exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

GadgetUK164 wrote: 22 Aug 2020 16:03

terriblefire wrote: 22 Aug 2020 12:20

PSU blew and it showed a green screen after soldering A19... bloody thing

=( You've not had much luck with the CDTV have you!

These machines are very very fragile.

Ok i'm up and running again.. we have the TF536 in the CDTV with the CMorley flash rom holding both the extended and main rom..

Next step is to get a toolchain to recompile the cdtv.device and flash it into the rom with debugging on serial port.

The relocator is still abit high for me i'll live with it.

terriblefire wrote: 22 Aug 2020 18:31 The relocator is still abit high for me i'll live with it.

Is that Rev 1 536 you are using soldered to the relocator using just rows of male pins or can the relocator + 536 still be separated? i.e. with both male + female pins/receptacles used?

Using a 90 degree IDE header helps further with lid clearance, having the CPU with socket it still gets pretty tight but the lid should close comfortably?

*EDIT* The power and JTAG header pins also need to be left unpopulated or 90 degree versions used, otherwise they will short on the lid. That's obviously not practical for your test card.

@terriblefire I've just noticed a potential nasty issue with the CDTV relocator from the images you posted on the threads. If the JTAG header is populated on the TF536 then +5V and GND on the underside of the JTAG male header pins could touch on the metal cap of C163. :shock:

I hadn't considered this previously as I was using the relocator with both male and female header strips, i.e. the card and relocator could be separated which allowed plenty of additional height and I don't populate the JTAG header on these CDTV cards.

Lowering the relocator by using just male header pins to reduce height I've brought the cap and JTAG header uncomfortably close. There should be plenty of room in the space for the cap in the relocator to push it out of harms way but I think I might need to revise the relocator design and change the card placement...

In the meantime you might want to check that C163 on your CDTV is pushed out of the way!

Its ok.. I have an extra row between the TF536 ad the relocator.. i've also got insulating tape over all of the bottom of the card...

It is indeed a rev1 which eventually i'll solder down properly to a relocator.

terriblefire wrote: 23 Aug 2020 09:24 Its ok.. I have an extra row between the TF536 ad the relocator.. i've also got insulating tape over all of the bottom of the card...

It is indeed a rev1 which eventually i'll solder down properly to a relocator.

Ok, great, I don't want to be responsible for breaking your CDTV, It doesn't seem to need any help :)

I've revised the relocator design and changed the card placement to shift it over ~ 30mm to the right. This is similar to the original placement I had before going with what seemed the simpler solution.

The tracks are longer but the clearance for C163 is no longer beneath the 536. This will allow the space between the relocator and the TF536 to be further reduced with the use of thinner square male pin headers to sandwich the board and relocator. This also reduces the risk of anything touching the underside of the 536.

The last thing the CDTV needs is another component prone to short circuits! :D

@terriblefire I wish you a better luck in future with CDTV. :) Ian Stedman sells ATX adapters for a CDTV and price is not bad. http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/desig ... aptor.html

utri007 wrote: 23 Aug 2020 14:00 @terriblefire I wish you a better luck in future with CDTV. :) Ian Stedman sells ATX adapters for a CDTV and price is not bad. http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/desig ... aptor.html

I think i've mentioned i have this adapter about 6 or 7 times now.

I had to repair the PSU.. its back up and running. I just find the CDTV very fragile compare to other Amigas

Received the updated design for the CDTV relocator yesterday.

Solves one issue, introduces another. Seems to work OK though.... :lol:

The problem with the capacitor sitting below the JTAG pins has been removed, however with this design the 68000 socket pins need to be trimmed above underside of the IDE header on the 536 to prevent any possibility of a short.

The cause of these issues (other than the ineptitude of the relocator designer :) ) is trying to get the board height down to the absolute minimum. With a conventional double pin header/detachable setup these problems disappear.

I could place the 536 somewhere else but I think the position of these two designs is about as good as it gets on the CDTV motherboard for the 536.

I probably need to accept that building a TF536 + relocator for the CDTV is not an idiot-proof pursuit.

In summary :

If using the first "striaght" design : Don't install the TF536 JTAG header and tape the underside of the header footprint before assembly. This is to prevent a potential short off the top of C163 on the CDTV motherboard. If the JTAG header is installed then it will short off the underside of the lid anyhow. Also trim and tape the relocator side 68000 pins located above C16 on the TF536

If using the "offset" design : Trim and tape the 68000 relocator side pins located above C16 on the TF536 as well as the two sets of 68000 pins directly below the underside of the IDE header (plenty of room here once trimmed, no need for tape. As above, don't install the JTAG header as it will short on the CDTV lid.

In both cases use square male header pins to sandwich the 536 to the relocator as these allow the two PCBs to sit closer together than round pins.

Use a 90 degree IDE header in both cases.

Shrouded versions can be found here :

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3288771 ... 4c4dVJHXzF


The shroud can be removed after installation.

Enjoy the accelerated Commodore Dynamic Partial Vision experience :)

On a related note the TL866 programmer adapters for the CDTV extended ROM also arrived yesterday.

They seem to work well as far as I can tell.