DFB1X Falcon booster buyers interests

[tjlazer]

Interested in a 50Mhz one.

And now there are none! Definitely want a 50mhz one.

I've added 10 PRE-ORDER items to the store. I suspect I will have 10 50MHz ones soon. But again, this is a PRE-ORDER, it will take about 2 weeks (possibly longer) before I can ship. I did the pre-order so people can "reserve" one. First come first served basically.

It takes a lot of time to test 50MHz. After that I will run out of 50MHz FPUs. So if nobody wants 40MHz, then I will have to start testing FPUs again to find the 50MHz capable ones. This won't be a quick job.

Order placed! Thank you.

[Badwolf]

I should point out that in general use you'd be hard pressed to spot the difference between a 40 and 50MHz version of the board.

During initial development I only had one 50MHz capable CPU but a couple of 40MHz plastic ones so more often than not I was working at 40 and I don't think I'd be able to pick the difference when a 50 board went in.

They're both -- with the TT-RAM as well -- sufficiently quicker than the stock that you really notice that, though!

BW

[leech]

That is fair, the ceramic ones look cooler though!
I am still shocked that after MagiC, Jinnee and Kobold loaded, I only had 134kb out of the 14mb left...MiNT fresh off of github didn't take anywhere near as much ram. It also flashed something that said it required an FPU. Not sure what that was though.

[coonsgm]

I love my DFB1! Just wondering if there is any interest to build an Exxos version of the DSTB1's as well?

Just asking for a friend, you know?

[chronicthehedgehog]

I am still shocked that after MagiC, Jinnee and Kobold loaded, I only had 134kb out of the 14mb left

That's quite a lot. I use MagiC/Jinnee on my STe and I have c2Mb free. Is it a special Falcon build?

[exxos]

Just wondering if there is any interest to build an Exxos version of the DSTB1's as well?

It was a consideration a while ago. But @Badwolf has some troubles with the RAM I believe. Getting things "market ready" takes a humongous amount of time. Just look at all the time spent on the DFB1X..
Also things have to be "exxos proof" before considering a production of anything :lol: :hide:

The SEC booster with SRAM would be a better one to spend time on in some ways. But the cost of SRAM is massive and the current SEC booster which I was working on would only fit a H4/H5 board. But it is a 8MB 64MHz 68000. It's in part why I was interested in the DSTB1 with the thought of being able to use it with a faster CPU at some point. But since then, I have control of the TF536 project anyway. which I have been doing stuff with. To many directions to move in.. Plus with more people making boosters these days, the market just isn't that large to begin with. Unfortunately most of my projects are currently stalled, maybe indefinitely.

@Badwolf doesn't currently have a lot of time either to work on his projects. So while its possible *anything" could be put into production, I think the likelihood of it happening isn't great. Boosters tend to take up the most time money and effort which makes them expensive and not many people can afford them, also not many people even want them to start with.

I do like the idea of the DSTB1 project. Its small, gives a 16MHz boost and , IIRC, the SDRAM isn't (or wasn't) to expensive. So it would be in theory a alternative "cheap entry level" booster with alt-ram. So I guess it would be a "next level" up booster, at least from my 16MHz one. It still is a 68000 which is fine, and isn't as "bulky" as moving to a 030 type solution. You get what you pay for in the world of boosters really.

[exxos]

The hunt for 50MHz FPUs continues...

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[exxos]

I've made a fair bit of progress finding several more 50MHz FPUs. Hopefully I will have enough to complete the entire batch to make them all 50MHz.

Also intending to ship the DFB1X with a heatsink on the 030 CPU. The ones I ordered arrived yesterday but unfortunately were a little bit too tall despite being only 10mm high). I chopped off some fins because they hit the resistors on the bottom of the keyboard. I ended up having to literally remove half the heatsink fins :roll: So I have ordered some others which are only about 5mm high. These ones are slightly larger than the CPU. I was just trying to get the maximum heatsink area possible in what little space there is.

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The heatsink certainly wasn't part of the "advertised spec" of the DFB1X. So it is still possible they could simply be shipped without if these new heatsinks also do not fit.

I've also found another minor problem relating to the 030 CPUs. During my initial testing they was all done on 5.00V and worked at 50MHz on a ST536 just fine. However, now I am running at about 5.25V on my Falcon power supply, some CPUs will not even start up at 40MHz. Currently I have only found four CPUs which act this way. They certainly won't be used in any DFB1X sold.

Unfortunately all this has pushed back the shipping date probably another week or two :( Unless the current people waiting don't care about the heatsink in which case they could probably be shipped in a few days time.

[exxos]

DFB1X pre-orders will be shipped today. There are now several on standard stock also.

I've removed the 40MHz version from the store, it doesn't seem anyone wanted that. So the whole batch (aside from bare bones boards) went to 50MHz capable chips.

@iluvator can you please check your emails. It looks like your address is going to a block of flats only and looks incomplete to me.

[exxos]

Batch is all completed now. They are not all on stock as they take up a lot of room in the tubs, so likely be only 5 on stock at a time.

It seems running at a higher voltage of 5.3V is quite a failure point for the CPUs for some reason. The NXP datasheet claims 7.0V is the maximum. So it is now part of my standardised testing procedure for the CPUs which is documented here https://exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/MC68030_TEST/

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So I have looked for a different supplier of them, which added a fair chunk onto the price. But considering I'm losing money buying cheaper CPUs anyway...

Is pretty bizarre because those CPUs initially passed working at 50MHz just fine. However as soon as the voltage is increased slightly they do not even work even at 40MHz. I don't think it is a thermal problem because I heated them all up with my gas soldering iron anyway and they all passed. However if they do not function at the higher voltage, they simply get binned now.