Commander X16 - Second Prototype PCBs are Here!

ZeroPageX · Post by **ZeroPageX** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 1:20 am

Nice progress! Looks great! I'm so happy to see SNES ports!

troj · Post by **troj** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 1:50 am

Board looks great - that blue color is really striking!

It's exciting to see real hardware coming together. ?

Taking a look at the hardware, if kit form is offered (I really hope it is), hopefully there's an option for the main board to be a kit, but the VERA to be preassembled. For those of us old farts, hand-soldering SMD components is tricky at best. Old eyes plus the beginning of essential tremors is a bad combination for tiny parts. ?

Gold · Post by **Gold** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 2:34 am

Wouldn't assembly cost a lot given that the motherboard is all through hole?

Kevin Williams · Post by **Kevin Williams** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 2:50 am

It will cost more, but the vision of the first step is through-hole and easy to understand. Later versions will be surface mount and cost reduced.

BruceMcF · Post by **BruceMcF** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 3:20 am

2 hours ago, Gold said:

Wouldn't assembly cost a lot given that the motherboard is all through hole?

Remember that there are surface mount packages for the Western Digital Chips, and of course for the SRAM and flash ROM, so the only "long" IC's in the CX16c might be the two sound chips ... and depending on demand for the CX16c and supply of the sound chips, it's conceivable that they get replaced by an FPGA, which would make it all surface mount parts.

The possibly kit-buildable, all through hole with all of that glue logic like it come from an alternate Universe version of 1989 (except the original Video assembly died on the journey and had to be replaced with an FPGA) ... that's going to cost what it costs, and the people that are going to be buying it will be because the heart wants what it wants.

Sid_Som · Post by **Sid_Som** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 3:24 am

Yes, I love the SNES controller ports; this looks so sweet!!

-N2 · Post by **-N2** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 5:01 am

I'd really like to see a memory mapped 16 bit ISA slot on that board for support of Vintage sound cards!

BruceMcF · Post by **BruceMcF** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 5:06 am

3 minutes ago, -N2 said:

I'd really like to see a memory mapped 16 bit ISA slot on that board for support of Vintage sound cards!

Now THAT would be an interesting expansion card ... but a bit tricky.

-N2 · Post by **-N2** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 5:09 am

1 minute ago, BruceMcF said:

Now THAT would be an interesting expansion card ... but a bit tricky.

I'm trying to determine how those 50 pin connectors are wired up, are they the standard Apple IIe pinout?

BruceMcF · Post by **BruceMcF** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 5:11 am

2 minutes ago, -N2 said:

I'm trying to determine how those 50 pin connectors are wired up, are they the standard Apple IIe pinout?

No, it's a bespoke slot design. See this post from about a month ago: