Final Cartridge III+ PCB / Kit Pre-Order

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I sent out many shipping quotes today. Don't worry if you haven't received one yet because I'll be sending more tomorrow. :)

Heather
 
Great news everyone! The back ordered parts have arrived so I'll be able to ship all the kits. Please be on the lookout for a PM from me with the shipping cost. I'll send out more of those tonight.

I've also updated the list in the first post with the latest shipped packages.

Heather
 
Hey everyone!

All the shipping quotes have been sent. Contact me if I somehow missed you. :)

I'll post assembly directions this weekend!

Heather
 
Hi everyone,

There may be a small issue with the PCB. Fortunately, it only affects certain ROM chips in the xxC020 family. This will not affect any of the kits I've sold but it may impact those who source their own ROM chips. None of the xxC512 ROM chips are affected by the issue.

If you bought a kit from me, simply assemble it and it will work. According to e5frog, the fix for the issue is to cut a trace (marked with the yellow x's) on the PCB then connect two pins (marked with purple) together.



I don't have any of the affected ROM chips to test this myself. If you have trouble without this fix then perhaps you can try it out and post your results.

Thanks!

Heather
 
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Hi All,
Most of us maybe familiar with these mountings but some, like me, does not....
So can one of us record a short video while mounting and upload it here :)

thanks
Tolga
 
SkydivinGirl said:
Hi everyone,

There may be a small issue with the PCB. Fortunately, it only affects certain ROM chips in the xxC020 family. This will not affect any of the kits I've sold but it may impact those who source their own ROM chips. None of the xxC512 ROM chips are affected by the issue.

If you bought a kit from me, simply assemble it and it will work. According to e5frog, the fix for the issue is to cut a trace (marked with the yellow x's) on the PCB then connect two pins (marked with purple) together.



I don't have any of the affected ROM chips to test this myself. If you have trouble without this fix then perhaps you can try it out and post your results.

Thanks!

Heather
Click to expand...

I found the problem, fixed it and told to e5frog.. :p
The issue only affects EEproms (flash roms) Normal UV Eproms will work without modification of the PCB.
I'm working on a real Final+ by add some useful tools in the free space (12 banks of 16 Kb) of the xxC020 Rom.

Regards, SAM
 
Thanks Sam! I didn't realize the issue only occurs with EEPROMs. I just posted the build directions. I'll have to update them tomorrow with this additional information. :)

Please be sure to share your information on using the free space on the ROM. I wanted to put the larger EEPROMs in the kits for just that reason. :D

Heather
 
The rest of the components are packaged into kits and ready to send out. Anyone whose shipment has not already been sent and who has paid for their shipping will have tracking numbers tomorrow.
icon_smile.gif


In case you didn't notice, the assembly directions are on the site:

www.amibay.com/showthread.php?67884-The-Final-Cartridge-III-Assembly

Heather
 
A bit late now, but it probably would have made more sense to make the card just for 020s and have a jumper for EPROM/EEPROM selection. The price difference would have been neglegible.

Bryce.
 
I didn't do the actual design of the card so I didn't know to change anything. I also thought the 27C512 chips would be less expensive but they ended up costing more that what I was able to pay for the 27C020 chips. I like the flexibility even though this particular batch has an easily fixed error. :)

e5frog has fixed the error in his layout files but there most likely won't be another batch. I also have a lot of PCBs from the current batch available. I may put together more kits for those if there's interest.

Heather
 
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Bryce said:
A bit late now, but it probably would have made more sense to make the card just for 020s and have a jumper for EPROM/EEPROM selection. The price difference would have been neglegible.

Bryce.
Click to expand...

Hi Bryce,

Indeed it should be better to make the cart just for 27C020/29C020 EEproms. Oversized but they are much cheaper than the UV variants. A jumper is not needed at all. With the 27C020 UV eproms it makes no sense if pin 31 is connected to GND or +5V. With the EEProm variants it must be connected to +5V. That's why my cart didn't work with a 29C020 EEProm. And I found out what was wrong.. ;)


Regards, SAM
 
Exactly. It's cheaper to leave half / 3 quarters of the chip empty, but I'd still leave it EPROM compatible just in case people happen to have EPROMs already. EPROM/EEPROM selection would also only need one two-position jumper.

Bryce.
 
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Great news everyone! All but one of the orders has shipped! Hopefully everyone will receive their kits before the holidays!

A huge thanks to everyone who supported the project! I can't wait to see what people do with the extra ROM space. I will have more kits available later but I want all the pre-orders to arrive at their destinations before I offer them. I'll open a new thread once those are ready to be sold. Please abide by AmiBay rules and do not express interest before that thread is created.

Please share pictures of your completed kits once you have built them. I'd love to see your work.

Heather
 
Hi Heather,
my kit just arrived, the PCB looks really well made, I'll build it next week when I have time and post some pictures.

Just one thing though: You wrapped the PCB in cling film. This film can carry a serious static charge that can kill certain ICs. Best not to ever bring electronics and cling film together.

Bryce.
 
Thanks Bryce! Big oops on my part! Hopefully everything works out well. None of the plastic wrap was in direct contact with the chips so they should be fine. One more thing to add to the 'lessons learned on my first kit offering' list. :D

Heather
 
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Thanks Sardine! I've learned a lot throughout this process and made some small missteps along the way. I certainly didn't go with a small first time run with a total of 21 PCBs and 85 kits sold! That's not including mine. :)

All of you have been great to deal with too. I couldn't have asked for better responses from everyone! :thumbsup:

Heather
 
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