Potential changes on a future board.

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chue
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by chue »

I have a small suggestion - Please add a small hole under the flashy clock port. I have two cases (1040 STF, 520 STE) that have a standoff there. I just might take a drill and add it myself for the H4, assuming there isn't anything important there.

H4 drill here.jpg
H4 drill here.jpg (71.86 KiB) Viewed 4896 times
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Icky
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by Icky »

chue wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:11 am I have a small suggestion - Please add a small hole under the flashy clock port. I have two cases (1040 STF, 520 STE) that have a standoff there. I just might take a drill and add it myself for the H4, assuming there isn't anything important there.
The lugs have been mentioned here https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 335#p29006 as fixes for the next board.

Best not to drill into the board as it will most probably short the GND and VCC layers in the board.
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chue
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by chue »

Glad to see it's been taken care of. Good point on the short, I'll leave the board as is then.
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by Icky »

@chue - there is another lug that is in the way https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =40#p29426 so its up to you if you want to cut those two lugs off. I did so by slicing the dome part off with a knife.
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exxos
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by exxos »

Because of all the talk with 3.3V stuff lately.. I'm actually considering on a future board to make the right-hand expansion slots a 3.3V bus. I think this will make designing H4 addons a lot cheaper and easier to build without having to worry about interfacing to the 5V bus each time.

This does actually pave the way as a interface to the 3.3V FPGA world as well. eventually when all the add-ons are completed, if we could convert the whole lot over to a single FPGA, we would already have the 3.3V bus on the H4. While I am happy to use the ATF15xx series (5V or 3.3v) Unfortunately they do not have anywhere near as much "power" as I thought they did.. I maxed out the 1504 with just the flashy-clock design and had to move to the larger 1508.. So ultimately a mega upgrade with flashy-clock & trudie is just never going to happen on the ATF15xx series. The problem there is we would have to import everything over onto a chip and language we have never used. So this in itself will create a lot of work for us. But there is nothing wrong with having a long-term plan :)
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by exxos »

I have been looking at 5V to 12V inverters to try and make my PSU's cheaper to build and sell to use on the H4. Though another idea which may be better is, what about I add a DC jack on the back and just allow external 12V bricks to be used ?

Idea being, I can strip the 5V circuit down to a small PCB.. The transformer and large cap wouldn't be needed. The 12V circuit wouldn't be needed etc. China are doing some little boards like that already, but I don't really trust them, I know my design works and has proper protections, regulation etc, but I guess if people want to risk blowing a H4 up with a £5 china PSU, then go ahead :lol:

The Original style PSU's can still be used. Though I would probably have a few solder pins so people can solder in a smaller PSU board and use a external 12V brick with it. So what do people think ? I personally like a all internal solution, but I am trying to think up ways to make the boards cheaper to get going with new stuff.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by PhilC »

You could free up more space for expansions if you went to an external psu. Lots of options to put in its place, maybe mega or vme bus? Nova interface? Lots of potential.
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by exxos »

PhilC wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:06 pm You could free up more space for expansions if you went to an external psu. Lots of options to put in its place, maybe mega or vme bus? Nova interface? Lots of potential.
It wouldn't free up any space as the PSU is above the main ST chips anyway.. if anything it would take up space.

The VME bus has been mentioned for years. Connectors are just to big to be of any use, not even sure how easy they are to obtain, but as said before to people, there isn't that much stuff which will even use it ?, or fit in a STFM case ? We would have to lose 2 of the current expansion sockets to fit it.. MEGA cards tend to be huge graphics cards and they would cover up the other expansion slots as well. Overall i just see it as a step backwards in the evolution of the remake boards. We need better/newer solutions being build for it.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by PhilC »

Sorry, didnt explain that very well, I meant something like the mega or vme bus. That could of course be a dip 68000 socket.

I was thinking if we standardize on the simm for memory, then theres room where the falcon ram headers are, presuming that routing the simm is easy still but my idea is to have this board on top of the existing cpu, glitter etc. Similar to how expansion cards fit in the Mega.

It could open up a whole world of expansions and would make it easy for boards such as the TF534 to fit.

I am of course presuming that this would be on a new pro version, rather than in an existing STFM case. So new backplane with slot in options perhaps?

At the end of the day it's your board but just an idea
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Re: Potential changes on a future board.

Post by exxos »

I don't follow.. the TF534 would just plug into a 68K socket, why would converting the falcon card make that easier ? It wouldn't be really possible to route all the 68K lines to the card area, its squashed up with all the RAM lines. Things really should be designed to fit the H4, not the other way around :)
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
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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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