CDTV Upgrades

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Arnie

Looking at the prices I may be better off with the chip ram upgrade

It's your money but you don't really need a chip RAM upgrade.

[Arnie]

Originally Posted by alexh

It's your money but you don't really need a chip RAM upgrade.

The thing is some, (like you) say I don't need it, some say I do, while others say it can't hurt.
It's hard to know exactly what to install. Anyway more ram can't hurt and yes, I know fast ram will speed up the system but, I'm keeping my option open at the moment.

Thanks for the info though.

It's a pity the ram/expansion? slot on the front doesn't accept Sram cards, and seeing as the biggest I have seen is 256k, it makes me wonder if there ever was any advantage of using that slot.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Arnie

some say I don't need it, some say I do, while others say it can't hurt.

I believe that you don't need it if you're getting a FastRAM expansion in the future. It only gives you 1Mbyte (max) and costs upto £80!

You used to be able to buy a 4Mbyte CDTV RAM card which plugged into the diagnostic port for £50

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=34580

If they are no longer on sale, perhaps Kipper2k can figure out why his A500 RAM 8mb RAM expansion doesn't work in the CDTV? Provide you one with a modified CPLD? Or one limited to 4Mbytes?

Reading the post on Amibay about the 4Mbyte diagnostic RAM card, the vendor says you need a mod to the motherboard? Perhaps this is only for the diagnostic card slot but perhaps not? Worth investigating.

Originally Posted by Arnie

Anyway more ram can't hurt

Except in the pocket.

It's a pity the ram/expansion? slot on the front doesn't accept Sram cards, and seeing as the biggest I have seen is 256k, it makes me wonder if there ever was any advantage of using that slot.

It's not a RAM expansion slot. It's a very slow save game card. They get accessed as storage not RAM. I believe that CDTV disc games with save capability will use it.

[Arnie]

Yes I read that post, the cutting of traces put me off.

Anyway, megi chip bought, just the fastmem and harddisk to sort out

anyone got a spare SCSI-TV card laying around?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Arnie

anyone got a spare SCSI-TV card laying around?

Being practical. You'll find it very very hard to get one. Amitrix said they were going to be remaking them every year for the last five years and never did.

An Italian remade a SCSI card four years ago too but I don't think they are still on sale?

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/fmiapa/cdtvinfopageen.html

Even if you could get one, SCSI is probably not the best interface to have in your CDTV. The most practical interface to have would be is IDE/CF.

You could install a CFIDECP by Mr.Mkl

http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ide68k.html

But there was talk of Kipper2k combining a 4/8Mbyte RAM card with the open-source CFIDECP interface. Why not talk direct to him and see if you can push the creation of such a card?

[Arnie]

Has anyone got a diagram or the instructions for the megi chip. There is one wire that needs to clip onto "Gary" or the 68000 chip. I would like to make sure I connect to the right pin.

Also. does anyone know which chip is "Gary" in the CDTV?

Edit: I may have found "Gary", is it U12?

[alexh]

Yes the Gary is U12, 5719.

The MegiChip should come with a Gary holder. You take the Gary chip out of the motherboard and then plug the Gary into the holder and plug both of them back into the motherboard taking care of the orientation.

http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.co...chip_1_big.jpg

Are you sure you have a MegiChip?

The MegAChip comes with one flying wire which connects to pin 36 on the Gary.

http://amiga.resource.cx/manual/MegAChip.pdf

[Toni Wilen]

Mine didn't come with adapter. (Mini Megi Chip rev 2.1, different board layout than in above image)

Black wire is connected to Gary pin 36. White wire is connected to U43 (74LS27) pin 10, there are probably lots of other choices too. (But note that this is not standard CDTV, it has my extended ROM hack which required extra logic)

[Arnie]

@alexh

Yes, it looks exactly like the MegAChip. Thanks for the pdf

[Arnie]

MegAchip fitted and working. Not too keen on the clip on wire though. I think I'll solder a wire to the gary socket.

[Acill]

Sorry for the necro post but I felt it fit in here well. I have a prototype CDTV with a Rev 2.1 motherboard in it. Its got a devboard in it as well for the extended ROM and i have flashed it with the latest rom images for them. I have never been able to get KS3.1 to work with this machine. Has anyone ever seen a Rev 2.1 and got it working with 3.1 rom?