FPGA Replay Board

[billt]

They are shipping now, just slowly as I work through the pre-orders.
It takes a lot of time to hand assemble and test each board.
Now I have FCC and CE approval I'm going ahead with mass production.
/Mike

How does one go about getting a product like this approved by them? And does that get you worldwide certification, or are there other things to be done for some parts of the world?

[freqmax]

Asfaik, send it in or compliance testing, expect failure and then correction, repeat until you fixed all demands. That gives you a paper you can shove the EMC inquisition. Cost approximate 20-30k USD per test.

[amigadave]

Asfaik, send it in or compliance testing, expect failure and then correction, repeat until you fixed all demands. That gives you a paper you can shove the EMC inquisition. Cost approximate 20-30k USD per test.

If MikeJ has just spent $20k to $30k on getting the FPGA Arcade Replay board certified, he must have some serious plans for mass production and sales to recoup that amount of investment.

Hopefully there is a cheaper method of obtaining those certifications for small scale inventors, or many small projects would never see the light of day (if these certifications are required to make them available for sale to the public).

I think it would be a great thing for public awareness about the Amiga and all of the great old games that were available for it, if MikeJ's Replay board ends up for sale in large retail outlets and sells in the ten's of thousands of units, but some how I don't think that is MikeJ's plan.  Unless he has been quietly working on such plans behind the scenes for a long time and has an investment partner with a marketing plan that includes advertising and packaging, including a case w/PSU and pre-installed AmigaForever with Amiga ROMs & lots of games and applications.  (I am not even sure that Colanto's license would allow such pre-installation of their product)

Any product that raises Amiga awareness and brings a few former Amiga users back to using this, or looking at other developments in the world of Amiga today, is a positive thing.  Any Amiga related product that can be successfully marketed in mass numbers will be a good for all other parts of the Amiga community as a whole.  With a little bit of luck and the right marketing, packaging and investment backing, the Replay board could maybe be successful in selling many thousand units (not just to Amiga fans, but Arcade fans as well), and with a little more luck, could even break into the realm of selling a few ten's of thousands of units, but it would not be easy and could be a risky investment if sales turned out to be not so good and too much stock was produced.  Packaging and marketing would be two critical items that will control how much success it can achieve.  That plus MikeJ's desire of how big he wants this product to be.  He might prefer to keep it small and completely under his control, without any influence from outside partners.

[Darrin]

If MikeJ has just spent $20k to $30k on getting the FPGA Arcade Replay board certified, he must have some serious plans for mass production and sales to recoup that amount of investment.

Hopefully there is a cheaper method of obtaining those certifications for small scale inventors, or many small projects would never see the light of day (if these certifications are required to make them available for sale to the public).

I think it would be a great thing for public awareness about the Amiga and all of the great old games that were available for it, if MikeJ's Replay board ends up for sale in large retail outlets and sells in the ten's of thousands of units, but some how I don't think that is MikeJ's plan.  Unless he has been quietly working on such plans behind the scenes for a long time and has an investment partner with a marketing plan that includes advertising and packaging, including a case w/PSU and pre-installed AmigaForever with Amiga ROMs & lots of games and applications.  (I am not even sure that Colanto's license would allow such pre-installation of their product)

Any product that raises Amiga awareness and brings a few former Amiga users back to using this, or looking at other developments in the world of Amiga today, is a positive thing.  Any Amiga related product that can be successfully marketed in mass numbers will be a good for all other parts of the Amiga community as a whole.  With a little bit of luck and the right marketing, packaging and investment backing, the Replay board could maybe be successful in selling many thousand units (not just to Amiga fans, but Arcade fans as well), and with a little more luck, could even break into the realm of selling a few ten's of thousands of units, but it would not be easy and could be a risky investment if sales turned out to be not so good and too much stock was produced.  Packaging and marketing would be two critical items that will control how much success it can achieve.  That plus MikeJ's desire of how big he wants this product to be.  He might prefer to keep it small and completely under his control, without any influence from outside partners.

Let's face it, the beauty of Mike's board is that it isn't just a Minimig.  It can be whatever the user wants it to be and with multiple cores on a single card it could be the ultimate retro computer and/or arcade games machine.

Right now I have my Chameleon64 configured where I can select between a C64, Amiga or Spectrum on start-up.

I love FPGA machines.  

[mikej]

If MikeJ has just spent $20k to $30k on getting the FPGA Arcade Replay board certified, he must have some serious plans for mass production and sales to recoup that amount of investment.

well, it wasn't quite that much - but was a bit pricey.
I'm having fun (and spending a fortune) learning how to produce hardware....

I am working as we speak in a bar in China on getting the new ARM code/core to support DVI/composite etc.

Cheers,
Mike

[Kesa]

Why does it (or anything) need to be certified again?

[kedawa]

If they're being mass produced and imported from China in large quantities, then the boards will likely be scrutinized by customs, and I'm pretty sure most countries require electronics to meet certain standards.
For something manufactured in some guy's garage, not so much.

[nyteschayde]

Without reading all 73 other pages, are these available now? If so, how much are they?

[Firedawg]

Without reading all 73 other pages, are these available now? If so, how much are they?

As for availability of the board, I believe it is only as Mikej completes them.  Email him at  mikej@fpgaarcade.com to be placed on the list. Pricing has been discussed at 220 EUR, but let Mikej give you that number.

The Dawg

[freqmax]

Please spam protect the email ..

@mikej, How can one find work piece and have your stuff for yourself in a bar?

[amigadave]

Please spam protect the email ..

@mikej, How can one find work piece and have your stuff for yourself in a bar?

Yes, Firedawg, please edit your post to protect MikeJ's email address from spam-bots that crawl the web looking for email addresses.

If it does not get edited soon, can one of the Moderators here please edit it to make it more spam-bot proof?

[amigadave]

Without reading all 73 other pages, are these available now? If so, how much are they?

I think the price is 229 euros for the version without the composite output RCA jack, and 249 euros with composite output, but check MikeJ's website for the latest info.

The current batch has most likely already been spoken for, but send MikeJ an email asking for him to add you to the list of potential buyers and he will contact you when more are ready for delivery, or if he has any left that are ready to ship from the current batch.  He stated that he is very close to being ready for mass production, so what ever his definition of "Mass Production" means, will probably be explained soon and he will tell us how many boards he is going to produce next (last batch was 48, or 50, so next batch is sure to be more than that).

I think that Mike is going to have more, or all of the assembly work for the next batch done by another company in China, so there should not be as long of a delay, between the time he has the PCB's produced, and the completion of the boards for testing and ready for shipment, as there was for the last 48 to 50 boards that he hand assembled and tested by himself.

(all of the above is to the best of my memory, and subject to corrections by other members here, or MikeJ himself, as time permits)

[digiflip]

does any1 know when mikej going to be selling his boards through his site or elsewhere and his there any news on the 68060 expansion board?

[Firedawg]

mikej response below says it all.

Mike

[mikej]

My version of Jakub's core is now up and running - I've been adding some customisation for the Replay board etc. Not totally finished yet but getting close. This will beta while Jakub and I figure out to merge back. He is focusing more on RTG graphics and the 68060 at the moment.

I've finished testing another 5 boards today which will ship.

I'm also working on the daughter board, still aiming for mid-late April PCB production, depending on how long it takes to get the new firmware released.

/Mike

[wrath of khan]

A few questions about the fpga arcade board. The amiga part is it faster or improved over an aga machine? As i understand it we can flash a hardware system to the board thru' software and it can mimic a variety of systems?What percentage of compatability is there for the amiga/st other systems?What are the benefits now or for the future for the fpga arcade over a regular amiga?I assume we can run roms/games on it and it can be like an arcade system.Is their a casing planned.etc.Lot's of questions i know.Im not a technical computer guy so any responses are appreciated thanks.