Thylacine USB card DIY

[genny_flick]

Thylacine USB project for Amiga has become 'open source'. In author's site there are schematics, pcb layout, bill of components and jedec files to program the GALs required by project. So I will try to build myself this card. Building the printed board is the more difficult step, because tracks are thin and there are many VIAs, so alignment between upper side and bottom side must be exact. I have used 2 GAL16V8 instead PAL16L8 as in original project, but JEDEC files must to be converted for use GAL instead PAL. So an utility from National Semiconductor must be used. This program is named PAL2GAL.EXE and must be run in pure MSDOS ambient because is more old. Lattice have same utility but it don't work for these files. I don't know why. I have programmed the GALs with new files, I hope it works

Here some photos. I will update thread when my work go forward.

Cheers to all,

Rino

 

[BlindGerMan]

Sounds interesting...

 

[supaduper]

Great work going on there bud keep us posted

 

[cpiace64]

great work

 

[lostrego]

A promising and awesome stuff, keep going.

 

[johnim]

nice work and good luck there mate

 

[genny_flick]

Today, 20/11/2012

 

[BLTCON0]

Great stuff!

 

[salaxi54]

Wonderful! I hope your story is a successful one soon!

 

[rkauer]

Simply awesome!

 

[genny_flick]

21/11/2012

Anyone know a good driver to test card and where to download?

 

[BLTCON0]

Maybe here?
http://members.iinet.com.au/~loofy/updates.html
I'm not sure if anything else exists

 

[genny_flick]

Local time 18:59

 

[genny_flick]

22/11/2012 local time 17:12

 

[LTAC]

Highly interesting! Thank you!
I hope that we will be able to buy from someone who is going to manufacture in enough quantities.

 

[genny_flick]

With an industrial PCB, more than 70% of work will be done.

 

[Tahoe]

Highly interesting! Thank you!
I hope that we will be able to buy from someone who is going to manufacture in enough quantities.

Keep an eye out for the Nova Thylacine, it's a project underway at a1k, and it's an improved version.
It has a smaller footprint (about the size of a Zorro slot, for instance like an Algor or Deneb, but higher) and has a seperate USB connectors on a backplane (cable connection). Apart from that it has an integrated USB hub so will have 4 USB ports as standard. Also some design errors (jumper cables) from the original design have been corrected. And all is still not based on SMD devices, so you can still make it easily at home.

This project is also open sourced.

 

[genny_flick]

Have you the exact URL?

 

[genny_flick]

Big NEWS today

Thylacine KIT ordered from Robert is HERE

Shipped 06/11/2012 from Australia.

 

[crasbe]

Hello genny_flick,

I am the developer of the Nova-Thylacine prototype, a new version of Thylacine USB card.
I have some Tips for improving the stability of the design: You should add an additional capacitor between +5V and GND; about 100µF. It's not necessary, but recommed.

Did you see the fixes from ACT homepage? You have to add a jumperwire, because _INT2 and _INT6 are swapped. (Well, _INT2 is not even necessary...)
Also there is a capacitor about 100nF missing at SL811HS.
I'm not sure about the fixes concering the quarz. I would recommend using a crystal-oscillator. (These big metal-guys in DIP-14)

After christmas I will do some measurement, because a friendly guy from a1k lend me his Thylacine. I just want to check some of my theories.

Greetings,
crasbe