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Hans23

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Posts posted by Hans23

  1. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Schmitzi said:

     

    Yes, I remember buying adapters for at least 2 or 300 euros in all those years, but not one brought sound to me.

    I'm going to figure this out, thanks for bringing it up!

    • Like 2

  2. Posted

    Oops, I forgot that the european model has these uncommon DIN plugs.

     

    It really helps plugging the connector you're soldering into a jack to get some of the heat transported off while soldering.  Using crocodile clamp to hold the jack easily leads to disaster.

     

    For NTSC machines, an adapter like this should do.

     

    -Hans

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    3 minutes ago, Schmitzi said:

    What I really miss is a soundcable.

    Sound is coming out of the DIN connector.  All you need is a standard C64/Atari Style video breakout cable which has sound on one of the RCA plugs.

    • Like 2

  5. Posted · Edited by Hans23

    Hey,

     

    here is a quick update on my progress building F18As:

     

    I have received the right pins and the board now fits nicely into the machine unless the TMS9901 has been socketed.  I'm still waiting for a few parts to arrive.  Mouser has some ICs in a Texas that apparently has difficulty getting things out of the door at present.  I've also ordered the VGA pigtails in China and they were produced and shipped yesterday:

     

    Catch.jpg.74fa120b2ded36bce69a596f73425f21.jpg

     

    This was a nice experience and the first time that I had things made in China on my order.  It is really these parts that prevent me from finishing boards for anyone else, as soldering the VGA cable is rather delicate and time consuming.  There are currently 18 people on my list, so I may be able to fulfill the demand in the end.

     

    The new run of PCBs that I have ordered has not arrived yet.  A few of them will have the trace re-added that is missing in the layout on CircuitMaker.  I'll share the Gerbers once I know that my fix is OK.

     

    If you intend to build the F18A yourself, make sure that you're using the BOM that Matthew has posted earlier.  It is easy to order parts with the same part number but the wrong voltage rating or package if you're not very careful.

     

    Cheers,

    Hans

    • Like 4

  6. Posted

    Thank you for the writeup, Matthew!  The BOM is particularly helpful.

     

    The flip pins look neat, and they're certainly priced better than the Mill-Max pins.

     

    Thanks for the pointer to the Phoenix repository, I will enjoy finding out what the F18A actually does :)

     

    Cheers,

    Hans

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    What I need is double sided pins, and they need to have different diameters on the PCB and the socket side. Even the pin strips that I have used so far are not perfect because the diameter of the PCB holes is too large for them.  Also, build time is a real consideration now that I need to build a whole bunch of boards. I would much rather not have to mess around with repurposing parts.

     

    I think that I will get the pins next week and with them, the boards are going to look great :)

  10. Posted

    Those Mill-Max pins look great - They considerably add to the overall BOM price, but I guess I'll just take all the encouragement that I've got here and order 500 of them. That'll give me enough material for 21 boards, and I'm pretty sure that once I've built those, I need to pass the ball on to someone else :)

     

    Cheers, Hans

    • Like 4

  11. Posted

    2 minutes ago, ti99iuc said:

    I have found these two images

    Thanks!  Now I need to find a source for these nice pins.  It looks as if they're individually made and not on strips, which makes searching harder.

     

    Cheers, Hans

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    Thank you all for the encouragement!  It certainly creates a wee bit of pressure, but I'm not complaining.  Just be advised that it will take me time to get these boards built.

     

    I've run into a bit of an issue:  I am unable to find pin headers that are suitable to make the F18A board's height small enough to fit it under the RF shield.  Are you folks leaving the RF shield off anyway, or would you be concerned with that?  I would appreciate knowing how Matthew solved this issue (i.e. are his too high as well?).

     

    20210213_105824.thumb.jpg.5276321d96881146ca25de4d81944199.jpg

     

    Even though I have a bunch of working boards now, I've made a mistake when ordering one of the voltage regulators.  The BOM does not specify the complete type, and I did not look closely before ordering.  It is kind of a miracle that some boards even run, but I'm now putting further testing on hold until I have the correct regulators.

     

    I'm optimistic that I'll get these things sorted out, though.  It will just take time.

     

    Cheers,

    Hans

    • Like 3

  13. Posted

    57 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

    Do you use version 1.9 of the F18A firmware? Some of the demos have been done for earlier versions of the firmware, and in 1.9 some features were removed.

    I'm using 1.9, and I've noted that some of the demos don't work.  Does it make sense to downgrade to 1.8?

  14. Posted

    25 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

    I have plenty of demos. Does "I somehow displaced my FinalGROM99 SD-Card" mean you cannot use cartridge images?

     It just meant "I need to find and download that ZIP file with the collection of everything" which I have since done.  I'll try the stuff you've attached, thank you!  :)

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

    4 minutes ago, GDMike said:

    does it do GMODE 2 or, maybe it's 2 GMODE in Turboforth?

    80 column?

    The photo is with TurboForth in 80 column mode.  I somehow displaced my FinalGROM99 SD-Card - Is there some program that I could run to show off the F18A capabilities?

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    I have no intention to make this into a business.  I want a card or two for myself, and I'm willing to make a few more as I have parts, enjoy building stuff and like making people happy.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

  20. Posted

    2 minutes ago, GDMike said:

    When do you think you'll put out a sign up sheet for order/pre-order?

    Let me first see whether the board actually works.  If it does, I'll come up with a way to express your interest.

     

    -Hans

    • Thanks 1

  22. Posted

    Hi folks,

     

    glad you asked, here is a short(ish) report on my progress on building F18A's from the design files on CircuitMaker.com.

     

    TLDR; I'm about to test my first DY F18A in a TI-99/4A, but I need to get into the mood.

     

    Getting the PCBs made was the easy part, and I have ordered 10 just for good measure.  When the boards arrived, I found that a track was missing in the layout, visibly.  The track was to one of the enable pins of a voltage regulator and the schematics called for it to be there, so I went for a patch:

     

    20210210_231746.thumb.jpg.22a47ab14bcd295a530d8005887605fc.jpg

     

    Sourcing the chips was a bit more challenging.  The F18A uses the venerable Spartan-3E FPGA XC3S250E, which is pretty old and EOLed by Xilinx.  Some dealers still have stock, but prices are going up - This is one of the reasons why Matthew Haggerty does not produce the original F18A anymore, so I hear.  Anyway, I got three chips from Mouser at €16.70 apiece, and another five from Aliexpress at €7.20 each.  When the Mouser chips arrived in early January, I built the first board, but I realised that I needed a 2mm pitch connector for the JTAG programming.  I ordered from Arrow, which is usually fast, but this time, the parts went on an Odyssey through the USA and Europe before they finally arrived 2 weeks ago.

     

    20210210_231759.thumb.jpg.d2cf851e15cc4290d16b0e30b10d7343.jpg

     

    With the JTAG connector soldered in, I went to programming the Flash chip that holds the FPGA configuration.  This went smoothly, albeit the Xilinx FPGA ISE design software that is required to program these ancient chips does not run in Windows 10, and requires the installation of a virtual machine with ISE running under Linux.  For some reason, access to the USB programming cable is very slow from the VM, but eventually I succeeded to get the Flash programmed.

     

    Unfortunately, the first board that I built drew way too much power after I had programmed it - I don't really know how much current an idle and out-of-circuit F18A needs, but 600 mA seemed way too much to me.  As I made some mistake orienting the Flash chip, I suspected that I might have damaged the FPGA, put the first board to the side and built a second one.  Other projects came up and I did not make progress after putting on the initial parts, but a few days ago, the Aliexpress chips arrived and that put me under pressure to test them in order to get a refund if they don't work.  Thus, I built a second board last weekend - Programming the Flash went slowly but smoothly, power consumption is much more reasonable at 150 mA, and now the board is sitting on my bench waiting to be tested in a TI-99/4A.

     

    20210210_231728.thumb.jpg.a0202f6e69d255f64099e44d0995c99b.jpg

     

    20210210_231825.thumb.jpg.8c4a68c8982abb11aed4796194414d4e.jpg

     

    Before I can go ahead, I will have to solder a VGA cable, but I have everything in stock for that.  Thus, I will be able to report whether this whole effort actually leads anywhere this weekend, and I'll report.  If it does, I have parts to build another 5 boards which I'll then gladly pass on.

     

    I tried getting in touch with Matthew to gather his input on the futility of this, but he did not respond, and I'm at the bottom of the rabbit hole now anyway :)

     

    Cheers,

    Hans

    • Like 11
    • Thanks 2
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