My RapidRoad broke down. :(

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • A little more than a year ago I purchased a RapidRoad USB controller for Amiga 1200 from AMIGAstore.eu, the few times I have used my A1200 since then it have worked flawlessly until today. It is possibly my fault it broke down because I did not think, I inserted a memory card reader that creates 4 separate units and I already had a USB stick in the other port. So possibly there was too much current draw and it broke because of this? It get warm and smell bad now. So I have disconnected it. ;(

    So I'm wondering, is it possible to get help repairing it against payment?

    I kinda panicked about this and sent email directly to Jens before finding this forum, so if inappropriate I apologize.

  • No problem about the extra e-mail. As I already wrote in the eMail, we'll need the defective unit here to check what happened. It is very likely that we can make an offer for a large discount on a new unit, which will be faster and probably even cheaper than a repair with both key components exchanged.

    Meanwhile, you can double-check if your power supply is up to the task of hot-plugging. Is it an original Commodore one? Then it should be re-capped with low-ESR capacitors. Is it a new PC style PSU? Then it should be a DC-DC converter type, otherwise the +5V rail is not the main regulation rail and will fluctuate heavily on hot-plug events, possibly causing the defect you've experienced.

  • Thank you very much. I attach printout of this thread in packaging as reference then?

    I use original A500 PSU because it delivers 4.5A on 5V instead of only 3A as my original A1200 PSU does. But I'm considering ordering a 5.5A PSU now. I also have a Limited Edition ACA1233-55 so probably need more power anyway. I also have RTC-module on the clockport on the ACA1233.


    Kind Regards
    Maria

  • No links to other commercial pages here, please.


    If you buy a PSU, please make sure that it complies with common safety standards and also double-check that it's a modern DC-DC type PSU, or that has the 5V rail as main regulation rail. I do not know any vendor who guarantees that. I've heard of vendors just re-labelling cheap China PSUs as Amiga or C64 PSUs, violating pretty much everything that you learn in your first semester of electronics design. Most important thing if you buy a power supply is that your vendor has a product liability insurance. After all, it's on the 230V mains where there's enough power to cause a fire, ultimately endangering human life.


    If you send your RapidRoad back, please include short info about what to do with the thing. Don't go printing out everything you have, just let my employees know why you're sending it back.

  • Power supply design is more than just slapping a few parts together, and if you look close at what ripple is caused by, you may get the impression that the capacitor type has been changed with the change of the ripple spec.


    Since you can only add a capacitor "after a cable", you need to take the cable into account for your calculation, and that cable is a resistor and a coil. So you might even make things worse, because the combination of a coil and a capacitor can start to oscillate. Although this is fairly unlikely, it's still not impossible without knowing the exact details such as conversion frequency and regulation rail of the unit - and you won't get any recommendation from my side for modifying a power supply, as I ahve already given the best recommendation: Go for a DC-DC type PSU, as that completely eliminates cross-regulation headaches.

  • Thank you for the answer.

    I'll have to wait till after Christmas to send the package sadly. Swedish postal service have completely collapsed due to privatization and merger and if I send package now it will probably never arrive, or if arrive, be completely shredded. I don't want to risk that. It's big scandal here now. :/

  • I for one am totally confused on what PSU I should be using and where to find one that won't damage my Amiga or burn my house down. I am using an Amiga 500 one (P/N 312503-02) as it was told to me that was the "Heavyweight" which I assumed meant powerful enough for my Amiga 1200 with ACA1233n, MKII, and RapidRoad. Well my RapidRoad died and now I am not sure if I have the correct PSU.

  • I have lost 3 rapid roads all to the fpga burning out and am not totally convinced that its the PSU to blame as I have tried various PSU's and its funny that my Indivision ECS, And Vampire 2 are both going strong? surely if it was a PSU issue a simular fate would befall these devices too?

  • Clustering defects with single customers surely point to "something" in those systems that causes the death of the CPLD (there is no FPGA on RapidRoad). Since we exchange these boards mostly for free, and we also have customers who updated their PSU after the second defect and it didn't happen again, there is good reason to believe that the PSU was the source of the problem in the first place .


    Indivision and Vampire are bad things to compare against, as they are not close to hot-plug events.

  • Sure - just pack it all up and send it here. Please make sure to declare the actual value (not more, not less), but also "return for repair" on the customs declaration.

  • Hi, I realize it was a very long time since I started this thread, I just wanted to ask if I could still send it in. Have been unable to do so until now because of illness. :/

  • No problem, we've not been running out of work in the meantime :-) Just send the unit whenever you can. Don't forget to include a short letter describing the issue, so my employees know what to do with it.

  • Buon giorno


    ieri sera inserendo l'HUB USB che uso da mesi e che avevo allegato nell'ultima riparazione con la RapidRoad,la seconda e con questo il terzo guasto, di cui 2 volte la CPLD che scotta, il led si spegne e non fa avviare l'Amiga (blocca il Bus). Ho spento immediatamente per evitare altri danni.

    Questo è successo comunque anche dopo aver cambiato l'alimentatore con uno PC molto performante e nuovo HP (euro 50).

    Ora in altri casi non escludo possa essere l'alimentatore di scarsa qualità ma in questo caso non credo. Precedentemente comunque avevo un PSU CompaQ , un po vecchiotto ma non mi ha mai dato problemi.

    Ora sarei disposto a acquistare una nuova RapidRoad, anche perché quella che ho dubito che sia più affidabile dopo la seconda sostituzione della CPLD probabilmente le piazzole verrebbero via dal C.S. ; ma vorrei essere rassicurato prima che sia stata inserita, nelle schede di nuova produzione, una protezione da eventi hot plug (o over-voltage).

    Spero di avere almeno un "codice sconto" da inserire con il nuovo acquisto on-line. La mia e-mail è: speedy1969it@hotmail.it


    grazie


    Luigi

  • Please write in English - nobody at iComp speaks Italian.


    I do see from the automatic translation that you're using a "high power PC power supply" - this is no good for the Amiga, as voltage drops on the cable and especially in the input coil are not compensated for. This ultimately leads to dips on the 5V rail, which in turn paves the way for a latch-up in the CPLD.


    All RapidRoad units are identical - we cannot "protect" it from a power supply that is just no good for the Amiga. THe best advice I can give is to AVOID anything that's offered as "new" or "most powerful" for the Amiga, as proper compensation for line losses ("sense wire") is not given. Instead, use the original power supply, replace the output capacitors if you have a feeling that it's not stable. The original PSUs have a compensation circuit and are unlikely to cause the same failure again.


    No need to buy something new - we can do the repair here, and if you quit using unsuitable power supplies, the defect won't happen again.

  • sorry Jens

    I didn't understand the problem well.I still have to use a PSU more powerful than the Amiga one having my A1200 mounted in a mini-Tower with BlizzardPPC and bvision + 256Mb (OS4.1FE).HDD 200Gb IDE + HDD 2Gb SCSI + CD SCSI writer + IDE DVD burner.Clock port splitter with DelfinaDSP & RapidRoad. LinkSys WPC11 wi-fi card in PCMCIA.How do you see many devices to feed.I still had an idea to power the Rapid-Road: In your opinion if you were using a dedicated DC-DC converter module that generates 5V from 12V only for the RapidRoad could it abdicate well?For example:


    https://it.rs-online.com/web/p…c-cc-non-isolati/7065209/


    In any case, I would buy a new RapidRoad and when it arrives I send for repair the failed one so that then I have a spare one.If you have a similar PSU module to send me along with the new RapidRoad I would be happy.

    Thanks

    Luigi

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