Random STuff

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exxos
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Re: Random STuff

Post by exxos »

:bravo: :coolpics:
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DoG
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Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

So this is what I have been doing lately...

Done a small adapter board for the Atari STe SD card reader on the Extended Joystick Port. Tested and working.

Gerbers for the adapter board if anyone wants it. Uses a VGA male plug (for cables/not PCB mount) with removed/cut away steel shielding.

SDExtJoy1.jpg
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Starting modding my unused GBS8200 I had laying around for quite some time now. Programmed the wifi dongle and soldered it in. I'm unsure if I will be using that or using a smaller D1 board instead. Clock mod not soldered in since I don't know if that is needed yet. Some extra caps soldered on to help with stability (C41, C42, C48, C23 and underneath between THT caps). A small 22uF cap is needed on the removed SMD cap on C11. Removed potentiometers on RGB lines. Read about it here.

GBS8200.jpg
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Soldered up a dual 128Kb RAMCart developed by tOri. Bodged in the battery holder since the original uses a soldered in variant. Forgot my Xilinx programmer at my other place so haven't done that yet. Couldn't find a switch with the right pin distance so I bodged in a 3-pin/jumper instead.

RAMCart.jpg
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Did a ACSI-CF board, also by tOri just for fun. Haven't programmed the Xilinx on that either. Need to find some cheap pins or a cable or something to connect it to the Atari. Anyone know what to use for pins other then scavenge a D-SUB25? I checked a datasheet for D-SUB connectors and the pins seems to be 0,9mm in diameter and 6mm long from PCB (preferably a tad longer). I found individually pins but they where expensive as f**k.

ACSICF.jpg
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I don't know any Polish (well, I know of a common spoken swearword though) so I don't know how the tOri projects will turn out at the end.

Attachments
Extend Joy to SD adapter.zip
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DoG
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Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

I soldered up a TF536 board this weekend and updated some stuff to get iMPACT to find the Xilinx USB programmer again. Managed to program the TF board with the latest JED file for 64Mb. Didn't bother with the IDE and JTAG pins since I was hoping it would play nicely above my ROM decode board and under the VOFA board (that I got from Frank Lucas recently) in one of my Megas. Solder up a pair of TSOP ROM boards with the new EmuTOS v1. The TSOP adapter for the TL866 is a pain to operate. Well, it fits, but it's super unstable in one of them that got 4Mb ST ram. The other still only got 1Mb but it runs better in there for some reason.

I can't remember now but I got floppy issue in one of them. Both have bus resistor changed and pull-up resistor on the DMA bus. I have however changed all the large electrolytic caps on the mother board on the 1Mb Mega. But I measure the old one and they seemed fine. I don't think I ever saw any speed records under GemBench or if it ever got the ALT-Ram working so I have to check soldering on the ram and cpld and check ram with a diag cart. Tried the TF536 I got from PhilC (that I know is working) under EmuTOS v1 in the 4Mb board and I got boot loop. I see ETos boot screen and then it restarts. I haven't got time to fault finding on that so it have to wait. Oh, I also have a buffer board on the DMA bus.

Tested the ET4000AX in the VOFA board under normal 8MHz 68000 and it worked just fine. So GemBench pic of that under here.

I also programmed the RAMCart and the ACSI-CF board in previous post.


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DoG
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Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

Some small stuff done... I also got a lot of small PCBs made but nothing is done with them yet so that have to be a later post. Some adapter board for MFP, ACSI cable PCBs, Composite Sync board for GBS8200, Stereo Master Cartridge, ST-IDE board, SOJ-DIP ram boards, Lithium Coin battery adapter.

Prepared (desoldered) a 2Mb ST Ram card for the TT. Got a 8Mb attachment card from Lynxman over at the German Atari forum. @Icky got me the tip in his thread and a couple of post back in this thread. I'm also going to change the 3 caps on the board so desoldered them too.

TT_STRAM_ Board_lit.jpg
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Soldered up a Unijoystickle 2. Since all info is up for grabs from gitlab I ordered parts and PCB myself. Not tried it out yet.

UniJoystickle_apart.jpg
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Also started soldered up a 128Mb Mister RAM card. For MiSTer of course.

Mister_Ram.jpg
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Icky
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Re: Random STuff

Post by Icky »

Liking the UniJoystickle @DoG almost looks like it was designed to fit in the Atari ST keyboard underneath. Would be good to expand to do Bluetooth Joystick and mouse :)
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DoG
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Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

Icky wrote: Sun Dec 13, 2020 4:15 pm Liking the UniJoystickle @DoG almost looks like it was designed to fit in the Atari ST keyboard underneath. Would be good to expand to do Bluetooth Joystick and mouse :)
It sort of fits... if it would have been upside down. The 9pin D-sub is the wrong way on the board so the underside of the PCB hits the keyboard before I can slide it in. I think you have to get edge connected D-sub to get it to fit proper. Redesign of the board.
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Re: Random STuff

Post by Icky »

@DoG - I had a look at the schematics and the firmware. Would be possible to create a plug in option to the ST under the keyboard and add in the mouse code too. ;)
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DoG
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Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

A quickie update post. Just a MFP adapter board I did to test a few PLCC MFP I got from china. I haven't tested it that much yet, but it booted on a C070859 board at least. Gerbers below if you want to make one yourself for some reason. A bit of a pain to solder, but I think you can see how I did it. Since I got some SMD sockets I also did a two part adapter, but I haven't solder that up and tested it. So I won't release that yet. Tip: Solder the pin headers first, then the socket.

MFP DIP Adapter top.jpg
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MFP DIP Adapter bottom.jpg
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MFP adapter DIP.zip
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DoG
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Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

AAAArrgh!

*Sigh* It just slides and I can't make it stay in the middle of the footprint. Tried both hot air and soldering just the tip of the legs with a soldering iron. It's just a tad bit to large.

So...Buy new 74xx245 or make new PCB... what a dilemma... Searched around and thought I had some wide ACT left, but I can't find them. They will probably turn up when I have ordered new PCB or bought new IC.

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Re: Random STuff

Post by exxos »

ah that sux :( think we all been there tho ;)
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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