exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

exxos wrote: 21 Oct 2022 12:08 Nope. I've tried some CPU's in other batches of the booster and same thing happens :(

Could just be all the good ones have gone now? :/

BW

Badwolf wrote: 21 Oct 2022 14:36 Could just be all the good ones have gone now? :/

I believe so yes :( The ones I got before were freescale EI20 chips and they were great. These ones now are FN20, and even though they are mostly stamped as freescale, I think they are early production runs from motorola. They are not in very good conduction like the EI20's I got a few years back. I think they are all older FN8's restaped as FN20's.

There are EI20 ones still about, but I am skeptical about them now. They tend to be more expensive as well. So not worth buying another 100+ CPU's as I would end up spending like £1,000 on them. I'd never get money back on the booster sales :(

I think 50% of the CPU's so far fail at 32MHz. Though its testing 200 CPU's to get 100. Then have to retest them all in each booster board For a longer period of time, where someone may still ultimately fail at 32MHz. Also have to re-test the ones which failed at 32MHz to see if they can still pass for 8MHz chips. All takes a lot longer than you think :(

Is the board easily modable to be a 16MHz booster instead, maybe?

BW

Badwolf wrote: 21 Oct 2022 14:54 Is the board easily modable to be a 16MHz booster instead, maybe?

Yeah, just feed 16MHz into it instead of the 32MHz clock. Though not really sure its worth going down that route. IIRC someone is already doing a 16Mhz booster series ;)

I purchased 500 CPU's last time. They came on 2 huge reels. So I think I will just have to keep slogging it out until I get 100 good CPU's out of them all.

Really I wanted to get the 3-D printer hooked up today to print the plastic parts. But I think I'm going to be messing with CPUs for another week yet. :roll:

exxos wrote: 21 Oct 2022 15:00

Badwolf wrote: 21 Oct 2022 14:54 Is the board easily modable to be a 16MHz booster instead, maybe?

Yeah, just feed 16MHz into it instead of the 32MHz clock. Though not really sure its worth going down that route. IIRC someone is already doing a 16Mhz booster series ;)

Haha, I was just thinking about how best to shift the stock that doesn't pass muster!

BW

:hide:

:D

Just a thought @exxos since buying and testing CPUs takes up a lot of your time, have you considered just selling the kit without a CPU? It'll save you a lot of time and aggravation. You just need to put a disclaimer 'bring your own CPU, this type is recommended: bla bla, beware of fakes'

I know you'll get the odd person asking why their CPU doesn't go to 32mhz, but I think it would be a net-win for you.

Steve wrote: 22 Oct 2022 17:39 Just a thought @exxos since buying and testing CPUs takes up a lot of your time, have you considered just selling the kit without a CPU? It'll save you a lot of time and aggravation. You just need to put a disclaimer 'bring your own CPU, this type is recommended: bla bla, beware of fakes'

I know you'll get the odd person asking why their CPU doesn't go to 32mhz, but I think it would be a net-win for you.

I think it would end in more chaos :(. Loads would buy the CPU from more store even though it says they won't do 32mhz..Then the the second wave of people would then ask "where's the best place to buy CPUs from "... I don't know.. If I did I'd be selling them myself .. 3rd wave, "I've bought several CPUs and NONE work in your booster" it's obviously the booster which is faulty.. Half the people who buy stuff screw the installs up even when they have tested stuff.

I think 1 in 4 CPUs work at 32mhz. This is from a reel of I think 250 CPUs. I get a run which work, then a run which don't. It's possible some could end up buying 10 bad CPUs. Then blame me for selling boosters which are impossible to use.

Overall it's just easier to test the cpus myself and not deal with all of the above over and over.

I guess, you must know best since you're the one dealing with the problem directly. But the TF536/ST536 series is in a similar boat, not every 030 cpu works at 50mhz and we're prepared to let customers deal with that... I guess, food for thought, just trying to help :)