Quantum Repro Board - Post Your Progress!

bungy

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I just finished mine and I was wondering how everyone else was making out. I have to say, this was a very fun project to work on, very relaxing. I worked on it a few hours a night totaling about 15 hours. I forgot to order a few things from Mouser, but Radio Shack had them (imagine that!) and I was able to finish up today.

The only error I made was when I installed one RAM chip backwards in the socket. I replaced it, but it still wouldn't come up. I got that empty, helpless feeling that I get whenever a game goes down, but then I replaced all the RAMs in the bank and it came up fine. I was very surprised at how smooth it went after my initial flub.

This is the largest project like this that I've done to date, but it was really quite easy. I guess the scale was a little intimidating at first, but I just worked on it in pieces and it came together nicely.

Many thanks to Tronic for making this possible; the board is super high quality and was a joy to work on. Also thanks to Riptor for putting together a nice IC package for this project.

So who else is working on theirs? We can also use this thread to help troubleshoot any issues and answer questions. Post your progress!

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Great work!!! I bet it feels nice to have a brand new board as a backup.

It sure does!

I also forgot to thank Mark Spaeth for the AVG Eliminator, without which this project wouldn't have been possible.
 
Heh, I was just thinking of putting up a build thread in the technical section later this evening. This should probably be moved there and all of us builders can blab back and forth about what we're using, how it's going, tips and hints, etc.

I'm still amassing the build materials for mine, got the "critical" orders already in hand, Effects Connection and Arcadechips. Arcadechips btw, is an awesome seller. Every chip was tubed and I even got a couple of freebies.

Still debating socket selections. Tronic's sheet has some nice gold-plated machine pins, but I'm thinking leaf-style is my preference... It's also a damn shame some of the sockets will be more expensive than the chips going into them, heh. I'll be socketing everything from Arcadechips, as well as the EPROMs and other criticals/rares. All the 74's and such will go direct to the board.
 
My board shipped on the 23rd, but hasn't shown up yet. I've got about 3/4 of the parts for the board, but put a hold on ordering the rest because I blew my arcade budget for a while. I've got enough parts to keep me busy on it for a while when it does show up though.

I've got my fingers crossed that one of the few local guys with a Quantum will let me put it in their cab when I get to the testing phase.

UPDATE 7/30: My board arrived today! It's a thing of beauty and I can't wait to start on it, even though I don't have a cab for it.... yet.
 
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Still debating socket selections. Tronic's sheet has some nice gold-plated machine pins, but I'm thinking leaf-style is my preference... It's also a damn shame some of the sockets will be more expensive than the chips going into them, heh. I'll be socketing everything from Arcadechips, as well as the EPROMs and other criticals/rares. All the 74's and such will go direct to the board.

I just used regular 3M dual wipe sockets, except for the 68000 for which only a machine pin socket was available on Mouser. I just socketed the CPU, RAMs, ROMs, AVG, PLA, PROM, & X2212.

One of the first things I did was to tack in all the ICs, just two pins per chip, and waited until the very end to finish soldering all the pins. Your eyes get tired quick with a board this big, and I noticed a backwards chip a couple days later. Luckily I only had to desolder two pins. I soldered the chips in groups so that any one chip did not get too hot.
 
Can anyone share how much the total parts cost for this project and how many hours of labor is involved? Is anyone planning on putting completed boards together and selling them to those of us who are not up to the challenge of assembling them ourselves?
 
Can anyone share how much the total parts cost for this project and how many hours of labor is involved? Is anyone planning on putting completed boards together and selling them to those of us who are not up to the challenge of assembling them ourselves?

I worked on it a few hours a night totaling about 15 hours.

Parts were about $250 not including the board. I'll build you one for $2k. No warranty.
 
Waiting for the last of the parts including some sockets to arrive. It will be sooooo nice soldering parts onto a fresh PCB without having to remove an old part first. Most of the time I'm struggling with 30 year old PCBs that have been butchered by previous repair attempts or dealing with battery acid damaged PCBs.

I am socketing the analog parts, all memory and programmable parts, processor, AVG, and POKEYs. The standard TTL will get soldered right in. I thought about socketing the entire board but decided against it. If any TTL chips are bad it will very easy to unsolder them on a new board.

I can't really give you a good estimate on parts costs. The passives from Mouser (resistors / capacitors / inductors) and a few other random components like transistors and the socket for the 68000 was less than $100. I had a majority of the rest of the parts and only needed to order about $40 more. Building a board for someone else is not the problem. As Bungy implied, It's the responsibility if after it's assembled properly there is a problem and the board is not operating properly and needs to be troubleshot. Also what if it fails a week later or even a month or months later? Will you be getting a call that you "must have done something wrong"? While this is not a simple Heathkit, it is really not that bad for someone who is skilled at soldering these kinds of PCBs. Really what you need is one or two skilled collectors with a Quantum setup willing to do this for folks who want one. And be prepared to pay for their time and make accommodations for some kind of warranty beyond "working when it left". You can never control when components might fail.

Bill
 
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I know there was a parts list for this but I've been out of the loop a bit and now with the pcb on its way i need to order up the parts. Anyone got the link to the thread with the parts list ?
 
...Is anyone planning on putting completed boards together and selling them to those of us who are not up to the challenge of assembling them ourselves?

... I'll build you one for $2k. No warranty.

Except that the preorder sold out at 26 and no word on further availability. If you missed out, you missed out. Of course, at $2K, I'm sure you can coerce one of the completed boards into your hands :)
 
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Greg, whats the mouser part number on the socket for the 68000? I was moving stuff around in the shop and I found 27 of these in a box.
 
I have had a couple inquiries on the IC kits. I sold all that I initially put together. Im going to put together a few more today. If anyone is interested PM me so I know how many to put together.
 
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