Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

[exxos]

Been busy today re-soldering headers and flashing firmware. Currently there are only 11 which are working (pending full tests yet) and I need to change the PLD's on the other 23.. Finding somewhere which actually has the PLD in stock ....

They just come out of the ultrasonic cleaner.

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Spent the past couple of hours trying to work out prices of everything again. It really doesn't help when companies don't let you view the order history over a few years now which makes it incredibly difficult to figure out how much stuff cost back in 2020

Anyway the price ended up at £85 a board. This does not even include prototyping costs, I really cannot be bothered to figure that out. If I added it on it would likely double the price of the things anyway. But hopefully I can get my money back ultimately on the final 34.

Looking at the prices of the SRAM "today" they are just shy of £40 now They wasn't exactly cheap a few years ago either. The RTC has basically doubled in price easily. Did not bother to check other parts but it's clear they are not going to be cheap either now. So its doubtful any more flashy clocks well get produced when the current batch is completed.

[exxos]

Don't seem to be having much luck with the 11 boards with the genuine PLDs. So far 4 boards have passed tests and 4 boards have failed

Mostly they seem to be failing on flash programming..

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Two of the boards my flashy software claims the RTC is timing out. Whether this be bad soldering or bad PCB or bad chips, it would take a colossal amount of time to diagnose it all, which just isn't worth the time and effort. I already had to fix and fault find TRUDIE. So I know PCBWAY soldering is bad, and some boards I gave up trying to fix. So assume the PCB itself (or chips) are bad.

The problem is with the RAM and RTC chip costing like £50 now, that's going to total like £1,500 in chips alone. I think getting them built again from scratch would probably be the best solution. Of course I cannot really write off that much either. So sent a plea to my UK assembly place to see if they would consider recycling some chips and assembling new boards from scratch.

Is a bit of a crappy situation, because it's either writing off all the faulty boards and forgetting about it, or spending even more time and money trying to recycle those parts where I would not get my money back anyway. It's basically a lose lose situation.

The RAM could be left off a new batch. That would reduce cost in not having to deal with the RAM chip. But would ultimately cost more because of the new batch being made. So is difficult to really tell if they would work out any cheaper in not fitting the RAM on the new batch anyway.

Will just have to see what demand is like for flashy clock over the year. If the boards in stock don't sell, then I will just have to "write off" the rest of the stock and chalk it up to more experience as to not use China for anything anymore !

Flashy is listed now in the store, but no actual stock yet. But people can add it to their baskets meanwhile.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/#0314

I have also done a quick page to explain setup etc
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last ... /index.htm

[LarryL]

Put one in my shopping cart
Good luck with making at least some of them work
Sound like a lot of hassle…

[exxos]

Put one in my shopping cart

Good luck with making at least some of them work
Sound like a lot of hassle…

Yeah everything is these days, everything has to be a 100 times more effort than it needs to be.

Found one issue which definitely is not helping.. Three header pins don't continuity check from one socket to the other. I measuring depends on top of flashy. The likely the pin from flashy to the motherboard is not making contact on three different pins if I put the board in at an angle it then works.

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So looks like I'll have to just take those header strips out and put a proper socket in next

[ijor]

@exxos , may I ask you if you use a special technique to remove those boards? I remember trying to remove a similar one (the one with the pull ups), and it was impossible. At least using reasonable "safe" methods and reasonable strength. I didn't try using something like a screwdriver for fear I would damage the board.

[exxos]

@exxos , may I ask you if you use a special technique to remove those boards? I remember trying to remove a similar one (the one with the pull ups), and it was impossible. At least using reasonable "safe" methods and reasonable strength. I didn't try using something like a screwdriver for fear I would damage the board.

They come out really easily.. Possibly that board is soldered on ? I really don't remember..sorry..

[ijor]

They come out really easily.. Possibly that board is soldered on ? I really don't remember..sorry..

For a moment I felt like I was terribly stupid, that I stupidly spent a lot of time and effort trying to unplug a soldered board!

Not that I didn't make, more than once, things even more stupid than that, but I just looked and it doesn't seem to be soldered. Can't be 100% sure, but at least I can see the black plastic, that I assume are the end of the female headers.

[exxos]

Can't be 100% sure, but at least I can see the black plastic, that I assume are the end of the female headers.

If there is 2 rows of header plastic one above the other, then its plugged in. If there is only one strip of header plastic then its soldered in.

[ijor]

If there is 2 rows of header plastic one above the other, then its plugged in. If there is only one strip of header plastic then its soldered in.

Damn you @exxos ! You did it in purpose and you didn't even tell me ! .... Now I really feel stupid ... Ok, sorry for the stupid interruption. Please continue with the thread

[exxos]

Damn you @exxos ! You did it in purpose and you didn't even tell me ! .... Now I really feel stupid ... Ok, sorry for the stupid interruption. Please continue with the thread

So only 1 header strip then ?

Was like 3 years ago when that board was built. I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday !