Can all registered uses please login, even just for a few minutes..
It helps build a picture where our "good traffic" is coming from..
Thanks :)

Building an STe536

All about the ST536 030 ST booster.
User avatar
exxos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 28869
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:19 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Building an STe536

Post by exxos »

First up there was a short on the TTram buffers..

IMG_2470.JPG
IMG_2470.JPG (300.47 KiB) Viewed 2490 times

But after removing that short, the TTRAM was still not working. So I just fluxed-up the pins and reflowed them all and TTram came right up afterwards!

IMG_2478.JPG
IMG_2478.JPG (50.89 KiB) Viewed 2490 times

There was also a few "solder splashes" and "flux crud" on various places...

IMG_2472.JPG
IMG_2472.JPG (490.91 KiB) Viewed 2490 times

For some strange reason the 3.3V JTAG pin was cut off :shrug: I had to solder the pin back to let me flash the latest firmware which solved EMUTOS not working and the reset issue. Those problems already documented before and been fixed in the latest firmware.

Lastly the board appears to have been cleaned with IPA and left that white gunk stuff between all the IC pins.

1.jpg
1.jpg (451.32 KiB) Viewed 2490 times

So I un-buried my ultrasonic cleaner and left it in there for a hour..

2.PNG
2.PNG (1.62 MiB) Viewed 2490 times

I know a lot of people favour IPA, though I personally stopped using it a few years ago because of such issues. You just don't know if it's going to be corrosive or cause shorts later down the road.

I didn't test the IDE, not enough time.. But Ultrasatan worked copying and deleting 100's of files with the alleged "Good DMA". I left it running GB6 for about an hour and seems fine. Of course it maiden voyage was in the previous post video..
Steve
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3358
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Building an STe536

Post by Steve »

Ok thanks, so a combination of needing a new firmware (in my defence I did flash what I was told to flash :?, just not the 'slower' ROM version since you were going to look at it anyway) bad factory soldering on the RAM, one short on the buffers, and using IPA for cleaning. I only used IPA because I don't have an ultrasonic big enough :(

PS, reason 3.3v was broken off, is because it's dangerous to connect the 3.3v from a raspberry pi xilinx flasher. Since 3.3v is already provided to the booster. And It's not wise to have the FPGA draw it's 3.3v from the Pi's GPIO.
User avatar
Badwolf
Site sponsor
Site sponsor
Posts: 3068
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:09 pm

Re: Building an STe536

Post by Badwolf »

exxos wrote: Mon Jul 29, 2024 1:56 pm Fixed up @Steve's STe536. Will document what I found later.
:cheer: :dualthumbup:

Well done!

Looks like a couple of nasty-to-find little sneakies in there.

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
Post Reply

Return to “ST536 030 ST ACCELERATOR”