exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Thanks @exxos for sending over the boards from the manufacturer. Comparing to the older board size its a lot slimmed down and we have managed to pack in the audio codec / mixer chip as well. In addition the Micro-JTAG boards https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =10#p44580 were also in the the batch.


Now I just need to find some Atari time which has become very scarce over the last month or so to build these :(

Am not looking forward to having a go at the MBGA chip but its going to be an adventure no doubt.

Well thats the easy side SMT components soldered using the higher temp solder paste. Just a little clean up needed as I have spotted a couple of solder bridges.

Well that wasn't fun and must be the smallest, most dense work (MBGA) I have done so far. Just need to give it a clean and then see if it works or ends up in :fire:

@Icky nicely done. Hope all well under that BGA chip.

Look forward to seeing if it works or not :D

@PhilC - no joy yet and no :fire:. Have checked for shorts and their aren't any but it isn't programming at the moment so am suspecting the MBGA soldering.

Oooh, BGA, nasty.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 30 Aug 2020 15:33 Oooh, BGA, nasty.

Yep - I thought it was time to experiment with these packages as they are cheaper. @exxos suggested we need an x-ray machine to add to our arsenal of tools :)

Icky wrote: 30 Aug 2020 17:12

rubber_jonnie wrote: 30 Aug 2020 15:33 Oooh, BGA, nasty.

Yep - I thought it was time to experiment with these packages as they are cheaper. @exxos suggested we need an x-ray machine to add to our arsenal of tools :)

Or an army of nano-bots that can clamber underneath and eat any shorts (Simpsons reference there!)

How many 'pins' does it have? I assume you must have to have a pretty accurate stencil to get the solder as you need it?

@rubber_jonnie - 153 pins. The stencil worked and looking at the pads they all had paste on each pad and not too much.

Aren't those packages designed to be fitted using machines which vibrate the chip very quickly, friction melting the solder?