Posts by ljmarent

Well, I managed to get the exact same 74LS245 and 74ALS245 chips listed in the A2000 Rev6 Schematic, so I'll start my changing out to those and give it a try

And Happy New Year !

Thank you for that tip, and yes it's perfectly fair to require the shield to be in in place, just dreadfully marginal

I don't want to turn the iComp support forum into the Floppie209 A2000 motherboard support forum, so I won't bring it up again until I've tried my Buddha in a second of these boards to rule out my mistakes and an original' A2000 rev 6.2 to rule out Floppie209's

I'll head over to my local chip monger and get an assortment of older, slower, 74xx245's to try dispersing the switching noise, as all of my 74LS245's in the buffer section (U600 - U605) are actually 74AHCT245's and, 74F245 in U103 & U105, based on the supplied BOM. Fortunately every chip is socketed, making it easier to play mix & match.

"The SN74AHCT245 is a low drive CMOS device that can be used for a multitude of bus interface type applications where output ringing is a concern. The low drive and slow edge rates will minimize overshoot and undershoot on the outputs. The input switching levels have been lowered to accommodate TTL inputs of 0.8 V VIL and 2 V VIH."

But of course I don't know what Zorro II devices were tested in the Foppie209 A2000 remake.
I do see in his test setup, an iComp Buddha in slot 1, looks like it has an IDE cable and an IDE drive.
I'll see if I can find a small 3.5" IDE drive, as seen in the muddy photo.

I've got plenty of homework to do

- Buddha in my Checkmate works with included DOM AND all of my CF cards.

- Buddha in my A2000 works with included DOM, but none of my CF cards.

- A2091 in my A2000, in the same Zorro II slot 1, works and also passes RAM tests with the 512K FastRAM installed.

I'm at a bit of a loss to understand what is going on...

I've swapped the Buster chip, flipped all the 74LS245 buffer chips looking for a bad one.

probed _UDS \ _LDS signals from the CPU to U605 when they become _BUDS \ _BLDS and then on to the Zorro II slot.

Tried KS 2.04, 3.1.4, 3.2

It's always the same in my A2000, the Buddha can see the CF cards and can read their config information, but doesn't see the drives as partitioned and formatted. Oh and it does actually write partition information when you select write to drive... It just doesn't see it on reboot... but if I take the CF over to my Checkmate system, I can see that it has written the partition information...

My friend is building the same A2000 motherboard, he'll finish his in a few days, and we can compare notes..

I'm not in a hurry... It's just a puzzle...

Yup ACA500+ built and boots from all my SwissBit CF cards

So I'll skip that then

Extra info..
I was able to write files to the supplied DOM, so reading \ writing are now both ticked,

though I take your meaning that reading and writing to the card in general, was already demonstrated.

I DVM probed the CF adapter, it is indeed receiving 5V through the power connector

I've read the PSU FAQ twice, (we agree on many things, except maybe the take-aways)

I adjust my supply rails slightly hot, like 5.02V and scope my rails looking for signs of overshoot or undershoot, because that would be fertile ground for SCR latch-up.

I like all my rails independently regulated.

But...I'm not a stickler on things like PSU box specifications for specs., like ripple...

For me, PSUs are a component of a system and I like to see them perform in that system, not in the shipping crate.

Rest assured, I've scoped the supply rails and they display nothing especially scary, except for the -12V rail, which is actually -13V SPOOKY

In its final resting place, this board will get its full and proper shielding and two insulation layers.
At the moment, It's on my stainless steel bench, sitting on ESD foam blocks, running sea trials.

Used it to un-brick my ACA1234 yesterday...
I was hoping to prove out the Zorro II operation before populating all the really expensive connectors

Buddha was meant to be my first Zorro II test during bring-up, because such a simple modern board, what could go wrong

For today:
- I'll be probing the UDS\LDS path to see if something is amiss in my work

- I'm not entirely clear on the whole RDB thing...
I'm guessing if I use the ACA500+ with KS3.1 ROM and let it install OS3.1
that CF card will have a 3.1 RDB and then I walk it over to the Buddha and see if it can read the partitions.

Was tinkering in the lab today and noticed my ACA1234 was still bricked from the last round of testing...
And noticed the new release V3 CPLD code and 1.4 update for the ACA500+
Happened to have my new A2000 board in my hands... so decided to use it to do a remote un-brick...
Went smooth...I won't post the pics...would be heart stopping...
A2000 motherboard sitting on anti-static foam block on a pizza box, perched over my Checkmate with cables dangling and a picoATX PSU bodged into the A2000... Just not a pretty sight...but my ACA1234 is working great now and apparently my A2K parallel port is working too

The new features in the ACA500+ menu, really nice..

And I've not gone back and run all of the software I was having trouble with...
But I did run a few of the games that stood out in my mind, and I have to say huge improvement...
"Agony" now running 'perfectly' to my eyes..

I'm guessing your new memory controller has solved many of the issues I was seeing before.
I've been running for hours without a crash...just playing tunes while I solder away, so far all seems quite stable...

At first glance, much improved...

Buddha can read my IDE device configs, but is not reading\writing partitions or data

Notes:

This is a brand new Amiga 2000 using Floppie209 motherboard Gerbers
Buddha 20 year anniversary card is the first Zorro II card installed in this board.

Buddha bought from iComp one month ago in anticipation of this build

Board setup: 68000 CPU, ACE2b, KS 3.2 ROM

Procedure \ Observations:

I installed the Buddha card into the Zorro II slot nearest the CPU

Powered-on the computer and it booted from the provided DOM, all good

Powered-off
Removed DOM

Opened the Buddha slot 1 jumper

Checked the Buddha slot 0 jumper was open

Plugged in my SwissBit C-500 2GB CF card in adapter with power (partitioned and formatted on my ACA500+, using OS 3.2)

Powered-on the computer, no boot

Plugged in my external Gotek

Powered-on and booted OS3.2 HD Install ADF from my external Gotek

Changed HDToolBox tool type to buddhascsi.device

Launched HDToolBox and it scans and finds the CF card's info

Checked the partitions, they are not being seen and I'm offered to partition the drive in two.
I figure...okay...maybe it doesn't see the partitions written by another Amiga (I'm still new)
I agree to the suggestion to partition the drive in two, write to disk, exit, reboot

I boot from the Gotek again expecting to see the two partitions ready to be formatted, but nothing

I relaunch HDToolBox, it scans, sees the CF card info, but the partition table is blank again and it's offering me the same option.
I walk the CF card back to the ACA500+ computer and the original partitions and data are still in tact, like the Buddha wrote nothing to the disk.

I tried a Lexar card, same, it can not seem to read/write partitions

I tried a 2.5" 80GB PATA drive, same

I reinstalled the DOM and its jumper

Powered-on and booted from the DOM

Chose to 'install' to the 256MB Lexar CF

It does so, until it detects that the files are not being copied

Tried this with the 2GB SwissBit, it stalls when formatting Work partition

I'm at a complete loss to understand what all this should be telling me.

The fact that I can boot using the Buddha and the provided DOM 'suggests' to me that 'reading' works, and the Buster and buffer chips are working

yet, it can not read and boot from a CF card, one that does so on the ACA500+

Has anything like this been seen before ?

Am I missing some basic information about how this card is supposed to function ?

Like maybe it hates FFS partitions, or only works after some special driver is installed ?

I know one of the first things I'm going to get asked is "Have you tested this card in a known good Amiga that is supposed to have Zorro slots"
And, that is a perfectly fair question...though I don't have such a machine, I'm prepared to go on a long drive to get access to one.
I'm not pointing at the card and saying "bad card", I'm hoping this is more a user error, before I go digging too much deeper

If the Amiga Test Kit AND the MBRtest-2 software are both 'thrown out' as containing 'suspect code'...
I could fine with that... as long as there is an alternative software with similar functionality to permit testing.

If however, there is only one RAM test software and a new hardware product comes onto the market and it doesn't work with that RAM test...

It's not acceptable to say all RAM test software is bad and leave it at that.

We can't just 'eliminate' everything that is able to show a problem.

That would be like gouging your eyes out so you can't see the issues, problem solved.

So, what I'd like to know is what Amiga test software is "guaranteed" to work with ACA1234 ?

Thank you,

Quote from kot_behemot53

I hate to be the bug reporting guy recently.

Love the bug reporter

Hate the bug

I like to use photo transistors to pick up the iComp LEDs and run their wires into the case. Soldering to the board is easy, but if you want to move it, you need connectors and you open yourself up to questions for warrantee ,,, the non contact photo transistors just work and no one needs to know anything.

Clearly I don’t know all the details, but this sounds like a situation where we could ask WHDLoad with a tool type to send the ACA1234 a control bit to enable the dirty trick. Then when the game is over WHDLoad sends a control bit back to play fair mode 😀

Perhaps we can’t do this on the fly 😔

Quote from Jens

Those of you who experience the problems on ACA500plus, do you also have an A1200 to test the card with? I mean, MBRtest-2 failing at 0x4008.0000 is not chip ram, but fastmem, which is all within the card.

Yuck, no, just real Amiga 500's from before that silly AGA experiment near the end...

Speculation:

The error messages may indeed be giving us some clues, but I don't believe they are painting the picture.

For instance, at the beginning, when I posted the errors I saw, you suggested I was trying to run software that needed FPU, but of course that was not the case. The error is real, but the cause is indirect.

Imagine if something is corrupting the stack, programs work for a bit, and then later the CPU has a return that transfers control to an address that it should not...could be data space...and we start executing all sorts of strange opcodes.

The address you end up at, executing whatever illegal instruction triggered a trap, does not provide much insight into what's corrupting the stack. The only thing that's useful is that the user saw an error.

I will of course continue to post the errors I get, I do hope that one of them will lead us to a solution.
I'm only 'suggesting' we accept the error is real, but the address and opcode information is meta.

I don't believe kot_behemot53 has applied the CPLD firmware update yet.
Please kot_behemot53 , correct if I'm wrong, I'm not trying to speak for you.

For me...the MBRTest-2 would not pass reliably until after the CPLD was updated through JTAG.

note (I had two random passes out of maybe a hundred attempts with different ACA500+ configs)

It always failed very early in the test, about 3 seconds after starting... near the 4000 0000 address

Once the CPLD was JTAG updated, MBRTest-2 passes reliably for me.

There are lots of A1200 machines in my community, if you can explain a little how this will help to get the ACA500+ & ACA1234 combo working, then perhaps I can beg or borrow an A1200 for testing.

Quote from shan2752

Do you live in a self storage container? We see more reflection than anything else.

I was in the basement lab, half storage half test gear on the walls reflected in the pictures,

Those were shown only as proof the games now loaded. You should not need more from them than that.

It’s a 46” monitor with a plexiglass shield in front so there’s going to be reflection. Just happens to be where the stock A500 lives. 😀

My basement lab is allowed to be messy and crafty

Interesting...I was at 33MHz

Then the jumper dropped me to 25MHz

Glad to hear it's still being chased

I’ve been confined to bed for a few days, so I’ve not been running any additional experiments. Is it safe to assume that someone at iComp has repeated the ACA500+ & ACA1234 experiment with WHDLoad software and the JP0 jumper moved in and out of 25MHz safe mode. And has seen the errors stop happening in 25MHz safe mode ?

I’ve posted screen shots of the errors in an earlier note in this thread.

Better for Jens to answer of course, but your ACA1234 on A1200 without the CPLD patch is affected still by memory corruption.

if you mean to ask about the WHDLoad and Amiga Test Kit problems that I’ve brought up more recently in this thread, then those do seem specific to the ACA500+ & ACA1234 combination

The firmware hot fix let me play some whdload games that did not work prior to it. I posted the specific ones if you feel like … I think Gods was one of them

I’m with you… my machines are rev 5 with ace2b’s

Quote from lucadip

FYI, I luckily can't confirm those symptoms on my setup (A1200, ACA1234, plain OS3.1). I have activated all the features on the ACA1234 and could play the WHDLoad installs of Agony, Supremacy and Unreal without any hassle (Supremacy still plays nice nowadays, the other two, well...).

The problems described from ljmarent seem to depend either on the combination with the ACA500+ or on a software conflict, not on the features "per se"?

did you patch the CPLD ?

Because that bug still affects 1200 users until patched.

Quote from lucadip

I have activated all the features on the ACA1234 and could play the WHDLoad installs of Agony, Supremacy and Unreal without any hassle (Supremacy still plays nice nowadays, the other two, well...)

Hey ... I don't come to your house and tell you what games not to play

But honestly... I'm glad the ACA1234 appears to be working on the A1200 now..
Though... I read lots of people saying 'flawless' before the memory corruption bug was fixed...
So please don't get complacent...test...test...test...

ACA1234 'should' be a super star Accelerator...if everything works as it should.