and another CD32 Riser!

[kolla]

Originally Posted by Bprepared

Now that sounds like a really cool project to me

Sent you PM

[Bprepared]

OK, now that there are a few of these boards out there I thought I should make good on my promise and share the Sources for the FB-32R.
The KiCAD files are now on my GitHub page:

www.github.com/Bprepared

Gerbers can be easily built from these

The next piece of news is that at the weekend I finally managed to complete the FB-32G and sent it over to PCBWay for manufacture:



Note: Ground flood fills have been removed in the shot above for clarity.

Just to explain a couple of design choices, at this moment I decided to drop the Genlock capability from the Amiga RGB port for the time being as the logic needed may as well be added to the CPLD of the '32G+, and didn't want to clutter this board needlessly.
Obviously I wanted to reduce the amount of traces I would need to re-route on the '32G+, so about half way through my original routing I had to back-track a bit which put my timescale back as well.
The Minimig Scart output is heavily based on Stedy's 3.3V Sync level design (as can be found on https://github.com/istedman/cd32_breakout ), I have however now also dealt with the CD32's Achilles Heal that is lack of diode clamping on the VideoDAC outputs prior to the Video connectors, I suspect this has been the reason for many DAC failures in the past.
The Keyboard interface is based on this published thread: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=75106 so I'm looking forward to verify that it does indeed work with all Amiga models. I went with a SMD PIC16F628A as I wanted to hide as many of the components on the console side of the board providing a nice clean finish to the external. This does of course mean that an ICSP header is needed, but I intend to try not soldering this header to the board and try programming by faying surface instead and see how it goes.
The Clock Select Switch and Audio Jack have been selected such as to sit in the gap between the '32R and 'G, however I do have some concerns about the switch fitting, particularly since where it sits on this 10cm x 6cm board is right above the lower MCA-182 solder points so it may need to be moved to the outside, but that's no big deal, and certainly shouldn't be a problem on the '32G+ since that board will be the full 13.5cm wide.

I have a couple of KiCAD 3D rendering, but as you can see some of the components haven't exactly smiled for the camera, does anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

[kipper2k]

Nice progress, i never bother with the 3D renderings, i dont know how and couldn't be bothered to do it . The Keyboard option you have is the same as mine and will work on at least the a500, a600, CD32, CDTV and a1200, they are all that i have tried it on.

[Bprepared]

Thanks Brian, good to know I tracked the right route with the Keyboard given all the issues there seems to be with other designs
Yeah I know what you mean with regards to the 3D renders, I might investigate it some day, but it's way down on my list at the moments

[kolla]

Hey, I now have the riser in operation along with a TF328

My intentions are to first get a serial link up and running with a simple HC-06 bluetooth adapter, which is flexible enough that it accepts voltage ranging between 3-6V, I suspect I can just plug it directly to what is pin 127 and 128 on the edge connector, along with GND and 5V VCC (like I do on the MiST and RaspPi). From looking at the schematics, that looks like pin 33 and 34 on the bus port of the FB-32R, as I have marked in a red circle on the attached image - right? Just checking that I understand things correctly.

Btw - when trying to bring up the schematics into KiCAD, I get error message...

The following libraries were not found:

* CD32 Riser Prototype-rescue
* MCA-182
* G:/KiCAD Files/Amiga PCB Design/Libraries/kicad-libraries-master/Components/Bprepared-custom

Cheers!

[Bprepared]

Hi Kolla,

Sorry, I should really clean up the libraries in the .sch such that it links to GitHub, rather than my local storage. You should still be able to load everything in KiCAD as it will create a cache "lib" to rebuild any components back into. For the moment I suggest you go to the library managers and remove the un-needed libraries.

As for the RXD/TXD, you need pins 33 and 34 from the "Signals" backplane (the lower right connector). If you look at the FB-32G shot above you will find them going to the MAX chip (I just omitted the earlier pins on this board as they weren't needed)
On the same connector you'll find a number of VCC's and GND's, I would suggest 79 & 80 as they are the easiest to locate

On a separate note, I now have the FB-32G boards in house so will be building/bringing one up this week. This would give you RS232 levels out of the DB9 connector instead of TTL direct from the CD32

[kolla]

Thanks for tip, yes I read the title of the connector wrong, signal port 33 and 34, I took VCC and GND from 49 and 50, and it works great

Don't know if you're on the Commodore Amiga Facebook group, I just posted a few pics there of the CD32 with TF328, your riser and a HC-06 bluetooth adaptor, browsing Aminet with IBrowse over a wireless 38400 baud null-modem connection. Hail Olsen for the most rock solid PPP implementation ever

[Bprepared]

Originally Posted by kolla

Thanks for tip, yes I read the title of the connector wrong, signal port 33 and 34, I took VCC and GND from 49 and 50, and it works great

Don't know if you're on the Commodore Amiga Facebook group, I just posted a few pics there of the CD32 with TF328, your riser and a HC-06 bluetooth adaptor, browsing Aminet with IBrowse over a wireless 38400 baud null-modem connection. Hail Olsen for the most rock solid PPP implementation ever

Great to hear you got it all working. Really intrigued to know the 'PC' setup you have running to provide the shared internet, as this is not something I've investigated.
I discovered a few tweaks/improvements I needed to do to the 32G whilst building the Rev 1, so I drafted the Rev 2 at the end of last week which should be the final release. Then it's on to the 32G+, so I will see about putting a dedicated header on it for a HC-06 module

[DDNI]

Looks good! Are there any Pre-Built ones available? I’d be keen to get on hooked up via null modem to my A1200. Thanks.

[plasmab]

Great strides in open amiga hardware going on Loving it.

[Bprepared]

@DDNI
you have a PM

[plasmab]

Can someone point me to where i can get a firebird riser?

[Bprepared]

@plasmab I'm happy to donate my spare to a master.
I Think I've got your address somewhere!

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by Bprepared

@plasmab I'm happy to donate my spare to a master.
I Think I've got your address somewhere!

Very kind. My address on things I ship is my accountants btw.. PM for my address.

[Bprepared]

Firstly let me apologise for lack of updates recently, I've been very busy both at work and at home since before Christmas, and what with getting Engaged to my partner, and preparing my house for sale, the Amiga hobby has not received the attention I had hoped.

That all said, there has been some progress, as the FB-32G Rev 2 boards finally arrived last week:



Although I haven't built one up yet, I'm not anticipating any issues when I get to it in the next week or so, and I thought I'd give you a heads up on the changes from the Rev 1:



The most obvious change is that I have moved the 3.5mm audio jack to the aft side of the board. The reason being that although it fits quite happily between the 'G and the 'R, being able to attach the scart cables plug was another matter, it will return to the forward face for the 'G+ since that will be the same length of the 'R.
Likewise the Exp Clk switch has migrated to the aft side as well for a similar reason, on the 'G it fouls on the MCA-182 solder points of the 'R, won't be a problem on the 'G+.

Other improvement/tweaks are that I dropped the individual RGB clamping diodes in favour of a dedicated IC (No. 3) that Solidcore found whilst working on his project, and I've added a RGB breakout header for other experiments.

Yes, I know I screwed up on the Silkscreen for the Minimig Scart, this I noticed after I sent it to the board house, but I figured....ehh, no big deal.

Secondly, I have started the '32G+ schematic, but time hasn't been on my side recently as I said. Hopefully things will be settling down in the coming weeks so I can devote some evenings to getting it done, as well as putting the latest batch of FB-32R's on the 'bay.

Lastly, I want to thank those on YouTube that have made videos that have promoted the FireBird boards... you know who you are! It's given me the motivation to get thing moving again.

[solidcore]

@bprepared firstly congratulations to you and your partner. nice boards mate, let us know how the build goes. Hopefully, the motivation starts again I know it can take a downward spiral at times with real life getting in the way - good luck & nice use of that IC I found, I hope it works out well mate.

[kolla]

Allright, I am ready for playing with this again

Connecting TX/RX of RPi zero to the RX/TX of the TF328 to establish null-modem connection between them - it's enough to just put a MAX3232 chip between them?

Also - congrats Bprepared! In all humbleness, I just got engaged myself too

[Bprepared]

Thanks Kolla, congratulations to you too
A MAX3232 should do the job for sure, I'm using a MAX3311 myself on the 32G as this is a barebones chip that doesn't implement handshaking and since the CD32 doesn't have the signals for this anyway without additional decoding it fits the bill nicely at this stage. The only potential downside is that it comes in a tiny SMD package only so not so good for on-the-fly prototyping.

I'll take to opportunity to give a little update at this point. I screwed up the PIC circuit as I forgot to change the pinouts in the schematic to SSOP package, so the thing wouldn't program...doh!!!
So a rev 2.1 was ordered at the beginning of last week with the necessary corrections, and was shipped last Thursday so I'm expecting it any day now.

[zerohp]

I think you only need to shift 3.3V to 5V to connect a RPi to the CD32 TX/RX. RPi doesn't have +12/-12 rs232 signaling, and neither does the CD32.

[Bprepared]

Originally Posted by zerohp

I think you only need to shift 3.3V to 5V to connect a RPi to the CD32 TX/RX. RPi doesn't have +12/-12 rs232 signaling, and neither does the CD32.

that's true, I forgot the RPi serial would need level shifting to RS232 as well.
The MAX chip does this for the CD32 signals