Let's build a CTPCI!

[HigashiJun]

@HigashiJun patience, they do it solely on a hobby basis. It took some time to deliver mine, too (and I live in Slovakia, next to Poland).

Thanks mikro for your confirmation.

I am completely aware everything they do is based on a hobby basis and I understand that hardware related items can take more time than expected, but IMHO it's quite long for a 3D printed item.

I really don't care waiting, but it's good to have a reply when you ask a question and have a clearly stated approximative waiting time.

;)

[Badwolf]

Since ATARI FAN added credit cards as means of payment, I ordered a CTPCI BOX on July 25th of 2024.
More than 2 months has passed and still nothing delivered to an address in Europe (no way to be delivered in Japan).

Yikes. That is stretching the customers' patience!

BW

[HigashiJun]

@Badwolf

For sure.

A clear information on their website, like "Please allow a delay of 3~4 months" would be just fine.

And on top of that, I really hate when you have no answer to your inquiries.

First, I asked before placing any order if they accept PayPal or credit card payments. No answer at all.

Several months passed and I discovered that paying with a credit card became possible.

I tried to place an order with shipment to Japan but it went wrong (you can select Japan but there is no option available for shipping), so I received an automatic mail saying that my order is not completed and in case of any problem, to contact them.

So I contacted them asking if there is any chance to be delivered to Japan. No answer at all.

I finally placed my order with an address in Europe for delivery (and I have a confirmation that my order is processing) and more than 2 months has passed without any information.

I sent a third mail yesterday asking what was going on with my order, but I guess I won't get any answer either.

Lucky they do not do business here in Japan, 'cause they would go bankrupt after less than 3 months...

[dml]

Hi

Lets say I wanted to build one of these boards and I already have:

- gerbers shared earlier in this thread (are these the latest versions?)
- the main PCI controller IC

What else would I need? Any other difficult-to-obtain parts? Is there a BOM summary or component list somewhere?

Which parts need flashed with FW and what kind of setup, cables/adapters, software is needed to do the flashing?

cheers!

[HigashiJun]

Hi

Lets say I wanted to build one of these boards and I already have:

- gerbers shared earlier in this thread (are these the latest versions?)
- the main PCI controller IC

What else would I need? Any other difficult-to-obtain parts? Is there a BOM summary or component list somewhere?

Which parts need flashed with FW and what kind of setup, cables/adapters, software is needed to do the flashing?

cheers!

@foft is the key person here...

Better to ask him.

[foft]

I bought everything from Digikey except the PLX and the Xilinx.

Pretty sure the gerbers are up to date. I'll have to check my ordering thread on pcbway in case there were any late revisions. I only aligned them though, so they are in general as Rodolph published.

The BOM is in the original archive from Rodolph. I can share my basket from Digikey if it helps?

For flashing I used a clone Xilinx platform cable USB that I got from Aliexpress. i.e. the same as for flashing the jeds on the CT60 itself.

[dml]

I bought everything from Digikey except the PLX and the Xilinx.

Pretty sure the gerbers are up to date. I'll have to check my ordering thread on pcbway in case there were any late revisions. I only aligned them though, so they are in general as Rodolph published.

The BOM is in the original archive from Rodolph. I can share my basket from Digikey if it helps?

For flashing I used a clone Xilinx platform cable USB that I got from Aliexpress. i.e. the same as for flashing the jeds on the CT60 itself.

That's great info, thanks. Not sure if I found the original archive - maybe I did but there were definitely a few dead links last time I was researching this and I'm sure this was one of them.

Re the Digikey basket - that would be nice but I guess I'll need to make sure I have a working login first, it's been a while.... I'll report back in when I'm more organised.

[dml]

Have confirmed today that I do in fact have a working DigiKey account :)

[DoG]

You should also be able to program XilinX with a RaspberryPi.

[foft]

OK here is the shared BOM. I included the CPLD and PLX even though the CPLD here is more than you need to pay and the PLX is not available.
https://www.digikey.ch/en/mylists/list/U2MRRT16BD

The original archive with the original BOM etc is still on @mikro 's site: https://mikrosk.github.io/ct60tos/ctpci/english/dev.htm (ctpci_dev.zip).

The gerbers seem up to date vs the ones on PCBWays site. The only thing is I remember J8 being tight to fit on the first run and subsequently ok, not sure if they locally modified it for subsequent runs since they were fine on the next ones!