AMIGA alive

AMIGA alive

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Building the TerribleFire TF530 accelerator board, part 1: Introduction

Stephen Leary's TF530 accelerator board for the Amiga 500 is a nice piece of hardware for several reasons. It's low-cost, open-source, fast, has an IDE controller, and a great name.

Why not build one youself?

Disclaimer: This is not an instruction. Use at your own risk. No responsibility taken for whatever you do. Safety first. Kids, dont try this at home. 

You need some proper tools, and should have some good soldering experience - SMD parts are really small... And you need some patience and knowledge to find the components.

For starters, check the video below, where Stephen shows the first steps in building it "from scratch".

"TFV#45 - Building Your Own 68030 Amiga 500 Accelerator - SMD Components"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG_5oDeLdGE

Find basic information, PCB layout, bill-of-material and software on Stephen's github account:
https://github.com/terriblefire/tf530

(Note: Stephen is still working the board, releasing updated revisions. Make sure you check board revisions, bill-of-material, and information accordingly.)

Also keep an eye on his YouTube channel, he releases new videos quite often, giving updates on his developments, explaining details of his boards, or even reviewing user boards:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4uiUtALy1ILAxNh7TGsmQ

If you need more information, you should watch Stephen's videos, and get in contact with other users via the "Terrible Fire Accelerators" thread on EAB / "English Amiga Board":
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=85380

Now let's see if we can build the TF530 - watch out for part 2 of our series "Building the TerribleFire TF530 accelerator board"!


Overview and back catalogue of the series:
http://amigaalive.blogspot.de/p/hardware-building-terribefire-tf530.html 

 

3 comments:

  1. Hi!
    Can anybody answer me, is it anyway how will I turn Res Thick Film Array 1K Ohm? I mean orientation ...

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    Replies
    1. Hi there, I think it doesnt matter, it's just four resistors packed next to each other. Looks like you're building the rev.3, nice. I'm trying to put together some sort of "user manual" for the TerribeFire boards: https://amihelper.blogspot.de/p/terriblefire-accelerators.html - not much about the rev.3 there yet, maybe you can contribute? e.g. latest firmware link?
      thanks & have fun with your TF530 :-)

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  2. You're right, I'm now testing with a measuring instrument. I thought before all the pins were connected together on the back side, but obviously they were not.
    For now I'm still in the early phase of the soldering, I have not yet programmed and I still have no firmware, but I can send you a report when I finish the project ;)
    Sorry for bad english ;)

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