User avatar
BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Sat Apr 28, 2018 1:35 pm

Image

So, I procrastinate and do too many projects at the same time etc etc etc.. Well, 5 years ago I got all the parts to build a GBA1000... Then did a lot of other things except build it... So now it is time. Time to get out the solder paste and actually put this beast together.

This will be a rough log of progress, not a photo of every resistor I solder in.

Anyway, start pics!

The rev 4 GBA1000 motherboard
Image

The GBA1000 68060 / 128mb accelerator card (left) and Picaso-II clone PCB v3.0 and v3.2 on right (I dont know what differences are from v3.0 to v3.2)
Image

Two copies of the GBA1000 Thylacine board (left) and on the right is the GBAPII++ v2.6 Amiga 500/2000 (and tower 2k/3k/4k) Picaso II clone (which I dont need)
Image

Most of the hard to get parts came from a donor Amiga 500+ motherboard (those non existant DB23 sockets and the oddball 28.3715 mhz crystal ) and the Amiga 1000 that is donating its case.

(Last time I dug it out, it was pleasantly, not very yellowed!, and that is a kickstart 1.2 disk next to it)
Image

I have printed out the GBA1000 guide as well as the BOM from the rev4 pcb so I can tick off every single item I solder (its 16 pages long).

First thing is to go through the crappy pink mouser bag, sort out all the components and do some inventory, after that my thought is to paste and hot air the 8mb ram because its the smallest pitch parts on the board, after that, hit all the birdseed and lastly hit the sockets and dip parts.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sat Apr 28, 2018 5:16 pm

Man - that is a major (and majorly cool) project you've got ahead of you. Good luck!

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Sat Apr 28, 2018 11:57 pm

Good luck, quite an endeavor!!

I admire the people with the skill and patience to achieve something like this. For me, this is art.

Awesome!!

One comment: ditch the Thylacine. It's crap. Really. You could better get a Zorro card with a Clockport and add a RapidRoad. Or try to source a USB-Zorro-Card such as the Highway or maybe even the Deneb, even if they cost a lot. I don't know if the XSurf runs in the same slot as the Thylacine or if it fits. If it did that would probably the way to go as it has high-speed USB _and_ Ethernet.

... And you don't happen to have one of those 4MB-GFX-cards surplus don't you ;) ?

Cheers,
McT

User avatar
EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Sun Apr 29, 2018 7:09 am

Thanks for this write up! I look forward to following your progress.

Would it be possible to see your BOM at some point? I may be interested in building one of these at some point in the future.

User avatar
BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:38 am

McTrinsic wrote:... And you don't happen to have one of those 4MB-GFX-cards surplus don't you ;) ?
The GBAPII++ A500 pcb is surplus.
EzdineG wrote:Would it be possible to see your BOM at some point? I may be interested in building one of these at some point in the future.
You want the BOM as in all resistors etc, or the BOM as in just the IC's?

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:25 pm

The A500-...-PCB is 2MB afaik.
I have that :).

User avatar
Crazyeights

Posted Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:54 pm

I also have a GB1000 motherboard and some of the others boards that you have. How do you recommend soldering all of the "birdseed"? I was thinking a nice temperature controlled iron and a small tip with good magnification. Is there a better way?

User avatar
BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:59 pm

Crazyeights wrote:I also have a GB1000 motherboard and some of the others boards that you have. How do you recommend soldering all of the "birdseed"? I was thinking a nice temperature controlled iron and a small tip with good magnification. Is there a better way?
A small chisel tip or hoof tip should be fine for probably all of the parts. The board is just very crowded. I wan to heat flow the 8mb ram but its riiiight next to a whole passle of resistors. On mine, the worst (smallest) pitch chip, the flash is already soldered.

The GBA1000 board should be pretty easy.. The '60 board is a whole nother story.

oh, if you have same, make sure you have the 5v SRAM chips, not the 3.3v ones. If you got yours through the kipper2k group by, he sold 3.3v srams
  • Bad ones (3.3v) == CY7C1049CV33
  • Good ones (5v) == CY7C1049D

User avatar
EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Tue May 01, 2018 9:42 am

BloodyCactus wrote:
EzdineG wrote:Would it be possible to see your BOM at some point? I may be interested in building one of these at some point in the future.
You want the BOM as in all resistors etc, or the BOM as in just the IC's?
I'll take all you have to offer ;)

User avatar
BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Tue May 01, 2018 10:02 am

Everything is publicly available in my amibay thread from 2013 :) Anything you need to know is in that thread.





Return to “Hardware”