[Gta04-owner] Gta04-owner Digest, Vol 74, Issue 14

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,

> Am 23.02.2017 um 12:22 schrieb joerg at azami.de:
> 
> Hi all.
> 
> About OMAP  unsolderable ?

Well, it is solderable, but not at expected yield.

> 
> I just wonder if it is possible to use a foil with micro gold pearls an
> glue the chip only in stat soldering.

Interesting idea! Does that exists at reasonable price or do we have to get it custom made?

BR and thanks,
Nikolaus
> 
> LG Joerg Mueller.
> 
> 
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>> Today's Topics:
>> 
>>   1. GTA04A5: good news and bad news (H. Nikolaus Schaller)
>> 
>> 
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 15:49:53 +0100
>> From: H. Nikolaus Schaller <hns at goldelico.com>
>> To: List for communicating with real GTA04 owners
>> 	<gta04-owner at goldelico.com>
>> Cc: Tinkerphones Community <community at tinkerphones.org>
>> Subject: [Gta04-owner] GTA04A5: good news and bad news
>> Message-ID: <A7E55D81-57F9-449F-BD6F-74E599943B1C at goldelico.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>> 
>> Hi,
>> let's start with the good news.
>> 
>> 1. Yesterday GTA04A5 boards have been produced.
>> 
>> 2. We have a Letux 4.10 kernel which is really good
>> and can be used as the basis for future OS development,
>> e.g. Replicant and QtMoko.
>> 
>> 3. I managed to get a new GPS chip driver working, which
>> has a better chance to go upstream.
>> 
>> But now the bad news.
>> 
>> -1.: Only 12 out of 36 (*) GTA04A5 boards we
>> have produced, are booting to Linux. The others either have a
>> short circuit under the OMAP (which is the general PoP soldering
>> problem we already know since the first generations of the
>> GTA04) or the OMAP shows no response or does not recognise the
>> ?SD card for unknown reasons.
>> 
>> Unfortunately this yield of ~33% is not enough to avoid a financial
>> fiasco, because we now have to pay for each good board approx.
>> three times as much as it was planned.
>> 
>> Hence we aborted production and it will not be continued.
>> It simply does not make sense to waste more money for getting
>> so much bad boards.
>> 
>> Instead we will try to repair some of the non-working boards
>> with using the components already bought.
>> 
>> Sadly, this also makes it really the last GTA04 batch which will
>> ever be built (making these GTA04A5 boards rare collectibles).
>> Unless someone spends us enough money to make more experiments
>> with OMAP3 PoP soldering.
>> 
>> This situation makes me assume a very high risk for the Neo900
>> project, since it uses exactly the same CPU and RAM/NAND PoP
>> chip as we have on the GTA04A5. And it was planned to use the
>> same production company and line. This means if we can't
>> get it soldered for the GTA04A5 by a company with >10
>> years experience and >150 projects per year, it is unlikely
>> that they will try again and be more successful for the
>> Neo900. They already nick-name this chip combination
>> "unsolderable chips". And it is also unlikely to find someone
>> else who can do it better without making ex(p+t)ensive experiments.
>> So the best for Neo900 would be to change the CPU/RAM chip.
>> But AFAIK, one of the key ideas is to use Maemo/Fremantle
>> which is closely tied to the OMAP3 architecture.
>> 
>> What will be the next steps for the GTA04A5?
>> 
>> 1. I will test the boards we have and make 3 bins:
>> A) good (let's hope that the 12 do not have other bugs making them
>> unuseable)
>> B) needs to try some repair
>> C) does not seem possible to repair
>> 
>> 2. We will repair what can be done and then I know
>> how many good units we really have got
>> 
>> 3. I will try to get as many pre-orders fulfilled
>> sorted by order date.
>> 
>> 4. We hope that someone can help to fill the financial
>> gap. Well, this does not necessarily mean a donation
>> but if you know a project that is in need and can pay
>> an engineering team like we have, please contact me.
>> 
>> BR and sorry to have no better good news,
>> Nikolaus
>> 
>> (*) The attached photo shows the 36 boards plus 4 produced in the
>> first runs end of last year
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> End of Gta04-owner Digest, Vol 74, Issue 14
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