Building a new Atari ST accelerator!
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- In this video I go over the build, installation, and troubleshooting I experienced building a ST536 (an Atari specific fork of the TF536) from PCB and components.
Where to purchase the board: www.exxosforum...
ST536 information, firmware, custom Atari ROM, BOM and places to order the parts: exxosforum.co....
Forum topic on upcoming STe536: www.exxosforum...
Great Xilinx flashing using Raspberry Pi tutorial: linuxjedi.co.u...
#atari
#atarist
#atariste
#Terriblefire
#vintagecomputing
#retrocomputing
A simple trick when you're doing hand soldering of TQFP packages (depending on their size) is to put a coin on top of them when they are generally located. Quarter, nickel, dime. Just make sure the coin is not so heavy it bends the legs upward. Align it, tack down opposite ends and it should stay put till you can finish the drag solder technique. Also, I use MG Chem no-clean liquid flux in abundance for the drag process, a lot less chance you're going to see blobs (temps and good solder / correct alloy)
The coin trick sounds fantastic. Great idea
You have been my go to for looking at new ways to make interesting upgraded STs. I’m more excited than I was years ago on how this is much more possible now and so many interesting options! Thank you again for all these explores and amazing upgrade videos!
Excellent... I want to go back to these machines as I have so many of them just no time 🥲
Time is irrelevant, lunchtime doubly so.
Nice one! Great upgrade for the small ST :)
Love your videos!
Thank you! Hoping to have a table at VCF Midwest in September (still up in the air). Looking to show off the Falcon running your version of Basilisk running MacOS Warcraft 2 (along with other things).
Those TQFP144s are still the single most difficult thing I've ever soldered. Especially painful when you blow one up ($30) and have to remove it and add a new one again!
Well done! Smd soldering can be a serious challenge!
Great job sir!
Thank you
Fantastic, you get to make the mistakes right before I build mine. But seriously, Great job, I'm going to take your path and start with the large SMD Chip.
Good luck with the build! With the right tools and experience it is doable.
@@powerofvintage9442 I invested in a new Weller and tips or I wouldn't try. I also learned to use good solder. I was making things hard on myself with the cheap stuff. What do you use to do your magnification?
For magnification I use a magnifying visor plus my phones camera.
Nice work! I recently bought myself the ST536 board+birdseed to build myself. Ever tried fitting it in an STFM revision (specifically C103253 in my case) where the 68K is under the keyboard with no room? Maybe I'll just have to find myself a Mega, or similar with more room
I’ve not tried in an STF. There are socket “relocators” that exist and are used in Amigas. I’ve tried a bunch in the past with my Amiga 1000 as well as in the 520ST previously. That’s your best bet IMO. You can see if those already designed are what you need or use a service like PCBWay to design and manufacture a custom one.
Just ordered everything I needed from Exxos and Mouser to build one of these as well. We'll see how long USPS takes to deliver from UK this time around.
Good luck with the build! Share your results on the Exxos forum once you get it built.
I saw 'em! I saw 'em! Saw what?! Star destroyers, two of them. Coming right at us.... Sir! Sir! Might I suggest- Shut him up or shut him down! Check the deflector shields. Great... Well we can still outmanouver 'em. TAKE EVASIVE ACTION! [Anthony Daniels? It IS you! 😊] ❤ 🖋
Congratulations, well done :) not sure why you turned off the cache though.. you can put MAPROM from the ST536 zip in the auto folder to make the desktop run faster ;) Also if you have a ROM adapter, there is a ROM output signal near the ST536 ROM socket.. so you don't need an external 206 decoder ;)
Awesome! I'll turn the Cache back on. I'll test out maprom too. I like keeping the external 206 decoder because of the height it provides and the battery backed up clock
@@powerofvintage9442 in case your not aware, you need the program PRGFLAGS so you can set programs to run from TTram not STram :) sometimes programs are already set to use TTram, but it's better to check else you'll be wasting some of the CPU power :)
I heard PiStorm for the Atari ST works now… that would deliver way more resources and computing power than a TF536.
I am hoping you check it out! I have a couple of STs I would love to run MiNT on!
I am seeing that people are getting 700Mhz on their Atari ST PiStorm computers… 2 GHz should be working too eventually!
I know, I have a PiStorm for the ST that I haven't built yet. It also provides emulated Tseng4000-like graphics as well. While I'm not a purist, I prefer CPU's from the era the computers were from; 68k, 68020's, 68030's, 68060's etc versus an emulated CPU. It doesn't mean I won't try it out and play around with it a bit.
@@powerofvintage9442 I have the PiStorm in one of my Amiga 500 and in one of my A1200 computers, total game changer.
With emu68/Caffiene OS I can do much of my daily driving tasks on my Amiga now… gives me RTG Graphics, WiFi (sort the net with iBrowse), 2GB “Fast” RAM, and fast storage via the SD card.
I like the idea of making an old computer useful beyond nostalgia gaming, but I was never much of a gamer to begin with: more of an internet and networking nerd.
@@powerofvintage9442I really agree with this! I’ve followed the piStorm concept for a while with Amiga and now ST and said many times: this is emulation and moving large portions of the hardware to something else. That, in my opinion, really is not an actual upgrade but an emulator with keyboard and bus access. Some may disagree but I’d rather go with a 68060 and upgrade memory and such to build out a machine that runs similar in design but upgrades the speed and architecture. If I ever get a Falcon I’d love to try this.
Pistorm is still very unstable though unfortunately..
@@exxosuk heard that too
Talk about going to the end of the book at the start HA!... great vid those :)..
Thanks!
Nice upgrade, I would not take something like that on, my expertise ends at replacing a keyboard or floppy drive. On another subject - have you heard of a Falcon chip that has a battery inside? A commentor, on another RUclips Falcon video, said that one chip has a battery that will only last 10 years and then the chip fails. Have you fixed your Falcon (with a battery) and could you make a video of it? Btw, did you ever get the FPU to function? (I have a Falcon and it seemed to run fine - after sitting around for 30 years.)
Ah, the FPU on the Falcon is working great with the full 68060. On my 520ST with the accelerator that has the FPU, still haven't figured it out...not trying hard though because not much software really uses it. Yes, I have replaced the NVRAM (BIOS in modern computers) which had the battery embedded inside it (Dallas clock chip) with a modern Exxos replacement. I did that before I started my RUclips channel.
Most important thing that I did with that was to use low temp solder to desolder the chip legs (especially the one connected to the ground plane).
@@powerofvintage9442 Could I do something like you did, cutting the legs to remove the chip? The chip will not be reuseable at any way and would rather take my chances desoldering the legs to keep things cool. Of course, I will have to break the seal - my Falcon is new.
@@mikecaster4612 The dallas clock chip / NVRAM is flush with the main board. I would worry about damaging the main board while destroying the clock chip.
What I did and would recommend is use low temp melt solder (quik chip is a brand name) used typically for removing SMD components. You add this solder to each of the solder points on the board
Then you can go about this in three ways really.
1 - Heat each point to melting and gently pull the clock chip out while the solder remains molten, then clear our the holes.
2 - Use a desolder gun to suck up the solder and clear the holes and remove the chip
3 - Use solder wick to clear the holes and remove the chip.
This makes it much easier to especially remove the stubborn ground plane connected leg on the clock chip and not need to use too much heat on a rare board. You just need to be extra careful to wick up all the extra solder once you're done.
Wouldn’t be a proper ST video without some Ultima IV
Of course! Ultima all the way.
The weird thing is I don't know if I ever felt stock Atari ST was too slow. (unlike Apple IIGS where GSOS really needs more boost.)
In many ways, I believe the software was written in that way. This kept it running well, but limited its capabilities. Later games like Ultima VI, Civilization, or Frontier Elite really bog down a stock ST.
Now try and put in the Motorola digital sound chip the Falcon has .
I'm probably the only one, but the sound output of the ST doesn't bother me.
What ya gonna do now with all THAT POWER? :)
Boot from the internal "hard drive", play games, run MINT, and emulate Macintosh's
Forgive my ignorance, but why name a product, “Ultra SATAN”??? I’m looking forward to restoring my all-original Atari ST gear some day (many pieces from the 1980s and 1990s that I bought for music production back then and still have), but I’d be hesitant to brag to my non-tech nerd friends about my restoration efforts with products called “Satan”. I couldn’t care less, but THEY would, and they’d ABSOLUTELY JUDGE ME…
😂😂😂🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Per Jookie's overview of the original project Satandisk
"the project name is derived from the name of cards (storage media) which the interface uses (SD cards = Secure Digital -> SatanDisk)"
and then further...
"it has nothing to do with satanism or occultism ;-)"
Makes sense, but still the project does lean into it with some sellers like Lotharek's PCB's have a little devil on them.
@@powerofvintage9442 … Not very well thought out marketing…