IcySon55 wrote on 2022-08-24, 21:35:

I must have bought a more expensive modular thing... it was $24.24 CAD on Ali.

What you bought is the correct working adapter for the TL866 series of programmers (at least the first gen ones). You need the interposer and the matching SOP44 socket.
The software does tell you what adapter is needed in the info window.

keropi wrote on 2022-08-24, 21:54:

What you bought is the correct working adapter for the TL866 series of programmers (at least the first gen ones). You need the interposer and the matching SOP44 socket.
The software does tell you what adapter is needed in the info window.

IIRC I have the TL866II Plus programmer and this particular adapter mentioned exactly the same one.

Looking at the adapter, I think they shipped it to me with the socket hat on backwards... The arrows and pin (1) indicators were on opposite sides...

The one without the interposer (44pin SOP to DIP adapter) simply doesn't fit into the 40pin ZIF of a TL866.
So, the more expensive one is the correct choice for that device.

Edit: and indeed, your picture has them put together wrong (both should have a '1' in a circle and they do belong on the same side).

Hi!

I just soldered a few of my own reverse-engineered boards that I posted about months ago (more like a year, actually). Someone posted pictures of a board (GUSar?), and I went full retard and reverse-engineered and fixed it up a bit. Some address pins of the SIMM were switched and some other details that I can't remember right now.

So if I get this right, my version is a reverse-engineered version of the the GUSar which was a reverse-engineered version of ARGus, which is a reverse-engineered version of some board AMD did, which in turn is a reverse-engineered version of Gravis' boards?

Only problem is that I didn't have any 72-pin SIMM modules to test the boards with... 😒

Seriously. What kind of retro-computer nerd does not have 72-pin SIMMs at home? Embarrassing.

Anyway, friends to the rescue. I will go and pick up a few tomorrow evening and continue the testing later during the week.

Nice one, yeah I posted photos of the gusar, you should have mentioned you were using those as I scanned the boards better later on. Seems like you figured it out anyway despite the blurriness, well done.

Yeah, it worked out. 😀

Just tested one board with a SIMM and it worked well with Pinball Fantasies:

https://nygatan.dose.se/~madman/files/gus_pinball.mp4

All I had time to test tonight.

Anyway, I will put them up for sale when I have ordered more. The five I had were sold out in an instant in a Facebook group. 😀

I just realized that the sound in that video is really bad. Must be compression somewhere. Or maybe it's just the internal speakers on my laptop that suck.

It sounds better in real life. I promise. 😀

kdehl wrote on 2022-08-29, 23:14:

I just realized that the sound in that video is really bad. Must be compression somewhere. Or maybe it's just the internal speakers on my laptop that sucks.

It sounds better in real life. I promise. 😀

I had a look on facebook to see if you posted the boards in any group I'm in but can't see it. Send me a message with where to look next time. I'll be building the pico pi in the meantime.

elfoam wrote on 2022-08-30, 07:10:

kdehl wrote on 2022-08-29, 23:14:

I just realized that the sound in that video is really bad. Must be compression somewhere. Or maybe it's just the internal speakers on my laptop that sucks.

It sounds better in real life. I promise. 😀

I had a look on facebook to see if you posted the boards in any group I'm in but can't see it. Send me a message with where to look next time. I'll be building the pico pi in the meantime.

I just posted in a local Swedish group. I will post more in other groups later when I have more boards available for sale.

(If you want to practice your Swedish it’s called ”Retrodatorer köpes, säljes, bytes yadayada…” it has about 9.2k members. 😀 )

Hey the only Swedish word I know is Ja.. Luckily that's all I needed to get in

Hi All- long time lurker of this thread and I finally made an account today. I'm highly interested in picking one of these up but it looks like I had bad timing with following this thread for a few years, then not following it in the last few months! If anyone is doing another production run or has a spare Argus to sell, I'm interested in picking one up. Either way I'll still lurk this thread to see if more stock becomes available 😀

elfoam wrote on 2022-08-30, 08:35:

Hey the only Swedish word I know is Ja.. Luckily that's all I needed to get in

I sent you an email. Hope I got it right. Apparently I'm not allowed to send private messages on this board yet.

krell moset wrote on 2022-08-30, 21:54:

Hi All- long time lurker of this thread and I finally made an account today. I'm highly interested in picking one of these up but it looks like I had bad timing with following this thread for a few years, then not following it in the last few months! If anyone is doing another production run or has a spare Argus to sell, I'm interested in picking one up. Either way I'll still lurk this thread to see if more stock becomes available 😀

Hi! I only did a test run of five boards, which sold out in hours. But I will put in another order soon. I will sell them for $170, fully mounted and tested.

Like I said, I'm not allowed to send private messages on this forum but we should take this conversation private. Drop me a mail on:

david.e.larsson, and at you know, the very common mail domain of that large search engine. Yes, that is, gmail.com. That's spam filtered enough, right?

David

kdehl wrote on 2022-08-28, 20:47:

Hi! […]
Show full quote

Hi!

I just soldered a few of my own reverse-engineered boards that I posted about months ago (more like a year, actually). Someone posted pictures of a board (GUSar?), and I went full retard and reverse-engineered and fixed it up a bit. Some address pins of the SIMM were switched and some other details that I can't remember right now.

So if I get this right, my version is a reverse-engineered version of the the GUSar which was a reverse-engineered version of ARGus, which is a reverse-engineered version of some board AMD did, which in turn is a reverse-engineered version of Gravis' boards?

Only problem is that I didn't have any 72-pin SIMM modules to test the boards with... 😒

Seriously. What kind of retro-computer nerd does not have 72-pin SIMMs at home? Embarrassing.

Anyway, friends to the rescue. I will go and pick up a few tomorrow evening and continue the testing later during the week.

Great work on your impressive project. I hope the components were not too onerous to obtain, at these times of shortage. I stared in disbelief at your typo (on the card) for a moment, before realising the joke; good one, haha.

FYI, I believe you will get PM rights at 20 posts, iirc.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-08-31, 21:35:

kdehl wrote on 2022-08-28, 20:47:

Hi! […]
Show full quote

Hi!

I just soldered a few of my own reverse-engineered boards that I posted about months ago (more like a year, actually). Someone posted pictures of a board (GUSar?), and I went full retard and reverse-engineered and fixed it up a bit. Some address pins of the SIMM were switched and some other details that I can't remember right now.

So if I get this right, my version is a reverse-engineered version of the the GUSar which was a reverse-engineered version of ARGus, which is a reverse-engineered version of some board AMD did, which in turn is a reverse-engineered version of Gravis' boards?

Only problem is that I didn't have any 72-pin SIMM modules to test the boards with... 😒

Seriously. What kind of retro-computer nerd does not have 72-pin SIMMs at home? Embarrassing.

Anyway, friends to the rescue. I will go and pick up a few tomorrow evening and continue the testing later during the week.

Great work on your impressive project. I hope the components were not too onerous to obtain, at these times of shortage. I stared in disbelief at your typo (on the card) for a moment, before realising the joke; good one, haha.

FYI, I believe you will get PM rights at 20 posts, iirc.

Thank you for the kind words. 😀

Yeah I had to switch out quite a few components. The most obvious might be one of the voltage regulators. They don’t look symmetric anymore unfortunately. But they work.

Yeah let’s pretend that was a joke and not a typo! 😀

Oh right. The only problem I have now is that I don’t have an IW78C21M1 or a dump of it. Is anyone willing to part with either?

The Chinese sources seem to be completely out of stock now.

The boards seem to work well without it so it’s just for completion. Some people still might like it to be there.

The dump is on archive dot org, so no problem

Nice to see more and more InterWave boards popping up 😀

ARGUS gerbers delayed once again (as always) 😉
I know it's basically a 5 minute job, but kinda stressed out in another aspect of my life and I don't wanna upload junk.

Here we go.
Check the initial post (inline attachments seem to be broken)

shock__ wrote on 2022-09-02, 21:14:

Here we go.
Check the initial post (inline attachments seem to be broken)

Thanks Shock, look forward to building mine.