non-socketed CPU

Help & information about the STE V1 series boosters.
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IngoQ
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by IngoQ »

exxos wrote: Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:57 pm Point being, your overall idea was to fit the booster ? The socket solution would be better *if* I had a plug in booster, which I do not. So this rules out the socket ideas totally as there is nothing to plug into it.
Okay, let's say I desolder my CPU and fit a PLCC socket instead on the mainboard.

Your current STE booster looks like this from the down side:

Image

If I would now take your funky PLCC adaptor:

Image

And instead of putting a PLCC socket on it, i would put this PLCC plug on it:
PGA to PLCC Plug.gif
PGA to PLCC Plug.gif (123.29 KiB) Viewed 7863 times
So this basically gives me a PLCC plug with "funky" layout, which I could solder on the downside of your current STE booster, right?

And afterwards I would have a pluggable booster, which could be removed and the original CPU could be placed in the socket on the STEs mainboard.

Or do I overlook something (again) ? :)
Ingo :geek:

| Atari 1040STE@32MHz | Amiga 1200 (ACA1220) | Atari 800XL (U1MB, SIDE2) | Atari 130XL (Sophia DVI) | C64 (1541 Ultimate II, Rev3 RFMod Replacement) | TI 99/4A (F18A, 32k, FlashROM 99) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 (Stereo, DivMMC) | Amstrad CPC664 (512k, M4 Wifi) | ... |
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by exxos »

Sounds like a plan :)

Though I do think that is making things more complicated than it needs to be though ?
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by IngoQ »

How so, besides buying a different board? ;)
Ingo :geek:

| Atari 1040STE@32MHz | Amiga 1200 (ACA1220) | Atari 800XL (U1MB, SIDE2) | Atari 130XL (Sophia DVI) | C64 (1541 Ultimate II, Rev3 RFMod Replacement) | TI 99/4A (F18A, 32k, FlashROM 99) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 (Stereo, DivMMC) | Amstrad CPC664 (512k, M4 Wifi) | ... |
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by exxos »

IngoQ wrote: Mon Aug 28, 2017 4:26 pm How so, besides buying a different board? ;)
Think you might be better doing that to start with :lol: Just seems like a lot of things could go wrong there. I would think it would be better to not use the riser and my funky adapter, just seems like a lot of soldering and connections.

You would still have to solder the dummy cpu anyway. A proper funky socket you could solder into the booster and that seems like the easiest solution to me.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by IngoQ »

exxos wrote: Mon Aug 28, 2017 4:40 pm just seems like a lot of soldering and connections.
That indeed it does. We are for sure way beyond what the average user could do. To be honest, I'm not really sure whether I really would like to try. But I like to know all options, before I decide. We already were a the point, where I stated, that in this special case you are pretty much screwed. The continuation is just personal stubbornness.

Maybe if I simply could order a working STE board on ebay for 20Bucks, I would do so. But there are none. In fact you hardly find any STE below 150 EUR these days. Mine was 180 EUR and in very good condition, and I consider myself lucky.
Ingo :geek:

| Atari 1040STE@32MHz | Amiga 1200 (ACA1220) | Atari 800XL (U1MB, SIDE2) | Atari 130XL (Sophia DVI) | C64 (1541 Ultimate II, Rev3 RFMod Replacement) | TI 99/4A (F18A, 32k, FlashROM 99) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 (Stereo, DivMMC) | Amstrad CPC664 (512k, M4 Wifi) | ... |
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by exxos »

There is another option... Not very pretty either ..

Image

My original V1.5 booster I hacked into a STE. This was to see if it would work before I designed the STE V1 booster. You would still have to change the CPU.. and would have to isolate the 8mhz clock in and out... Not really ideal either, but thought while we throwing about ideas....
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by IngoQ »

Today a neat little package package arrived... no cat, but STE booster and TOS-Kit ;)

Did I mention that I am stubborn? :-P
Ingo :geek:

| Atari 1040STE@32MHz | Amiga 1200 (ACA1220) | Atari 800XL (U1MB, SIDE2) | Atari 130XL (Sophia DVI) | C64 (1541 Ultimate II, Rev3 RFMod Replacement) | TI 99/4A (F18A, 32k, FlashROM 99) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 (Stereo, DivMMC) | Amstrad CPC664 (512k, M4 Wifi) | ... |
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by exxos »

IngoQ wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:41 pm Today a neat little package package arrived... no cat, but STE booster and TOS-Kit ;)
cool. My girlfriend gives me little packages, they normally little bags of cat poo. :lol:


IngoQ wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:41 pm Did I mention that I am stubborn? :-P
You need to be stubborn with retro computing. :lol:
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https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by IngoQ »

Just stumbled upon this:
How_to_solder_castallated_via_tutorial-23.jpg
How_to_solder_castallated_via_tutorial-23.jpg (425.97 KiB) Viewed 7795 times
Never seen this before, apparently you can use plated half holes at the edges of your PCB and solder these to SMT pads...

Now this is how my STE board looked like after removing the CPU:
plcc-pads.jpg
plcc-pads.jpg (650.73 KiB) Viewed 7795 times
So in theory, you could make a PCB that could be soldered directly on the STEs mainboard.

Sadly the resulting PCB would be smaller than the funky pinout at the bottom of the booster, so simply having pin headers sticking upwards would not work. Unless you use a second PCB...
Ingo :geek:

| Atari 1040STE@32MHz | Amiga 1200 (ACA1220) | Atari 800XL (U1MB, SIDE2) | Atari 130XL (Sophia DVI) | C64 (1541 Ultimate II, Rev3 RFMod Replacement) | TI 99/4A (F18A, 32k, FlashROM 99) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 (Stereo, DivMMC) | Amstrad CPC664 (512k, M4 Wifi) | ... |
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Re: non-socketed CPU

Post by exxos »

IngoQ wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 4:14 pm Never seen this before, apparently you can use plated half holes at the edges of your PCB and solder these to SMT pads...
Probably just normal vias and they cut the pcb "mid hole".

IngoQ wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2017 4:14 pm So in theory, you could make a PCB that could be soldered directly on the STEs mainboard.

Sadly the resulting PCB would be smaller than the funky pinout at the bottom of the booster, so simply having pin headers sticking upwards would not work. Unless you use a second PCB...
I think this is getting overcomplicated now.. I think as suggested previously, the V1.5 booster may be a better option.

Saying that, if you soldered the HC CPU direct to the motherboard, and just isolated the clock and run it via the booster PCB, then you do not need many more signals linked to the booster PCB in order for it to work.

Basically just RW, BG, BR, BGACK, AS.

If you just wire linked these direct to the CPU, or anywhere really on the motherboard, and rooted these to the CPU socket on the booster, these are the only wires you really need to route. Aside from the CPU CLK way would need to probably lift the pin on the CPU itself to isolate it, run that to the booster socket, and then the remaining pad on the motherboard is your 8 MHz CLK where you run to the booster also.

This way you are only needing to break one connection, and solder five wires not the whole CPU.

Also you will need to change the resistor packs on the motherboard for 2.2K ones, as the ones on the booster board will be isolated from the CPU.

I think overall this would be a lot easier option for you..
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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