exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Been doing the tweaks to the new board and firmware the past couple of weeks.. Probably a case of take-out old bugs , and putting new ones :lol: while these should be the "final" boards, I still class them as BETA at this point. Progress can only be made now with a lot of testing by various people.

Started ordering parts into build up another 5.. Will basically be like below..


I'm going to try and get the IDE header, PLCC pins, JTAG header also assembled. 030 CPU & PGA sockets are in the store already.

I don't have a price for these boards yet as it is incredibly complicated and time-consuming to work it all out. Will probably have a better idea in a couple weeks time or so..

exxos wrote: 13 Mar 2025 16:06 I'm going to try and get the IDE header, PLCC pins, JTAG header also assembled. 030 CPU & PGA sockets are in the store already.

Would going SMT for the IDE pins make that easier? I've considered it for a few of my boards but in the end decided the reduced footprint of the through-hole was required.

I don't know if you can even have SMT 1.27mm single inline headers for the PLCC, but I'd not be confident the alignment would be good enough anyway.

I had thought about doing 2x13 1.27 headers for the PLCC sockets, but realised you can't then have the backing plate push against the right ones!

BW

Badwolf wrote: 13 Mar 2025 21:11 Would going SMT for the IDE pins make that easier?

I tend to avoid SMT for things which "interface to the real world" where possible , due to the amount of times people plug-in and unplug the IDE connector ;) I can see some repeated attempts by heavy-handed users ripping off the connector of the board entirely.. Just my personal preference to have things like that "bolted down" :)

exxos wrote: 03 Mar 2025 13:57 This is how the patch board fits..

Clock patch just arrived! I'll get installing and testing this weekend.

coonsgm wrote: 14 Mar 2025 11:33 Clock patch just arrived! I'll get installing and testing this weekend.

:yay:

exxos wrote: 13 Mar 2025 21:39

Badwolf wrote: 13 Mar 2025 21:11 Would going SMT for the IDE pins make that easier?

I tend to avoid SMT for things which "interface to the real world" where possible , due to the amount of times people plug-in and unplug the IDE connector ;) I can see some repeated attempts by heavy-handed users ripping off the connector of the board entirely.. Just my personal preference to have things like that "bolted down" :)

Probably fair. Rasperry Pi going SMT for their 40 pin header piqued my interest, though.

BW

Badwolf wrote: 14 Mar 2025 13:46 Rasperry Pi going SMT for their 40 pin header..

A disaster waiting to happen IMO...

The amount of electronics items I have had over the years where tracks have ripped off because of SMT "connectors".

EG:

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/view ... 50#p107299

SD card holder ripped off the board after a small number of uses..

Things which interface to the real word, i.e. human control, need to be mechanically strong, surface mount just simply isn't good enough :roll: .

Just had to fix my STe before I even got started with the STE536 :roll:

Patch installed...now to set up a raspberry pi to flash the firmware.

This time I'll not use the use the microSD card for another project....

coonsgm wrote: 15 Mar 2025 12:26 Patch installed...now to set up a raspberry pi to flash the firmware.

This time I'll not use the use the microSD card for another project....

I need to do that too as I really can't be bothered to put all the xilinx stuff on my computer.