Future H5 buyers & assembly

Information and progress towards the H5 board.

Future H5 build options

Bare PCB only - no parts
0
No votes
Generic SMT parts assembled (birdseed)
13
36%
Bulk parts assembled (as they are sold now)
23
64%
 
Total votes: 36

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Chewbode
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by Chewbode »

I would purchase two.
4160STE, SD4ST+, NetUSBee, Exxos RBG to VGA | 2 x 1040STF | SC1224 | SC1435
MEX68KECB
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by MEX68KECB »

I would definitely purchase two. I would pay in advance too.
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exxos
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by exxos »

I am looking into getting a small run of 10 birdseed boards built as I need a board for another project for myself anyway.. It's the easiest thing for me to do. They will have most of the SMT stuff done (mostly excluding the DAC) and no DIP parts fitted..


They will look like this but without the PLCC sockets...

IMG_5786.JPG
IMG_5786.JPG (335.13 KiB) Viewed 300 times

But it's not for the faint hearted, and I can't hold people's hand while they figure it all out either. People will have to look at other peoples builds for what goes where and other parts lists from previous builds etc.

I would document the one I build myself, so people have something to follow (and no i'm not building any up fully for people either sorry). Though if someone wants to buy some boards to build up and sell fully built, I have no problems with that.
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by exxos »

Spent the past several hours updating the BOM and adding parts, such as the sockets and header pins. 3M sockets are insanely expensive, but they're the best ones!

WHAT IS NOT GOING TO BE FITTED (which I may forget to mention stuff)

All rear / side IO ports
Video DAC
32MHz OSC
SIMM SOCKET
MFP OSC
Reset switch.
68K expansion sockets
RTC chip/battery holder
Falcon RAM board headers

Unfortunately I cannot get a price until I have ordered a lot of the parts. They was around £150 before, but its probably going to be closer to £200 these days. As I only plan on ordering about 10, it's not very cost effective for smaller batches, but it's the only way I can really afford to get them built at all these days. At this point I don't think more than several people are waiting anyway. Generally half don't buy one anyway. So 10 probably a good amount to get.

C4.PNG
C4.PNG (249.48 KiB) Viewed 236 times
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by exxos »

I'm trying my best to find suppliers for the SIMM socket and video DAC. While I have that stuff personally my stock here, time and expense shipping stuff to China I am really trying to avoid these days. Technically while stuff has risen in price and harder to find, by the time I have paid shipping, taxes, import fees, and dealt with 50 panicked emails in customs and whatnot, overall it works and more cost-effective to obtain stuff from China and shipped to China.

JLC offer parts soucing.. But it's very erratic :roll: parts are available from suppliers where they then say they cannot obtain them.. So then they refund the money, which is good of course, but then it makes it even more problematic to keep track of money which has been spent and been refunded, along with various transaction charges on my bank end and their end :roll:

If really gets complicated because the price you pay on their global parts sourcing is really just an estimate, which is fair enough, but then it makes it
either more expensive or cheaper which then makes the cost per item is even more complicated.

Even more weird, sometimes when I submit parts to buy, they rejected saying they cannot obtain them, so I submit the same part again the next day and then they accept it..

I guesstimated the price would be around £150 - £200 for this new batch. Though it's probably going to be closer to the higher estimate assuming additional parts will be fitted. People would have to have purchased those parts anyway, so it does not really make much difference overall cost wise people other than they basically get "free fitting". Considering people struggle with the DAC and SIMM socket soldering, it is something I really want to try and get fitted on this board regardless. Though it is proving rather problematic and time-consuming at the moment :(

Incidentally, I will put together a small bag of parts to include in the box.. Mostly will likely just be the 32mhx osc and reset switch, maybe RGB connector.. People would have to buy these anyway though because of shipping problems I can only ship the boards as before on there own. Of course it people just want the minimal parts to get up and running then there is little point in people doing a second-order just to order the oscillator for example. So I will try and include the required parts in the box.. This will not include any rear IO connectors. As some people will just recycle them off a scrap motherboard anyway.

Even more frustrating is that the two box companies I have used have deleted my accounts since last time :roll: It looks like the price of getting the boxes made has doubled in cost as well :(

So I can confirm there should be 20x H5C4 in production "soon". But I cannot say exactly what parts will be fitted or the total at this point in time.

I really want to try and get these manufacturers and even starting shipping before the Christmas rush, if I cannot get the boards manufactured and shipped (to me) early december, then there is no point shipping them over the Christmas rush of stuff will just get damaged and lost. Shipping would have to wait until early January. If the boards cannot be manufactured this year, then all the Chinese holidays after Christmas start becoming a problem with delays as well.

Once I do have a final price of them, I will be taking preorders in the store for people who want to reserve a board.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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zeropolis79
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by zeropolis79 »

I might be interested in a board - would it be easy to take chips off my existing STE (STFM, I have no idea) board and put them on? It would be cheaper for me..
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by exxos »

zeropolis79 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 4:46 pm would it be easy to take chips off my existing STFM..
This is impossible to answer...

YES - If you are good at soldering and have a desoldering station.

NO - If you are not good at soldering and don't have a desoldering station.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by sporniket »

The STE will NOT have some essential chips, like the shifter (different from the Shifter of the ST), the MMU and the GLUE (replaced by a big CMS chip)
Dead_Cat
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by Dead_Cat »

Put me down for one! And Thank you for all your work.
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Re: Future H5 buyers & assembly

Post by MEX68KECB »

Thanks for doing these, I want to re-affirm I am in for two boards and committed! I'll be watching for the pre-order.
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