Trudie - The Next IDE Board

[agranlund]

Can't help wondering what they are though

ATF1508ASVL ?
ATF1508AS ?
ATF1504xxx ?
Or just something completely different?


Could they actually be what they claim, but used and with the security fuse set, or the jtag interface locked?
I don't know what error message you're supposed to get in those cases.

Though I'm not sure I would trust anything which was used and recycled from e-waste anyway... especially not with these kinds of machines in play

[exxos]

Can't help wondering what they are though

ATF1508ASVL ?
ATF1508AS ?
ATF1504xxx ?
Or just something completely different?

I went through the whole list..

Could they actually be what they claim, but used and with the security fuse set, or the jtag interface locked?

Normally you can still erase or blank check, but the device is not even found.

I did have a contact at Atmel, but not used for 10 years, email bounces now, so I guess he left the company some time ago

Only possible way to know is Xray I guess..

Though I'm not sure I would trust anything which was used and recycled from e-waste anyway... especially not with these kinds of machines in play

Yeah, I am not sure where the chips came from.. Not aliexpress for sure. But I used a lot of those chips from china suppliers without problems for years.. then as soon as I do a batch of something.. all faulty..

Its why these days I pay more and get verified parts.. Cost more for parts, but saves stress and money long term. Plus like I said with the 030 CPUs, China prices not much cheaper anymore, and likely reprinted and some don't work etc. So buying from China makes no sense anymore. I mean when 030 CPU was like £5, the gamble made sense. But not when they are now £30-£50 a pop.. madness.

[agranlund]

Yeah, I am not sure where the chips came from.. Not aliexpress for sure. But I used a lot of those chips from china suppliers without problems for years.. then as soon as I do a batch of something.. all faulty..

That really sucks with the whole batch of boards

Its why these days I pay more and get verified parts.. Cost more for parts, but saves stress and money long term. Plus like I said with the 030 CPUs, China prices not much cheaper anymore, and likely reprinted and some don't work etc. So buying from China makes no sense anymore. I mean when 030 CPU was like £5, the gamble made sense. But not when they are now £30-£50 a pop.. madness.

I agree, I don't make things anywhere near the volumes you do but I am too really hesitant in gambling on parts because of the hassle with all the fake stuff nowadays :/

And even if the part works.. I still wouldn't be able to shake the unknowns hanging over me if debugging something.
Is the part damaged during e-waste recycling? Is the part actually the right part and not 100% fake but reprinted with the wrong speed grade? That could be days of "fun" debugging if you depended on the numbers in the datasheet for the thing you think you bought

[exxos]

I agree, I don't make things anywhere near the volumes you do but I am too getting really hesitant in gambling on parts because of the hassle with all the fake stuff nowadays :/

Yeah it's been a huge problem for me. Like when I was doing STE boosters, so many Fake GALs...reprinted speeds etc I had like 100 which were "blanks" like no resistance between any pins. Like a "dummy" IC. So yeah, WE all know China is bad for parts, but now its really bad and really expensive ! It's just not cost effective anymore to take the gamble.

[exxos]

RS stuff came

As is tradition, they cut down a rainforest to ship a single package.

IMG_4471.JPG (263.64 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

IMG_4473.JPG (224.8 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

IMG_4474.JPG (229.63 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

IMG_4475.JPG (255.71 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

The amount of waste that company generates is just absolutely unbelievable.

[exxos]

Out with the old...

IMG_4476.JPG (127.92 KiB) Viewed 1094 times

Notice these from RS have center printed text !

IMG_4477.JPG (153.11 KiB) Viewed 1094 times

Capture.PNG (51.85 KiB) Viewed 1094 times

Now to figure out where I left off with the firmware...

[exxos]

The first power up did not go too well

IMG_4478.JPG (200.64 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

IMG_4479.JPG (330.24 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

H5 wasn't booting up afterwards. I reseated the CPU and it started working fine again afterwards *phew*

IMG_4480.JPG (237.7 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

Next test was to try TRUDIE built in 206 decoder...

IMG_4481.JPG (384.61 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

IMG_4482.JPG (140.65 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

success !


Next automatic byte swapping... Which seems to work fine on my PC formatted card

IDE access speed test...

IMG_4483.JPG (322.86 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

C: partition speed test..

IMG_4484.JPG (310.87 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

No idea what its supposed to be, but honestly don't care any more I don't think it can be made any faster because it's all "hardwired" to the 8mhz clock anyway.

I need to get some of the TRUDIE keyboard widgets made up.. hopefully the parts are still in production. Never really came up with a better way of installing it...

[exxos]

Been trying to find where I purchased the PLDs from but not having much luck.

I see I sent these images to PCBWAY

1.PNG (1.24 MiB) Viewed 1068 times

2.jpg (127.36 KiB) Viewed 1068 times

So potentially there's going to be 14 Flashy Clocks which have a PLD from mouser at least. I can only find I purchased 10 from UTSOURCE. But that doesn't add up to the images. I have a feeling I bought from 2 different suppliers, which is lightly evident considering there are two different styles of printing on the tray.. But can I figure out where I purchase them from...

[exxos]

Ordering more PLD's from RS.. seems i've wiped them out.. I guess the delay won't matter as stuff sells slowly anyway.

Capture.PNG (52.33 KiB) Viewed 1040 times

Tried to tally up the totals as much as possible. Trying to find multiple packages multiple pars multiple supplies multiple conversations was a bit of a nightmare.. Mixing when I send stuff to China they charge me import costs as well.. I'm not sure I've missed anything. I'm not adding in the development costs because it will be practically impossible to figure it all out after all this time. So my current tally has them at ~ £58 each.

I suppose it's not too bad considering the sheer amount of things it went wrong with that project start to finish. Obviously trying to push his project out during the pandemic was a huge mistake Changing the chips and testing etc is going to keep me busy for the foreseeable future..

Probably sometime next week I will open up pre orders. Note that these will plug into a H5 3.3volt slot ONLY. Its intended to go in the left-hand-side 3.3V socket as the right socket is for Flashy-clock.

[exxos]

Nice font!

IMG_4487.JPG (153.17 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

Progress!

IMG_4488.JPG (92.79 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

IMG_4489.JPG (119.08 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

At like £15 a pop as well


Got 10 IC's changed.. they in the US cleaner currently ! Should have 22 more chips on Monday..

EDIT:

20260123_215336.jpg (314.2 KiB) Viewed 1003 times