On release of this cart might be worthwhile starting a forum for it ?

Great change,s to retrohackers.org .
Should help keeps those spammers out.

What's a few extra clicks when first starting up - seems to be time well spent while offline .

hiphip_harray.ico : ) smily will have to do.

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Have Fun!!

Ok, this thread is getting LONG so I started with moving it to the Network (former RR-net) section. I'm seriously thinking of branching this off into a new topic aswell. What do you guys prefer?

Do you mean something like "NIC64 Prototype Forum"

Have Fun Shane

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Have Fun!!

Not sure. I think I'll keep the thread as it is for now

@eightbits: Any progress mate?

Sorry for the late response. I thought maybe the forum was dead! I figured when this thread was moved I would still be subscribed to notifications. Looks like that doesn't happen when a thread is moved. Good to know because I run a phpBB of my own. I haven't had to move a thread yet, but when I do, I'll keep it in mind.

The current status is that I've got a new revision of the card in transit to my home right now. When it gets here, I'll try to solder again. This time, I've got two prototypes with solder mask (as opposed to the last two which did not have solder mask.) It might help with the soldering. Then again, it might not since the biggest problem is the fact that the pins act like a solder wick if there's even a little too much solder paste on the board. I'm going to try some different techniques coupled with a different solder paste too.

I've also been working with someone to try to find a way to produce these things in a reasonable time frame and at a reasonable cost. We're still looking at manufacturers right now since the soldering-at-home is not quite working out so far. I'm hopeful the solder mask and a few tweaks to the process will be enough to make this work, but only time will tell.

As an FYI, I'll be out of town starting August 14 and back the night of August 19. (Going to Gen Con in Indianapolis, so if you see a big bald guy with a goatee playing an uncouth troll with a limp in a Shadowrun game, stop by and say hi! Don't worry. The troll is uncouth, not me . . .) The boards will be here before I leave town and we should know for sure then if soldering these myself will work or not. If not, we'll just have to see what the manufacturer search turns up. I will not be able to work on this project while I'm out of town, but I will probably still have internet access to keep in touch.

On a side note, I have included one extra feature in the new revision of the board. Since I needed to tweak a few things anyway, (that's what prototypes are for, right?) I added a second set of pads for LED resistors in parallel with the original set. These pads will be intentionally left empty. I will have the original set soldered with a reasonable resistor value. If you decide you want brighter LEDs (especially if you choose to have two RJ-45 Jacks installed at the same time) you can merely hand solder in two more resistors to increase the brightness of your LEDs. There was more than enough board space to accommodate them and it just made sense to put them there.

Cool news indeed. Yeah, we kind of wondered if you scrapped the entire project It's good news about the second prototype. Hope soldering works out this time. If not, do you have a solution at hand?

I didn't know that notifcations stops after moving a thread. Sounds like a bug to me. Thanks for telling though.

To everybody: Seems you must subscribe to this thread again to be getting the update notifications.

Have PayPal will buy .

Wondering how we are going with this i am still
willing to buy it as a kit and solder it myself.

http://www.c64web.com check out the change's get back
to me with some idea,s its not been running without
a lockup for 9 days 24/7.

Have Fun Shane

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Have Fun!!

OK. I have tried a few more techniques to solder that ethernet chip and it's getting better, but I think no matter how good I get it, there is always going to be a lot of work to get it going. I wont have that much time and there's the possibility for too much error. So, I'm going to have to go with a fab. I've been in touch with somone who has some good possibilities for me, and we're looking at all of our options.

So, I'm talking with fab houses about getting this done at a cost that we can afford. We should be able to move on this relativly quickly now that we're confident that the board will need to be fab assembled instead of hand assembled. When I have a final price available for the product, I'll let you all know.

Meanwhile, I'm going to start puting up a site with all the information (like the eagle files, etc...)

Great to hear from you.
Looking for ward to the final product.
Have Fun Shane

checkout http://www.c64web.com tell me what you think.

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Have Fun!!

Well, I think I've been going about this all wrong. I have been on the edge of giving up because I think fabbing this thing is going to cost way too much. But, I pulled my head right out of my butt and started thinking that I only need to have that CS8900a soldered, and I can do the rest. So, I'm looking at quotes for getting only that chip soldered and I think I can get it done for a price that all can afford.

That is if that beautiful cartridge I saw on the front page of this site doesn't kill the interest in the C64NIC. That thing is kinda nice to look at. I'm a little disappointed it doesn't have a hole in the middle of the thing for the Solokian cart cases, but other than that, it's just gorgeous!

Now that I have some confidence I can make these cartridges cheaply, I am going to go forward with the prototypes. As soon as I get them in I will test them out and make sure I am not going to be blowing up people's C64s and then I'll send one off to my other beta tester if he's still interested in doing that. Once we've verified the thing works well, I'll start getting these things made and taking orders. If the prototypes and quotes work out like I hope, I think I can price these things for about $50.00 + S&H.

I would still be interested as i only need a Ethernet cartridge for the web server and the other card will be very costly for this application.

I still plan on getting the other cart for my games machine.

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Have Fun!!

Yup, I'm definitely still interested too! The two cartridges have a different focus - not everyone will need a "swiss army knife" cartridge. Some of us just need Ethernet and nothing else. (I'll probably get one of each though )

I am still interested. I am not selling anything from C64reloaded anymore (long story) But, I will be getting one of each also.

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Marco
C64Reloaded.com

Really good news that you're getting it all together!! I was actually planning to bump this thread today. No need luckily

$50 for a ethernet cart like this is a very good price IMHO. I'd like one as well although I already have RR-net, because this cart looks more reliable, less flimsy and takes less space on the desk, and I know for fact there are potential RR-net buyers waiting for this cart to come out due to the design mishap with the new RR-net revision.

Well, it took a heck of a long time, but I got the first three prototype cards back with the CS8900a soldered. I'm warming up the solder paste and going to get these bad boys soldered up this weekend. As soon as I do, I'll start testing them out to make sure they get my C64 online without blowing it up.

Based on the prices I've gotten for the soldering and the fact the prices went up on the CS8900a, the price will probably end up being closer to $55.00 - $60.00 + S&H. I'm going to try as hard as I can to reduce that price, but I probably wont know the final price until I've ordered the boards and components for the first wave of product. As soon as I get one of these soldered up tonight, I'll post pictures.