reason ?

If the Falcon does not show any sign of life, then you could have likely inherited someone else's nightmare.

Thanks for the feedback. I have ordered a ROM, FPU, RAM card, and power supply from the store - thanks for making these available. I found an NVRAM/RTC replacement module that looks a lot like the one you produce from another provider, and I ordered a GAL20V8 GAL from Amazon - I hope it's the right thing. It seems to be the part listed in the JED file you make available. I'm not sure if the board works yet, as I haven't attempted to power it up. I thought I'd wait until the parts I ordered arrive and I can be a bit more methodical about it. I'll post my results.

[hunsra]

I can't help, but I'm certainly interested in seeing your progress

Thanks. I'll be sure to post my progress. I'm hoping I can bring some life to the board. If so, I'll be searching for a case and keyboard, or suitable substitutions. If anyone knows of anything that can work, please advise.

[mikro]

If I were to guess, somebody attempted to replace the NVRAM IC and messed it up. The wires to the CPU doesn't look like a good sign either.

In the meantime you can check connections between NVRAM and the other components, most likely there will be broken paths.

I guess you are aware of the fact that GALs have to be programmed, you can't just purchase and use them.

[alexh]

I'll be searching for a case and keyboard, or suitable substitutions. If anyone knows of anything that can work, please advise.

The Falcon030 can use an ST keyboard. They are the same and the same connector just different colour keys. You'll never get a Falcon030 one through the main channels they almost never come up and when they do they go for $$$.

Cases are the equally unobtainium. They almost never come up for sale and when they do they are usually so expensive you could almost buy a Falcon030 for that price.

https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=42980

Your only option really is to make your own. Find a PC tower case with a removable tray that is big enough to take the Falcon 030 motherboard and then build a tray to fit it. There have been lots of attempts to do a replacement Falcon030 tower case but usually the case chosen becomes EOL before the project has finished leaving them as one-offs.

I've tried for a long time just to get the bottom half of a Falcon030 case. The tops are similar enough to Atari ST ones that you might be able to modify it to fit (well that was my thought) but they don't come up either.

Lots of Falcon030s were rack-mounted in the 90s and their cases thrown away which explains why there are more motherboards than cases.