ACA500Plus - Can't get CF Aux working

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • Hi. I recently bought an ACA500Plus second hand in order to breathe a bit of life into an Amiga 500.


    I can't get it to read a CF card in the Aux slot at all. I've tried three different cards, with differing brands and sizing.


    No icon ever appears in the workbench. I did a fresh WB 3.1 install from the built in ROM/image


    if I put a blank card in, FAT32 formatted with the UPD500P.ADF file, it won't read that in the flash update tool either.


    Interestingly, I do get a different errrs depending if a card is inserted or not (if a card is inserted, it says CF deteced but file not found).


    Am I doing something wrong? Is the ACA500Plus potentially faulty? Any suggestions?

  • Hi Jens, thank you for the response


    It looks ok to my untrained eye. Funnily enought the boot slot has one that looks very slightly bent but that's working fine.


    I will test the light and get back to you.

  • Please take a very close look at the AUX slot: Are there any pins bent?


    Does the LED light up at any point?


    The AUX LED is usually always off when I've been testing it.


    However, i've just inserted a CF while in the flash ROM updater and the light came on, and stayed on until I removed the card (no flashing or blinking). It would not detect the update file on the CF card in this state.


    Removing the card turned the LED off and subsequent insetions of a CF card have no effect.


    Occasionally when inserted a card the LED may briefly flicker or come on, but it's very sporadic.


    The manual and Wiki doesn't say what the LED is supposed to indicate so I'm unsure what any of this means.

  • The LED is controlled by the CF card, and I was hoping to get a little more out of your observations, but I can't. At this point, I have to assume that you have a dead voltage switch for the AUX slot: For hot-plug compatibility, the ACA500plus can switch off voltage to the AUX card. The switch is a fairly strong FET, but if it has been overloaded, it may break. Since you have a second-hand card, it might have happened to the previous owner.

  • Hi Jens


    I am obviously unsure about warranty status as I'm not the original owner.

    Is this serviceable out of warranty, for a fee? If so, approx costs?


    PS looks like the certificate for forum.icomp.de has expired!


    Thank you again for your responses

  • The unit shown in the picture is out of warranty. I can't say without investigation what's wrong with the card - you can do a final check and use the same card that works in the boot slot in the Aux slot - launch the system with the boot slot empty, then the card you normally boot from should be found in the Aux slot. This test is to exclude an incompatibility with the specific make/model that you're trying to use - we've found one incompatible model earlier this year.


    We do service these cards, and it's not too expensive - personnel in the shop does this on an every day basis, the expensive boss doesn't need to work on it :-)


    PS looks like the certificate for forum.icomp.de has expired!

    Admin is already informed. It's the end of the month, and it's a long weekend in Germany (tomorrow is a holiday), so it might take an additional day.

  • Then we need to take a look at it here - another possibility would be that you try to service it on your own; I can dig out the part number of the switching FET if you can solder that on your own, or have someone locally.

  • Should I include a note when sending it with details of my issue and my contact details?

    Yes, please do. The people unpacking and checking incoming parcels don't know about each and every forum thread, and they should not have to dig around for names and addresses. A short note with your name, return address, eMail address and description of the fault will make everything run a lot smoother :-)

  • Hello, to make you aware, I sent you my ACA500Plus on 22/6/2020 but it looks like the parcel company have lost it. For compensation payment to me, they are requesting that you sign something to say you never got it. I've sent an email to shop@icomp.de address wth further details.


    Hope you can help


    :(

  • The last reply was more than 365 days ago, this thread is most likely obsolete. It is recommended to create a new thread instead.