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The crowded Shibuya Scramble
06/26/2021 at 01:16 • 0 commentsNow the board begins to take on its appearance.
Axial resistors and networks, discrete semiconductors (diodes, BJTs) are now sitting close to each other. Please note that RP106 and RP107 are recommended if the kickstart version is 3.1.4 or newer.
I am going to install either 3.1.4 and 3.2 kickstarts.
Pay attention to the isolated (RP103, RP402, RP403, RP201-RP203) and bussed networks (RP104, RP101, RP102, RP401, RP106, RP107, RP501). Pin 1 is marked by a dot.
Next step: EMI filters (capacitors, beads)
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“The flux capacitor makes time travel possible”
06/25/2021 at 13:38 • 0 commentsAll capacitors (ceramic and aluminium electrolytic) are in place. I suggest starting with soldering capacitors because they guarantee better circuit protection against Electrostatic discharge (ESD) while parts being mounted manually.
I have upgraded C814 and C816 from the original 100µF / 16V to 470µF / 25V because I am going to install Terrible Fire and Vampire accelerator cards.
Both cards require a huge surge peak of current from the 5V line.
Moreover, C324 and C334 are the aluminium electrolytic type for audio application (22µF / 35V). Well, while not improving sound quality directly, audio-designed capacitors do make it easier for the amplifier to perform its best. Nichicon offers low ripple and harmonic distortion response at low-frequency and high-frequency ranges.
Very good quality capacitors give vibrant and crystal clear audio.
Next step: resistors.
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Well begun is half done
06/24/2021 at 12:43 • 0 commentsSorted all parts purchased from Digikey, Mouser and Aliexpress, the first step is to solder the connectors which will help the hardware debug. Importantly, to test voltages after the line filter in different points and ensure no short circuits or open connections.
Separately, a complete ECS chipset is tested ready to be installed afterwards.
Fortunately, KiCAD can generate the interactive BOM list and the visualisation is tremendously helpful to ensure a fail-safe process.
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Alternative Line Filter
06/21/2021 at 10:16 • 0 commentsOne of the things we introduced in V2 is an additional footprint that allows using a Line Filter that is currently available instead of the original part used by Commodore, which was probably a custom one.
The drawing provided by the manufacturer left something to be desired, so I had to guess some dimensions. After receiving the actual parts Edoardo did a test fit and luckily it seems we got it correct.
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Testing Port Alignments
06/20/2021 at 15:37 • 0 commentsToday Edoardo has been doing some quick comparisons with an original board to check how we got the alignment of ports and holes in the V2 prototypes. V1 was mostly OK but I wasn't fully satisfied of the placement of the mouse and joystick ports, they could be fit into the shielding but they were a bit off. As you can see, they are pretty right on the money now, even though this cost me more time than you might think.
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Better Late Than Never
06/20/2021 at 10:02 • 0 commentsSo, when I had almost lost all hopes for OSHW to work in the retrogaming world, and a whole year after I had released the first version of this project, something happened, allowing this project to reach the next milestone.
Despite knowing he could be jumping into the void, fellow Italian living in Japan Edoardo Auteri put confidence, money, time and effort into assembling a board. He had some initial issues but these were tracked down to a faulty Paula chip. After replacing it the board booted right away so he went on with thorough testing of almost all system components:
- Internal Chip RAM (1 MB Configuration)
- Composite and RGB video output
- Audio output
- Trapdoor Chip RAM expansion
- Keyboard and leds
- RTC
- Serial port
- Kickstart 3.1.4
- Internal and external floppy drives
- Integrated drive switcher
- Several games
- Controller ports with Mouse/Joystick/CD32 Gamepad
- 12h burn-in test with Mortal Kombat 2
- TF536 basic testing
- 8h burn-in test with TF536
- Raspi-based RGBtoHDMI adapter
- Original shielding/case fit
Basically he tested everything except the Parallel Port and the Edge Expansion Connector. The board fully passed every test, proving to be perfectly stable and reliable. Edoardo only encountered one minor issue plus another one I was already aware of, as it had just been reported by another nice guy named Matt Harlum, both of which were easily corrected. He also came up with a number of suggestions for improvements which I incorporated in a new revision of the board which is now under testing. The new board will be released as soon as testing is complete.
Someone else I would like to thank is an Englishman named Imran Ibrahim: he ordered some boards and even sent one to me for free. He intended to try and assemble one but was halted by personal circumstances. I am a bit worried because I tried to get back in touch with him several times but he never replied. I hope he's doing well. The board he sent me was first of all a pleasant gift (you know... after 2 years of work on that project, you finally get a physical board in your hands, aaaaaah!) but it also proved very useful for testing the dimensions, connector placement and choosing positions for the new features.
So, in the end this turned out to be a small example of how the open development model works and how it thrives when everybody does a little bit. I really wish the "community" really took this to heart and started supporting open projects more.
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The Root of All Evil Today
06/20/2021 at 09:37 • 0 commentsMany people don't like releasing their work under an open license because they do not want other people to make money with their effort.
Of course this is perfectly understandable, as this phenomenon is a real plague in the retrogaming world. I have probably released more retrogaming-related open projects than anyone else in the world and I can tell you for sure.
Again, this is probably due to the scarce knowledge of what "Open Source" really means. The vast majority of the retrogaming community thinks that it only means "free gerbers, do whatever you want with them". It's much more than that, actually: OSHW is a way to make a project through small contributions from many people, where everyone does a little bit and the project improves. The liberty of making money with the product is necessary so that any effort gets compensated.
Like everyone who shares the open source ideals, I don't mind if people make a *fair* amount of money with my work. I have my own daily job, I do these things for some odd kind of fun and because, as I already said, I love the Amiga (and other Commodore platforms in general) and I want to do what I can to help it live forever.
I am far more interested in that the Openness of my projects get leveraged in what I feel is its primary purpose, with other people taking my work, studying it and improving it, or using it as a basis for their own projects (which will stay open in turn, because of the "virality" of the license I chose). This has happened a few times in the past, and made me very happy.
Then comes the bad part, where someone just takes open projects, sells them (often at crazy amounts) and never bothers making a donation to the original author or supporting the project somehow (or maybe just saying "thanks"!). They only care to make as much money as possible while the moment lasts. Sometimes they will even remove the original credits and present what they sell as their own product (which goes against most OSHW licenses). The Amiga "community", in particular, seems to be plagued with these greedy and selfish speculators.
In fact, there are way more speculators than people making "good" use of my projects. This is what really killed my willingness to make more OSHW.
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Way Out of Here
06/20/2021 at 09:03 • 0 commentsTo be honest, I actually think there are people out there who love the Amiga as much as I do and would like to help preserve its legacy, but they cannot figure out the how to do so effectively.
I feel one of the problems is that there is not enough knowledge and acceptance of Open-Source Hardware and of the ethics behind it in the retrogaming world. For a niche market as it is, it is probably the only way to guarantee the long-survivability of platforms. We are already seeing it today how hard it is for companies to produce large batches of retrogaming-related products as sales projections are relatively small. Think about the new Amiga cases, the keyboards or the Vampires: all of these have/had long waiting queues and some haven't even been delivered yet.
As the number of machines and people using them gets smaller, things will get worse. When the Vampire guys for instance will reach the point where their projected sales are only a few tens, they will just abandon the project and it will be gone for good. Nobody will be able to fix or update one.
We can also see it with the original Commodore chips: they are long gone, but they are not open and nobody cannot make new ones.
OSHW does not have this risk: projects are fully open, anyone can pick them up, make, study and improve them at any time. This is why TerribleFires will outlive Vampires and why Raemixx500 is better than the other boards, even if it hasn't been proved to be functioning yet. I wish more people understood that and supported OSHW developers more.
And "support" actually means: do your part! OSHW projects should be released early in their development cycle, when they are still buggy or not working at all. At that point anybody, even without specific knowledge, can contribute, just by testing it. Or they can work on accessories, maybe a 3D-printable case. Other people can build and sell boards. More knowledgeable people can fix bugs or contribute new features. People with more finance-oriented minds could help raise funds.
See? With OSHW anybody can do a small part and the final result is bigger than the sum of the single contributions. I wish more people understood that.
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Let Down and Hanging Around
06/20/2021 at 08:45 • 0 commentsI was let down a lot by how the "Community" received this board. I thought it would spark a lot of interest, as it could be the starting point for a lot of new things.
The first obvious goal was making replacement boards for A500+ machines but this was not the final step, in my vision it only served to validate the schematics, as they could be full of errors (I can now tell you there are a few subtle ones in the ones published by Commodore). I felt I had done quite a bit already and I was really hoping for someone to jump in and help me do that, in perfect Open Development style (Release early, release often). Once that was done, we could add new features to that board, or we could use the schematics to make an ATX-format Amiga mainboard, or whatever comes to mind.
No one understood that. Many people were happy but no one wanted to join the effort. There was another replacement board on the market, it was not an open project, but that was probably enough for the Community. No one understood what having a matching schematics and board under an open license could lead to, and how it was key for the long-term survival of the Amiga.
I love the Amiga, I want its legacy to live on, but very few people share this feeling, evidently.
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The Surprise in your Easter Egg
06/20/2021 at 08:11 • 0 commentsThe first release of this project happened on 12 April 2020 (Easter Day), after a year of on-and-off work. The announcement on the EAB forum went like this:
Today I am releasing my take at a remake of the A500+ mainboard. I know there are already others around, but mine is 100% OpenHardware as usual. This means you get both the schematics and the matching PCB, all drawn in KiCad.
It is still untested, so it might have errors. But I think this is actually an opportunity to showcase the full potential of Open Hardware: download the project files, inspect them and report any errors you find! I can also add you to the github project as a developer if you want. This way we can all work together to get the perfect board.
I think it can already be useful as a troubleshooting tool, in any case.
Enjoy and make good use of it: https://github.com/SukkoPera/Raemixx500