Synoptic wrote on 2022-06-20, 19:28:

terryfi wrote on 2022-06-20, 18:21:

I get the idea but the layer is a bit too thick worried me, if I add solder paste and heat, I am not sure if the 0805 will sink […]
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Kahenraz wrote on 2022-06-20, 18:17:

What's wrong with pre-tinning? This keeps the copper from oxidizing before it gets to you.

I get the idea but the layer is a bit too thick worried me, if I add solder paste and heat, I am not sure if the 0805 will sink and be flush with the board.

Maybe I should use less solder paste, maybe I am just paranoid because I never soldered on this much pre-tinned board before.
I am also worried the tinned layer will affect soldering with hot air, maybe part won't adhere as it might disturb surface tension of solder paste.

Just add paste flux and heat up !

I will experiment to use flux to stick few and see if I can hot air them at once without using tweezers for each.

terryfi wrote on 2022-06-20, 20:20:

Synoptic wrote on 2022-06-20, 19:28:

terryfi wrote on 2022-06-20, 18:21:

I get the idea but the layer is a bit too thick worried me, if I add solder paste and heat, I am not sure if the 0805 will sink and be flush with the board.

Maybe I should use less solder paste, maybe I am just paranoid because I never soldered on this much pre-tinned board before.
I am also worried the tinned layer will affect soldering with hot air, maybe part won't adhere as it might disturb surface tension of solder paste.

Just add paste flux and heat up !

I will experiment to use flux to stick few and see if I can hot air them at once without using tweezers for each.

That's what I did. The surface tension of the solder will suck them right where they belong.

These boards are good for people that have hot air solder station. If not you need solder wick to remove solder, it's easy.

terryfi wrote on 2022-06-20, 20:20:

I will experiment to use flux to stick few and see if I can hot air them at once without using tweezers for each.

I've never used tweezers for SMD resistors, except for removal. Hot air is always the way to go.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-06-20, 22:28:

terryfi wrote on 2022-06-20, 20:20:

I will experiment to use flux to stick few and see if I can hot air them at once without using tweezers for each.

I've never used tweezers for SMD resistors, except for removal. Hot air is always the way to go.

I tried flux and hot air on small practice boards I used leaded solder for pretinning and it worked...
but on ARGUS board I couldn't get solder to melt properly even at 400 C and 4 out of 8 air speed.
I am gonna try leaded solder paste instead of only flux.

That's because your practice boards are usually single-layer with no copper ground plane. Proper multilayer boards are much harder to melt solder on. I've experienced severe trouble melting even tiny 0402 capacitors at 400C on the back of video cards. Ambient temperature plays a surprisingly large role in these situations.

This is one of the reasons I really want a pre-heater.

See here:

NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4200 triage and repair

For another example, I have a GeForce 6800 that I tried to reflow from the back. I could -not- get the solder to melt no matter how hot I made it or how much flux I added.

So... maybe a dumb question, but how do I make the ROM? How will I need to flash it, and what do I flash onto it?

ROM needs to be dumped off an original GUS PnP (Util is somewhere in this thread) and programmed externally (TL866 supports it via an adapter) before soldering it to the board ... or you'll have to obtain an IW78C21M1 allowing you to skip the programming part as they're mask-ROMs

I finished soldering the board, can someone point me to any quick start up posts/guides , I guess I have to flash eeprom with some utility first?
A quick sanity to least know card is not dead?

Double check that any electrolytic capacitors are on the right way around.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-06-21, 16:55:

Double check that any electrolytic capacitors are on the right way around.

I haven't connected it ; I just want to know correct steps for software; I see guides for Gravis Classic; you could extract folder from an archive without installing, is there a archive for GUS PNP installation too?

Found resetpnp here that supposedly rewrites the eeprom:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=100

terryfi wrote on 2022-06-21, 17:02:

is there a archive for GUS PNP installation too?

Drivers 'n things are available here: https://gona.mactar.hu/GRAVIS/#PnP

The ARGUS_final_doc.zip file in the first post of this thread has pretty much everything you need for the initial setup of the card.

Once that is done, just get the GUS PnP CD to install the patches and try some of the demos there.

Does the GUS need DMA to play music? Will it work in a board without functional DMA?

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-06-21, 22:18:

Does the GUS need DMA to play music? Will it work in a board without functional DMA?

DMA is not absolutely required at a hardware level, but it also depends on whether the software in question can fall back to PIO. Some titles implement DMA only, and there is no backup plan; in those cases, it obviously won't work.

It it needed for trackers and other kinds of players that only play music? I guess I would need to test it out to be sure.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-06-22, 00:01:

It it needed for trackers and other kinds of players that only play music? I guess I would need to test it out to be sure.

From my relatively limited experience, use of DMA in demoscene productions is somewhat less common. For trackers and music players, here's what I know of off the top of my head: Cubic Player does not use DMA by default (but it can be configured to). Impulse Tracker does not use DMA. Fast Tracker II shows the GUS's DMA but does not use it. CapaMOD uses DMA by default but can be configured to not use it.

I know that there are some exceptions, for example, EMU8000 chips over ISA won't detect in this board, despite it not needing DMA for this. Adlib always works fine.

Honestly, I’m probably just going to wait for the Gerbers to be released, then have JLCPCB SMD assemble most of the board for me.