Interest check: An updated MiniITX-MiniMig ( Pics!!! )

[Illuwatar]

Board is 100% routed and it passes the DRC-testing... :-D

What left to do are some minor tweaking of the ground planes, then they are done for manufacturing.

Before actually making any boards, I need to get some sense of interest. A few have indicated that they will buy boards, but should I make 10, 25 or maybe more? Total cost will of course increase for each board added but the price per unit will decrease. Before shelling out for a 25-board run, I must be sure to sell them all (except for a few I keep for my own joy). Calculated prices based on board size and manufacturing parameters are: €25/each @ 10 boards, €14/each @ 25 boards. This price includes shipping from China to me but not from me to You. Also, there are zero-profit prices - the job is done for free if I sell for these prices. I'm unsure what is fair to take as a "reward" for the work making these boards - the Amiga-scene is little bit like a family...

Maybe the first run should be like five boards or so to prevent a large economical damage in case of board errors found during testing. If the board runs fine, I can do a second order. One thing i sure - I'm not going to sell any untested designs.

Edit: What color should i choose? Keep the flat black or select something else... :-D

[trekiej]

The GBA1000 is blue and it looks good.
It there a scheme that would make it stand out in a photo?
It could differentiate it against others.

[FrenchShark]

Hello,

sorry for this late remark/request but, I am finishing the adaptation on FPGA of the Capcom game "1943 : The battle of midway".
The issue is that it cannot run on the current Minimig because of the slow SRAM (55ns).
The FPGA game runs with a bus clock at 24MHz (40ns cycle).
I know there are some 512x16 TSOPII-44 SRAM @ 10ns from Cypress/ISSI but they are expensive and difficult to find.
The best deal is to put four 512x8 SRAM chip ($3.84 each at Future Electronics)

Regards,

Frederic

[Illuwatar]

I don't think I will delay the board even more by re-designing the memory section. Swapping the existing SRAM's to faster ones with the same pin layout is fine, but not re-designing the board. My other board (the Mini MiniMig) will be using 10 ns SRAM (1M x 16), but that project is currently on-hold until some other projects are done (that includes this Mini-ITX board).

Regarding the colors, I can choose from: standard PCB green (flat or shiny), black (flat och shiny), blue, red, white or yellow. The text could be white, yellow, black or red. My personal choices are black (flat), blue or red (in that order). The colors aren't changing the price of the boards (green may be a little bit cheaper).

[trekiej]

To paraphrase, Henry Ford said you can have any color you want only if it is black.

[Illuwatar]

It seems like the first initial board run can be sold without problems (judging from the PM's I have received). I will do a "debug-run" of five boards first. And I will do them flat black as I did with the previous version (the blue PCB should stay as a trade mark for the GBA1000 project). I will put a note in this thread when the order is done (it will take about two weeks form order to boards in my hand).

[denli]

Nice going Illuwatar  :-)
What is the final specs?

[Illuwatar]

The first run of five boards are ordered now. In about two weeks I will know if this is a successful project...

[Illuwatar]

The first set of five boards has arrived. So, now I will start the hard work of assembling and testing. And I have already found a fault in the design - a mechanical one that I could bypass with some brute force... :madashell:

So, if these boards are working fine, I will assemble all five and sell them as complete units as these boards are not suitable for public release. A second run will be done with all corrections included and that one will be (hopefully) sellable.

A part order have been done too - to three different places to get all parts needed for a complete board. If it works fine, I will order parts for the remaining four boards.

Pictures will come, both here and at my homepage...

[trekiej]

Excellent.

[Illuwatar]

The pictures:





The currently known problem is related to the VGA/PS2-combo connector. The holes aren't properly aligned with the connector so I have to change the footprint a little. With some cutting, bending and forcing, I was able to mount it anyway so this board batch could be used for further testing.

[trip6]

@Illuwatar

For the final rev would you \ could you include a mini-itx case backplane plate cutout for the connectors with the boards? That would be awesome...

Also, what is the cost of a fully assembled\populated board?

[Illuwatar]

The problem with the back cover plate is manufacturing - everything I do that you see here is made in a home environment with tools you could find in the nearby hardware store (except for the PCB manufacturing that is done by www.pcbcart.com). Mass producing sheet metal parts like these plates are out of my workshop's capabilities.

Fully populated boards are currently build by hand, so it is impossible for me to compete with companies like ACube in both production speed and cost. The first five boards will be built and tested (if I don't find more problems that affects the functionality), then I may put them out as auctions to see what people may pay. The corrected version will be available as bare PCB's for those who like to put it together by themselves.

[freqmax]

Maybe you could utilise already used backplates on existing PCs ..?

[skurk]

freqmax wrote:
Maybe you could utilise already used backplates on existing PCs ..?

Agreed. I thought that was part of the point with the ITX Minimig.

If the ITX Minimig featured an IDE controller (which is plausible, on-board IDE68K for instance), then we might have something really useable.  I'll have one!

(Edit: 666th post! )

[jj]

To paraphrase, Henry Ford said you can have any color you want only if it is black.

OMG, I cant believe people actually still think he said this.  He never did say it.  There is no evidence to support he did and in fact you couldnt even get the model T in black for quite a few years into production.