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REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

All about the ST536 030 ST booster.
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Darklord
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by Darklord »

exxos wrote: Mon Apr 13, 2026 11:23 am Thanks @Darklord will try and find a moment at some point investigate that issues some more...
No problem and I wouldn't worry about it - don't let it distract you.

You've certainly got enough on your plate already...! :lol:
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by exxos »

Darklord wrote: Mon Apr 13, 2026 5:08 pm No problem and I wouldn't worry about it - don't let it distract you.
Getting distracted is my best feature / bug :P
You've certainly got enough on your plate already...! :lol:
Yeah, but got a bit of free time as thing went well for once today..

I remember now PAK TOS went nuts for me. But I don't know if this is what I compiled or came from your image.. Do you have a image of your current TOS ?


IMG_5020.JPG
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IMG_5021.JPG
IMG_5021.JPG (244.74 KiB) Viewed 843 times
IMG_5022.JPG
IMG_5022.JPG (170.58 KiB) Viewed 843 times

Seemed ok anyway..
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by Darklord »

Okay, here's what I'm currently using. Note that it is for NTSC (60hz) and not PAL.

306PAK21(60hz).ZIP
(179.92 KiB) Downloaded 7 times
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by exxos »

Darklord wrote: Mon Apr 13, 2026 9:20 pm Okay, here's what I'm currently using. Note that it is for NTSC (60hz) and not PAL.
Thanks. So it seems the BASIC208 sources were decompiled or someone attempted a rebuild but never finished it off. So basically the loader sources are totally broken :(

I will try and fix the sources with AI.. it thinks it can decompile the original loader and fix the sources properly.. So we shall see... I also asked Francois Lionet if he knows anything about it...
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

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New ST536 in production.. Well they *was*..

JLC sent this..

jlc.PNG
jlc.PNG (4.5 KiB) Viewed 781 times

Saying "The indicated pins of C1518204 can't match the pads well, the soldering area is small, there is risk of weak connection。"

So looking on the PCB..

c92.PNG
c92.PNG (134.48 KiB) Viewed 781 times

Yep 0402 package.

Then looking at JLC parts.

Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG (51.94 KiB) Viewed 781 times

Yep 0402 package.


So :WTF: ?!


EDIT:

Also started to try to "sell my stock" in my JLC account. Must have like £500 tied up in stock. Half stuff if left over stock from motherboard builds etc. There's PLD's which have skyrocketed in price which be a good time to try and sell them on now anyway.
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by exxos »

Right, So I will give credit to JLC this time. After much puzzling, I now see the 0402 parts have a smaller footprint than EVERY lib with a 0402 capacitor :roll:

The top part is what I grabbed from Mouser libs and checked vs the datasheet.

The bottom part is what size EVERY 0402 part is in Eagle !!

Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG (11.21 KiB) Viewed 768 times

:pullhair:
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by exxos »

My new tester I mentioned in my BLOG

Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG (44.41 KiB) Viewed 745 times

So that was like 50 blog pages of hair pulling to get that far :P

The last test isn't so great. Likely because of overheads which the ST536 has in the SDRAM controller over the original.. Need to investigate that at some point..


EDIT

Ahh close enough :hide:

Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG (38.89 KiB) Viewed 739 times

EDIT2:

OK new test added.. not doing anymore :P

Capture.PNG
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by Darklord »

exxos wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2026 10:20 am @Darklord

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/STOS ... 209_v2.zip

See if that works better..
That works! :)

At least I'm not getting a bus error anymore and it's not locking up. I don't
know anything about STOS so I'm just randomly typing stuff in and it gives
me a syntax error (which I would assume is to be expected).

BTW, how do you quit back to the desktop without having to reboot? :roll:

Thanks.
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Re: REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

Post by exxos »

Thanks @Darklord

Pressing F4 will bring up the load file selector. But don't think there is a hello world example or anything on that disk.

You can do PRINT "HELLO WORLD" in the editor etc.

You type system to quit back to desktop.
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