Potential changes on a future board.

[PhilC]

I'm in favour of smt caps etc, the board would be quicker to build with them.

Not sure if youd like this idea but how about a beginner and a pro version of the board?

Through hole on beginner and less expansion options and a pro version with smt and all the bells and whistles?

[exxos]

@PhilC have you seen this thread ? https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =73&t=2231

In relation to caps and resistors, likely I would go with 1206 package, not too tiny to hand solder then.

[PhilC]

@exxos I have now :D

Some of those larger caps are expensive, maybe keep those as through hole ceramics etc?

[exxos]

Some of those larger caps are expensive, maybe keep those as through hole ceramics etc?

Its possible we may not even need those larger caps.. theres that many caps on the board anyway...

[derkom]

I don't know how much enhancement hardware you want to put on the main board, as opposed to plug-in upgrades, but how about including Lightning-compatible USB in the design, and giving it an external, powered port?

Not sure I understand what your getting at there.. Lightning I know nothing about or USB, so I can't including it on anything relating to the H4 past what they have already developed which is just a plug in board on the CPU.

What I meant is if you're considering putting a USB port on there for power, you might also consider making it a real USB port, by including the Lightning hardware in the board design. Depends on how far you want to go adding on to the original ST hardware as opposed to simply making the design better.

If you don't want to go as far as including full USB, consider possibilities of making it possible to use the built in port for either power or for the Lightning hardware for those who have it. This would probably require adding in a 9-pin USB header to connect either power or the Lightning board to, so it may be more hardware than you want to be adding, given only a few people would actually use it this way. Just a thought. :)

[exxos]

What I meant is if you're considering putting a USB port on there for power, you might also consider making it a real USB port, by including the Lightning hardware in the board design. Depends on how far you want to go adding on to the original ST hardware as opposed to simply making the design better.

If you don't want to go as far as including full USB, consider possibilities of making it possible to use the built in port for either power or for the Lightning hardware for those who have it. This would probably require adding in a 9-pin USB header to connect either power or the Lightning board to, so it may be more hardware than you want to be adding, given only a few people would actually use it this way. Just a thought. :)

I can add some headers for it. The lightning guys I doubt are going to give me the design to include that hardware on the H4. You really would have to talk to them about doing a custom board for the H4.

[derkom]

I can add some headers for it. The lightning guys I doubt are going to give me the design to include that hardware on the H4. You really would have to talk to them about doing a custom board for the H4.

I don't know of any reason why their current board wouldn't work anyway. Just thinking about possible enhancements for future remake revisions.

[exxos]

I don't know of any reason why their current board wouldn't work anyway. Just thinking about possible enhancements for future remake revisions.

I thought someone plugged it in and tried it already anyway ? Just its a bit big for the H4 and covered a lot of the 68K sockets up.

[Smonson]

I have a very minor suggestion to slightly increase the contrast of the video from the DAC: instead of wiring each colour up as [2, 1, 0, gnd, gnd, gnd, gnd, gnd] you can go [2, 1, 0, 2, 1, 0, gnd, gnd]. That's basically what I do with the HDMI colour scale (except it's 4-bits instead of 3).

[exxos]

I have a very minor suggestion to slightly increase the contrast of the video from the DAC: instead of wiring each colour up as [2, 1, 0, gnd, gnd, gnd, gnd, gnd] you can go [2, 1, 0, 2, 1, 0, gnd, gnd]. That's basically what I do with the HDMI colour scale (except it's 4-bits instead of 3).

I can do that.

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