Decisions in MAC emulation...

[Pheonix]

OK, I misunderstood something you said earlier. I thought PCx used the e586 expansion on the Emplant card. May still try it out on my physical system to see if it performs better than it does in WinUAE, but the main goal here is to run emulation that takes advantage of the card's abilities. May end up just sticking with the e586 software for the PC emulation. Can't test it till the Emplant is re-installed, though.

Went ahead and got the RAM chips, to populate my board. The ROM chip is on a SIMM (assuming I can find the bloody things... probably still in storage in San Antonio.) So I will still be able to dump the ROM. Only issue I had with the RAM is I had to chose between getting 5 chips at $9 each, 8 chips at $17.50, or 22 chips at $24. The cheapest (per chip,) was the $24 option, but I went with the 8 chips so as not to have so many extra chips to off-load later. So, I'll probably have 3 chips to sell (at $2.20 each,) later.

[Pheonix]

Got the crystals in today. The board now comes up as a Deluxe board again, but the SCC chip still comes up as BAD That's 3 chips now that all fail diagnostics. Any idea if something else can be causing the failure? I tried switching the Channel A & B differential chips without effect. All that's left are capacitors & resistors.

[JimDrew]

PCx does not use the EMPLANT at all. PCx is hands down faster than the e586DX emulation.

You only use the ROM chip once, to dump it, and then you would need to remove it. You can only use the SIMM OR the ROM/RAM sockets, not both at the same time. The RAM is only supported for a device driver to give you a RAM disk for the Amiga. This feature was rarely used by anyone. Since we needed the option to dump ROM chips or a SIMM, I added the option to use RAM just in case you wanted a small virtual hard drive.

It is odd that the board comes up as a DELUXE, and the SCC chip reports as bad. That could only mean that the internal loop back test was failing. It could be that one of the PEELs is bad. You could determine this by connecting a serial device (like a modem) to one of the serial ports on the EMPLANT board and use the empser.device driver. Caps or resistors would not cause this problem.

[Pheonix]

I'll probably try the e586DX software anyway, since the board has the e586 expansion installed. Its not like I can easily pull it, as it involves chip replacement and I don't have the old ones. The purpose of what I'm doing here is to actually use the Emplant card to its full capabilities. The only reason I tried shapeshifter was because I had people swearing that it was better than anything that actually used the Emplant card. I have to disagree with them now. Even the original SW seems (to me at least,) to work better than shapeshifter did. And Fusion works even better than that.

Yes, I'm aware that you remove the ROM after dumping it. But I thought the RAM could be used for other things as well, not just as a RAM drive. Though, a 2.5 MB battery backed RAM drive sounds like a good thing as it is.

By PEELs, are you referring to the 2 AM26LS30PC & SN75175N pairs? That is 2 each of Differential Line Driver & Differential Line Receiver? I'm assuming that a MAC serial port uses a differential signal, and that the receiver converts input while the driver converts for output. Do the pairs work together so all 4 chips are needed for both ports, or does each port get 2 chips each? The test fails during the "SCC Channel A - 57600 Baud" test. So, if each pair goes to a different channel, switching them would tell me if one is bad. Only switching them still results in failure at the same point.

[JimDrew]

No, PEELS are the custom logic chips that have the labels on them with P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5.

If the test fails only on the 57600 baud test (but other bauds work) then I wouldn't worry about it. That could be a noisey Amiga bus or even the 5v rail being a little low. The VIA chips are not used for the SCC. Only the '245 chips are, along with all of the PEELs. What really matters on the EMPLANT board is if the VIA chips (the 3 large chips in a row) all work.

[Pheonix]

It doesn't do any other baud rate tests. It gets to the channel A 57600 baud test, then marks the SCC as bad and skips to the System 1hz Clock test.

The PEELS, then, are the programmed GALs. Replacements for those are probably hard to come by Any way to track down which one(s) are responsible?

[JimDrew]

You can't use GALs or PALs. I designed the board with PEELs, which are not exactly compatible. PEELs are great because they are not OTP (one time program) parts. You can erase them and reprogram them. I didn't know how many different boards designs and such would be needed so I opted to use PEELs from the start. I am glad I did because I must have burned a few hundred sets of PEELs during the development - all using the same chips. I have the BP Microsystems PEEL programmer, and I just found all of the PEEL equations and bin files.

[Pheonix]

OK. I only said GAL because that's how they're marked on the card (each socket is marked GAL.) I have to admit, I've never actually heard of a PEEL before now. I knew what a GAL or PAL was, but not a PEEL.

So, all that's left (for this part at least,) is to track down which PEEL is causing issues and then find a way to replace it. The stickers on mine read: P1-0595-P, P2-4693, P3-4693-?, P4-4693, & P5-4693. P3 actually has a pink sticker instead of a white one. I can't tell what the final digit (past the second -) is, as it looks like someone but an X over it (the X looks hand written.) I did perform chip repair method #1... That is, I removed, cleaned, and resocketed each chip.

[JimDrew]

Yes, the pink (which was actually red at one point) label is to identify that PEEL as the one that unlocks the e586DX related hardware on the EMPLANT board.

[Pheonix]

Well, I'm slightly upset Got the RAM in, but the package was not as advertised (32-pin DIP.) They were actually SOJ chips. Not only way too small, but the wrong pin types. Width/Length ratio is correct, just much smaller. Couldn't tell from the pics, and the description said DIP32. And the picture had one sitting on a anti-static chip pad, so I thought the pins were just embedded into the pad.

So, if anyone needs 8 64x8 32-pin SOJ chips... I'll sell them at cost ($17.50 plus shipping.)

[Pheonix]

Got RAM of the correct size in Only the Autoboot RAM/ROM socket still lists as BAD. The serial tests all pass now, though, on all baud rates. Pull the RAM chip, and it fails. So, now it's left to find out why the RAM chips don't work. Tried all 5 in the Autoboot slot (and yes I confirmed the jumper was set for 32-pin DIP.) This is with & without the battery installed. NOTE: the battery is a real PITA to remove

It turns out, that the RAM is non-volatile RAM. Though, from more in depth reading, it seems more like a self erasing EPROM. Special internal code with a trigger to erase an address. So, it makes sense that it fails. Back to looking for RAM, I guess.

Next question. The voltage on the RAM chip is 5v In/Out, will that damage my Emplant card? If not, I'd like to leave it in, as it now looks like its going to be a while before I can get some RAM (unless I sell some of my extra stuff.)

I'll also be looking for a way to attach my MAC floppy so I can read/write 400/800k disks. For now, my drive can only be attached through the A-Max II cartridge I have. I seem to recall a special format for an Amiga 880k drive that they could be copied to (from an MAC floppy drive on the A-Max cartridge,) for easier use later. But will have to research that more when the time comes.

So, current plans for the next steps:
1) Find the correct RAM chip(s). Looking into more detail, it seems the Emplant needs 3v chips not 5v. Or it's the non-volatile nature of these chips that's the issue. Either way, I've sourced some, but cannot buy them just yet. Had extra expenses this month, so available funds are a little short. Have a bunch of Amiga, PC, Atari, C64/128, & TI-99/4a stuff that might sell, which would change that.

2) Find a MAC system 7.5.5 compatible HDD to install for my MAC emulation. Basic plan is to attach it to the Emplant card. Though that will require installing the device files from my Emplant floppies, Unless Fusion includes it (when I get a legal copy.) CyberSCSI may be faster, and I may go that route eventually, but for now, trying to get full use out of the Emplant.

3) Find a way for Fusion to access 400/800k disks directly (AMIA or Sybil are the only ways I know of right now.) Tons of games I'd love to play MAC versions of, but they all come in 400k or 800k disks. I'm planning to use the A-Max on my A2000 unless I end up selling it. Or trading it for an AMIA, Sybil, or whatever I end up shopping for. About the only other reason I would want to keep the A-Max is if there are things that will run on the really old MACs (MAC Plus or 512Ke - With the currently installed ROMs) that won't run on the newer MACs (MAC II or later.)

[JimDrew]

You will need something that can actually use a real Mac drive (like AMIA). I did have support for the original Amax II hardware box, but I disabled it (on purpose). I will see if I can find the version of the Converter II program that can support it. The other option is SYBIL, which can use the stock Amiga disk drives to read/write Mac disks.

[Pheonix]

Sorry it's been so long... Been waiting for my final attempt at a RAM chip to get here from China. Got it in and the board now passes all tests Going to wait a bit before I get the other 4 RAM chips. Mainly because the RAM, apparently, doesn't work the way I thought it did. I was under the impression that the desktop settings would be saved to this RAM and that part of it could be used to mount boot disks for the MAC emulation. Unless I can get my MAC 800k floppy drive up and running, that was my answer to the games I'd like to play, but have to boot to 800/400k disk to do so.

Still trying to find a HDD that the MAC side will see on it's own. Looks like I'm either going to have to use a 3rd party drive utility or hack the one that comes with the OS. Don't really like doing either, but I will if I have too. Found a drive that matches one of the ones listed in Apple's HD utility, but it still isn't seen. This lead me to discover that Apple set it so that most drives still won't be acceptable (even if in the utility's list,) unless they have an Apple identifier on the HW interface of the drive. Have to say, that ticked me off quite a bit. Did get the Emplant card recognizing the drive though

[ElectroBlaster]

I recently snagged an Emplant board. Mine has what appears to be the scsi part on it.

But no physical roms etc. I know hardly anything about this board but decided I wanted to try one out.

Have not read this thread entirley but will later, I need some advice about how to populate the board, get macos running etc (if I get around to it what with christmas soon etc).

[Pheonix]

OK, new round of troubleshooting Found some HDDs that are Apple labeled, and will be detected by the included software. Though the first drive had a problem during initialization. Could be the HDD, or could be related to the new problem. Will find out when the replacement drive gets here next week on that.

More than likely, though, the drive got hosed because of the new problem. For some reason, the system resets or locks up after running Fusion for a few minutes. It only does it if I tell it to use the Emplant chipset. Set it to use the Amiga chipset and this problem goes away. So, if I set "Emulation Hardware" to Emplant card, it crashes after a few minutes. Set it to Amiga chipset, and it runs just fine. The card passes Diagnostics just fine. What do I need to find out where the trouble lies?

[Pheonix]

Next round...

Measuring the voltage on the Emplant card results in 4.6v only on the 5v line. Replaced PSU (took a while, had to wait for the adapter from Europe.) Now measures 5.2v on the Emplant card. However, the problem remains

On advice from Mr. Drew, removed the serial chip (still fails on serial test if no RAM is installed,) and tried. Problem still remains. Do not have a drive attached, and I've tried it with the termination jumper in both positions.

[grelbfarlk]

Don't take this the wrong way, but what functionality are you hoping to gain from the Emplant card?
Do you really need the serial port?
The SCSI port?
Or are you just having fun playing around with a pretty weird Zorro card?

[Pheonix]

From my understanding, it also includes HW chips that are present in the MAC but not the Amiga. Primarily the 3 VIA chips as well as several PEELs. Fusion allows pushing a lot of the emulation from SW on to the Emplant HW (not just the serial & SCSI ports, though those are nice too.) It's as close as I can come to having a classic MAC system without actually buying a MAC. Plus, the card came in a batch that I purchased a while back.

Once I track down what is causing this problem & fix it, that is

[JimDrew]

That is true. FUSION is faster and more compatible when selecting the EMPLANT hardware as the chipset. The Amiga doesn't have to emulate 2 VIA chips and the glue logic. The 3rd VIA is reserved strictly for the PC emulation and control of the various ROMs/RAMs that can be placed on the board.

[Pheonix]

Maybe I should try rotating the VIA chips. Will the Emplant work if the 3rd chip is removed? The one that is for PC & RAM/ROM?