CD32 Expansion Riser

[solidcore]

Hi guys,
See last post.

Much appreciated
Chris

[Amigajay]

There is a couple of CD32 riser boards about, 1 as you say has not long gone out of stock (spidi's), but as before shouldn't be too long, rather than create one yourself!

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

There is a couple of CD32 riser boards about, 1 as you say has not long gone out of stock (spidi's), but as before shouldn't be too long, rather than create one yourself!

I appreciate that although to be honest I'm starting to enjoy making it, the problem I'm having is down to the specifics regarding the edge connector, once that's figured out I'll get some made. I'm not trying to compete with the RGB adapters just trying to build a simple solution to a problem that exists for myself, regardless of cost I'm learning something new, I'll push further with my education thereafter.

So does anyone have any idea regarding the datasheet of the 5650092-1 and my eagle?

thanks

[alexh]

http://www.analogic.co.uk/products/2...-floppy-drive/
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-CD32...-/360953466008

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by alexh

http://www.analogic.co.uk/products/2...-floppy-drive/
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-CD32...-/360953466008

Alexh, those links are highly appreciated and I'll certainly consider buying one of these, the price is reasonable considering you get a floppy and I assume people put a gotek in them. I have a few questions regarding this peripheral, however,

How does it work well on floppy Amiga games compared to WHDloadcd32 is there much difference on the CD32?

And if I remove the expansion card in that adapter board does it effectively make the disc drive useless I'm assuming it would kill the disk drive functionality and would then be destroying a great unit by spending 129 GBP to effectively take the riser board out of it, although like something out of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein my brain started firing up with the idea that I might have to get back on eagle to make a frankenboard that accepts both lol, but I have no idea what I'm talking about here. hehe.

Much appreciated
Chris

[alexh]

Originally Posted by solidcore

How does it work well on floppy Amiga games compared to WHDloadcd32 is there much difference on the CD32?

Worse of course. It is after all an AGA Amiga with KS3.1 and thus has incompatibility problems with older software. Softkicking to KS1.3 and using the early menu to switch to OCS/ECS helps but no comparison with WHDload (Remember once you have tf328 you can use regular WHDload)

Originally Posted by solidcore

And if I remove the expansion card in that adapter board does it effectively make the disc drive useless

Nope the expansion card is only an RTC (real time clock). All the FDC logic, Parallel port, RGB etc is on the riser. Just like it is on the other risers.

[DamienD]

Thread moved from the project.CD32 Conversion section to the support.Hardware > Hardware mods section

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by alexh

Worse of course. It is after all an AGA Amiga with KS3.1 and thus has incompatibility problems with older software. Softkicking to KS1.3 and using the early menu to switch to OCS/ECS helps but no comparison with WHDload (Remember once you have tf328 you can use regular WHDload)


Nope the expansion card is only an RTC (real time clock). All the FDC logic, Parallel port, RGB etc is on the riser. Just like it is on the other risers.

Great advice, I guess the worse case here is the butchering of the thing for 129-pound can't really be a good idea in terms of cost and retro preservation, and although I didn't add the extra ports on my design if I needed them I'd solder them on a pcb and wire them up anyway for any particular reason at the time. minus the need for any extension rgb as I hard moded the cd32 to have rgb 9pin to scart in place of the RF modulator.

Also tanks for clearing things up for me regarding whdload. Yeah I'll be using a wb on the tf328 and whdload there.

I still want to proceede with designing my own and I don't mind hitting below 50-60 in terms of build cost for about 5-10... I just need to find out the part numbers of the expansion edge connectors and if my eagle is correct, It is correct for the EDAC but they're hard to source and I wondered if the easier to source TE are the same pin layout as the EDAC, can't bloody tell and TE said they're not a direct replacement for EDAC, so I'm left royally and damned confused I'll probably go with the 5650092-1 TE and my design and pray lol.

Originally Posted by DamienD

Thread moved from the project.CD32 Conversion section to the support.Hardware > Hardware mods section

No problem thanks

[Bprepared]

The AMP edge connector should work fine, it's what Plasmab recommends with the TF328's that don't have the beveled edge. I have some of these myself for the Riser I'm designing in KiCAD. As for the Analogic riser, no destruction necessary as the RTC module will unplug just like the TF328.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by alexh

http://www.analogic.co.uk/products/2...-floppy-drive/
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-CD32...-/360953466008

I would hold on about these until someone with one can confirm the TF328 works fine with it.

Good luck on building your riser, solidcore! The more designs the better. I welcome your addition since it's simple! Most of the designs go for an added extra since you have all those lines there ready to be used, but having one that is simple a pass-through board is also a welcome addition.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by solidcore

I guess the worse case here is the butchering of the thing for 129-pound can't really be a good idea in terms of cost and retro preservation

???

1. Take out RTC card
2. Plug in tf328
3. Connect to CD32
4. Done.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by Bprepared

The AMP edge connector should work fine, it's what Plasmab recommends with the TF328's that don't have the beveled edge. I have some of these myself for the Riser I'm designing in KiCAD. As for the Analogic riser, no destruction necessary as the RTC module will unplug just like the TF328.

Thank you for the reaffirmation, I have just placed an order regarding the AMP edge connectors by TE with the item code 5650092-1. They shall arrive from the US in a few days costing me about 2.50 GBP per item, great value imo seeing as that's just 5 GBP per riser board for these parts... I'll put 2 on ebay once tested and work fine with the TF328... * I HOPE if my design is correct lol * hopefully someone on here see's an error before I have them made.
selling them at a low price simply in respect to those who are not comfortable soldering but are in my position and need something quick and cheap without the extra features. I'll build 3 and go from there I guess, with extra boards I can throw on ebay if demand surges but unlikely lol.

I've yet to order the boards as I am still not 100% sure about them, mostly the ratsnest ground plane and if I need to hook up all the ground points or not and if its correct at all, need more youtubes/reading material regarding this matter lol. this newbie don't want to make mistakes :P

Originally Posted by Akira

I would hold on about these until someone with one can confirm the TF328 works fine with it.

Good luck on building your riser, solidcore! The more designs the better. I welcome your addition since it's simple! Most of the designs go for an added extra since you have all those lines there ready to be used, but having one that is simple a pass-through board is also a welcome addition.

Akira I'm very grateful for you in projecting good luck towards my project, I agree as this is a much simpler approach without the trimmings it has it's own place for myself where I have already hard modded my CD32 with RGB in replacement of the RF module. It would be nice if I could learn how to add USB and program a pic to add such feature but I'd really have to look into that area (I'm new to PIC programming), and I'd likely prototype it on a board for the first passive batch then add it in rev 2 if that makes sense lol.

Also would there be any added benefit to anyone here if there were dual-edge connectors? such as those with RTC card and other expansion cards, makes me think if I should research into that a bit more prior to producing the pcbs.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by alexh

???

1. Take out RTC card
2. Plug in tf328
3. Connect to CD32
4. Done.

You're right i guess that's true. although cost is still a lot. I'm trying to think about that a lot lately since I spent a lot on the TF328 chips lol, and saw a balance closer to 0 than I like in my bank account YIKES!

[Bprepared]

Good Luck with your design, the PIC MMKeyboard schematics and firmware can be found quite easily on the interweb. One recommendation for your current design, it seems from the picture you posted that your VCC lines might be a little on the thin side. What width traces are you using for them? I know Kipper up'd his from 0.6mm to 1.6mm on the advice of Stedy if I remember correctly (its somewhere in the early pages of the main CD32 Expansion thread).

EDIT: This is the post, changed from 0.006" to 0.016":
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=935526&postcount=33

[alexh]

Originally Posted by solidcore

cost is still a lot

You will pay considerably more to make your own "one-off" than £120

If saving money is your aim. Confirm that Kipper2k and Spidi will eventually start selling risers again and wait a few months?

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by alexh

You will pay considerably more to make your own "one-off" than £120

Having a PCB printed doesn't cost that much.
A lot of the cost of items like this is the labor. If you do it yourself, it's just the parts, and on this project, the PCB etching is probably the costlier item, which doesn't mean it'll be very expensive. Yes you might have to order more than one PCB, but you can offload them easily I would believe.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by Bprepared

Good Luck with your design, the PIC MMKeyboard schematics and firmware can be found quite easily on the interweb. One recommendation for your current design, it seems from the picture you posted that your VCC lines might be a little on the thin side. What width traces are you using for them? I know Kipper up'd his from 0.6mm to 1.6mm on the advice of Stedy if I remember correctly (its somewhere in the early pages of the main CD32 Expansion thread).

EDIT: This is the post, changed from 0.006" to 0.016":
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=935526&postcount=33

Really appreciate the advice Bprepared. In fact, the PIC keyboard schematics and firmware will be a nice thing to look up, I have it on my todo list just have not searched google yet. Regarding the 0.6mm , mine is also, I'm assuming i probably have 1,2,3,4... the wrong way will have to double check and that suggestion to up it to 1.6mm by stedy makes sense to me although with limited space on a 2 layer that could be tricky to resolve would be a wobble of cost going 4 layer right?, can they be linked together as they're all 5v?

Edit: I i realise that linking them together isn't realistic, however I must have it the wrong way round in terms of the pin order so I'll correct that and increase the 0.6mm to 1.6mm on the 5v's. thanks
Edit: I could even add extra functionality to the passive board by simply a solder-on daughter boards which overlay the pin outs perhaps for RGB etc hehe just thinking
Edit : got to 1.4 mm can't really push it to 1.6mm in my design but its better than 0.6mm.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by Akira

Having a PCB printed doesn't cost that much.
A lot of the cost of items like this is the labor. If you do it yourself, it's just the parts, and on this project, the PCB etching is probably the costlier item, which doesn't mean it'll be very expensive. Yes you might have to order more than one PCB, but you can offload them easily I would believe.

lol I agree with you but then maybe he thinks I'll make loads of bad batches and hit over 129 GBP in mistakes, sure that's entirely reasonable as I'm a newbie lol... :P although at least this way I'm learning something for life. I hope ha.

[kgc210]

Didn't you notice https://github.com/terriblefire/brea...ter/cd32/eagle
TerribleFire started to design one him self.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by kgc210

Didn't you notice https://github.com/terriblefire/brea...ter/cd32/eagle
TerribleFire started to design one him self.

No i didn't notice as I wasnt familiar with Eagle at the time, ooops, now I can see he has a brd there
Much appreciated I will take a look and see what mistakes I've made vs his board.

Updated version anyway:
https://i.imgur.com/1mhqPhp.png

0.014" trace for the 5v , my spacing wont allow 0.016" atm but I'll play with that setting and see what the china pcb sites allow.

Hopefully, my ground plane is now correct