VOGONS


Reply 2700 of 3172, by maxtherabbit

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shock__ wrote on 2022-03-28, 14:07:
maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-03-28, 14:03:

Yeah because omitting the silkscreen layer of the gerber stack is totally impossible (to remove credit)

Never said it was impossible (hence increased effort), nor would it make sense in this case (credits in copper layer - which of course can still be edited).

Ok well that at least makes some sense

Reply 2701 of 3172, by elfoam

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I drew almost the entire PCB some months ago but it wasn't as good as I wanted. In the meantime I got better at it and made some more simple PCBs of other projects that work. These days I'm at a stage where I can do this if needed. It would take me a couple of days so I'll just do it as a last resort if no one else who's already drawn it ends up putting gerbers on github, there are several people who have drawn this are hanging onto them privately for their own use. Chances are one I drew would be rougher but I'm confident I can make a working set of gerbers and they would go directly to github for the good of mankind.

Reply 2702 of 3172, by shock__

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elfoam wrote on 2022-03-30, 04:21:

I drew almost the entire PCB some months ago but it wasn't as good as I wanted. In the meantime I got better at it and made some more simple PCBs of other projects that work. These days I'm at a stage where I can do this if needed. It would take me a couple of days so I'll just do it as a last resort if no one else who's already drawn it ends up putting gerbers on github, there are several people who have drawn this are hanging onto them privately for their own use. Chances are one I drew would be rougher but I'm confident I can make a working set of gerbers and they would go directly to github for the good of mankind.

Even if this aims to "attack" the project, I strongly appreciate the emancipatory and self-empowering approach of acquiring required skills for such an undertaking - rather than the "shut up and take my money" or "why u no open source?!" comments I got a few of after the LGR video.
Hats off to you and all the best! Afterall this is basically how the project started (just from a PCB instead of whatever base you used).

Current Project: new GUS PnP compatible soundcard

[Z?]

Reply 2703 of 3172, by Shreddoc

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elfoam wrote on 2022-03-30, 04:21:

I drew almost the entire PCB some months ago but it wasn't as good as I wanted. In the meantime I got better at it and made some more simple PCBs of other projects that work. These days I'm at a stage where I can do this if needed. It would take me a couple of days so I'll just do it as a last resort if no one else who's already drawn it ends up putting gerbers on github, there are several people who have drawn this are hanging onto them privately for their own use. Chances are one I drew would be rougher but I'm confident I can make a working set of gerbers and they would go directly to github for the good of mankind.

Kudos to people like yourself and shock__, benefiting the community via these kinds of rare specialist work.

Wish I could (aka "had the massive time commitment to") learn the skills and contribute in some meaningful way, but life has other ideas.

Reply 2704 of 3172, by Thermalwrong

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Eh, if anyone's wondering, I got in a bit of a state after I researched the availability of parts. I haven't really worked on this since new years? And now there's some bad stuff is happening with work (office move + redundancy), but I'll have more time to myself soon, so that's a plus.
The RAM, ROM, ISA are all routed and I'm fairly confident they'd work, just need to add on some more of the analogue side. Since the Interwave outputs line out, the GUS PNP only has a headphone amp, I thought it was a 3w amp. So it's not too difficult to do all those parts kinda. But last time I looked, even picking the capacitors and crystals was tough enough to scare me off. This component shortage sucks.

Reply 2705 of 3172, by MJay99

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In case you find the time and want to keep going at some point: You can still get e.g. the MS6308 from ut where you need to get your mask rom from (unless you want to use the 29f800 rom), or use one of the amps readily available on e.g. digikey. I actually ordered a few to try them out and only one didn't work in my config. This one was fine for my setup: 497-2287-1-ND

The crystals should be X1040-ND and 887-1592-ND

The biggest issue seems to be sourcing the Interwave - looks like they're becoming increasingly unavailable. I currently only know of one easy way left to still get them (rather expensively). So, if someone would be able to FPGA them... that might solve a real issue, soon 😉

Reply 2706 of 3172, by elfoam

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shock__ wrote on 2022-03-31, 23:31:

eo.
Hats off to you and all the best! Afterall this is basically how the project started (just from a PCB instead of whatever base you used).

I'm just copying the Russian card which is a copy of your card which is a copy of the original.. I've scanned it today. I'm going to go ahead with it and see if I can get a working PCB. I'll give it a go and if not well.. maybe I'll learn something and get closer next time. It's probably a bit rude to just copy a card like this but I have a couple hundred bucks in parts sitting here and kinda need the extra PCBs at this point and have no other way to get one.

Reply 2707 of 3172, by shock__

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elfoam wrote on 2022-04-01, 19:13:
shock__ wrote on 2022-03-31, 23:31:

eo.
Hats off to you and all the best! Afterall this is basically how the project started (just from a PCB instead of whatever base you used).

I'm just copying the Russian card which is a copy of your card which is a copy of the original.. I've scanned it today. I'm going to go ahead with it and see if I can get a working PCB. I'll give it a go and if not well.. maybe I'll learn something and get closer next time. It's probably a bit rude to just copy a card like this but I have a couple hundred bucks in parts sitting here and kinda need the extra PCBs at this point and have no other way to get one.

It's not rude. While I have authority over _my_ work, I don't exactly believe in copyrights.
This project was basically started because the russian ZX community has been cloning hard to obtain PCBs since 15 years and I thought to myself "you can do that too".

Afterall I just copied AMD's work at first ... the base for the ARGUS initially was basically the "IW OEM Design" by AMD, which was used for a prototype + at least 2 cards from different manufacturers.

Current Project: new GUS PnP compatible soundcard

[Z?]

Reply 2708 of 3172, by elfoam

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Well I made a start tonight, for sure the most complex thing I've tried to clone. But I've put down a decent percentage of the top layer in a few hours. It'll need some fine tuning and hunting for errors once I've put down all the parts and tracks. Being a black PCB it's hard to see everything without using actual eyes on it.

Edit: Fixed all the trace spacing I have done so far and learnt how to do custom silkscreens around components properly so am fixing those now. Still lots of errors but getting closer by the hour. A guy that clones motherboards is going to educate me on how to use sprint better tomorrow, there's quite a few things I don't know how to do and will get a lesson on.

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Reply 2710 of 3172, by elfoam

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Jager wrote on 2022-04-05, 14:45:

This version of GuSar has some SIMM address lines swapped. Only 16mb modules work correctly. Also 0.1uf ceramic cap is recommend by datasheet in parallel to c722, if I recall correctly.

Ok thanks, I will look into that. Anyone will be able to modify and check it after I finish drawing it. I will be uploading the sprint layout files

Reply 2711 of 3172, by shock__

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Good news everyone, a deal for the american continents is likely to happen rather soon.

If anyone wants to take part in production and distribution for europe and/or asia and/or australia hit me up.

Current Project: new GUS PnP compatible soundcard

[Z?]

Reply 2712 of 3172, by elfoam

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shock__ wrote on 2022-04-05, 15:08:

Good news everyone, a deal for the american continents is likely to happen rather soon.

If anyone wants to take part in production and distribution for europe and/or asia and/or australia hit me up.

Excellent news man. I'll be up for some of your boards to build a couple of cards with the parts I have. I'm learning a lot drawing this and I'll use one of these also but it's not going to be so nice as the board you made, no chance.

Reply 2713 of 3172, by Synoptic

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shock__ wrote on 2022-04-05, 15:08:

Good news everyone, a deal for the american continents is likely to happen rather soon.

If anyone wants to take part in production and distribution for europe and/or asia and/or australia hit me up.

HI everyone, I am the one taking care for the Americas. I am setting up the website for you to pre-order your cards. I will be distributing PCB with the InterWave already on it to keep things simple.
I will have a stock of 48 Interwave chips, and will take order of 43 to keep 5 in case there are non-working PCB's down the line for warranty purposes.

I am in Canada, the boards will be assembled in Canada and will be red to keep the original feel of it.

Price will be in Canadian dollars. I am aiming at 100 Canadian dollars + shipping per PCB with Interwave on it.

If I can get 20 pre-orders, I'll run the batch at the fab.

Reply 2714 of 3172, by terryfi

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Synoptic, will you consider to prioritize people who showed in this forum first? Imagine you have your website on, first few lucky people can notify their friends or even sign up with different identities to get hold of most of card before they run out.

Reply 2715 of 3172, by Shponglefan

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Synoptic wrote on 2022-04-05, 21:43:

I am in Canada, the boards will be assembled in Canada and will be red to keep the original feel of it.

As a fellow Canadian this makes me so happy. 😁

Price will be in Canadian dollars. I am aiming at 100 Canadian dollars + shipping per PCB with Interwave on it.

If I can get 20 pre-orders, I'll run the batch at the fab.

I will definitely be down for one.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 2716 of 3172, by Synoptic

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Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-05, 22:11:
As a fellow Canadian this makes me so happy. :D […]
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Synoptic wrote on 2022-04-05, 21:43:

I am in Canada, the boards will be assembled in Canada and will be red to keep the original feel of it.

As a fellow Canadian this makes me so happy. 😁

Price will be in Canadian dollars. I am aiming at 100 Canadian dollars + shipping per PCB with Interwave on it.

If I can get 20 pre-orders, I'll run the batch at the fab.

I will definitely be down for one.

Preorders are up at www.micronick.com/argus

Reply 2718 of 3172, by Dr.Yak

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Synoptic wrote on 2022-04-05, 21:43:

I am in Canada, the boards will be assembled in Canada and will be red to keep the original feel of it.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-05, 22:11:

Preorders are up at www.micronick.com/argus

Given that there seems to be less enthusiasm for someone to start shipping those from Europe, is there a chance that you could ship across the ocean? Or will you only be shipping to North America?

Reply 2719 of 3172, by Dr.Yak

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Sunoo wrote on 2022-04-06, 12:57:

I guess I’ll get to find out if my SMT soldering skills have gotten any better since my last project.

Same problem here 😅
My current level is: puts everything on fire when not dealing with through-hole component.