exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

My first TF530 build went up in smoke.... When first switching it on after soldering it shorted and a little fizz and smoke was all I got :o Fortunately, my Amiga 500 was still in good order and I could salvage my 68030, the RAM chips. My second attempt got somewhat better, after lots of soldering, reflowing, removing bridges, etc. it worked stable at 25 Mhz with a 68882 FPU. I've done a third attempt to build a new TF530 running at 50 Mhz, I succeeded in that. It runs, but I can't get the FPU running, so some more debugging needed. Another thing are crashes in WHDLoad.

redhawk668 wrote: 06 Feb 2019 12:48 My first TF530 build went up in smoke....

Did you have a terrible fire?

I want to make really sure that I don’t have any bridges left on the CPLD’s and that all pins are making contact before I start soldering in the other components. One of the legs on the RAM CPLD looks like it touches the leg next to it, but my multimeter seems to disagree.

I released the magic smoke :mrgreen:

The reason for crashing in WHDLoad may be Autovector issue. You need to disable this function in whdload.prefs

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Are you using a microscope?
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Yeah same type as yours.

The 520 build was easy, everything just lined up. :/

I suspect the CPLDs I'm using are clones and somehow slightly out of spec. (They were the cheapest ones I can find). Even the labels on them are inconsistent. Some are even missing the pin 1 dot while others have it. :lol:

That’s weird. Did you have another source for the 520 CPLD? Or is it a different type? I’m not that familiar with the 520, as I started following this project when the 530 was being developed.

Or does the CPLD come in another package as well? But I guess it would be quite a lot of difference between the pads and the legs in that case.

How much is differing?

The 520 CPLD is a VQ44... my granny could solder that with a hot rusty nail... the 530 is VQ64.. much finer pitch.

For soldering... use a K tip. I keep banging on about this but I don’t need braid to get rid of bridges with a k tip. Just clean the iron and dab gently with good flux applied and the spread you get clears the bridge.

Nobody listens to me though

I’m not using braid, just lots of Amtech flux. Didn’t use a K-tip though, just a regular wide tip. Will use a K-tip next time.

terriblefire wrote: 08 Feb 2019 07:59 my granny could solder that with a hot rusty nail...

:lol:

chue wrote: 08 Feb 2019 10:20

terriblefire wrote: 08 Feb 2019 07:59 my granny could solder that with a hot rusty nail...

:lol:

My granny used to work as a welder (I think she was the first female welder at Volvo, BTW), so she might be able to handle it as well 🔥