ACA500 plus?

[demolition]

It gurus when it tries to boot from the firmware adf - same thing happens when I try to boot from the virtual WB floppy. Perhaps it is the 1.8MB expansion causing some trouble.

[Schoenfeld]

yes, the "causing trouble" part is why we're looking for a serial log :-)

If your unit has a switch, you should be able to do the update when it's switched off.

Jens

[demolition]

Here's a dump from the serial port when installed in my A500 Rev. 6 with an Alfa-Data RA5-2MB expansion like this one (with 2MB installed):

[Schoenfeld]

With Demolition's help, the "large trapdoor expansion" recognition has been debugged. Thanks for that! However, not all of this made it into this update.

V0.77 fixes a few more bugs, mainly ACA1233-40 startup problems, PAL/NTSC switching and some button-related features:

http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA500plus_Firmware


Jens

[Tyball]

Good to read that large expansions might be recognized. The aca500plus doesn't see my mtec a52mb zip. And also the rtc on it.
Question though: if it works and I have 1mb chip through the expansion again, can the aca500plus add another 0,5mb?

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Tyball

Good to read that large expansions might be recognized. The aca500plus doesn't see my mtec a52mb zip. And also the rtc on it.

The RTC should be recognized, no matter what memory size. Please make sure that it's not one of the types with a "write protect" jumper. There have been a few models that advertised a "virus-safe" RTC back in the days, when rumors were around that a virus might be making itself a home in the RTC (which of course is nonsense). If such a write-protect jumper is set to "protect", RTC recognition may fail.

If recognition fails anyway, please try a manual setting in the expert menu and see what Sysinfo says (top right of the screen should say "clock found").

Originally Posted by Tyball

Question though: if it works and I have 1mb chip through the expansion again, can the aca500plus add another 0,5mb?

No, it can't. It can only bring you from 0.5M to 1M chip in one configuration: ECS Agnus, original chipram size=512k and trapdoor expansion size=512k. If Agnus is not an ECS type, ChipMap is not available. If the size is larger than 512k, we have to assume that the Gary-adapter is not DMA-aware and will select the wrong bank during blits and bitplane DMA, so we have to disable ChipMap in that case.

That is the prime goal of recognizing these large expansions: Making ChipMap available or not. It is NOT about adding more memory to the system, because the ACA500plus already has lots of memory for most Amiga applications of the time. Only a small part of such a big trapdoor expansion can be used in the end: Just an additional 1.3M in 68ec000 mode, and only 256k of it if an ACA12xx is connected, because the ACA12xx occupy 1.5M trapdoor space starting at $c0 (this is for Kickstart compatibility reasons). So in the end, our efforts are mainly for your convenience, so you don't have to remove the expansion from the computer.

1.5M Chipram will require more sophisticated expansions with a 2M Chipram Agnus. The standard ECS Agnus (8372a) that is on most Rev.6 boards can handle a maximum of 1M chip ram only.

If you have 1M Chip ram already, there is nothing that the ACA500plus can extend on that front.

Jens

[amigoun]

Is there any way making SQR and LQR functions work in the ARIII freezer? I used them on A500 for save-states when playing games on my real hardware, but on ACA500plus this does not seem to work.

[pgovotsos]

What is the function of the DiskMo display?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

With Demolition's help, the "large trapdoor expansion" recognition has been debugged. Thanks for that! However, not all of this made it into this update.

I tried 0.77 and it was better but still many issues with the trapdoor expansion but then I don't know what fixes your unreleased firmware has. Hopefully it will work 100% eventually, even if it means just using the 1.8MB expansion as a plain 512k expansion.

I had one thought for a useful feature: Since you can mount and boot from virtual floppies, could it be possible to make a cli tool which can load any ADF file into ACA500 mem and have it boot from it? It could make a decent floppy emulator if you want to play games that you cannot run or does not exist in WHDLoad. The issue here is changing floppies (as well as emulating the mechanical properties of a drive since not all games will work with a 'turbo' drive). Perhaps one could load multiple images and change the active image by using the DisMo button. If it worked, it would help a long way towards making the ACA500p the default choice for people coming back to the Amiga as they would not have to mess around with a Gotek as well.

[appiah4]

What casing options are currently available for the ACA500? I was specifically wondering if there are any decent 3D models I can have locally printed..

[demolition]

Nothing specifically for the ACA500plus yet as far as I know, but it probably won't be long.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by appiah4

What casing options are currently available for the ACA500? I was specifically wondering if there are any decent 3D models I can have locally printed..

one option (for the original aca500):
http://amigastore.eu/en/231-catcase-for-aca-500.html

Creating a case in 3d would not exactly be rocket science... so some probably has already.
Keep an eye on Thingiverse.com for various Amiga-themed printable models.





Skickat från min LG-H850 via Tapatalk

[appiah4]

Originally Posted by demolition

Nothing specifically for the ACA500plus yet as far as I know, but it probably won't be long.

Are ACA500 cases compatible I wonder..

[liviux76]

Originally Posted by appiah4

Are ACA500 cases compatible I wonder..

Not 100% compatible... I've read somewhere (maybe even in this thread) that you need to make an hole or adapt a bit in some way the ACA500 case in order to fit correctly the ACA500Plus in it.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by amigoun

Is there any way making SQR and LQR functions work in the ARIII freezer? I used them on A500 for save-states when playing games on my real hardware, but on ACA500plus this does not seem to work.

It is probably good idea to explain what "does not seem to work" mean.

Originally Posted by demolition

I had one thought for a useful feature: Since you can mount and boot from virtual floppies, could it be possible to make a cli tool which can load any ADF file into ACA500 mem and have it boot from it?

It would be useless, it would not work with any trackloader.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

It would be useless, it would not work with any trackloader.

Ok, so the current solution is basically just a bunch of floppy-sized RAM disks? Even though it couldn't be used for trackloaders, it could still be useful to be able to load your own DOS disk images for kickstarts that does not support RAD: booting, i.e. WB 1.3 disks.

I see some user-configurable flash ROM slots in there, but can't see how to use them. I guess this might require some tool that is yet to be released? Will it make it possible to put your own kickstart images in there?

[amigoun]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

It is probably good idea to explain what "does not seem to work" mean.

I did not give up and now it works for me. At least with the help of the cloaking menu. Great.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by demolition

Ok, so the current solution is basically just a bunch of floppy-sized RAM disks? Even though it couldn't be used for trackloaders, it could still be useful to be able to load your own DOS disk images for kickstarts that does not support RAD: booting, i.e. WB 1.3 disks.

That would work but I am not sure if it is worth the required flash space.

I see some user-configurable flash ROM slots in there, but can't see how to use them. I guess this might require some tool that is yet to be released? Will it make it possible to put your own kickstart images in there?

Type acaflashrom in shell (KS2.0+) after booting with config that has aca.resource enabled.

Originally Posted by amigoun

I did not give up and now it works for me. At least with the help of the cloaking menu. Great.

Great. There are probably many AR features that only work in "cloaking mode" (=no extra ram, no expansions, no nothing)

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

That would work but I am not sure if it is worth the required flash space.

I was rather thinking about using DRAM instead of flash to mount a disk temporarily, so it would basically function just like RAD: except that it would also work with older kickstarts that does not support RAD booting.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by demolition

I see some user-configurable flash ROM slots in there, but can't see how to use them. I guess this might require some tool that is yet to be released? Will it make it possible to put your own kickstart images in there?

I've added a description of that to the Wiki on january 5th already:
http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA500plus

Originally Posted by demolition

I was rather thinking about using DRAM instead of flash to mount a disk temporarily, so it would basically function just like RAD: except that it would also work with older kickstarts that does not support RAD booting.

If this:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/DiskImageGui
and this:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/ImageMount

don't work for you, Matt Dillon's fmsdisk comes to mind: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fmsdisk

Matthew Dillon was famous for his extremely high output, and as far as I can remember, he tried to make most things Kick1.3-compatible. I don't remember what the requirements for fmsdisk.device are.

Jens