Minimig PCB run - interest thread

[Xenepp]

As it goes, this thread's gotten pretty long, should I start a new thread for pre-orders so no-one misses out?

Admin?

 -Joel

[Xenepp]

All pre-order discussion should now be directed here:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=30997

Full details are outlined there and those who have PM'd me (already!) should check there to make sure they are still in and let me know.

 -Joel

[Xenepp]

Improvments are mostly fixes and part reduction from what Dennis tells me.

Swapping the 68k for an 020 is possable with changes to the schematic and the FPGA core. Both require lots of time and patience, but I would expect someone will have a go at making upgrades at some point.

 -Joel

[Xenepp]

Sorry freqmax, I'm not following you  :-?

To "fake" the 020 is folly. As soon as any software that needed it was run it'd crash, as to the software, the hardware would be "failing".

The only way 020 programs would run would be to impliment the hardware and reconfigure the design to match.

Unless you mean to just impliment the 020 exclusive features the the FPGA then have the 68k handle the rest, that could be possable I guess, but if it was I'd expect it to run real slow :-)

 -Joel

[Xenepp]

The thing is, you would need to alter the FPGA program even if the 020 was pin compatable since the architecture is still slightly diffrent and the rest of the hardware on board would need to know this, or be upgraded to cope with it.

A good example is the Sega Megadrive. I remember a few years ago, a few people were tinkering with it trying to squeeze more speed out of the 68k. They upgraded it with a faster chip and all kinds of wacky things happened in some games, most wouldn't even boot. That was still using a 68k.

 -Joel

[Xenepp]

Joel, can you tell us why only 5 assembled PCBs are available from this first production run and an unlimited number of bare boards? Is it because you only have enough parts to complete 5 assembled boards and don't want to put up the money in advance to purchase more parts? Or, is it because you are assembling the boards yourself and don't want to commit to doing the work on more than 5 boards at a time?

Is there any way we can increase the number of assembled boards?

Well I raised the limit to 10 but yes, it's due to the time I can invest into assembling these myself. The more there are the longer it would take and the less enthusiastic I'd be to do another run ;-)

If I could invest more time and do more I would, believe me. I'll be doing more runs though once this one's over so I hope everyone will get a Minimig that wants one in time.

 -Joel

[Xenepp]

Another update, Dennis alerted me to V1.1 yesterday and I sent it off to China already.

Two weeks and thing will start to happen here! :-D

 -Joel

[Xenepp]

Well, there's good news and bad..

First the good.. the Minimig PCBs have arrived! They look great (see here)

The bad news, it looks like I'll not have the time to do a run of complete PCBs.  :cry:

I've just gone back to college and it's more work that I ever imagined. That plus life equals no time for much of anything. The free time I do get I just want to sleep!

I can always get the bare PCBs though and have 9 here with folk's names on them so if you want them just drop me a PM, but a big sorry to all those waiting for complete boards, it just isn't going to happen from me.  :cry:

Anyway, I'm going to start emailing those who pre-ordered the bare boards and collecting payments and getting them shipped out.

 -Joel