Posts by dhud

Quote from Jens

I know the first few units are complete and ready to be picked up at the assembly company, just need to find time...

That's great news.

Since now some time has passed, another ping about buffered IDE interface... What is the current status about this project?

Quote from Jens

Anyone reading here who actually has problems with a CF card after the IDE speeder has been switched on?

I'm reading, but my interest it this product is not related to the IDE speeder and your accelerator. I actually have Blizzard 1230. But I sometimes experience some instabilities on the IDE port in some specific scenarios that might or might not be related to the fact that IDE port on A1200 is not buffered. I want to buy (once when it will be available) this buffered CF IDE interface regardless if it will help me or not. At least I will know that this part is OK and rock solid (hopefully). I can discuss those scenarios that I have a problem with if necesary, but will not go to details right now since you are probably looking for people that have exact problem with IDE speeder and your cards.

Quote from Jens

I'm sending out a few test units to users this week.

I'm happy to hear that it's rolling.

Any news about buffered IDE interface? Is it still in prototype phase or is it maybe now closer to production?

Great, thanks for the quick response. I need to buy the adapter first but yes, it will be used only with Amiga. Therefore it can be fixed with jumper.

Hi,

I'm considering to buy Micromys V5 in order to be able to use PS2 mouse on the Amiga. But I often use my Amiga for gaming and sometimes I need to unplug mouse and plugin joystick for second player while Amiga is turned on. So my question is, if I use Micromys V5 for mouse, is it allowed to unplug and/or plug it when Amiga is on? Or is that something that is not recommended, or even not allowed?

Quote from Jens

Not the "express" version (as the IDE speeders on the accelerators are faster), but a "2021" version with a CF card slot is likely. That's the "todo list" hint earlier in this thread

I vote for that option and am interested in one. Especially if ACA1240 and ACA1260 will not have IDE port on them. If I remember in one of your comments somewhere, you have said that they will not. Not yet sure if I'm interested in 040/060 route or should I stick with my B1230 but in any case, some stable buffered IDE option is needed in any case.

Quote from Jens

Use a buffered IDE interface. You can identify them on the number of chips: Three chips are required to really buffer the IDE interface.

Would you recommend some concrete buffered IDE solution which is known to be good? Of course, to be also available for purchase. I guess you don't have something in your store? At least I don't see it.

OK, I understand what you want to say and mostly agree with you. And sorry for saying "RR has a history of going broken", the truth is that I don't have the statistics and you actually do. I just wanted to remind that for me RR broke and that I really didn't do anything wrong. I understand that you might have some doubts wheter that's true or not. The thing is, I'm one of few persons that actually do read manuals and follow the instructions. I even read manual for my car and for my bread maker, cover to cover. I bought RR at the same time when I bought CA-PSU and Indi MK3 (all arrived in the same package). Previously (back in the days) I had modified AT power supply that was now really old and was failing. All three voltages was under expected value with -12V rail on just -9V, so I was affraid to power even plain A1200 with it. I decided to recap and start play with my Amiga maybe a month before I order a new PSU. And I choose CA-PSU mostly because of your comments here on the forum abut some other power suplies to avoid any potential risk of frying my stuff. So there was no reason for me to lie about PSU used with RR since I don't have alternative that I'm willing to connect to my machine. But OK, no need to go further. I believe that you probably met all kind of users and not all are talking the truth.

What you said about the problem with devices with a clock port cable in common... Maybe the clock port itself is not a stable port and makes a damage? This port was not initially designed with such expansion in mind so maybe it's unstable and do the damage to the devices connected to it. Regardles, I have seen in one of the post that you have mentioned some alternative option for USB for A1200 users. Do you already have something concrete in mind? How do you plan to connect it to the machine? Maybe as some option on your new announced accelerator cards?

Quote from Jens

Hardly due to signal quality - that's taken care of with the grounding cable. However, it's customers and even resellers not reading the manual and just plugging things, often without connecting the ground cable "just for a first test", and that causes trouble already. I'm just fed up with telling people to follow instructions "next time", as I cannot verify if they really change the power supply, and I also can't verify if they connect the ground cable. All those cases that have to be treated like warranty cases (although 98% certainly haven't been) have only caused the project to slip into a loss.

Sorry, but not all cases of broken RR can be blamed to bad PSU or to customers not following instructions from manual. I had a case that my RR has stopped to work while everything was done strictly by the book. I had CA-PSU, RR connected with CP cable that came in box, properly grounded on the FDD screw. And there was no CP extender or anything. Clean machine except B1230 and Indivision AGA MK3. And for me, RR stopped to work after I pluged-in USB stick in the USB port. And it didn't happen on first usage but after some two months after instalation. OK, you can say that this is those 2% of justified warranty requests. But regardles, RR has a history of going broken even with all "by the book" handling.

And just to say, after your repair and applying the fix (two capacitors) it works OK so far. But I'm now a little concerned since you are pulling this product off the shelve while my understanding was that this fix is something that should make RR less fragile. I expected that you would continue to sell RRs with this fix as a workaround of the problem.

Just to post a comment as a conclusion. I received back repaired and patched RR device yesterday. It has been put back to my A1200 and works fine. So far, everything is good. I hope that patch will prevent any further problem. Thank you!

I have finally sent it back for repair. Didn't had time before this week to go to post office and do it. But OK, it's on the way to you. I have sent you tracking number in mail.

Quote from Jens

If it was really the FDD screw and not the "bottom right" screw of the main board, then that's perfect. Many people use that "bottom right" screw near the CPU card connector, because it's easier to get to. However, it is not connected to GND if the upper shield is not in place.

Yeah, I know. It was a FDD screw that I have connected it to. It wasn't super easy to connect it there but also it wasn't that hard.

Quote from Jens

We will measure the "resistors of shame" of course; these burn rather quickly, giving us an easy way to tell if the unit was connected the right way round at all times.

That's fine with me. It was connected as it should be from first (and only) install, red to the right on motherboard and red to the red mark on RR. And everyting worked fine until this last time.

Quote from Jens

The next goal is to get such cases down to "zero", which we hope to achieve with the added protection circuit.

That's cool to hear. Since I regurarly use USB stick as tranferring method for the file, I will be a good tester for this fixed and improved version.

Quote from Jens

AFAIR,this article tells you to include all cables, which will make it easier for us to exchange the whole unit. However, it's a RapidRoad, which we will repair "no matter what" to analyze the defect and have something to feed statistics with, so it's OK if you just send the unit itself.

OK, I will send it then without cables. I mean, it is not a problem for me to put cables in the box and sent everything. And I don't mind to get a new cables in that case, but since I already fold clockport cable to suit the location where I put RR inside my A1200, I don't see that some other user would appreciate if you sent him my used CP cable (it can be straighten but folds will be visible) and for me it is perfectly OK to just connect again this one that I have.

I will pack RR and send it back next week between Monday and Wednesday and will provide you with tracking number. And thanks for the reply.

Hello,

it seems that my RapidRoad (ClockPort version) stopped to work yesterday after I have connected USB stick into USB port. I pluged in the stick and whole computer froze. After restart it didn't want to boot anymore (Blizzard screen has been shown but in never starts to access HDD or FDD). So I switch it off and later have opened the case and try again to power it on just to see that LED on RR is off and Amiga still does not want to boot. After disconnecting RR from CP everything come back to normal (except that I obviosly have fried RR). One thing I noticed, RR became pretty warm for that short period of time when I was inspecting what is wrong, but I'm not sure how warm it usually gets when it has worked since I didn't inspect that ever. Since it was bought in September (07.09.2020.) I will of course send it back for repair or replacement but I just want to discuss here of potential reason why this happened and how to avoid it in the future. I really like to have USB on my Amiga for transfering files since I had so far no luck with any other method to do so. But if it will potentially break again just by inserting USB stick, that will be a big obstacle.

My configuration (will state all that I have, maybe it help to diagnose the problem better):

Amiga 1200 rev 1D.4 (recapped)

CA-PSU

Blizzard 1230 IV + FPU + 16MB RAM (jumper set to 60ns for memory access)

RapidRoad ClockPort version

Indivision AGA Mk3

SD2IDE Adapter with 16GB SanDisk SD card in it

KA60 Dual port IDE adapter (because it holds SD2IDE adapter nicelly on the left and fixes problem wiht IDE LED)

Original FDD as DF0: (not recapped, it works normally, not sure this needs to be recapped)

At the moment when RR has stopped to work I have following attached and running:

Amiga mouse with laser upgrade from AmigaStore on mouse port

RetroRadions ArcadeR joystick on game port

Samsung TV (from 2009) connected to Indivision over HDMI cable

Yamaha AV receiver connected through AUX port to Amiga audio ports

RapidRoad was connected according to the instructions (yellow wire to the FDD screw). And everything worked perfectly until yesterday. I have transfered plenty of stuff between my PC and Amiga during last two months.

I believe that have I put every detail here, regardless if it is important or not.

Question, when sending unit back for repair, do I need to attach also the cables or is it enough just to return unit itself?