JezC H4 Build - in slow time

[JezC]

Well, a bit of a good news/bad news day really...I might have the option to work from home at least some of the time...possibly even later this week.
:yay: :yay2: :dualthumbup: :cheer: :cheers:

But...I still don't have a soldering iron at home (just my desoldering gun) so unless I can convince work to loan me a 'spare' iron for my time working at home, I won't be getting much closer to building anything
:cussing: :stickwhack: :shrug: :headbang:

Failing that, I guess I will have to borrow a 'scope (that should be easier to justify) and just continue fault-finding/ordering what missing parts I can afford at the moment.
:sigh: :roll:

[rubber_jonnie]

@JezC If you're in the UK I can give you a soldering iron, though not 100% sure of the best way to post it at the moment....

It won't be a fancy temp controlled one, but I think I have a spare Antek one that didn't see a lot of use.

[JezC]

@JezC If you're in the UK I can give you a soldering iron, though not 100% sure of the best way to post it at the moment....

It won't be a fancy temp controlled one, but I think I have a spare Antek one that didn't see a lot of use.

@rubber_jonnie That's a very kind offer - yes, I'm on the North East coast which is now officially on the UK Corona virus map
:( :shock:

I've got to go into work tomorrow to try & finish off some testing (and will try to borrow a soldering iron at the same time - there's a Weller sitting on a shelf much like the one I've misplaced at home) - but if there's no joy with that I'll be in touch!

Thinking about the whereabouts of my Weller, I'm almost certain that my Dad borrowed it a few years back & it's never been returned. Only problem there is the 120+ miles between my home & Mum's house... :pullhair:

[rubber_jonnie]

Thinking about the whereabouts of my Weller, I'm almost certain that my Dad borrowed it a few years back & it's never been returned. Only problem there is the 120+ miles between my home & Mum's house... :pullhair:

@JezC I'm guessing that's classed as non essential travel....

You're welcome to a spare, I just don't know how it'll work out due to the lockdown. It's quite small though, so I may just be able to post it with a bunch of stamps on and hope forthe best. It's quite small, I just never used it much as I got the temp controlled one I'm still using from Maplin, I reckon a good 15 years ago.

[JezC]

@rubber_jonnie Almost certainly! I'm actually waiting for the local police to start questioning why so many people are still at our work (but it will be mostly the production side & those working with hazardous voltages etc. by the end of the week).

I'll see how I get on tomorrow & let you know - I've still not even built up the dual TOS board for my Mega (and I finally have the 27C4096 EPROMs to go in it & the H4)... :oops:

[rubber_jonnie]

I'll see how I get on tomorrow & let you know - I've still not even built up the dual TOS board for my Mega (and I finally have the 27C4096 EPROMs to go in it & the H4)... :oops:

@JezC You'd better get on with that H4, even mine is running now :)

[JezC]

@JezC You'd better get on with that H4, even mine is running now :)

@rubber_jonnie I would love to...but the lack of a soldering iron & adequate funds to buy one (or the missing parts for both H4s) on top of a complete lack of hobby time has so far proved an insurmountable hurdle to progress!

I will also face the less than ideal situation of having to desolder many components from the donor boards & being unable to test them before I fit them to the first H4...
:headbang:
...but once I have one H4 working then I will have the test bed for all the chips for the second one :-D

[rubber_jonnie]

@JezC You'd better get on with that H4, even mine is running now :)

@rubber_jonnie I would love to...but the lack of a soldering iron & adequate funds to buy one (or the missing parts for both H4s) on top of a complete lack of hobby time has so far proved an insurmountable hurdle to progress!

I will also face the less than ideal situation of having to desolder many components from the donor boards & being unable to test them before I fit them to the first H4...
:headbang:
...but once I have one H4 working then I will have the test bed for all the chips for the second one :-D

@JezC I'll keep my fingers crossed you can make some progress soon, in the meantime, stay safe.

[JezC]

@JezC I'll keep my fingers crossed you can make some progress soon, in the meantime, stay safe.

@rubber_jonnie Thanks - I hope to get some progress over the next few days...at least up to the point where I'm waiting on additional components arriving to get any further.

Maybe I need to work out what a bare minimum operational build would be & aim for that first (where possible using chips from socketed, working STF/STFM boards)... :idea:

Thanks - you too!

[JezC]

Some slow progress... 8-)

Board is now built & populated to a basic (hopefully functional) level but no MIDI sockets or ACSI/cartridge port.

Also no floppy power lead to plug in yet (header fitted, need to cannibalise a lead from somewhere & borrow a floppy lead from an old PC).

Fixes applied except the DAC fix (as I don't want to completely break it and I believe it should work with out it but the image clarity may not be good).
Once I have a partly working system I can try to apply this mod (and will hopefully have access to better rework tools available to attempt it - I've been told to go back to working in the office as of next week... :cry: )

I will try and apply power this evening to see what smokes first...and maybe see what my next step should be.