ACA500 tested

[fitzsteve]

Sadly I had no choice and already sold the Deneb a couple of months back as I ran out of money whist not working!

For sure it's the best and fastest option for an A4000 but I'm hoping you work some magic with your solution

Sorry to hear about the killed prototype, I lost a Subway this way, it's very sad indeed.

I checked and double checked the cable and I was sure in my mind was connected right but a double fold in the cable tricked me, it's easy done even with an experienced user so anything you can do to make it safer is always welcome

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

ACA1230 memory issue: Although the ACA1230 is not covered in the "compatible accelerators" list, we'll take a look into the cause of memory disappearing. However, this has lower priority than the USB module and C64 reloaded, so no timeframe given here, and most of all: No promises. Compatibility with A1200 accelerators is only guaranteed with ACA1220 and ACA1232. Vesalia may give a guarantee for their ACA1231, but I don't.

I knew full well that there could be problems, so I'm not complaining. Far from it, I LOVE my ACA500.

Since this was working correctly in the early firmware versions hopefully it's just a regression that can be easily fixed. If not, that's the breaks.

A USB module for the ACA500 would be amazing! I'd buy one for sure.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by freaktmp

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. This is how it goes:
Power on
First photo
Select F1 configuration
Boot to workbench without fast ram and cf aux slot
Second photo
Reset - interrupt with mouse button
Third photo
Power off

Power on
Expert configuration menu, select F5 and F8 (maprom disabled)
Boot to workbench with fast ram and cf aux slot
Fourth photo
Reset - interrupt with mouse button
Fifth photo

...

No, I have not saved or used saved profiles #1 and #2 (F6/F7 on the main menu)

No, I got that it was a sequence and that the settings disappeared. It's just that I've always just saved settings before rebooting. IIRC, if you actively press an F-key, it will select a profile. If you haven't saved one, it will load...well, some other settings.

But as I said, I've always just saved the config and reset. Certainly if you just set the settings and press Enter to boot, they will not be saved to Flash RAM.

It would be useful to solve this if you take a shot of the checksum hex digits that appears for these 3 steps reproduced. The first time it should be a short string, second time twice as long, third time 3 times as long.

Just thought you could get a working setup this way, by saving the settings.

Originally Posted by Photon

IIRC, if you actively press an F-key, it will select a profile. If you haven't saved one, it will load...well, some other settings.

No it won't. If it detects an 68020 or higher it loads the saved profile #2. If it detects the onboard cpu it loads saved profile #1.

But as I said, I've always just saved the config and reset. Certainly if you just set the settings and press Enter to boot, they will not be saved to Flash RAM.

It would be useful to solve this if you take a shot of the checksum hex digits that appears for these 3 steps reproduced. The first time it should be a short string, second time twice as long, third time 3 times as long.

Just thought you could get a working setup this way, by saving the settings.

In theory it would make no difference whether you save a profile or not. And in reality it makes no difference whatsoever. The system information screens are exactly the same as before (using saved profile #2 after enabling AUX CF slot, add other onboard ram, and maprom with kickstart 3.1 and saving).

Using the same parameters with saved profile #1, also fails to enable fast ram and aux cf slot, however the system information screen shows different crc for installed maprom image (0x033551A1 instead of 0x233531A0) and different config bits ($000006DC/$000006DC instead of $00000208/$000006D).

[Photon]

Sounds like I'm working with old information here, so I'll butt out I did not know a profile was autoselected from the CPU model at all.

If you notice on the top of the screen, the first line always mentions which profile will be loaded.

[Foul]

can we use an Action Replay MK III with the ACA500 ?

[Mohican]

@Foul



It would be perfect feature. I tought about it too a few days ago

[amigoun]

ACA500 does not have a passthru connector so this is not possible.

[Foul]

ok, so maybe hrtmon + lvl 7 interrupt is the solution

[amigoun]

I thought the same as you, but ACA500 unfortunatelly does not provide the NMI header.

[Schoenfeld]

ACA1220/ACA1232 has an NMI header, and that will also work if the ACA1220/1232 is disabled.

Jens

[Mohican]

As I remember there was also HW and SW Action Replay for Amiga 1200

[jdryyz]

Hello all.

I recently acquired an ACA500 last week. No matter what I try, I do not see more than 1.4MB FAST RAM under WB 1.3. I already checked through all the settings that were suggested here and on other sites. MapROM is definitely off. I do not yet have CF cards inserted so any memory taken for that is not to blame. "ROM" is set to "keep current".

My A500 is a rev 6a motherboard with the 1MB CHIP RAM hack. 512k trapdoor RAM expansion is a SupraRAM rev 2. Kickstart 1.3 is in ROM.

ACA500 is using the latest firmware. I also did a simple return to defaults but that did not help either.

In addition to not seeing all the FAST RAM, my RTC is not recognized (works fine with ACA500 removed).

Attached is my system configuration screen.

Is there anything else I need to check?


Thank you.

[Photon]

Define chip ram hack. On the mobo? If so then Chip ram mapping option on ACA500 should be off.

The "Keep current" setting is a bit in the way since you'd like to know what setting it's keeping. Make sure it's set to "On-board", then turn off MapROM and second CF slot.

If that doesn't help, please take a pic of the Expert Menu settings.

[jdryyz]

The option to change the 1MB chip RAM configuration is "unavailable", presumably because I already have 1MB CHIP RAM. Yes, it is the motherboard hack.

Good thought on checking the ROM setting, but "keep current" is an okay choice to not map the ROM. It is the default, as well. I cycled through to "on board" and when I went to save the profile, it said "already saved" meaning no difference was made. Still, I kept "on board" and tried to boot up. Still only 1.4MB FAST. When I turned off the A500 and went back into the expert menu, the setting reverted back to "keep current".

MapROM is OFF

AUX CF is OFF

I also tried toggling options F4 and F5 to no aviail.

Originally Posted by Photon

Define chip ram hack. On the mobo? If so then Chip ram mapping option on ACA500 should be off.

The "Keep current" setting is a bit in the way since you'd like to know what setting it's keeping. Make sure it's set to "On-board", then turn off MapROM and second CF slot.

If that doesn't help, please take a pic of the Expert Menu settings.

[CrashMidnick]

Try to go back to your original settings with your recovery disk and then reflash it with the last firmware.

Mine was corrupt at some point : I was not able to switch off the maprom function. Maybe this tip will solve your problem like me...

If you activate maprom, do you see speed improvement in your WB ? How much memory you have when activited, 1mb or 1.5mb ?

[Schoenfeld]

Enable "add other onboard RAM" - this will add the 512k that are normally used for Maprom.

Jens

[jdryyz]

I did try that option too. It did not help.

Interestingly, I do not lose another 512k of FAST RAM when I actually do map a ROM (booting into Kickstart 3.1) so it would seem the 512k I am losing under WB 1.3 is being "reserved" but not used.

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Enable "add other onboard RAM" - this will add the 512k that are normally used for Maprom.

Jens

[fitzsteve]

I had a similar problem with my ACA500 setup and it turned out to be an incompatible CF card forcing a default profile with maprom enabled to be loaded, I changed the CF and it was fine after