KickFlash500 (hack from Aminet)

[narmi]

After many hold ups, including broken traces, shorted traces, errors in the layout, and even running out of solder, I've finally completed my KickFlash500 flash rom programmer. The circuit design is on Aminet under docs/hack (http://aminet.net/docs/hard/DC-KF500.lha). I recreated the schematic in Eagle, and created a two-layer PCB layout. The PCB was created using the toner transfer method, which worked better this time.

I used all surface mount components, except for the 40-pin socket for the original KS ROM, 2 resistors, and the pins. I did not include the option for having a 1 MB kickstart, but that could be added easily. I wanted all the switches to be simple jumpers, allowing for 1 MB kickstarts requires a three-position switch.

On to the pictures!

http://www3.telus.net/narmi/kickflash1.jpg

The board fits nicely under the keyboard of my A500, without touching the keyboard or Fat Agnus beneath. Fat Agnus is completely covered, so there's no way to use this with a MegaChip (as if I can afford one of those :)). I should have put all the jumpers at the top of the board so that I could access them with the keyboard in place. The three wires connected to the CPU provide /WE, A19, and A20 signals to the board. I could have connected them to Gary with less wire, but I didn't want to solder to Gary. The 68000 is much easier to replace.

http://www3.telus.net/narmi/kickflash2.jpg

The closeup doesn't reveal much more, as there aren't many components on the board. The layout isn't very good. I need to make better power and ground connections, and add a ground plane. Decoupling capacitors are a good idea too.

The jumper on the bottom right of the board switches between the upper and lower banks of the flash rom. Right now I have KS3.1 in one bank, and KS1.3 in the other bank. Now I need to buy a bigger HD and get WHDLoad installed.

[lopos2000]

Looks very nice. Will you upload the eagle file?

[alexh]

Unfortunately once you get WHDload & bigger hard drive installed... you'll never want your kickflash A500 again :-O

[Chain]

Yes, eagle will be better, as my manufacturer gladly accepts .brd

[musashi5150]

Oooh... put that pr0n away. I don't know what will happen if Zetr0 sees it ;)

[RedskullDC]

Hi Narmi,

Glad you liked my hack enough to build one!

You may like to check out:
http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/flash.html
for some tools for building custom 1MB kickstart images.

All the best,
Red

[Zetr0]

Oooh... put that pr0n away. I don't know what will happen if Zetr0 sees it ;)


Toooo late....


Mmmmm i love the hardware pr0n!


its looks great.. 1MB of flash rom... very nice... i owuld be tempted to run a 4MB flash chip and have most of the OS on there too LOL.

it looks great m8, its always good to see realised hardware... to much of it get to the schematic stage and then waits.... and wait... and then forgotten....

great stuff narmi!

[bippym]

It'd be good if some of those 4mb flash rom versions are made and available ;) ;)

[alexh]

You may like to check out:
http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/flash.html
for some tools for building custom 1MB kickstart images.
Are those tools of any use to an A500? I thought they only supported 32-bit kickstarts?

[alexh]

1MB of flash rom... very nice... i owuld be tempted to run a 4MB flash chip and have most of the OS on there too LOL.
Unfortunately doobrey discovered that A3000 & A4000's cannot use kickstarts larger than 512Kbyte. The hardware doesnt produce the ROM strobes (chip select, output enable or something) for the higher addresses.

[RedskullDC]

Unfortunately doobrey discovered that A3000 & A4000's cannot use kickstarts larger than 512Kbyte. The hardware doesnt produce the ROM strobes (chip select, output enable or something) for the higher addresses.

Hi AlexH,

Theoretically, it should be possible to fool the Address decoding logic in th e A3000/4000 to think it was looking at $F70000-$FFFFFF when it was looking at $F00000-$F7FFFF for the top 512k of the 1MB kickstart.

Modern CPLD's , with 10ns (or better) delay times , could be used to create the missing select signals without too much hassle.

Red

[alexh]

Not as nice as the A1200 when you can just plop them in and go.

I wonder why they dont behave the same.

[narmi]

WOW, I did not expect such a great response. I will post the Eagle files soon, but I need to make a couple of changes to the layout. There is still one error to fix, and I want to add a connection from pin 31 to pin 1 so that 2.04 and newer roms can be used in the 40-pin socket on rev 3/5 A500's.

Hi Narmi,

Glad you liked my hack enough to build one!

You may like to check out:
http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/flash.html
for some tools for building custom 1MB kickstart images.

All the best,
Red

Thanks Red! It would have taken me a long time to design this myself. There are lots of uses for this programmer, as some PCs use these chips for the BIOS.

As for a 4MB ROM, that would require some more address decoding logic, and more memory space. Address decoding is fairly easy, but where are you going to get an extra 3MB of address space?

[Zetr0]

@Narmi

It is a pleasure to see your work, it is indeed inspiring :D

hmmm yes address space.... where to steal it from..... hmmmm...... I will have to hit the 68k bible... i mean manual.... bah... either will do lol...

[Zetr0]

@Narmi / Alexh

using Remus / Romsplit. could one have an a1200 that would boot from PCMCIA flash card? (taking into account that the card was formatted for amiga native or included HDB format )

[alexh]

using Remus / Romsplit. could one have an a1200 that would boot from PCMCIA flash card? (taking into account that the card was formatted for amiga native or included HDB format )
Very possibly however you would need a driver that could be put in ROM. I dont know the requirements but not all are capable of being put in ROM.

Someone has added enough to boot from IDE CD-ROM.

[Zetr0]

Very possibly however you would need a driver that could be put in ROM. I dont know the requirements but not all are capable of being put in ROM.

Someone has added enough to boot from IDE CD-ROM.


that is eminently and exceptionally COOL!

[narmi]

As promised, I have fixed the errors in the layout, and added the necessary connections for using 512KB ROMS in older A500's. Grab the archive and take a look (http://www3.telus.net/narmi/KickFlash.zip). If you make a board, take a picture and post it here so we can all see.

And don't forget to thank RedSkull for the original plans :great.

[Chain]

wohoo :) thanks!

[narmi]

I forgot to mention that when you load the layout in Eagle, you need to use the "ratsnest" command to fill in the ground plane, otherwise you will not see it. Look in the Tools menu.

[Stokey]

Very possibly however you would need a driver that could be put in ROM. I dont know the requirements but not all are capable of being put in ROM.

Someone has added enough to boot from IDE CD-ROM.

Do you have any links for that? I'm trying to do the same on my A4K.

[akard]

Hi all,

does this piece of hardware work on the A500 rev 6A? Is there a way to Burn the contents of an Original Amiga Rom (1.3) in a PLCC type eprom so that we than have a PCB with 3 PLCC chips?


Thanks
akard

[Jope]

Hi all,

does this piece of hardware work on the A500 rev 6A?

Yes.

Is there a way to Burn the contents of an Original Amiga Rom (1.3) in a PLCC type eprom so that we than have a PCB with 3 PLCC chips?

Sure, but you need to modify the circuit board in order to do that.

And if you know how to modify the circuit board, then you shouldn't be asking that question in the first place, you'd already be rerouting address and data lines.

[akard]

Thank you. I think i'll biuld it in the next days.

[RedskullDC]

Hi Akard,

Hi all,

does this piece of hardware work on the A500 rev 6A? Is there a way to Burn the contents of an Original Amiga Rom (1.3) in a PLCC type eprom so that we than have a PCB with 3 PLCC chips?


Thanks
akard

As Jope already said, works fine in rev 6A board.

Not sure why you would need *3* Flash roms?

Circuit shouldn't require any modification to use PLCC chips.

Have fun!,

Red


P.S. Here are couple of pics of my original PLCC prototype: (ratsnest!!)

http://au.geocities.com/redskulldc/kick2.jpg

http://au.geocities.com/redskulldc/Kick1.jpg

[Jope]

Not sure why you would need *3* Flash roms?

I think he wanted to use a self burned PLCC chip in the place where your and narmi's boards show the kickstart ROM.

(can you even get 16bit EEPROMs in PLCC packages? I thought they are always TSOP)

[akard]

@Jope
Yes, that was my idea.

@RedskullDC
... but you're right, i really don't need 3 flash eproms. I took the board files from narmi and i just would like to make a single side PCB, it would be easier for me. But i think i'll try it with your schematics first.

Regards
akard