DESPERATE! Help with PicoPSU :(

[Amiga1992]

I've wired my shit as StevenJ:

Originally Posted by StevenJGore

For some reason, the Amiga won't power up.
I don't know what I am doing wrong, I soldered the same cables to the same points in the mobo. The PicoPSU powers up but not the Amiga.

I got a normal switch with it, and I don't know what could be wrong.

I am desperate, I just wish I didn't fry my Amiga up (nothing smells of smoke and I haven'tr seen any caps blown up or anything, though.)

Help GREATLY apreciated.

[Amiga1992]

Well, if I conenct the diskdrive to the PicoPSU through its connector, the Amiga powers up but gives a line of nothing, IDE port stuck, locked.

I dont know wtf is going on but it seems like when the picopsu is conencted just to the amiga it doesnt get the signals conencted that it needs to power up.

I re checked teh connections and everything is in place as in stevenJ's diagram.

[Amiga1992]

I unsoldered teh cables just in case.

Conencted them directly to the Amiga's PSU port.
Nothing happens when I flick the power switch.

Again, if the picopsu detects that I conencted something to its other conenctors, like the diskdrive or a fan, it starts up, but the amiga gets nothing, IDE port locked (CF-IDE light constantly on), and screen turns with black signal and an interference line in the middle.

I removed the scandoubler just in case, same results.

What the fuck is going on?

[Zetr0]

@Akira

check the outputs with a multi-meter.

you problem sounds like it could be having a problem with the -12v

[Amiga1992]

I wish I had one here, but I don't, fuck.
Maybe it's just a misconnection?
Problem is, I dont have a normal Amiga PSU to try it with. I left it away.

Will have to wait to November to finish this up, I guess

[Amiga1992]

Zetro, you think it could be a problem with the picoPSU?

Why does it work when connecting another device?
I am puzzled, shit.

[Amiga1992]

Finding:

shorting green pin 14 with earth makes the picopsu power on, while switch doesnt.

however picopsu powers on with switch if not connected to amiga but a device is attaches to the other plugs.


i redid the soldering, it looks like this, you see any problems??:

[Amiga1992]

When the thing doesn't power up, picopsu lits up its green light (getting power from dc), but not the red one (power on)

I already wrote to see how to return the unit in case it might be at fault, but it seems unlikely, isn't it?

Also, -12V is used, as far as I know, only for the RS-232 connections in the serial port, so if it doesn't work it shouldn't be much of a problem, right?

I am all puzzled ;(

[Zetr0]

earth!?

eh?!

Akira... on the Amiga connect GROUND and SHIELD together

make sure you have good connections for +12, -12 and +5

the PICO PSU connected to the ATX connector, the ATX connector Green (PS_ON) pin 14 when connected to ground will turn the POWER ON, if you have a momentary switch this wont work as there is no latching (unless you get a smarty board from Stedy!).

its a damn pity your in another part of the globe Akira, or i would come over and help you sort it out.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

earth!?

eh?!

Akira... on the Amiga connect GROUND and SHIELD together

It was said in the PicoPSU thread that SHIELD should be left DISCONNECTED.
I asked this and was told it was not a problem.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=36569#37



I have a rocker switch connected, not a momentary.
I still dont know why it powers when I short the two pins with a cable and not with the switch.

[Zetr0]

@Akira

hmmmm sounds to me like your switch is F'd in the A' my friend.... either that or you may have wired it up wrong,

worse case change the switch and see what happens

[Amiga1992]

I am going to power it up again now, last time it powered up with black screen anda fuzzy line in the middle, which seems like low voltage in one of the lines.

will report in a few minutes.

[alphonsus]

IIRC, -12V is used for sound generation, to provide the -ve half of the waveform.

[rkauer]

In the rf video circuit(?) and serial port too(!).

[StevenJGore]

@Akira:

Sorry to hear you're having problems. Just a few thoughts:

- Check that you're using the correct wires from the ATX connector (particularly the black and red wires, there's lots of them on an ATX connector). I assumed you used Zetr0's diagram in the picoPSU thread to determine the correct wires?

- Twist the ends of the switch wires together whilst you're trying to get it working, then at least the switch is eliminated from the problem.

- Check that there aren't any fine strands of wire straying from the soldered joints and touching something that they shouldn't be.

Steve.

[Amiga1992]

When pin 14 and 15 are shorted, powers up.
Stays a while with black screen, IDE light on CF-IDE board stuck ON but not on Amiga's LEDs (nothing)
After the blackscreen which takes a lot more than usual, Amiga tries to read disk drive, no disk in drive, thus, Kickstart screen comes up.

Check it out here:
[ Show youtube player ]

You can;t see it very well, but notice how long it takes to get to the kickstart screen.

Regarding the pinout, I used this:

In combination with your pic.
As far as I can tell I have used the exact same wires!
I mean, the machine gets to the kickstart and all but it feels like i may be feeding the +12V line less voltage? it's the only thing i can think of.

[Zetr0]

The delay is down to the computer not finding a bootble partition on your harddisk, / CF

hold down the mouse buttons and see if it can see the hard disk in the early boot menu. if not then either the CF card needs to be re-partitioned / fixed or the connecter could be a little loose.

other than a critical hardware failure (no screen at all), only two things will hold a post up on a miggy, Hard disk, and Floppy not present (albeit cable wrongly inserted), although I do have a 1D1 rev mobo that waits for ever to boot without a keyboard attached!

[Amiga1992]

If I disconnect the CF-IDE, the same thing happens.
If the voltage of +12 or +5 is wrong the IDE interface may be working wrong or just plain fucked.

[Zetr0]

@Akira

okay my friend.... i can see where this is going..... just take five a minute grab a coffe / tea or something.... breathe!!!

now....

you have hooked up the power correctly, otherwise the A1200 wouldn't power up. so well done on that my friend...

the problem we have now is the CF wont boot and the delay with or without the device attached. This is NOT power related my friend, this is something intrinsic to your setup...

so lets take a moment....

remove the cf card and ide-interface for the moment, also remove any scan doubler etc... all we want is a basic vanilla setup... mobo+keyboard+FDD drive

now you have probably done this 20 times already... so sip your coffee and take a breath m8... perhaps put on some techno-trance or a bit of Enigma

firstly check the cable to the floppy drive, is this correct? are you sure?
check that there is power to the floppy drive...
make sure the keyboard is attached (via ribbon to a1200 keyboard or ps2 connector)

we will get to the bottom of this Akira, even if i have to trade you another A1200 motherboard!!!! LOL!!!!

[Amiga1992]

if i disconnect everything, the same thing happens.latest check was done on plain vanilla setup.

i can't disconnect the ide interface, i have no buffered interface. if it
s fucked, it's the internal IDE interface.

i have no disks ot test sound or anything else, but i remember sending the worng voltages gives a buzz on the sound and that's not happening.

this is kind of behaving like the time i connected a C128 PSU to my A600 (yes, i was brute enough to do that, check the pinouts, i was crazy!).

i got to test everything with the normal PSU but this wont happen until november. i am taking a plane to berlin now and i am leaving my amiga here, until i return in november ;_;

until then, this thread can be in hiatus. thanks for all the help guys!