Expansion board for the CD32

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by alenppc

Oh, and by the way, of some relevance should be the fact that some CD32s seem to have a v40.56 ROM instead of the regular 40.60. This one does not appear to contain the A600 style scsi.device, which means that owners of such CD32s likely won't be able to boot from IDE.

Yeah I read that thread, how can we know which version we have? MAybe I should build some sort of Workbench disc.

Originally Posted by plasmab

I've also spoken to DirtyPCBs about a 100 item assembly run.. little scary as that will be around 2000 euros for me. Is anyone interested in that?

Having in mind the bitchy Amiga community and the rather large unpopularity of the CD32, I am not really sure it'd be worth the risk of producing 100 units. Don't even know if there's a market for it (# of units out there clearly does not equal a possible market).
And even if you sell them, imagine having to withstand the bickering of a hundred people trying to get it to run if they run into any issues, like incompatibilities (which are possible, like on any expanded Amiga).

As much as I want one of these, unless you are making mad margin on them to make up for your research on them, the bother of producing them and subsequent support, I wouldn't go there mate. Keep it fun, as you said before in the thread, remember?

I think between the people on his thread the demand can be fulfilled eventually, with patience and by either people making really small runs or building their own. Unless something drastic happens, like the RAM disappearing completely, this board should not "run out".

As for making a new revision that is smaller, if that's fun for you, by all means go ahead! Seems to me like the major issue is just the damn RAM, so perhaps at some point, if it ever seems fun, a revised design with more widely available RAM could be another cool thing to do, but for now, I don't think it's a huge issue.

[spudje]

Originally Posted by alenppc

I think 100 eur (120 USD) is way too steep. The goal is to stay in the 70 USD range (60 eur) or less, depending on RAM price.

Well, let's say 100 USD then, as an end user I am more than willing to spend this amount of money on a pre-assembled TF328.

[supaduper]

Just had another play with my new toy and it was starting to throw some wobblers on my Sandisk 16gb with PFS 3 errors , any ways I tried a 4gb sandisk with another PFS 3 system on it and after turning it on and off a few times ( when its on its solid) another PFS3 error crashed the cf with `Cache inconsistency on DH0`,bugger !

Oh and forget about cheap Chinese cf`s on it they wont run at all. but I`d rather pay the extra quid for a Sandisk anyway

Can people tell me what file systems they are using on it please ?

will investigate the PFS3 max transfer settings and the like tomorrow ,its no biggy

[th4t1guy]

Originally Posted by supaduper

Can people tell me what file systems they are using on it please ?

With the SX-1, I'm using PFS3. I had to set the max transfer value.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by supaduper

Just had another play with my new toy and it was starting to throw some wobblers on my Sandisk 16gb with PFS 3 errors , any ways I tried a 4gb sandisk with another PFS 3 system on it and after turning it on and off a few times ( when its on its solid) another PFS3 error crashed the cf with `Cache inconsistency on DH0`,bugger !

I can experience similar issues nowadays on a good Sandisk using PFS3 on a EC020 system, wonder if it's related. I haven't had the issues before though, so maybe it is related to something else on teh setup, but a recent power up-off quick cycle took the whole partition with it and I had to redo it all.

I think for a CD32, having in mind use of CD32Load which would be ideal, it'd be best to make the system partition PFS3, and the Work/games partition FFS. At least this is what I would try to run if I had this expansion.

[th4t1guy]

I ran into an issue with FFS where my partitions would get destroyed after a bit of use on real hardware, even though it worked fine in UAE. I suspect all of that was due to max transfer settings, but I can't confirm as this happened maybe 10 years ago when I first discovered you could use a CF card and I never figured it out back then.
I never ran into an issue like that using a traditional IDE harddisk though.

[Stedy]

Originally Posted by plasmab

I thought about this. I think i can make a smaller board as the signals i need arent all the way across the board. I could squeeze it down to a 10x10cm form factor.

I've also spoken to DirtyPCBs about a 100 item assembly run.. little scary as that will be around 2000 euros for me. Is anyone interested in that?

Hi, take a look at www.quick-teck.co.uk, they are the company I use to fabricate and assemble the Amiga PCBs I sell. They will source components at competitive prices.

100xTF328 PCBs =£224 (119x87mm PCB, 2 layer)
Assembly of 100xTF328 = £601 (13 lines, 5 PTH lines)
Add VAT and component costs. ISSI are owned by the Chinese now, so the RAM may be sourced cheaper

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Hi, take a look at www.quick-teck.co.uk, they are the company I use to fabricate and assemble the Amiga PCBs I sell. They will source components at competitive prices.

100xTF328 PCBs =£224 (119x87mm PCB, 2 layer)
Assembly of 100xTF328 = £601 (13 lines, 5 PTH lines)
Add VAT and component costs. ISSI are owned by the Chinese now, so the RAM may be sourced cheaper

Thanks Stedy.

I'm VAT registered so I would be able to get without VAT. But of course i'd have to charge VAT if I went down that route.

Interesting though.

[Amiga1992]

Don't do it boss!! That's a lot of money to put out of pocket :/

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by Akira

Don't do it boss!! That's a lot of money to put out of pocket :/

Its really not.

[Stedy]

Originally Posted by Akira

Don't do it boss!! That's a lot of money to put out of pocket :/

I know the feeling. Most recent order of Amiga ATX adaptors (May 2017) cost me ~£1300. Takes around 1 year to sell them all. The small markup I make on existing sales gives me the extra cash to fund the next order. It requires an act of faith when putting any design into production, you hope and pray the orders will come and prove you were right. The Amiga scene could be compared to a religion or cult in many ways

[pgovotsos]

Originally Posted by supaduper

Also I hpoe that a lot of CD32 owners get them recapped as they are one of the worst cap leakers out there and with the mobo being 4 layers it does not help matters

I hear this all the time about CD32 caps being worse than other Amigas but I'm not sure it's necessarily the case. I have 2 CD32s bought back when they were first released. Neither one has any problem capacitors and I check them about yearly. Now a couple I've bought used have had some problems.

Do they leak after sitting unused for a while? That could explain why the ones I've had from the beginning are fine and the second hand ones aren't. The 2 good ones are in constant use while the second hand ones sat off for who knows how long before they were sold are rarely turned on by me since they are mostly for spares. I buy NTSC CD32s whenever I see one

Maybe use has nothing to do with it and I just got lucky with the first ones?

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by pgovotsos

I hear this all the time about CD32 caps being worse than other Amigas but I'm not sure it's necessarily the case. I have 2 CD32s bought back when they were first released. Neither one has any problem capacitors and I check them about yearly. Now a couple I've bought used have had some problems.



Do they leak after sitting unused for a while? That could explain why the ones I've had from the beginning are fine and the second hand ones aren't. The 2 good ones are in constant use while the second hand ones sat off for who knows how long before they were sold are rarely turned on by me since they are mostly for spares. I buy NTSC CD32s whenever I see one



Maybe use has nothing to do with it and I just got lucky with the first ones?

Usage and temperature cycles cause degradation. Even the temperature cycles within a home



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[supaduper]

+ 1 to Steve

those CD32 caps are over 20 years old and they are like ducks they look nice and calm on top but there`s mayhem going on underneath !
And they are electrolytic ,so will dry up or leak .

On another note

I am testing different cards on the tf328 at the mo..thank god for winimage and it looks like the old wrong ID block on PSF3 aio has returned, on large Drives...will report what I find later

[pgovotsos]

Originally Posted by plasmab

Usage and temperature cycles cause degradation. Even the temperature cycles within a home

Both of the regular use ones also have an SX32 Pro in them so I'm guessing that temperature is about as bad as a CD32 can be. At least they're cooler with CF or DOM compared to when I had physical hard drives in them

[pgovotsos]

Originally Posted by supaduper

+ 1 to Steve

those CD32 caps are over 20 years old and they are like ducks they look nice and calm on top but there`s mayhem going on underneath !
And they are electrolytic ,so will dry up or leak.

That's why I regularly check them with the ESR meter.

[supaduper]

I have tried my 16gb sandisk on various mask settings for PSF3-aio in on the tf328 and it no go after a couple of short power on/offs its crashes with PFS errors .

But a 4gb Sandisk with PFS3 setting mask 0x7ffffffe and max trans on 0x1fe00
its rock solid even after a short power on/off.

Tried SFS filesystem on 4gb sandisk and thats fine too.

Also tried an 2.5" HD -16gb on PFS solely powered by the TF328`s IDE and it runs great.

My 8gb sandisk is no good so need to order one...have you seen the prices on Ebay

So if anyone can try an 8gb cf in a tf328 on PFS3-aio with the settings above that will great otherwise we wait till mine comes.
But I think it should work as PFS3-aio uses direct-scsi mode upto 8gb does it not ?

Anyway the TF328 is awesome !

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by supaduper

Anyway the TF328 is awesome !

Glad you are enjoying.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by supaduper

max trans on 0x1fe00 its rock solid even after a short power on/off.

You have to have Max Trans set to 0x1FE00 (0x1fe00) on Gayle style IDE controllers using the original un-patched commodore scsi.device

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=560638&postcount=1

[supaduper]

Hi Alex. thanks for the info,I will have a play with that setting and up the Buffers.

Just strange that you would think there will be no difference between 1fe00 and 1FE00 just because one is in uppercase LoL