swatcop

@tjlazer Chris (Swinson) has quite a bit of information about his accelerator/s and the issues he has encountered with Mega ST's due to their noisy and unreliable bus. Even with the "mandatory upgrades" you aren't assured they will work. I was going to get one for my Mega but in my researching it decided to go for an AdSpeed... but the search for those is a saga in and of itself. If you're confident with desoldering and soldering, the EXXOS accelerator is probably worth a shot. Worst case scenario, you have a socketed CPU if you can't get it running and it can be used as a decoder for TOS 2.06 @remowilliams That is the perfect little computer and thanks for posting regarding the EXXOS accelerator! Wonder if you could shoehorn a Gotek and UltraSatan in there?

Excellent @Zap! looking great!

The SIMM socket wasn't bad it was those SMT components that I'm really worried about. I know I screwed something up there and while I do possess the tools (hot air station) I don't possess the skills 😂 to remove and repair. Mine is close, but I may abandon it and get one of the new boards that look basically pre-built. They also aren't the difficult (for me at least) to solder gold colored material. I would much rather have the ITX ST from the guy in Poland but I wouldn't even know how to order the PCB properly from a PCB maker.

THIS IS HOW YOUR BOARD CAME FROM EXXOS?!? Mine is fairly close to that state but after many hours (days actually) of work and I’m sure there are issues I don’t even know about yet. If they’re coming like that now, AND it’s not that gold plated crap like the one I got, I could pull that off no problem (probably 😂).

That is EXACTLY the issue for me; time. Whether I am a spoiled American or simply have more money than common sense, I want to enjoy this stuff not labor over it for days or weeks. I've done a lot of refurbishments, repairs and upgrades to my old machines. I do get a sense of pride and accomplishment from upgrading the RAM in a Mega 2 or installing a CPU socket for an accelerator, but this was something different. There was a full day of just desoldering and painstakingly removing components and ports off the donor ST. I would rather pay someone who actually knows what they are doing to build (properly) this board and spend my time enjoying it than days/weeks of soldering and troubleshooting. So, yeah if someone was building these I'd pay whatever they were asking for a working one. @DarkLord The folks at the Exxos forum are very helpful and the H5 is a really good product. I just didn't fully appreciate the amount of work involved and the meticulousness of it. I'm using good solder, I have done a lot (for a hobbyist) of through-hole soldering but this board for whatever reason just didn't want to cooperate. There are others who have expressed this in the forums, but there are many who have completed their builds successfully.

you're correct on both... and a steady hand. I found the material used on the PCB didn't seem to want to take solder either. Used a lot of flux which further complicates things.

I recently acquired a STF from a friend of mine that had a Marpet X-Tra RAM kit installed (2.5 mb). Was frankly not expecting it to work with all the negative things you hear about the Marpet. When it turned out to actually be working, I upgraded it to a full 4 mb by installing another couple RAM sticks and disabling the second bank of motherboard memory (pretty easy actually). I have been pleasantly surprised at how well it works and its reliability. I did a bunch of upgrades while I was at it (RAM, designed a 3d printed bracket to hold the Marpet, RGBtoHDMI, GOTEK, Meanwell PSU, 3.5mm audio out, and socketed CPU for an AdSpeed 16 MHz accelerator). I was going to buy the Exxos memory upgrade board, but this works so well that I'm keeping it. You might want to check out the Exxos memory upgrade too since the agranlund/STRam won't work with your STF.

I started one and I literally ran out of steam. The through-hole stuff didn't really bother me it was the couple surface mounted items that I have no idea if they're on the board correctly or not. Luckily the "bird seed" was pre-installed. In my humble opinion, its not a project to take on if you're a total noob like me. I'm actually far more interested in the ST-ATX project but sadly the Phoenix might have scared me off from even trying that.

what color and I assume you need the 3d printed LED holder and grommet?

Well, if no one has told you lately... Thanks. I had one of your power LED holders (with grommet) left over from buying a couple sets from you a few years ago. Unfortunately, the only LED I could find from that purchase was a strobing/color cycle one and as much as I thought it would be cool - it wasn't 😂

On my Mega STE and TT I just removed the four screws holding the metal to the lid and carefully pulled the metal part off. Neither of mine were glued in. Obviously, don't force anything - just because mine weren't glued doesn't mean some previous owner didn't or whatever. You'll likely play hell finding a replacement.

If @leech can't dig up any, I might be able to assist. I bought a pile of LEDs and the grommets to replace the power and HD light in my newly acquired TT030 [FINALLY GOT ONE!!!]. When it arrived from the UK I discovered both were dead and I assumed they weren't available here anymore since this was a pretty old post. Printed the replacement LED holders - thanks to whomever posted them on Thingiverse. They are, as noted above, pretty bright compared to Atari's original lights but personally thats my preference.

Now if you could just find one for the HBS 240 accelerator! Regardless, thanks for posting as its an interesting read.

Hello, I am searching for and ICD AdSpeed ST 8/16mhz accelerator. I am located in the United States. Thanks for your time. FOUND

Try Paul Rezendes - acillclassics@gmail.com. I had contacted him about doing this install and he was willing to do it, but ultimately opted to do it myself. It wasn't the price or not wanting to pay for the work, I just wanted to accomplish it. I researched, read, watched tons of soldering/desoldering videos, invested in the tools, practiced on a lot of other projects of lesser difficulty. When I felt (mostly) confident, dove in. Removing the solder from the holes without damaging the solder mask/underlying traces or through hole contacts requires care, patience and a steady hand. I removed the old solder from 90% of them in very short order - it was the 10% that solder didn't want to budge that took hours and patience not to just force things. A Hakko FR-301 and a quality solder iron in my opinion is mandatory. Thanks and yeah. When it booted right up and passed every memory test, benchmark, and program I could throw at it - you're right - its a great feeling!