Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Blogs & guides and tales of woo by forum members.
Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by Steve »

Hi guys,

Just working on Willie's Falcon,

We are doing:
  • PSU recap
  • Falcon motherboard re-cap
  • Exxos clock buffer
  • Exxos NVRAM
  • Exxos RAM board
  • Floppy drive clean
  • CF card reader to replace HDD
  • Install FPU
  • Install Fast TOS 4.04
  • Disable wait states
Link to motherboard high res photos

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Just checking to make sure it's working as expected to begin with
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There are two types of NVRAM on Falcon boards, the Motorola is the most difficult to remove as its legs aren't visible on the top side, so all the work needs to be done from the bottom. The ground plane is very strong so I needed to use my hot air gun while protecting the area with kapton tape
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A quick clean up with solder wick
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Socket installed
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NVRAM installed
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Fast TOS 4.04 installed so we can later disable the motherboards wait states
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Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by Steve »

Clock patch installation
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Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by Steve »

100k resistor added to clock patch on SDMA line
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Re-capping the PSU
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User avatar
Badwolf
Posts: 2228
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:09 pm

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by Badwolf »

Steve wrote: Sun Nov 07, 2021 6:52 pm There are two types of NVRAM on Falcon boards, the Motorola is the most difficult to remove as its legs aren't visible on the top side
I didn't know that. I've still not replaced the NVRAM on my Falcon yet, but it's good to know I've the 'easier' type.

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
~Willie~
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:28 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by ~Willie~ »

Thanks for posting Steve. Good to see the old bird getting the TLC she deserves.
Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by Steve »

~Willie~ wrote: Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:16 am Thanks for posting Steve. Good to see the old bird getting the TLC she deserves.
No worries man!
Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by Steve »

Mobo recapped and wait states removed:

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~Willie~
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:28 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by ~Willie~ »

Looking good Steve. Looking good....
Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by Steve »

Just some shots of cleaning the floppy drive, changing the drive motor capacitor, securing the CF card reader with kapton tape and double sided tape.
@~Willie~

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~Willie~
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:28 am

Re: Willies Falcon service blog (Nov 2021)

Post by ~Willie~ »

Wow Steve, those TOS 4.04 desktop icons are looking pretty cool it must be said. Can't quite get my head around seeing those 1GB partitions. :dualthumbup:

I'm getting excited now ;)
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