English Amiga Board - View Single Post - SukkoPera's Open Source Hardware: A500/A600 Chip/Fast RAM Expansions

SukkoPera · 15 June 2021, 23:40

As it turns out, after quite some time someone finally understood that Open Hardware is about trying to do your part rather than coming up with heaps of useless talking and moaning or blatant stealing and allowed this project to reach the next milestone.

So 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 been reported by @LIV2, 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 it has been tested. The full design files will be available but I changed the license to CC BY-NC-SA. TBH, if it were for me, I wouldn't have released any sources any more but I felt that Edoardo did such a huge job that he deserved to be the one to choose what to do (besides getting his moniker among the credits on the silkscreen). He chose to keep it open source and so be it. This means the "community" will soon get fully tested schematics and gerbers for an Amiga 500+. A lot of great things could be born from these, let's see what happens.

Someone else I would like to thank is an Englishman named Ibrahim Imran: 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.

One more time, this is 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 rather than the selfish and greedy speculators they are standing up for right now.

15 June 2021, 23:40	#163
SukkoPera Mighty Pirate Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: On the borderline Age: 44 Posts: 177	As it turns out, after quite some time someone finally understood that Open Hardware is about trying to do your part rather than coming up with heaps of useless talking and moaning or blatant stealing and allowed this project to reach the next milestone. So 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 been reported by @LIV2, 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 it has been tested. The full design files will be available but I changed the license to CC BY-NC-SA. TBH, if it were for me, I wouldn't have released any sources any more but I felt that Edoardo did such a huge job that he deserved to be the one to choose what to do (besides getting his moniker among the credits on the silkscreen). He chose to keep it open source and so be it. This means the "community" will soon get fully tested schematics and gerbers for an Amiga 500+. A lot of great things could be born from these, let's see what happens. Someone else I would like to thank is an Englishman named Ibrahim Imran: 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. One more time, this is 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 rather than the selfish and greedy speculators they are standing up for right now. Last edited by SukkoPera; 15 June 2021 at 23:52.