ACA500 tested

[source]

I did not know of the disable jumper until I read the posts today when I uploaded the photos. What would be the benefit of disabling the aca1232? I don't know enough about it.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by source

I did not know of the disable jumper until I read the posts today when I uploaded the photos. What would be the benefit of disabling the aca1232? I don't know enough about it.

Some older games/applications do not run well or at all with newer turbo cards hence the disable feature.

[FOL]

Feel I have to post this here.

We are getting alot of support tickets, regarding ACA500 cards not working.

1) Please make sure you only connect the ACA500 (nothing else).
2) Make sure your edge connector is clean and cleaned properly.

In Beta testing, I must have tested 20+ boards. Around 12 of these gave random colour screens. I would clean the edge connector very well and every single one was find after that.

Also take care when inserting the ACA500. Same goes for the CF cards, already had a report of someone bending the pins.

[amiga1]

I have an ACA500 with an HXC Rev B/C floppy emulator. With everything connected, I cannot write to any floppy--it simply errors out with a number of write errors. I cannot even create an ACA500 emergency flash disk. Remove the ACA500 and everything is happy. I've update the HXC to the latest firmware flash, but have yet to do anything with the ACA500 since I cannot make an emergency disk for it first.

Just thought it was an interesting 'problem'. Reading from the HXC works flawlessly.

Cheers,

c

[FOL]

Originally Posted by amiga1

I have an ACA500 with an HXC Rev B/C floppy emulator. With everything connected, I cannot write to any floppy--it simply errors out with a number of write errors. I cannot even create an ACA500 emergency flash disk. Remove the ACA500 and everything is happy. I've update the HXC to the latest firmware flash, but have yet to do anything with the ACA500 since I cannot make an emergency disk for it first.

Just thought it was an interesting 'problem'. Reading from the HXC works flawlessly.

Cheers,

c

But thats an emulated drive. Not a real floppy drive.
You cant just throw that in. Its like saying my car doesn't rev right with this engine I bought from a different manufacturer.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by FOL

You cant just throw that in. Its like saying my car doesn't rev right with this engine I bought from a different manufacturer.

Well, to be fair, he's not specifically asking Jens to fix it.
He's just pointing out the issue.

With your car metaphor, its fine to ask that question on a generic forum.
Just don't expect the car manufacturer to answer it... ;-)

Now, other people reading that forum might say "Hey, I have that combination and I did this!."

Or maybe the company who made the engine is reading the forum too, and they might reply?

And it's even possible (though I wouldn't be on it), that the car manufacturer might say "you know, we're aware of that, and it might be related to the carburetor."

It's not right to expect Jens to fix it, but it seems like it's a valid post in a forum not on the manufacturer's website. ;-)

desiv

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by FOL

I would clean the edge connector very well and every single one was fine after that.

What do you recommend, pencil eraser, isopropyl alcohol or something else?

[Schoenfeld]

Pencil eraser is the best thing - can't do anything wrong with that.

As for the HxC floppy emulator thing: I think it just proves that it's not a proper emulation. It works with real drives (to my knowledge: all brands), and that gives a hint at "we're seeing a problem after installing the ACA500". Note that this does not say anything about causality - the problem has probably always been in the floppy emulator, and it's showing only now that there's the slightest change in timing behaviour of the A500.

Besides, the floppy emulator is not really needed any more if you have an ACA500 - a real floppy drive is good enough for the few times that you ever need the drive. To stay with the car metaphor: There's no need for a cassette adapter for your portable CD-player if you have an MP3 player installed.

Jens

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Pencil eraser is the best thing - can't do anything wrong with that.

As for the HxC floppy emulator thing: I think it just proves that it's not a proper emulation. It works with real drives (to my knowledge: all brands), and that gives a hint at "we're seeing a problem after installing the ACA500". Note that this does not say anything about causality - the problem has probably always been in the floppy emulator, and it's showing only now that there's the slightest change in timing behaviour of the A500.

Besides, the floppy emulator is not really needed any more if you have an ACA500 - a real floppy drive is good enough for the few times that you ever need the drive. To stay with the car metaphor: There's no need for a cassette adapter for your portable CD-player if you have an MP3 player installed.

Jens

I'm not assigning blame but this is odd considering I've tested the HxC with floppy boot selectors, kippers ram cards, non-auto config ram cards, Mika's cf-IDE, kippers ram+cf-IDE boards, 1.2, 1.3 (inc patched) and 3.1 roms on my Rev6a ECS board (which has been 1mb chip ram modded and then un-modded) and not found any compatibility problems.

I'd be interested to know if the reported issue is happening on say only a rev5 board?

I plan to buy an aca500 myself to play with but I've just moved states and all my Miggie's are in storage while I find a house to rent (in a good old furnished unit ATM). Anyhow I'll hopefully be able to test this combo in a few months and report back.

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Pencil eraser is the best thing - can't do anything wrong with that.

Just thought, some erasers have two parts, pencil (soft rubber) and biro (a harder gritty rubber). Would the biro end cause much damage if used by mistake? Just asking in case people assume 'any' eraser will do.

[amiga1]

Yes, I was just pointing out the issue. Other than that point, the ACA500 rocks. I love the potential. Thanks for clearing up, I hadn't thought about all the possible interpretations.

Cheers,

c

Originally Posted by desiv

Well, to be fair, he's not specifically asking Jens to fix it.
He's just pointing out the issue.

With your car metaphor, its fine to ask that question on a generic forum.
Just don't expect the car manufacturer to answer it... ;-)

Now, other people reading that forum might say "Hey, I have that combination and I did this!."

Or maybe the company who made the engine is reading the forum too, and they might reply?

And it's even possible (though I wouldn't be on it), that the car manufacturer might say "you know, we're aware of that, and it might be related to the carburetor."

It's not right to expect Jens to fix it, but it seems like it's a valid post in a forum not on the manufacturer's website. ;-)

desiv

[amiga1]

Originally Posted by dJOS

...
I'd be interested to know if the reported issue is happening on say only a rev5 board?

Yes, it is a Rev 5 board with a 512K trapdoor RAM w/oki clock. An Indi ESC video add-on, as well. Other than that (with the HXC), that's all there is to it.

c

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Just thought, some erasers have two parts, pencil (soft rubber) and biro (a harder gritty rubber). Would the biro end cause much damage if used by mistake? Just asking in case people assume 'any' eraser will do.

The biro section will wear away the contacts so please don't use it, use the soft pencil eraser and then wipe of any rubber residue with a lint free cloth.

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by amiga1

Yes, it is a Rev 5 board with a 512K trapdoor RAM w/oki clock. An Indi ESC video add-on, as well. Other than that (with the HXC), that's all there is to it.

c

Ah good to know, hopefully I can test my rig in a couple of months and let you know if I see the same issue or not.

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by dJOS

The biro section will wear away the contacts so please don't use it, use the soft pencil eraser and then wipe of any rubber residue with a lint free cloth.

That's why I posted as some may think 'eraser' and use any type not realising

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by BarryB

That's why I posted as some may think 'eraser' and use any type not realising

[lantus360]

hooked up mine last night. I am having no luck at all with my ACA500 on my revision 5 Kickstart 1.3 Motherboard.

used a pencil eraser and IPA and nothing.

but 2 things ive noticed

1) connecting an ACA1232 sometimes gets me to the boot screen, but its about a 1/5 chance. And even then it wont boot to CF. Its only happened a few times.

2) without the ACA1232 connected it just gives me a black screen. Sometimes the power light is on, sometimes its not. Either way it doesnt work.

incidently, i gotta say, the connector solder points have been done by hand and quite frankly have done a horrible job. Look at the bits of solder just lingering on the board. Ive tried cleaning them away but still nothing. I suspect a bad solder joint or two is the reason why my board isnt working.

[fitzsteve]

I'm pretty sure Amigakit test all their items before shipping so that should rule out any issue with the hardware. (unless it broke in transit)

When I first got my ACA500 I only had a black screen but it was due to my CF card being incompatible. When I removed the CF I saw the boot screen.

Have you tried it without any CF connected?

[lantus360]

Hi Steve,

yes i have tried that. No luck.

ive tried every combination you could think of

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by lantus360

hooked up mine last night. I am having no luck at all with my ACA500 on my revision 5 Kickstart 1.3 Motherboard.

used a pencil eraser and IPA and nothing.

but 2 things ive noticed

1) connecting an ACA1232 sometimes gets me to the boot screen, but its about a 1/5 chance. And even then it wont boot to CF. Its only happened a few times.

2) without the ACA1232 connected it just gives me a black screen. Sometimes the power light is on, sometimes its not. Either way it doesnt work.

incidently, i gotta say, the connector solder points have been done by hand and quite frankly have done a horrible job. Look at the bits of solder just lingering on the board. Ive tried cleaning them away but still nothing. I suspect a bad solder joint or two is the reason why my board isnt working.

While visually untidy I dont think those solder joints are an issue, if you just used some IPA and a toothbrush it would clean right up. Once you've done that then use a multimeter in continuity mode to confirm there are no slivers of solder connecting any of the pins together (there are one or two I can see that look a tiny bit suspect but hard to be certain).