MiniMig V 2.0 - board interest check for a PCB order

[jensl]

I will order two boards from you.

MfG
Jens

[stanlong]

the bits and pieces w/out the board euro 160 aprox
then some one has to solder them
25 +160 + labour? =?
maybe a comlete kit (board and all the bits with instructions might save a lot of toing and froing) for those who can solder

[billt]

Let me know pricing for a completed board. I don't have much use for just a thin slab of plastic like stuff.

[weirdami]

There's a lot of empty space on that board.

[Crumb]

@Illuwatar

I'm curious about one thing... would it be possible to use TobiFlex 68k core instead of the real 68000? Would the design allow 24bit output if it was updated to AGA later? What about extra memory... adding 16MB would increase the cost much?

I ask these questions because I've seen Tobiflex core reaching reaching a 42Mhz 68000 in benchmarks and perhaps in the future someone adds support for AGA, 020, fast memory or uses the extra memory to emulate other machines.

[FrenchShark]

Crumb wrote:
@Illuwatar

I'm curious about one thing... would it be possible to use TobiFlex 68k core instead of the real 68000? Would the design allow 24bit output if it was updated to AGA later? What about extra memory... adding 16MB would increase the cost much?

I ask these questions because I've seen Tobiflex core reaching reaching a 42Mhz 68000 in benchmarks and perhaps in the future someone adds support for AGA, 020, fast memory or uses the extra memory to emulate other machines.

Hello,

I have done a study on this kind of design already, here are the main components:
- Cyclone III EP3C25
- SDRAM 16MB (chip)
- SDRAM 64MB (fast)
- VGA DAC AD725
- Audio DAC PCM1742
- AT91SAM replacing the PIC.

BOM price : $100
PCB price : $40 (for 10 PCBs)

BTW, 16MB of SDRAM (Samsung) costs $1.35, really cheap :-o

Regards,

Frederic

[amigadave]

I'll donate for one board and might have you assemble it for me.  

I already have too many projects that are not being worked on at the moment and I don't know when I will be able to start working on them.

I think your next project should be a MiniMig3.0 that is a reduced size version, say about 3-1/2" square to fit inside the base of a joystick.  Even if it had to be two boards sandwiched together to get it that small, it would be very marketable at that form factor.  Or probably better yet, get it reduced enough to fit into a PSP sized form including the LCD screen and a rechargeable battery to power it.

I know that UAE already exists for the PSP, but I don't think it runs Amiga games as well as the MiniMig.

[Illuwatar]

By judging from the replies, most people prefer a working unit. So, reaching these 10-limit should not be an issue.

Crom00 - how could we arrange this?


And about all this improvements with memory, FPGA and so on - these was never intended for this design. The whole idea was to keep it 100% compatible with the Dennis design and only change or add stuff that was missing on the original board (specially the power supply side). The Mini-ITX form factor was selected due to it is a standard (Dennis board is the same size a a Nano-ITX but the hole pattern and connectors are note to standard). The 170 x 170 mm board size is little bit oversize for this design (reason for the empty areas), but that is a side effect when a standard is used.

When the constraints of a design are removed, the result becomes different. Look at the Mini MiniMig at my home page. I don't think you can shrink that design even more and keep the current parts (specially the FPGA-CPU-RAM combo). Going smaller will require a BGA style FPGA, soft-core for the MC68000 and BGA memory chips. That design instantly rules out DIY for most people. As I have seen, there are several members of this forum that are cooking up new designs for the MiniMig - keep an eye on them (I'm certainly going to do that).

[jkonstan]

If you can get the cost to 14 euro/blank_pcb, I would be interested in two blank pcbs.

 :-)

[Troika]

Good looking design.

You should make this a news item and get more orders?

 :idea:

[denli]

Illuwatar wrote:
All information including part list and schematics are at my homepage (www.illuwatar.se).

How is this a major revision?

From what I can tell by reading the specifications it is a fixed Minimig mini-ITX v1.0 board.
Shouldn't it then be a minor release as in a v1.1?

[Illuwatar]

I did it a 2.0 as the board is totally re-routed. The only thing I reused from the 1.0 was the board outline and hole template... there are more behind this that aren't on the list. I also hope this is the final for this line of boards. Any further development will be the Mini MiniMig and all these "dream machines" people wants. Yesterday, I placed the last test run order to do a final verification of the design. Five blue boards will show up in approx. two weeks.

Reading the thread, I found that seven people prefers a blank PCB if I can get the 25-price and four wants a complete running unit.

[Palm]

Let me know if you need cash to keep the project going. I can prepay mine if you want ? Just let me know.


Regs
Espen

[Anding]

@Frederic,

Would you consider an AVR32 instead of ARM-based AT91SAM?  AVR development software is all free and the programmer is very cost effective - for an extremely powerful, newly designed, microcontroller.

[billt]

ny further development will be the Mini MiniMig

What is a Mini MiniMig going to be?

[1985BMWK75]

This is all quite interesting :-D I was thinking to get myself a MiniMig - until I saw the price of the little thing :-( I was also thinking to do a run of the MiniMig V1.1 PCB's. Until I saw the price of having fifty (50) of them made. Although it is not that expensive, it is for me, because I am quite poor at the moment. On the upside, I have been keeping my IC supplier busy getting quotes for me on the IC's that make up the MiniMig. The quotes I have been given so far are a hell of a lot cheaper than what I have seen on the net! So who knows, one of these days I might bring out a cheap MiniMig V1.1 - the poor mans version :-P

@Illuwatar

Would you like me to get a quote for the IC's that make up your MiniMig v2.0? It may save everyone some money. I also noticed that you are using fancy coloured soldermasks. Although they look nice, it just adds to the price. Plain old fashioned green is the cheapest. As is HASL to finish the copper. Although, I couldn't resist to use ENIG to plate the copper on my ROM switcher PCB's, as it wasn't much more expensive. I was originally going to make the soldermask on my V2.0 ROM switcher black, and have the silkscreen paint red. And with the ENIG (lovely gold :-P), it would have looked real pretty. But when I saw the price, I thought why make people pay more. And it sits inside the case of the Amiga anyway, so it wouldn't be able to be admired.

Anyway, good luck with your project ;-) Your skills are way beyond mine!

Nathan