Ordering the Alpha board

All information relating to the Alpha plus all the WIP threads etc.
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exxos
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by exxos »

Will add a item into my store over the next few days, then people can "pre-order".

I will add the names of those who supported this project onto the motherboard itself (assuming nobody has any objections)

I'm going to fiddle with the KiCad , see if the autorouter is any better (assuming can work with this large board).

EDIT:

OK KiCad doesn't seem to have a autorouter anymore :shrug: seems it might be a 3rd party plugin, tried 3 of them , still can't find any autoroute options and programs just seem to be some crappy pcb editor tools.. so give up with that.. not spending endless hours looking for stuff and just going further down the rabbit hole with it all.
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by Atarian Computing »

exxos wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:32 pm OK KiCad doesn't seem to have a autorouter anymore :shrug: seems it might be a 3rd party plugin, tried 3 of them , still can't find any autoroute options and programs just seem to be some crappy pcb editor tools.. so give up with that.. not spending endless hours looking for stuff and just going further down the rabbit hole with it all.
Yeah, I could never get autorouter to work on KiCad. But otherwise a fantastic package. Make sure you get version 5 beta though.
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by exxos »

Small update, Still messing with the routing.. trying to route the via's away from pads which will be soldered.. Had a bit of trouble with sold bridging from vias to pads on a previous booster, so just trying to reduce that issue as much as possible.. though its causing the power planes to break currently as it cannot auto fill to some pads because of the new routing rules :roll: Will get there though :)

I am also hunting for cheaper PCB suppliers and might just have found one.. So hope to shave a little off the PCB price...
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by PhilC »

More importantly, what colour will it be?

But seriously, I'd rather pay a little more for something with better quality. Those new booster boards do look nice.
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by exxos »

Forgottenmyname wrote: Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:06 pm More importantly, what colour will it be?
Green probably.. Its a prototype, so its not important...
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by vattari »

I like a challenge...

Put me down for one as well Chris.

I’m contemplating looking at ways to create a desktop case with external keyboard for the ST (as you may recall I have a case on it’s way to me ;) ...plus I have one of the lighthouse keyboards at home already).
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by exxos »

vattari wrote: Thu Aug 02, 2018 9:09 pm I like a challenge...

Put me down for one as well Chris.

Added :) :thumbup:
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by exxos »

Routing looking pretty good on this one so far...

Amazing how many hours its taking to route the thing :roll:

1.JPG
1.JPG (369.32 KiB) Viewed 4671 times

You guys buying a board should probably look around for some old 1MB or 4MB RAM cards.. I've asked in the FB 030 group if anyone has any.. Atari freaks was selling 4MB ones on evilbay for £5 but sold out of them all , typical :roll:

I do sell simm adapters in my store, but for this project its a bit overkill when there should be huge stashes of old falcon ram cards somewhere...
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Very quick Q, just popped into my head when looking at the PCB image.

Will the ROM just contain one version of TOS, or will there be an option to have multiple images selectable by jumper/switch.

Or is that for a later revision?

Just curious is all.
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Re: Ordering the Alpha board

Post by exxos »

rubber_jonnie wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 9:26 am Very quick Q, just popped into my head when looking at the PCB image.
Will the ROM just contain one version of TOS, or will there be an option to have multiple images selectable by jumper/switch.
It has a jumper for dualtos...

jp1.JPG
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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