STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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Icky
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STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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H4 Build Guide.png
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Welcome to the STF Remake H4 Build Guide. This guide is to help show you all the new features on the board and help you make decisions during the build on how you want your board to turn out.

H4 purchase Link - https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/#0167

Let's start with with fact that this board is still a DEV board it is in no way intended as a production board, as a direct replacement or a complete solution. It's intended to be closer to the end product with the community of helpers to diagnosing and testing the new features and ideas bourne from the original ALPHA remake. In addition there are various plug in boards in development such as the Flashy Clock, Trudie, Alt Ram boards with further testing will work to towards the final production board with these circuits built in.

To help you with your build there is a BOM, schematic and board layout available https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =78&t=2167

Right let's get started with Part #1 which will take you through decisions for your board and to the point where SMT components are all onboard. Subsequent parts will follow over the coming weeks.

One of the reasons for the name Mongrel is that this board is a mismatch of different ways to produce a working ST. There are various options you can start with.

RAM - There are two options you can choose but make sure its only one of the following:
  • 72 pin SIMM - You will require a SIMM socket
  • Falcon RAM board - You will require headers to plug the Falcon RAM board into
Exxos' discussion thread on using SIMM socket - https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =73&t=1453

GLUE and MMU - There are two options you can choose but make sure its only one of the following:
  • SMT - GLUE or MMU - if you go down this route you can not remove easily to do any additional board development
  • PLCC - GLUE or MMU - choosing this option allows you to easily remove the chips for further development
Exxos' discussion on the SMT MMU & GLUE dilemma - https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =73&t=1854

At this point you should have an idea based on the scavenged components you have which direction you are going, SMT or PLCC. One other advantage to going the PLCC route is that in the future when we look at a plugin FPGA board it will plug into the PLCC socket locations.

Whichever way you are going we recommend starting with getting the SMT components onto the board first. There are many SMT components as well as the GLUE and MMU, such as oscillators, capacitors, resistors and various ICs.

We would also recommend you read over the fixes thread to make sure you understand the patches that need to be performed with example pictures - https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =78&t=2335
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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Here are two examples of initial board builds:

One with SMT GLUE, MMU and using the SIMM in the socket as opposed to the Falcon RAM board. Therefore there is no need for PLCC sockets for the GLUE and MMU. In addition this configuration has no Blitter socket as this is optional.

The other with PLCC GLUE, MMU including Blitter socket and the Falcon Ram board in place.

H4 - SMT GLUE & MMU with SIMM.png
H4 - SMT GLUE & MMU with SIMM.png (2.05 MiB) Viewed 9771 times
H4 - PLCC GLUE & MMU with F-RAM.png
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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H4 Video and Reset Circuitry.png
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Lets talk about the majority of the SMT devices and circuitry on the H4 barring the GLUE and MMU SMT chips. In the picture above you can see there are several areas that have been added or enhanced from the ALPHA. There are a lot of SMT chips and components around this area so we recommend concentrating on sorting this area out first in the build.

Starting from left to right:

RESET - New and improved reset circuit FALCON DAC - Improved colour circuit RGB / MONO SWITCH One other item to mention in this area is the video connector. in the picture it is currently the standard ST 13 pin DIN. However the motherboard allows you to also put in its place a VGA connector.
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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H4 - LS11 and CAP.png
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Continuing on the SMT thread for the build. Just above the SMT GLUE if fitted is a small LS11 IC.

SN74LVC1G11DBVR - https://uk.farnell.com/texas-instrument ... VC1G11DBVR

This IC will be used a bit later on in the build to help with future ROM OE functions. We recommend putting this in place when doing all the initial SMT work at the start to make it easier.

You will also notice just behind the IC and the capacitor next to it is a SMT capacitor (2220). There are 3 of these on the board so make sure they are also in place.

H4 Floppy OSC.png
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Next up is the floppy circuitry that is geared up for the 1.44 floppy mod. To make this work it requires a GAL to and an SMT 16MHz OSC - marked in the picture.

We recommend you put the oscillator in at the start with all the other SMT work as this one will be really difficult to put in afterwards.

In addition putting a socket in for the GAL will make help with being able to program the chip and place it in or change the firmware at a later stage.

A few other items to notice in this pic are the two headers for an internal UtraSATAN and the other based on the MEGA internal ACSI connector. Finally the far set of jumpers just in front of the parallel port are for Drive AB Swap.

So this concludes the SMT part of the build which should be considered the first starting point. The next part will start to look at the other components, such as sockets and ICs.
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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Sockets

What can we say about socketing chips on the board. Exxos and I were discussing the H4 and which chips to socket and here is a list to socket and some are at your own discretion. Personally my first H4 board all chips will be socketed as there will be times we may have to pull them out or do some patching. Exxos' preference is also to socket as it allows the board to become a test board for testing chips etc.

So here is a list of chips we think you should socket and some options
  • Shifter - two reasons. One, chips a scarce and two having it socketed enables plugging in Smonsons HDMI adaptor in the future
  • 1772 - these are not cheap, although there is a source of them in Exxos' web store
  • BAD DMA - based on my experiences last time with the NASTY DMA I would socket incase it needs replacing with another
  • Next three are up to the H4 builder however if we need to do any patching having them socketed may be easier
    * MFP
    * ASIC 6850
    * YM2149
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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Sockets - continued

At the moment DO NOT solder in a socket for Flashy Clock as this may require some manipulation to provide the Flashy Clock lines etc. We will post soon on what to do.
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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JUMPERS

s-l300.jpg
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Don't forget to order the actual jumper headers along with the jumper pins. You will need plenty of those jumper headers to get the H4 up and running.

Around 20 of them will cover off most options on the board.
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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JUMPERS Continued

Although we mentioned not to solder in the Flash Clock socket make sure you have the jumper in place for now. Pic below shows how Flash Clock area should look like.

EDIT: Now we have a picture of the Flashy Clock area and how to add the right socket components - https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 029#p36029

IMG_4563.jpeg
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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JUMPER SETTINGS - PART 1

Your H4 has a lot of jumpers dotted around the board and you will need to set these:

IMG_4574.jpeg
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  • JP1 in the YELLOW box is the ROM select jumper. If you have one of exxos' 102/104 rom then OPEN is 102 and CLOSED is 104
  • All the jumpers in the PURPLE box are for the 16MHz mode or future FPGA board plugin. All these need to be CLOSED apart from JP10 which is marked to be OPEN. Information on these jumpers is here https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 011#p24044
  • JP15 & JP16 in the ORANGE boxes are for the Blitter if you don't have a Blitter then CLOSE these jumpers otherwise OPEN both to use your Blitter
  • JP5 & JP13 in CYAN and RED boxes are for future use so make sure these are CLOSED
  • The GREEN box depends on if you are intending to use the RTC clock. If you are then put the DS1315 in place otherwise pin 10 & 11 of the IC need to be CLOSED. I have used a IC pin header to use as a jumper on the socket
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Re: STF Remake Mongrel H4 Build Guide

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JUMPER SETTINGS - PART 2

To continue the jumper settings here are the settings around the Video and Floppy areas

IMG_4591.jpeg
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VIDEO
  • JP2 in the PURPLE box is a brightness setting on the DAC. Pin 2-3 boost ON, Pin 1-2 boost OFF
  • JP4 in the CYAN box is the RGB Switch where Pin 2-3 is MONO Mode, Pin 1-2 RGB Mode
FLOPPY
  • JP17 in the ORANGE box is the drive swap header. Set Pins 3-2 on the top row and Pins 1-2 on the bottom row for the internal drive to be Drive A and the external to be Drive B. If you want the external to be Drive A and internal to be Drive B then make the top row Pins 1-2 and the bottom row Pins 2-3
  • JP18 & JP19 in the RED box are used with the 1.44 Floppy GAL and are for setting 1.44 / 720k modes on internal and external floppy drives. For now these don't need to be connected
  • JP22 in the YELLOW box changes the clock for 1.44 mode. Set this to Pins 2-3 for normal operation and when the 1.44 mode is ready you will need to swap this to Pins 1-2
Floppy 1.44 mod guide is available here https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 809#p33807 thanks to @kodak80
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