exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I've spun a new topic off the viewtopic.php?f=76&t=1951 thread as it was getting excessively long and veering off topic.

Here's the one all you Dynamic Total Vision fans have been waiting for! :lol:

Continuity tests OK on all pins, solders up easily and installs with plenty of room around the vital areas!

Boots to Diagrom and mem tests ok with an unmodified 536 installed (socketed and no IDE header change).

I will investigate further over the coming days but looks OK so far.

Sweet!

Great! It seems to fit nicely. So space problems are mostly solved. Relocators can cause contact problems, so soldering it directly to TF536 migh be good thing to do. Would that allow CPU socket?

utri007 wrote: 27 Jul 2020 15:37 Great! It seems to fit nicely. So space problems are mostly solved. Relocators can cause contact problems, so soldering it directly to TF536 migh be good thing to do. Would that allow CPU socket?

The potential contact problems would be from the top side of the the male 68000 header pins on the 536 shorting out on the metal CDTV lid. If the pins are trimmed down and taped after assembly then there should be no problem.

It's not possible to solder the relocator *directly* to the 536 as there are 2x caps, 2x resistor networks and 2x buffers on the underside of the accelerator. It is possible to just use two male strip headers only and solder one side to the 536 and the other side to the relocator to make a permanent connection.

This will save some space that would have been taken up by the female strip header receptacles.

You have some options either way.

Well done mate

You are the relocator master go0se. Along with your signature squiggly ornamental traces :D... It looks great.

alenppc wrote: 27 Jul 2020 16:26 You are the relocator master go0se. Along with your signature squiggly ornamental traces :D... It looks great.

Ha! It's all for functional reasons I assure you! :lol:

I made the "mistake" of trying length tuning with the A500 relocator as the difference between the longest and shortest signal routes was getting way out of whack. Now I can't stop :)

Amazing !!! Thanks for this.

Very nice! :thumbup:

I manged to get hold of a mouse adapter for the CDTV so have been able to test this relocator a bit further...

I built a CDTV specific TF536 with the right angled IDE header and the relocator permanently soldered to the accelerator (Male pin headers only, no female pin sockets).

The idea behind this was that with the right angle IDE header installed the cable exit from the header points vertically so unfortunately takes away some precious additional headroom. The combination of the IDE header and cable was essentially the same height as the socketed (ceramic) CPU so in this case I could retain the socketed CPU while still having the CDTV lid close.

The TF536 with the relocator installed and the lid closed boots and runs game + memory tests on 3.1 ROMs so far without issue, so I think it's good to go from a physical fit and electrical point of view. Obviously the CD drive is not currently functional with this setup due to the autoconfig conflict with the accelerator.

The closed lid seems fine - provided you don't put anything ridiculous on top of your CDTV like a Nintendo Entertainment System or a 1084S! :lol:

One disadvantage of the lack of female pin header sockets between the TF536 and relocator means that the 030 socket pins and the relocator DIP64 pins come very close together, this can be mitigated by clipping the underside of both during install.

Here are some photos for your perusal:

TF536 with permanently installed relocator.

Home made "Go0se brand" 030 socket installed, might as well throw in a few more points of failure to this test! :lol: Badly lit side profile shot. Ceramic CPU and 90 degree IDE header installed. In the CDTV Lid closed. No "Bulge" with the lid closed. There is some margin for vertical adjustment when screwing the case lid back on. The fit seems snug but the IDE does not seem to be pressing on the underside of the lid.

Homely red glow of the IDE activity LED visible through the CDTV case vents.