I aquired this neat SBC, NexCom PEAK 555VL and I'm looking to sell it in the future. However, I'd hate to sell it as untested. Anyone have experience with these boards? How would one test it stand alone?
the manual is here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/nexcom … peak-555vl#docs
but I do not see any kind of power connector on the board so this means you will need an ISA backplane to test this SBC, the backplane will have the PSU connectors and will power the SBC
alternatively you can use something like an AMIGA 2000 (if you have one that is) that has ISA slots on it's board that are disconnected from the rest of the system or just hack up some old isa riser, carefully connecting voltages/ground to the ISA pins and power it that way
keropi wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:11:the manual is here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/nexcom … peak-555vl#docs
but I do not see any kind of power connector on the board so this means you will need an ISA backplane to test this SBC, the backplane will have the PSU connectors and will power the SBC
alternatively you can use something like an AMIGA 2000 (if you have one that is) that has ISA slots on it's board that are disconnected from the rest of the system or just hack up some old isa riser, carefully connecting voltages/ground to the ISA pins and power it that way
Good idea with the riser! There is a 4-pin power connector on the board, two pins are 5V and two are GND. However, I don't know, if that alone is enough to power it.
Half-Saint wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:44:Good idea with the riser! There is a 4-pin power connector on the board, two pins are 5V and two are GND. However, I don't know, if that alone is enough to power it.
I do not see anything on the manual that suggests that there is a connector that can actually be used to power the board , what connector are you referring to?
keropi wrote on 2025-04-29, 10:05:Half-Saint wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:44:Good idea with the riser! There is a 4-pin power connector on the board, two pins are 5V and two are GND. However, I don't know, if that alone is enough to power it.
I do not see anything on the manual that suggests that there is a connector that can actually be used to power the board , what connector are you referring to?
Talking about this one in the attachment.
definitely not suitable to power the board from any of these...
the description is J3/J5 is: J3/J5 Power regulator input connector
but this does not mean it's to power the board from there
go the riser way but make sure you make no mistake on the voltages , you will need just +5v, +12v and GND
the manual states:
Power requirements
+5v: 10A(Max.)
+12v: 1mA(Max)
Hipothetically, would it be okay, if I designed a PCB with one ISA slot, +5V, +12V and GND lines and a power connector (AT for example), that would be enough?
yes I do not see why it would not work , perhaps there is already some small passive backplane design available
One thing I once did in situation like this: take the BIOS out of an AT motherboard, stick SBC into it.
Iirc I used an Asus So5 board, the SBC was a PICMG (the PCI part just overhung the ISA uselessly).
Use an Amiga 2000
dionb wrote on Yesterday, 08:43:One thing I once did in situation like this: take the BIOS out of an AT motherboard, stick SBC into it.
Iirc I used an Asus So5 board, the SBC was a PICMG (the PCI part just overhung the ISA uselessly).
Was just going to suggest that it might work to use an unpopulated AT mobo as backplane, or even just pulling the CPU and expansion cards not needed for the test from one in use.
Out of curiosity, did it work as expected? 😀
kaputnik wrote on Today, 06:30:dionb wrote on Yesterday, 08:43:One thing I once did in situation like this: take the BIOS out of an AT motherboard, stick SBC into it.
Iirc I used an Asus So5 board, the SBC was a PICMG (the PCI part just overhung the ISA uselessly).
Was just going to suggest that it might work to use an unpopulated AT mobo as backplane, or even just pulling the CPU and expansion cards not needed for the test from one in use.
Out of curiosity, did it work as expected? 😀
Yes, it worked fine. After testing I got a proper PICMG backplane for the card. I forget what happened to it later, but I still have the backplane which now has an So370 FC-PGA2 SBC in it.
