Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[demolition]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

I'm using V1.7 and all I have right now is Maprom & Maxmem settings. I need to do more testing. A list of what commands work with the ACA620 would be useful, they're not printed in the manual

'acatune -help' not helpful?
Many of them should be working on the ACA620, although I know that '-burst' won't do anything.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

A list of what commands work with the ACA620 would be useful, they're not printed in the manual

That readme is fairly long. Your post, as well as that 45-minute video of the meeting in Bad Bramstedt last weekend, is a demonstration of the attention span of the average Amigan: Long readme-files obviously have the effect of the user stopping to read after the first option has been explained.

In the case of the video, it's "chipcache". The guys even read in the readme that "chipcache" is only supported by ACA1230 and ACA630, but not on other cards. Still, they're trying over and over again to activate chipcache.

Each and every option is explained in the readme. For every option, there's a sentence that says which card supports this, and which one doesn't. It's not all that complex. Heck, there's even a hint at the next accelerator I'll be making, and nobody has found it. I wonder why I'm taking the time to write that documentation if you guys keep ignoring it.

Jens

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Heck, there's even a hint at the next accelerator I'll be making, and nobody has found it.

Who here has an A1000 anyway? Not me

[qrulf]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I wonder why I'm taking the time to write that documentation if you guys keep ignoring it.

Jens

Please be aware that not everyone are ignoring you readme files :-)

I must admit that sometimes information and documentation is hidden well.

Take myself as usecase:
Buying an ACA-1231 for the A1200. Reading Vesalias productpage I get the impression that this will work with most A1200 motherboards:

The ACA-1231/42 is more tolerant towards different revisions of the A1200 board than the ACA-1230 was. Immunity against fluctuations of old power supplies has been improved while the power consumption has been reduced.

When the Amiga consequently seems unstable, a Google-search directs me here to report my problem. Learning from you about about the three timing fixes, I get the Amiga working with the accelerator.

I find your work, presence, and enthusiasm regarding good hardware for good computers inspiring. I would like to have you well seated just beside my soldering iron. In the meantime it would be nice to be able to find product, documentation, and links to hints/solutions from icomp.de.

[wmsteele]

Originally Posted by alexh

Who here has an A1000 anyway? Not me

I would be very interested in the ACA1020

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

That readme is fairly long. Your post, as well as that 45-minute video of the meeting in Bad Bramstedt last weekend, is a demonstration of the attention span of the average Amigan: Long readme-files obviously have the effect of the user stopping to read after the first option has been explained.

In the case of the video, it's "chipcache". The guys even read in the readme that "chipcache" is only supported by ACA1230 and ACA630, but not on other cards. Still, they're trying over and over again to activate chipcache.

Each and every option is explained in the readme. For every option, there's a sentence that says which card supports this, and which one doesn't. It's not all that complex. Heck, there's even a hint at the next accelerator I'll be making, and nobody has found it. I wonder why I'm taking the time to write that documentation if you guys keep ignoring it.

Jens

You could make finding the information for a certain product easier, though. Before downloading 1.7 from a link by you in this thread I visited the product page for ACA630, and like most of your product pages, they have no links to drivers or manuals. When resellers sell out your batches, the product pages with any links to drivers or manuals may be removed.

You put in a lot of time to develop high-class products, so why not spend a few minutes making your company page a showcase of products with correct drivers and/or manuals? I realize of course that you're (virtually?) a one-man firm, but as a friendly suggestion your site needs some love. Some of your currently/recently selling products aren't even there among the products. It's the place every fan will go when they want to shop for your inventions.

And manuals aren't written with average attention span in mind, lucky that! They are written by companies to document usage, requirements, and features of products. We'd all love to be able to use and supply technical support for your products in 2020 here in forums. If you get what I mean.

And I know you know what I mean if I say any Amigan is desperate to get a 1% faster Amiga. That's why you put "don't even think about overclocking" on the ACA. So you know why they were behaving "irrationally" in the video

[Photon]

Originally Posted by alexh

Who here has an A1000 anyway? Not me

_o/

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Photon

You could make finding the information for a certain product easier, though. Before downloading 1.7 from a link by you in this thread I visited the product page for ACA630, and like most of your product pages, they have no links to drivers or manuals. When resellers sell out your batches, the product pages with any links to drivers or manuals may be removed.

+1 to that. I did read the short manual (and the readme) and it told me to look for ACAtune on www.icomp.de, however I couldn't find it there. I couldn't even find any mention of the ACA620 that I had just bought. Eventually I found it for download on Vesalia's webpage.

[mfilos]

You can always go to the first post of this thread where the mods putted a link to a post that I made in which I gathered all the ACATune versions plus a small changelog by me
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...postcount=2316

[demolition]

Originally Posted by mfilos

You can always go to the first post of this thread where the mods putted a link to a post that I made in which I gathered all the ACATune versions plus a small changelog by me
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...postcount=2316

Well, I did try to search for acatune on eab and it came up with a lot of links, but mostly old versions, so that made it a little tricky to find..

[Smakar]

Wow - just got a delivery from FedEx - I thought my wife had ordered more clothes or shoes but it was my ACA1220 from Amigakit!
I am VERY pleased with the quick response, especially being in the States.

Now I only need to be able to order the ACA500 for my A500

Thank you and Cheers!

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

That readme is fairly long. ... Heck, there's even a hint at the next accelerator I'll be making, and nobody has found it. I wonder why I'm taking the time to write that documentation if you guys keep ignoring it.

Jens

Believe me if I tell you that if there was a single word telling about a new SATA controller it would had some more people asking

[amigakit.com]

@Smakar

Many thanks for the order- I am glad it arrived quickly.

[Amiga1992]

So how re the ACA620 running? I have read a bunch of problems. I am considering buying myslef one for christmans, but the comment are keeping me on the fence.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Akira

So how re the ACA620 running? I have read a bunch of problems.

There's one guy in this thread, and his problems are a) gone and b) probably related to his computer, not the card itself. So what's the "bunch of problems" that you're writing about?

Jens

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

There's one guy in this thread, and his problems are a) gone and b) probably related to his computer, not the card itself. So what's the "bunch of problems" that you're writing about?

There's me and two others who are having similar stability problems with it. I've still not been able to confirm that anyone's got it to work properly.
Mine still isn't working (crashes after typically 30-45 mins), and I've done a lot of things trying to make it work:

Cleaned the CPU pins very thoroughly
Opening the case, putting a fan on it to keep it cool
Desoldered the CPU, cleaned up everything and soldered it back in to get rid of any micro fractures
Soldered in extra supply wires from the connector to the CPU decoupling caps
Added extra decoupling caps (on U1A/B on MB)
Connected a heavy ground wire from motherboard to ACA
Tried another PSU
Tried another A600 (both A600s have fresh caps)

The only thing that seemed to help was the extra thorough cleaning of the CPU pins which improved stability from ~5 mins to ~45 mins, but it won't get any better.

I'm just waiting for Vesalia to respond to my mails, as I've run out of things to try (and obviously won't try modifying the ACA as it'll break the warranty).

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by demolition

There's me and two others

I know about your case, but not about any other one. Those other two should get in touch with me.

Jens

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I know about your case, but not about any other one. Those other two should get in touch with me.

The two I'm talking about are fitzsteve and Lechuck on Amibay. I don't know if they're both on EAB, but here are some links to their posts (both in same thread):
http://www.amibay.com/showpost.php?p=380272&postcount=1
http://www.amibay.com/showpost.php?p...3&postcount=21

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

There's one guy in this thread, and his problems are a) gone and b) probably related to his computer, not the card itself. So what's the "bunch of problems" that you're writing about?

You're right then, I should have a go at it!
But he just said it's not his computer and his problems aren't gone.
What sort of setup can lead to this behaviour? My A600 is pretty old (20 years this xmas)

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Akira

What sort of setup can lead to this behaviour? My A600 is pretty old (20 years this xmas)

Awww, crap. Your miggy is to old, it cant be helped, you need to buy a new one.


Ok, that was mean. Here is a hint. Every Amiga in use is about 20 years old, or more. Age alone isn't the cause. One thing is storage, another is how it's been treated, and lastly, these issues were there already when they shipped from the factory, so some machines have had them all along. There is pretty much no way to know. But to try.
B!