exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

PhilC wrote: 23 Feb 2020 17:47 I've been testing my board on an A500+ today with a few different drives etc and can report that the length of the hard drive cable doesn't appear to be as critical on the TF536, I get the same transfer speeds and reliability with a 10 inch cable as I do with a 2" one.

What were you planning on changing on this @terriblefire as it seems to work great for me so far.

1) 4K7 pull ups are needed on A31-A24 + A0 (as they can float.
2) I was going to beef the caps up around the SDRAM.

I'm considering the possibility of an IDE buffer on this board. But maybe i'll just produce a separate mini IDE buffer that can be built separately.

Cool, look forward to the next version when you get time.

Enjoy your flying.

terriblefire wrote: 23 Feb 2020 17:52 I'm considering the possibility of an IDE buffer on this board. But maybe i'll just produce a separate mini IDE buffer that can be built separately.

Wow!
These are indeed excellent news!
Especially for A2000 users!

this one is wanted more than previous releases 😃
Have got a lot of requests on TF536,
So started to stock sockets and other parts to be prepared when time comes 😊

I think a separate IDE buffer would probably be better. Most users wouldn’t need it, but it’s nice to have as an option.

I cant get an IDE buffer to fit on the TF536 at this stage so i've left it off. There arent any free pins on the CPLD .

The new design was updated to fix the floating pin issues and also to put *ALL* passives on the underside of the board. This means that the board house can assemble the caps, resistors *AND* resistor networks for us with a pick and place option. Should dramatically reduce the time to build and complexity for most people. It will add a tiny bit of cost to the price you pay from me (like £2-£3 extra).. but you should save that in the long run as no time spent with the passives at all.

EDIT: I'm hovering on the Buy button for an order of 10.

Make it a buy 20 or 30, lol.

I'd probably want at least 2 maybe 3 to try out this time.as I said, much easier to build and get up and running that the 534.

Extra cost for the pick and place is a no brainer IMHO.

im always slightly nervous of doing a big batch with a modified design .

Which is understandable but the mods you've made aren't big ones.

Whichever you decide, I'd like to be included in the testing if that's ok.

I bet a lot of people including me wants one.
Got a new trinocular microscope on the way and am in corona quarantine, so building a new toy sound great right now! :P

Oh yeah same here,
waiting on them as a child for Christmas 😃