Do we have room for another N64P? (t64 WIP)

[kibble]

I'm wondering how long it's going to take you to route/desolder/solder all of the decoupling capacitors on the underside of the PCB though .

Working on it.

So far I have like 50% of the CPU's caps done. I was thinking of just skipping the removing of them from the original board and just buying pieces of tape of all new ones. There's way too many of them. The other thing is that I don't really know their value, but I'm assuming .1uF would probably be it for the smaller ones. Kinda wish I had an LC meter. I was actually working on making an LC meter before I started on this project, maybe I should go back and finish that first. <--- does anyone else besides me not like this lol smilie? I liked the other one better.

[dragonhead]

<--- does anyone else besides me not like this lol smilie? I liked the other one better.

looks like nervous laughter...

[Skyone]

<--- does anyone else besides me not like this lol smilie? I liked the other one better.

It's a trade-off.

[kibble]

you mind if i snag the eagle file from you?

Geez, we haven't even gone on our first date yet!

Ha ha!

I know you guys really want to get your hands on this, and I most likely will share it but, just let me work on it a bit more. In the meantime, I appreciate any input you guys give.

I'm still shrinking down areas where I can after I route the wires and the wires are about as thin as I can get them where they'll still print properly. I can already see some areas where I will probably cut it down a bit more. I tried to space everything out so that I can get an idea of where to route the wires and I'm shrinking down as I go along. I got done placing the caps for the CPU and mitered the wires so they look better and not 45's on the corners.

Ugh... I have to leave for work in a couple of hours....

[Skyone]

What's the current size of the board? And if you do release the EAGLE files, I'd recommend just releasing the circuit, not the board. Less script kiddying.

EDIT: Also, what library did you find the QFP footprints for the CPU and RCP in EAGLE? I think I found the right ones, just wanted to make sure. CQFP-120/160 right?

[kibble]

What's the current size of the board? And if you do release the EAGLE files, I'd recommend just releasing the circuit, not the board. Less script kiddying.

EDIT: Also, what library did you find the QFP footprints for the CPU and RCP in EAGLE? I think I found the right ones, just wanted to make sure.

At the moment it's shrunk about 3mm horizontally... LOL so it's down to 12.7 by 9. I'm looking into squeezing the RAM up a bit, I left a big gap between the first RDRAM and the RCP. I'm also going to place that 6 pin connector on the bottom vertically, like dragonhead had mentioned. I had them lined up on the bottom to get them out of the way and not have to go digging for them in the library.

For CPU and RCP I used CQFP-120 and CQFP-160 in the ref-packages library.

i also think i know how you can squeeze a little more out of the height of the board... id like to discuss it with you if you want.

I don't know if you edited your post or somehow I didn't read this part but, what did you have in mind? I have a feeling you're gonna mention the cart connector header. LOL I know it's not in the best spot, but it might not be in that position when it's done.

[Skyone]

That sounds great, I'm glad you're able to squeeze that much off. I forget if you mentioned this; what RDRAM sizes do you plan to use?

[kibble]

I forget if you mentioned this; what RDRAM sizes do you plan to use?

*facepalm* I'm using two 36Mbit chips so that it supports games that require the expansion pack.

[Skyone]

Ah, gotcha. To conserve space, have you thought of physically stacking RDRAM chips? The only issue that I can think of is proper cooling.

[eagle5953]

Ah, gotcha. To conserve space, have you thought of physically stacking RDRAM chips? The only issue that I can think of is proper cooling.

are the two memory chips on the same traces? if thats the case, you could physically stack the two chips to save space.

Most of the pins are connected to each other but there's a couple that need to run in order from one chip to the other. Also, the RAM needs termination resistors at the very end, similar to the way SCSI works so I don't really thing stacking them would be a good idea.

from page 2

[kibble]

And just because I know a pic is worth 1000 and I like to get an idea of what I'm working with:

[Skyone]

[..pwning me..]

Looks very nice, kibble.

[dragonhead]

lookin great so far. and i thought of something, when you get the final etch transfer printed, you should think about getting it printed a a professional printing company so you can print smaller traces? i know home printers arent that great.

[Skyone]

I assume he's going to order the PCB through a board company, though I did overlook homebrewing PCBs.

[dragonhead]

well if you want cheap, professional PCBs, try here http://www.batchpcb.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;