Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Mr B

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.

Yeah, ok, I set myself up for that one, knew as soon as I posted

What I actually meant is that this machine has been with me for a long time. It has not been in storage, it's been used, quite a lot, and still in use. Fresh new caps and all that jazz. But those CPU legs might be a bit dirty... and maybe there was something known about board revisions.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Akira

What I actually meant is that this machine has been with me for a long time. It has not been in storage, it's been used, quite a lot, and still in use. Fresh new caps and all that jazz. But those CPU legs might be a bit dirty... and maybe there was something known about board revisions.

My two A600s are rev. 1.5 and 2D and the ACA620 have pretty much the same problems in both of them. Obviously I can't guarantee that they don't both have problems and that my ACA620 would not work in a new A600. But just like the rest of you, my A600s are also 20+ years old.

If only it would be as simple as the A1200 timing fix (which I may have to perform when I get my ACA1232, hopefully tomorrow).

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Akira

Yeah, ok, I set myself up for that one, knew as soon as I posted

Rats, now i'm forseeable.

Originally Posted by Akira

What I actually meant is that this machine has been with me for a long time. It has not been in storage, it's been used, quite a lot, and still in use. Fresh new caps and all that jazz. But those CPU legs might be a bit dirty... and maybe there was something known about board revisions.

I'd say it's no more, or less likely to be a candidate for trouble then anyone else. You might get lucky, i seam to have with my ACA 1230, so us lucky people ARE out there. (Still havent been able to pull a all-nighter with the miggy, so i might be happy to soon...)

[Amiga1992]

You have well convinced me. Now it's all am matter of economics :P

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Akira

You have well convinced me. Now it's all am matter of economics :P

Let us know how it works out once you get it.

[kipper2k]

I have roughly 15 A600's and i have tried the ram expansions in most of them. Results have been scattered. Some CPU's run hotter than other, may be put down to brittleness and other wear factors. Most legs were dirty and all required a cleaning of the legs as there was oxides on pretty well all the legs. 2 of the machines when i attached the fastmem board overheated and would last only about 10 minutes before freezing started. I pointed a regular house fan on them and ran superfrog demo (my basic testing) and it would chirp merrily along

All my A600's have been recapped and are what i consider to be in reasonable to good health but chip temps vary from machine to machine. I think age is a factor and just looking at how clean a computer is, is not a reliable indicator of the motherboard itself. It is a bit of a crapshoot with these machines as to how well they behave, with its basic config they will probably chirp along forever but putting extra stress on them could be too much for some of them.

[NovaCoder]

It's getting pretty obvious that our beloved classic hardware isn't going to last forever.

I really hope that there will be some interesting FPGA options available soon.

[PulsatingQuasar]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

All my A600's have been recapped and are what i consider to be in reasonable to good health but chip temps vary from machine to machine. I think age is a factor and just looking at how clean a computer is, is not a reliable indicator of the motherboard itself. It is a bit of a crapshoot with these machines as to how well they behave, with its basic config they will probably chirp along forever but putting extra stress on them could be too much for some of them.

Temperature differences in the CPU are probably related to the manufacturing process. Impurities in the production of the CPU cause CPU's to have a higher temperature. Which is still true today with all modern CPU's.

So at the time there was probably a wide temperature range in which a CPU was working and validated as OK. But if you now stick something over it the temperature goes over that tolerance level and errors occur.

An option could be to replace the 68000 with a different one.

On a side note. I have 2 ACA620 here. I have a rev1 Amiga 600 here in which neither worked. I didn't check why because I just stuck them in 2 other Amiga 600 in which they worked immediatly.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by demolition

My two A600s are rev. 1.5 and 2D and the ACA620 have pretty much the same problems in both of them.

I have an idea about what's going on on your machine. Please contact me through eMail with your street address. With Vesalia's support technician being sick, it would take too long to handle this through the reseller.

Jens

[Lord Aga]

Maybe it's time for some quality PSUs from Individual computers ? Specially tuned for Amiga needs. That would be a great way to solve a significant number of hardware problems. I know I would buy one just to be sure. This way, whenever there is some problem I cycle through three PSUs just to be sure.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

Maybe it's time for some quality PSUs from Individual computers ? Specially tuned for Amiga needs. That would be a great way to solve a significant number of hardware problems. I know I would buy one just to be sure. This way, whenever there is some problem I cycle through three PSUs just to be sure.

At this point if you are going to expand your Amiga with all this cool stuff, I wouldn't dare to risk it using the shitty commodore bricks. I have installed a picoPSU in both my Amigas and I can't be happier.

[Lord Aga]

True, but as Jens has already explained on several occasions, it's not about Wattage (I have a modified PC PSU), it's about quality. 5V rail to be exact. No ripple and stuff. So if he can build Amiga spec PSUs, I am sure many of us would buy them. Feed our Miggies top quality juice.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I have an idea about what's going on on your machine. Please contact me through eMail with your street address. With Vesalia's support technician being sick, it would take too long to handle this through the reseller.

I have filled out the contact form on icomp.de with my information.

[demolition]

The mailman just delivered the ACA1232 to my door a few hours ago, and it seems to work fine in my A1200. 7.97 MIPS in Sysinfo, ~2.5MB/s from IDE and all memory is found, so doing some stability tests now, and if I'm lucky, no timing fixes will be required.

First, I couldn't get it to find any memory except for 1MB at c00000, but then I remembered that since the CF card was taken from my A600, Acatune was maprom'ing a 40.063 KS, and that didn't work too well.

After changing to 40.068 it seems to work as it should. I need a new keyboard for my A1200 though as many keys aren't working and I have to move the CF card to WinUAE every time I want to change something..

Edit: Nah, it just crashed, so I'll probably have to apply the timing fix (was expecting it anyway).

[FOL]

Originally Posted by demolition

The mailman just delivered the ACA1232 to my door a few hours ago, and it seems to work fine in my A1200. 7.97 MIPS in Sysinfo, ~2.5MB/s from IDE and all memory is found, so doing some stability tests now, and if I'm lucky, no timing fixes will be required.

First, I couldn't get it to find any memory except for 1MB at c00000, but then I remembered that since the CF card was taken from my A600, Acatune was maprom'ing a 40.063 KS, and that didn't work too well.

After changing to 40.068 it seems to work as it should. I need a new keyboard for my A1200 though as many keys aren't working and I have to move the CF card to WinUAE every time I want to change something..

Edit: Nah, it just crashed, so I'll probably have to apply the timing fix (was expecting it anyway).

I have to be fair, its a very nippy card. Gives a nice quick and fluid feeling when using it.

[Retroplay]

I just did the fix (rev 1.D4 mobo) as I expect Postman Pat to deliver my ACA1232 monday.

After I did it the image quality seems to have improved on my 1084S-D1.
Not that it was bad before though.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Retroplay

I just did the fix (rev 1.D4 mobo) as I expect Postman Pat to deliver my ACA1232 monday.

After I did it the image quality seems to have improved on my 1084S-D1.
Not that it was bad before though.

I have a little interference on the RGB output - my A600 has a slightly better picture. This was always the case though, also before the ACA got in there. Maybe it'll improve for me as well.

Just took a few pictures of sysinfo, not that there's much news in it, but here you have it anyway..

[mfilos]

Nice one demolition What crystal have you used?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by mfilos

Nice one demolition What crystal have you used?

The screenshots I posted were of the ACA1232 stock speed, and I have no intention of overclocking it. Getting it to run perfectly stable will be my goal. :-)

[drohan]

Hi all.

Is there an easy way to know if my A1200 will need any kind of timing fix to work properly with the ACA 1232?

Thanks in advance.