ACA1234 Installation

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • Hi, I just have one confirmation regarding my new ACA1234.


    System:

    Amiga 1200

    AmiTek 4MB fast RAM memory expansion with 68882 FPU

    32GB compact flash card with IDE adapter - this is the boot drive

    Workbench 3.2.1

    Kickstart is version 3.2.1


    I am replacing the AmiTek with the ACA1234 . To my understanding, there are no software installation, modification or updates required. As far as I can tell, I should just be able to move the 32gb CF card from the IDE adaptor to the ACA1234 flash slot and it will boot into Workbench, please confirm.


    Thanks,

    Mike

  • I don't know about the warranty Id, but you just "drop in" the ACA1234.

    Of course you get a lot of options, but software-side installation is not mandatory.

  • Also, where do I find my warranty ID?

    1) on the silver sticker of the card itself, with a 2D-barcode

    2) on the outside of the box, paper sticker with a 1D-barcode

    3) in ACAtool, displayed in clear text upon program launch.

    To my understanding, there are no software installation, modification or updates required.

    Almost - as Timm wrote, it should be straight-forward, and you should even be able to remove the CF card from your local CF card adapter and put it into the CF slot of the ACA1234, which will give you considerably more performance.


    The worst thing that can happen is that you need to disable an installation for a PCMCIA CF card reader, as this will conflict with the CF card reader functions of the ACA1234. We've had support cases like this, which were easily resolved by either removing the installation from the boot card, or by disabling the PCMCIA driver of your ACA1234 with the ACAtool. Again, this is the worst-case scenario that we've had in all the time that the ACA1234 is on the market.

  • Thanks Jens! I have it all up and running, even Nexxus 7 runs perfectly😏. The only thing I’be noticed is the loss of drive light activity from running the CF boot drive from the ACA1234 and I haven’t figured out how to get the ACA tool Installed on C: so that I can disable the installation each time I boot. Other than that, very happy 😃

  • The only thing I’be noticed is the loss of drive light activity from running the CF boot drive from the ACA1234

    Unfortunately, it's not possible to activate the drive LED from the 150-pin connector, so there is no easy way to relay the information.


    I haven’t figured out how to get the ACA tool Installed on C: so that I can disable the installation each time I boot.

    It's just a file that you can copy from the virtual install disk.

  • We do have the sockets in stock, but this would be a modification that would void your right of revocation, as it's a custom thing. If you are fine with that, please order the board, choose "wire transfer" as payment method (can't accept PayPal for non-return/refund items) and then reply to the shop's confirmation eMail to request the final invoice.


    Jens

  • I can recommend wise.com for international wire transfers - they're even cheaper than PayPal. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll send you an affiliate link that will give you a free first transfer.


    If you can really only use PayPal, I can only sell you an unmodified card.

  • Thanks I opted for an unmodified 33 MHz card. With my software it should be fast enough. I do not care about demos or games. I use it for Art software like DPaint so I should be good. I do not do 3d either. Your card looks above the rest and it should be excellent.

  • Thanks I opted for an unmodified 33 MHz card. With my software it should be fast enough. I do not care about demos or games. I use it for Art software like DPaint so I should be good. I do not do 3d either. Your card looks above the rest and it should be excellent.

    Your accelerator is well rounded and works great. The delivery was ultra-fast . I just had one issue with trying to speed up the internal IDE of the 1200 it had read errors on boot-up. That's OK since it is an old 3.5 slow drive it is trying to speed up and you warn of that. It actually reads 3 mb sec at default in Sysinfo.I will try the 1234 interface on an SD card next. I have tried the 33 MHz at 50 MHz with no issues so far. It's great users can upgrade to higher MHz if necessary and try it out first. I had a Terrible Fire 1260 and the hard drive speedup is no where near yours with a 030. It also not a finely designed card like the 1234 as many builders with different parts make quality control weak.

  • I just had one issue with trying to speed up the internal IDE of the 1200 it had read errors on boot-up. That's OK since it is an old 3.5 slow drive

    This may actually not be related to the drive being slow, but the cable to the drive being just a cable, not a buffered IDE port.


    Since that IDE drive is probably approaching 20 years of age, I recommend to buy a CF card in your local electronics store and put that into the ACA1234 CF slot. If you find 3MB/s impressive, you'll be blown away by the performance of the CF card :-) It'll give you an easy way to backup the installation of your physical harddrive, after which you can remove the drive from your system, making it super-silent, less power hungry (=cooler), quicker-launching from cold start and even having a physical backup in your parts drawer :-)


    Jens

  • One odd thing when copying files. I cannot copy 2 folders at once, just one at a time or I get a crash.

    This is at 33 MHz with plenty of chip and fast ram. I'm copying from the internal hard drive to the compact flash

    PCMCIA. With my Blizzard 1260 I can have many copies going. Is this a symptom of the speed?

    Multi-tasking is less effective.

  • I cannot copy 2 folders at once, just one at a time or I get a crash.

    Sounds like the program you're using to copy files is not getting enough stack. The Amiga assigns stack sizes to each task, but the program itself can't request more. So if you're launching a shell with the standard 4k stack and attempt to copy a huge directory tree, you'll see a crash, but if you increase that, it'll work. This was a headscratcher back when I developed the ACA1230 (my first-ever 68030 accel), and it may be the reason why you also see a crash: Your 68060 machine may have different stack settings than your ACA1234 machine.


    Jens