Posts by turrican9

try to insert the ACA 500 and then pull it about 0.5mm out from the connector. I had some issues with my original ACA 500 aswell, and doing this helped me.

maybe the old crt is worn out from alot of use. The result is often that it will be more dim

Another possibility would be if robinsonb5 ported the C64 MiST core to the TC64/TC64 V2. Then we would get the 15KHz option. That core is of course inferior to TC64 C64 core but it would at least be an option. The more the merrier.

I too tried saving to HDF image and it broke the game I tried to save in.

Here is the end result. Added a power switch aswell

Did it to my docking station. Works fine

Quote from shan2752

Hi Turrican9,

I have become more familiar with the MK3 tool and understand it now. On a 19-inch Viewsonic LCD (5:4), I have my PAL Low/Hi Res display set to 640x512, which is exactly double the original resolution. Why would I want the other resolution you recommend?

One issue I have is that I can’t set Vsync within a VGA mode. Whenever I try, I get a flickering screen. I notice a little stuttering when text scrolls without it. Wish I could fix it somehow. Any ideas? Thanks!

My profile is specifically finetuned for BenQ BL702A and BL912 monitors. 720x576@50Hz will show the full PAL overscan. My profile replicates the 1:1 aspect ratio/overscan as if I plug my BenQs directly to 15KHz RGB. Only scandoubled via VGA and far superior picture quality VS RGB of course.

Quote from shan2752

Hi Turrican,

Do you have profiles for the MK3? I’m working on upgrading my A1200 now and finally installed the MK3 I purchased when it first came out. I had a perfect picture with the MK2 I had installed. I think I may have been using your profiles if you posted them on EAB. I’m struggling with the MK3 at the moment. I have a socketed U7 chip so I can’t use live config. Thanks!

Sorry, I do not own the MK3 yet. But I think you can still open the ECS V3 config tool and have a look at the profile settings without actually having the ECS V3 installed. So you could just note the settings and try similar settings on the MK3.

Sounds to me like we're getting a 15KHz mode here for our C64 core. Looking forward to that!

Quote from PaulSlocum

Understood. I was hoping you guys had a partially finished 1581 core or that there was one available. It's really just for convenience since some games are a little easier to find in D81 format, or for collections that come with a number of D81s.

OneLoadV4 collection has most/if not all D81 games converted to cartridge format. Which you can use with your TC64

At first I was thinking that maybe it would be easier if robinsonb5 ported the C64 MiST core. But from what I'm seeing that one does not have 1571/1581 support anyway.

I find the slight blur ftting with 768x576@50Hz or lower. I particulary like the warm fuzzy colour palette they picked for PAL.

My only issue is ghosting. The slight blur is caused by the filters and that cause ghosting. So in certain games that uses certain colours you can see several ghost shadows to the right of objects.

But all in all the slight blur grew on me and it's quite fitting for something like this. It gives this warm and fuzzy retro feeling together with the warm colour palette. I have two TC64 V2s. And yes, it will beat anything that comes from the native video out. Even S-video. TC64 gives much better picture. Except for some ghosting of course.

With other cores you can select 15KHz mode. Which removes alot of the ghosting, but not completely. Getting a 15KHz mode for the C64 core would be a nice option. I even have modern LCD screens that can handle 15KHz.

Honestly, I don't know if it would be worth the risk trying to solder on these units to change the VGA output circuitry. This is very fine soldering with very small components. I have soldered about 5 A500 ++ replica boards and recapped A600s and A1200s. But working on the TC64 is something different. I don't know if I would risk it. Also, comparing to my The C64 (the emulator based C64 replica) I find it outputs an almost too perfect and pixelated picture which does not give this warm fuzzy retro feeling.

For minimig AGA core:

• F1 – Force Scandoubled NTSC (60Hz) mode. In this mode the core will imitate an NTSC Amiga.
• F2 – Force Scandoubled PAL (50Hz) mode.
• F3 – Force 15KHz NTSC mode. In this mode the core will be displayable on an NTSC TV using a suitable cable.
• F4 – Force 15KHz PAL mode. In this mode the core will be displayable on a PAL TV using a suitable cable.
• F5 – Force Scandoubled NTSC mode with inverted sync. This may help improve the picture quality if your monitor detects the Minimig display as 640 x 480 pixels instead of 720 or 800 pixels wide.
• F6 – Force Scandoubled PAL mode with inverted sync. This may help improve the picture quality if your monitor detects the Minimig display as 640 x 480 pixels instead of 720 or 800 pixels wide

For most other/if not all other cores ported by robinsonb5 there are easy ways to switch into 15KHz mode. Like holding the left button on the chameleon for 1 second or more. You can find information and download of each core here

Found a recent review of the Turbo Chameleon 64 V2. It's in Polish but selecting subtitles makes it understandable.

Just to rule it out, did you try another powersupply for your MK2?

A few years ago I bought a 3rd party 'modern' made meanwell based PSU from one of the webshops that sells Amiga stuff. At the time I didn't know about all this stuff and that they were not really suitable for Amiga use. It came in a rather nice looking plastic case and had proper cables that looked nice enough.

Anyway, the issue was not that I could see any stability problems related to low +5v or ripple (which I'm sure it had) the short time I was using it. Suddenly I started hearing a sparkling sound. It got worse and worse the longer I left the PSU on. Suddenly the sparkling sound became very loud and I smelled a horrible burnt smell. I instantly turned off the PSU. Turned out it was the on/off switch connected at the 230 Volt side that was bad. It smelled really bad and had I left the PSU on unattended this could easily have been a fire hazard. It was this kind of a gunpowder smell. So the problem was the on/off switch itself, not the solder connection of the wires. Probably a cheap China made on/off switch.

So be careful with these 'modern' Amiga PSUs. In addition to what Jens has said about high ripple and stuff, they can also be a fire hazard.

These days I only use original Amiga PSUs which I have recapped. Never seen any problems with on/off switch on original ones. So either recap original ones or go for the one iComp is selling (CA-PSU). Icomp is a reputable company that has proper quality control. Many of these 'modern' ones are made like hobbyist projects, then sold via resellers and could not only ruin your Amiga but can also actually be a fire hazard.

Quote from mahen

Yep, none of the modes I obtained with the calculators would work because of this

But I didn't give up and spent some more time tweaking. I came up with a 49.9208 Hz mode (remember ? at 49.9207 there was an *extremely* slow upward wave and at 92.9210 a verrrrrrrry slow downward one :).

After 20 minutes of Jim Power, still no tearing "wave". Is that my magic number ? I'll wait for a few days before drawing a conclusion !

Sounds like you may have found 'the number' for you. Another good test is pinball dreams. After the intro there is some vertical scrolling text. Then at the menu there are horizontal scrolling text you can look at. And if you load up one of levels without starting a game it will scroll vertical up and down.

Then you also have the game 'yo joe' which has some nice horizontal scrolling train at the menu,

mahen

For my particular screen 50.196Hz was the 'magical spot' for perfectly smooth scrolling with no Vsync. But this will vary from screen to screen. I remember I used to experiment around the 50.2xx mark and almost got smooth scrolling. And I seem to remember that going over 50.3xx made it worse. Also going much below 50.2xx made it worse. That's why I never tried much higher or lower than that, until maybe 4 or 5 months ago. I was very surprised when I 'hit the spot' at that particular frequency. I worked from a custom VGA mode I made from the VGA mode menu. Based on 720x576.

You just have to experiment. There is no guarantee you can get 100% smooth scrolling with no Vsync on a particular screen. I remember I read reports from other people managing to get 100% smooth scrolling with the AGA MK2. But using their profiles on my screen didn't give me smooth scrolling. I almost didn't believe it was possible until I hit 'the spot'.

Quote from brightquark

Thanks for the response. I didn't figure out how the mount multiple images works quite yet but will give it another go. I did find I didn't need it as I press and hold the white button and go back to the file menu and change disks that way, works fine for my needs and yes the Demo runs fine. Finally able to see it run on (almost)original hardware.

With EOTB released only a few weeks ago (the primary reason I purchased the TCv2) it certainly didn't disappoint. Managed to track down an old PS/2 mouse which works fine. Amazing how much extra life this cartridge brings to the platform.

Some demos will not work if you go out to the menu to change disks. I can try to make a video using my mobile phone to try and show you what I tried to explain. TC64/TC64 V2 is quite advanced, but once you get used to it it's very smooth and intuitive to use. Fantastic unit. Wouldn't want to live without it, that's for sure.

Yes, I tried EOB. Fantastic what they have accomplished.

By all means if MarkT is in desperate need of another AGA MK3 before christmas, and if it was possible to "lend out my '1 unit AGA MK3 possible purchase' over to MarkT it would be fine by me. I will not buy an AGA MK3 this year anyway. As long as I got my 'purchase slot/slots' back later this year/next year and that it didn't affect my total amount of how many AGA MK3s I could buy in the future and would instead count to MarkT 's total amount he can buy in the future, that would work for me.

So in other words, the only thing that would affect me was the fact that I couldn't order one before christmas. But it would not count as a purchase for me in the future.