Falcon FPU - who can help?

[exxos]

Based on this I may pass on removal if it means resoldering the CPU legs back and I may look for somebody who actually knows a bit more. I really don't want to mess up this Falc

This is why I requested images to see what's been done... It may be as easy as it looks to remove...

[mgi]

I will have a look and take some pictures

[mgi]

Hi,

I had a deep dive into my Falcon and found a monster :)
Please have a look. Clearly the CPU leg was unsoldered and lifted up. I really would like to find someone who could get the Falcon to the stock status with the usual fixes and caps changes.

4939D5FA-79B4-4901-8B69-56261903E3B3.jpeg

CF3FB49E-E980-4C3F-9604-99C18A53E761.jpeg

B0A1DA5C-63FC-436D-936D-CC0BDC6EE4E8.jpeg

[exxos]

So that wire is soldered onto the cpu leg ? Its likely that will snap off when bent back :( I guess remove everything and finding a SMT rework company that can change the CPU for starters.

[mgi]

Yes, the wire is soldered to the leg.

Do you know any company who could do this or somebody who could pick up the challenge?
I would prefer to hand it to somebody who knows how to fix Falcons ideally....

[Steve]

Seems it is normal that the FPU does not work with this card:

https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... 26#p285270

by Omikronman » Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:05 pm
Beware of that bad Eagle Sonic. I had one. In 32 Mhz mode die FPU worked but the DSP not. In 16 Mhz mode the DSP worked but the FPU not. Speed increase was not worth the price anyway. :(

Sorry I'm not doing work on machines anymore though.

[exxos]

Do you know any company who could do this or somebody who could pick up the challenge?
I would prefer to hand it to somebody who knows how to fix Falcons ideally....

It depends where you are in the world. But I assume you could remove the wires yourself then find a local SMT rework company to change the CPU. Then pass it over to someone who knows how to do the general mods.

I don't know anyone who does mods anymore. While I could do it, I have several months backlog of work to get through yet. So wouldn't likely be even this year.

[Badwolf]

Those two pins are BG (the raised isolated one) and BGK (the one with the wire to, I presume, ground).

The former stops the processor issuing bus grant permissions to anything else on the system. The latter, by being grounded, holds the processor in high impedence state.

If you don't wish to risk bending the legs back and possibly snapping them off, then you could instead remove the extant fly wire and (maybe choosing a finer wire guage this time!) solder wires on the both of these and route them to pin 4 on the nearby GAL U68 (BG) and pin 2 on the same U68 chip (BGK).

BW