exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hi guys,

I know its a bit late in the game, but, i finally decided to start my TF534 build, before i get into the TF536.

It has pretty much gone well, albeit for a couple issues i have run into.

Issue #1: From what i understand of the above, it appears that IC8 would be the culprit here (correct me if i am wrong). I have reflowed the chip, but still it has the same errors, so i might have to replace it, unless someone has more ideas to try.

Issue#2:
IDE does not work at all.

Every time i plug in the CF reader, the light on the reader comes on and stays on, the power led blinks 6 times, then reboots, but the screen always stays black. I have tested the CF card and reader in another amiga, and they work fine.

I have replaced both CPLD's, reprogrammed them on multiple occasions, and still the same happens.

Admittedly my soldering could be better, but would like to get this working ;)

Any ideas?

Hi @nikoskon ive had a very quick look at the photo of the TF534. From the photo it looks like you need to take look at the larger CPLD. it appears to have a few brudges on it from the photo. Also remember to check for loose pins.

If you've not got one, then I'd strongly recommend getting some kind of microscope, they are invaluable for finding faulty with small pitch chips.

Good luck.

PhilC wrote: 30 Aug 2020 10:34 Hi @nikoskon ive had a very quick look at the photo of the TF534. From the photo it looks like you need to take look at the larger CPLD. it appears to have a few brudges on it from the photo. Also remember to check for loose pins.

If you've not got one, then I'd strongly recommend getting some kind of microscope, they are invaluable for finding faulty with small pitch chips.

Good luck.

Thanks PhilC. I do have a usb microscope, so i'll go over it again, hopefully i find something and get it working.

If it doesn't work, i'll be reaching out again :D

nikoskon wrote: 30 Aug 2020 11:43

PhilC wrote: 30 Aug 2020 10:34 Hi @nikoskon ive had a very quick look at the photo of the TF534. From the photo it looks like you need to take look at the larger CPLD. it appears to have a few brudges on it from the photo. Also remember to check for loose pins.

If you've not got one, then I'd strongly recommend getting some kind of microscope, they are invaluable for finding faulty with small pitch chips.

Good luck.

Thanks PhilC. I do have a usb microscope, so i'll go over it again, hopefully i find something and get it working.

If it doesn't work, i'll be reaching out again :D

Those RAM chips are really pain to solder on properly. Iwould take neede and check if non of them move.

arkadiusz.makarenko wrote: 30 Aug 2020 11:55
Those RAM chips are really pain to solder on properly. Iwould take neede and check if non of them move.

You're not wrong about that, i have already gone through them 3 times with a needle and did find a couple of loose pins, but didn't solve the faulty bits with RAM testing.

One thing i did find weird, was that Diagrom didn't pick up that the ram was faulty anyway.

To make things weirder, when i first built the board, i ran the ram test, and it came up fine. No errors even after 250 passes, but hadn't tested the IDE part.

So i decided to clean the board, then all the ram issues started. Maybe i should have left it as it was :(

Ok, been over this thing for for a solid day, and can say that all bridges and loose pins are now sorted, i hope :(

I do have one out of 2 wins though :D IDE works!!! :D

Because i didnt have any 2mm pin male headers, i decided to use a female 2mm header. I thought i could use that and plug in the cf card reader directly and all would be good, but that is not the case, because after cooking a 16 GB CF card, i realised that plugging the reader into the board directly, inverts the pins!! Odd numbered pins on the TF board, connect to the even numbered pins on the card reader :oops: That was my mistake :oops:

As far as the ram is concerned, still errors when running ram tests.
It appears random as to which bit has an error, but always within the same byte (hope i'm using the right terminology here).

Can anyone help decipher which of the 4 chips would be the issue here?

Thanks :)

You still have soldering faults. Not much else we can do remotely.

terriblefire wrote: 01 Sep 2020 08:56 You still have soldering faults. Not much else we can do remotely.

Thank you for the reply, i'll look through it again, hopefully i can get it sorted.

Amazing work by the way, even as it is, it makes the A500 sooooo fast!!
Once i get this sorted, onto the 536 :D

Hi everyone, just thought i would post an update to the issues i was having with my RAM.

It seems it is all sorted now :D

Turns out, i have one faulty RAM chip, as i moved the suspect one to a different location, and the errors followed the chip. Finally got a replacement chip the other day, and installed it, but then had errors on all bits from D0-D15!

Reflowed all chips, but still the same, then noticed that there was a lot of flux still between the RAM pins (IC8 & IC9).

Gave it a 5 minute soak in IPA, scrubbed, dried, then re-tested.

Left it running overnight, and this was the result:
I think 1400 passes is good enough :)

Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone, really appreciate it :D

Now onto the 536's i have, i just need to remember to clean the flux off really well this time, save me hassles later.