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Need someone to test and critique Jaguar Prototype cartridge PCBs


Wyluli Wolf

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I hired someone to draw up some files so I could order some Atari Jaguar PCB's for prototyping. I hoped to make a few games for myself and perhaps sell blank PCB's if anyone is interested.

 

My initial order of boards have an issue which was graciously pointed out by zerosquare. Pins 34B and 35B are shorted to VCC instead of being bridged to each other. I now have to wonder if there are any other potential issues.

 

Is anyone willing to take a look at one of these boards ( I will ship a blank one to you) and do some testing to see if any other corrections need to be made?

I need to be absolutely sure everything is correct before placing another order.

 

Cost of blank PCB's will depend on the amount I order. I anticipate cost being $10 shipped (In the USA) or less.

If anyone does lend a hand I can send you some free PCB's from the order. Let me know what you think.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Edited by Wyluli Wolf
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What price range are you hoping to achieve if you order a large amount? I order mine from eBay, myatari sells 20 'non working' original cart pcbs and including postage to the U.K. they average out at about £2 a board.

It's going to depend on the amount I order. At the most I anticipate what I stated in my first post, hopefully less. The benefit of these boards is you do not have to de-solder the chips which (unless you have a de-soldering iron which runs upwards of $200+) is a giant pita. I'm sure some folks would find that to be useful.

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Why don't you manually fix those traces on your own and let us know if the cart works after that? If so, there's your issue. If not, it would be more involved to trace everything. It really should be up to the guy who you paid to do that PCB design to make sure it works correctly.

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Why don't you manually fix those traces on your own and let us know if the cart works after that? If so, there's your issue. If not, it would be more involved to trace everything. It really should be up to the guy who you paid to do that PCB design to make sure it works correctly.

I tried cutting and bridging the traces as suggested. I checked everything with a multimeter to make sure it was connected correctly. I was able to boot up the game once successfully and play. After that each attempt resulted in either no power or a red screen. Mostly no power. Very odd. Since I have never attempted to burn a game before I'm not sure if there is something further wrong with the board or something wrong with the process I used to create/add the game roms.

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If the game played correctly once I would doubt it is the EPROMs that are the issue. It's pretty binary with ROMs, they don't decide to work sometimes and not others, the content isn't changing.

 

I'd double check your patchwork, again if the console isn't powering up it is most likely an issue with 34B and 35B. And as I mentioned those traces looked thinner than a normal Jag cart, it could be that the cart is not seating properly on all pins.

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Is anyone willing to take a look at one of these boards ( I will ship a blank one to you) and do some testing to see if any other corrections need to be made?

I've burned a good number of Jag carts for myself (over 110). If you want, I could take one of your boards, socket them, and test with different burned eproms. I'll also check out the traces compared to an original board. I'll send the board back to you when done (with sockets on or off). PM me if you want to do that.

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Yes, if the game worked properly once, it's probably just bad contacts or cold solder joints. Also check that there's no bent contact on the cart port on the Jaguar itself ; it can happen if the PCB edge on the cartridge is not beveled.

 

Hard to tell but it sure does look like they have squared cart edges rather than beveled

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I've burned a good number of Jag carts for myself (over 110). If you want, I could take one of your boards, socket them, and test with different burned eproms. I'll also check out the traces compared to an original board. I'll send the board back to you when done (with sockets on or off). PM me if you want to do that.

PM sent (you can keep the board). Thanks!

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Yes, if the game worked properly once, it's probably just bad contacts or cold solder joints. Also check that there's no bent contact on the cart port on the Jaguar itself ; it can happen if the PCB edge on the cartridge is not beveled.

I didn't realize the edge was beveled on these carts. Heck, looking at a retail cart and it's still hard to tell. Thank you for this info.

Does anyone know what the perimeters are for the beveling?

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Thanks to everyone for the info.

It looks like the traces do need to be wider (have to figure out the width of original traces) and the edge beveled (thanks Madman).

I'll also need that spot between 34B and 35B fixed.

Now I just need to get these issues corrected. Nothing but crickets chirping from the person I hired to do the board for me.

Guess it's only been a day though. Funny how people respond within minutes when they want to get paid....
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Getting closer on this 'more painful than it should be' process. I believe I have the issue with 34B and 35B fixed.

I'm trying to get a straight answer on whether the contact width has been changed to 0.8mm (thanks zerosquare).

 

Contacted the manufacturer regarding beveled edges. That's turning into a fun "conversation". It goes something like this:

 

ME: "Can you do beveled edges similar to what is shown in this photo"?

Manufacturer: "Yes, we can make it (45-60 degrees)."

ME: "I do not see an option to add a beveled edge. How can I make sure a 45 degree angle is added to my order"?

Manufacturer: "we did not add "beveled edge" to the order page for it is very rare."

ME:

post-38599-0-25204300-1504022606.jpg

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Getting closer on this 'more painful than it should be' process. I believe I have the issue with 34B and 35B fixed.

I'm trying to get a straight answer on whether the contact width has been changed to 0.8mm (thanks zerosquare).

 

Contacted the manufacturer regarding beveled edges. That's turning into a fun "conversation". It goes something like this:

 

ME: "Can you do beveled edges similar to what is shown in this photo"?

Manufacturer: "Yes, we can make it (45-60 degrees)."

ME: "I do not see an option to add a beveled edge. How can I make sure a 45 degree angle is added to my order"?

Manufacturer: "we did not add "beveled edge" to the order page for it is very rare."

ME:

attachicon.giffrustration.jpg

 

 

hmm, you might want to use the phrase beveled edge for the "golden fingers." That is the phrase I have to use for my 8bit & TI boards. I will also gladly take a look at a board if you wish. Let me know.

 

-M

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if you want to make it the best compatability, on the eeprom save chip you need to connect the ORG pin to the +5V pin to set the save chip into 16 bit mode, this way 'new' revision eeproms will not need a bit or additional wire adding to make them work properly

 

93lc46C are chips that do not work without said bit of wire. once this is added they work fine

 

post-18126-0-04516100-1504165960.jpg

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Still hammering away at this. I'm trying to figure out why the manufacturer would say: "Sorry, we couldn't make the contacts on the end of the PCB with 0.8mm."

I've ordered boards from them before with contacts wider than this...I would ask, but lord knows I won't get an answer that makes any sort of translatable sense....lol.

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Update: Long story short I'm to the point where I just need to get the edge contacts (or gold fingers) widened to 0.8mm (as zerosquare stated). I think they will be ready for another run once that is done. I want to wait to see what rayik comes up with first, just to confirm I'm not missing anything else.

 

Macrorie - Thanks for the offer! rayik beat you to it so I'll see what he comes up with. I appreciate it!

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