mos_8502 :verified: on Nostr: Okay. Let’s talk about July, and what it means for Sentinel 65X. The current ...
Okay. Let’s talk about July, and what it means for Sentinel 65X.
The current prototype design is, so far, very nearly exactly right. All the major subsystems work perfectly. We have begun work on the kernel, and will be testing minor subsystems soon - gamepad, keyboard adapter, mouse, audio output - in preparation for the next iteration of the design.
The open question is whether the next iteration even is a prototype or not. See, if everything works as designed, then there isn’t much point to another prototype. We can move on to a 1.0 release track.
Of course, it would be silly to do a huge production run of a design of which there is exactly one working example in existence. Prototype buyers from this run are still working on theirs. So we’re going to give them a chance to build and play with their boards before another full rework.
But that doesn’t mean no new boards. If there is sufficient interest now that we know the design *basically* works, I would be willing to put in a few hours fixing the few minor flaws we’ve found in the current design and producing a run of “4.1” prototype boards. They would be basically the same as the current design, but with a couple of redundant parts removed from the PCB and BOM, a rearrangement of the power supply to fix the orientation issue, and the redesigned clock port. From a software standpoint they’d be exactly the same, but no longer an untested design.
The boards would be the same CAD$35 plus shipping to wherever as the last batch. I will also include in each of this run of boards a pair of PLCC32-to-DIP32 adapter PCBs you can build and use to make programming your ROM chip simpler, no extra charge for that.
I would need to sell at least four units to make a run of PCBs viable, but there’s no hard upper limit on how many can be made.
Oh, and if you’re interested but don’t want to deal with soldering the three SMD oscillators and the SD port, and if you are willing to pay for the parts (at cost) and an extra CAD$5 for my time, I can do that part for you too. My 200mm SMD reflow hot plate works a treat.
Full assembly is available as well, but that will cost more - price of the parts at cost, plus several hours of labour, and you have to wait for the parts to arrive. Still, I’m willing and able if that’s what you want.
#Sentinel65X
The current prototype design is, so far, very nearly exactly right. All the major subsystems work perfectly. We have begun work on the kernel, and will be testing minor subsystems soon - gamepad, keyboard adapter, mouse, audio output - in preparation for the next iteration of the design.
The open question is whether the next iteration even is a prototype or not. See, if everything works as designed, then there isn’t much point to another prototype. We can move on to a 1.0 release track.
Of course, it would be silly to do a huge production run of a design of which there is exactly one working example in existence. Prototype buyers from this run are still working on theirs. So we’re going to give them a chance to build and play with their boards before another full rework.
But that doesn’t mean no new boards. If there is sufficient interest now that we know the design *basically* works, I would be willing to put in a few hours fixing the few minor flaws we’ve found in the current design and producing a run of “4.1” prototype boards. They would be basically the same as the current design, but with a couple of redundant parts removed from the PCB and BOM, a rearrangement of the power supply to fix the orientation issue, and the redesigned clock port. From a software standpoint they’d be exactly the same, but no longer an untested design.
The boards would be the same CAD$35 plus shipping to wherever as the last batch. I will also include in each of this run of boards a pair of PLCC32-to-DIP32 adapter PCBs you can build and use to make programming your ROM chip simpler, no extra charge for that.
I would need to sell at least four units to make a run of PCBs viable, but there’s no hard upper limit on how many can be made.
Oh, and if you’re interested but don’t want to deal with soldering the three SMD oscillators and the SD port, and if you are willing to pay for the parts (at cost) and an extra CAD$5 for my time, I can do that part for you too. My 200mm SMD reflow hot plate works a treat.
Full assembly is available as well, but that will cost more - price of the parts at cost, plus several hours of labour, and you have to wait for the parts to arrive. Still, I’m willing and able if that’s what you want.
#Sentinel65X