Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[MrDBUG]

Just installed the ACA1230/28 - but looks like ive run into problems right away..
I just get one click from the floppy disk drive and then a black screen, then nothing :-(
No action at all on the SSD either.

Right now I just feel like giving up :-( Wasnt easy to get it installed either and having to take it out again ... whew...

A1200 KS 3.0 , jumper set, no acatune installed yet, (I thought I could do that on first boot, was that very wrong ??)

UPDATE:
Got the card out again and apparently the machine is healthy again..
Wish I had realized before going ahead I was too newbie to get this working.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by MrDBUG

Just installed the ACA1230/28 - but looks like ive run into problems right away..
I just get one click from the floppy disk drive and then a black screen, then nothing :-(

I had something similar on mine.. But I also had the same thing with my MBX1200z 8M RAM card, so I was familiar with it..

When i put the card in flush (all the way in), it didn't work. Computer wouldn't power up..
I just had to slide it back a little bit to get it to work...
(Not while the power is on of course...)
No idea why, but it's the same with my 1200 and both cards, so it's something about my connector on my 1200. Once connected and working, it's been great.
Same with my 1200z. Once I found the "sweet spot", it was fine..

Not sure if it's the same with yours, but ??

desiv

And the jumpers should be fine and installing ACAtune later is OK.
I didn't run ACAtune when I first got it working. I didn't add it to startup until after I had it working. It just doesn't add the RAM until you run it. (Well, and other things, so you will want to run it, but not having it shouldn't keep your machine from booting.)

p.s. There was also some talk about a timing issue and some caps on a few 1200 Motherboards on here, but I can't remember how that presented itself..

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by MrDBUG

Just installed the ACA1230/28 - but looks like ive run into problems right away..
I just get one click from the floppy disk drive and then a black screen, then nothing :-(
No action at all on the SSD either.

Depending on when that click from the floppy drive comes, it may already be a good sign. Is i right when you flick the switch, or a second later? Do you see the screen flicker once?

Originally Posted by MrDBUG

A1200 KS 3.0 , jumper set, no acatune installed yet, (I thought I could do that on first boot, was that very wrong ??)

You're absolutely right - the computer can be run without ACAtune. However, KS3.0 does not wait really long for the harddisk, so this may already be your problem. If you have an alternative harddrive/SSD, it's worth a try.

Originally Posted by MrDBUG

Got the card out again and apparently the machine is healthy again..
Wish I had realized before going ahead I was too newbie to get this working.

Don't give up so easily. As desiv wrote, try re-installing it, but don't push it all the way in. As you can read in the manual, the CPU conenctor of your A1200 may have collected dirt over the years, and from what I read, it seems like your A1200 has not seen any expansion in there before. You may have to open the computer and clean the connector from both sides with a pencil eraser if re-installing and moving back and forth does not help.

Jens

[amigoun]

I have made a pushbutton for the NMI jumper on ACA630. Is it safe to have a plain cable with switch just to short it? (without any diodes or so..)

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by amigoun

I have made a pushbutton for the NMI jumper on ACA630. Is it safe to have a plain cable with switch just to short it? (without any diodes or so..)

Yes, a simple pushbutton is safe. Diodes are on the board.

Jens

[amigoun]

Thanks for the header for NMI anyway, I like the idea. I am quite missing it on the ACA 1230, which I bought also.

[PulsatingQuasar]

Hi there,

So my Indivision ECS arrived and the 603 RAM card. I took a look at it and I thought I would be able to add the Indivision without cutting the diskdrive and also keep the diskdrive.

So this is my solution:

- removed a socket from the 603 RAM card;
- removed the socket from the Indivision ECS;
- created a new socket with a bunch of small wires;
- removed some of the metal shielding;
- used some plastic to put between the 603 card and Indivision;
- used some plastic to put between the socket of the 603 card and Indivision;
- used some plastic to put over the socket on top of the Indivision to prevent short circuits;
- taped it in position;

[DDNI]

@pulsatingquasar,

that is some serious hackery! Now we need to see some pics to show that it still works

One thing is eating at me though.... Sellotape??! WHY??? After such hackery, is a bit of insulating tape so hard to find?

[PulsatingQuasar]

Originally Posted by DDNI

@pulsatingquasar,

that is some serious hackery! Now we need to see some pics to show that it still works

One thing is eating at me though.... Sellotape??! WHY??? After such hackery, is a bit of insulating tape so hard to find?

The tape is only to keep it in place to ease closing the case. Besides. It's sunday and I don't have any good insulating tape.

I will come up with a solution that doesn't need any tape but not now.

It works like a charm though. Flashed the firmware update with this solution.

A note though. Constantly opening and closing seriously kills the plastic clamps at the back of the case. So next up is adding a screw solution there. This plastic clamp thing is one amongst many failures Commodore made.

[desiv]

Well, I was running my ACA1230/28 for well over an hour today (I know, not to much, but still) with no problems so far. In and out of several whdload games without problems.

I even tried adding kickstart 3.1 with maprom (As I'm running WB 3.0, it was just a "will it work" test) and it worked (when I typed my location correctly, it won't work when you lie to it as to where the file is.. ;-) ).

Interesting thing, I noticed that my sysinfo MIPS changed using kick3.1. I don't remember the value before, but I recognized it changed a bit. I'll have to try it again with 3.0 and 3.1 and see if it's just that or something else I did...

All in all, very satisfied so far...

Next step is to try to get my 3COM PCMCIA card working and see about getting it on the net.

That and grinding down the edge on the slot cover to be able to put it back on..

Also, I ordered a 4G CF card to finally replace my IDE drive. I've had a few IDE/CF adapters for a while, but haven't gotten around to getting a CF card, so I finally bit that bullet.

Thanx again IC and Amigakit...

desiv

[gibs]

@PulsatingQuasar I was about to do that for my Viper A630.
Well done :-)

[fitzsteve]

I was thinking (outside the box so bare with me) that if you made a custom 1.3 Rom with the SCSI.Device the you could do away with the Rom switch because in theory then you'd have by default 1.3 Rom for your floppy games with the ACA630 disabled but with the ACA630 enabled + ACATune you could remap 3.1 rom into FastRAM.

Would this idea work or am I missing something?

At least when I get an ACA630 I'd like to try this...

Steve.

[mfilos]

Hmmm interesting idea but...
If you had a real custom 1.3 ROM with the SCSI.device, that would mean that the A600 could boot into a WB1.3 system using the internal IDE.
I guess we need some clarification from Jens/Oliver if ACA630 works under 1.3 workbench, cause if it doesn't (which is more likely) then you can't use ACATune to kick into 3.1.

Even if that works fine... and you have a small partition that will just kick 3.1, you'll need to have another partition with the 3.1 system that would need to be chosen in 3.1's Early Startup Menu, or else it would try to boot to the 1.3 partition = fail

As I see it, a nice and easier solution would be an 1.3/3.1 custom kickstart, switchable via a +5V switch, and a switch for Enabling/Disabling the ACA. That could also be 1xMini Dip Switch which can be easily putted in the case (thought about it for future but we'll see).
That can be made with only 1 switch as well probably (0=Kick1.3+Disabled ACA, 1=Kick3.1+ACA) but I don't know how to do it electronically

[FOL]

Originally Posted by mfilos

Hmmm interesting idea but...
If you had a real custom 1.3 ROM with the SCSI.device, that would mean that the A600 could boot into a WB1.3 system using the internal IDE.
I guess we need some clarification from Jens/Oliver if ACA630 works under 1.3 workbench, cause if it doesn't (which is more likely) then you can't use ACATune to kick into 3.1.

Even if that works fine... and you have a small partition that will just kick 3.1, you'll need to have another partition with the 3.1 system that would need to be chosen in 3.1's Early Startup Menu, or else it would try to boot to the 1.3 partition = fail

As I see it, a nice and easier solution would be an 1.3/3.1 custom kickstart, switchable via a +5V switch, and a switch for Enabling/Disabling the ACA. That could also be 1xMini Dip Switch which can be easily putted in the case (thought about it for future but we'll see).
That can be made with only 1 switch as well probably (0=Kick1.3+Disabled ACA, 1=Kick3.1+ACA) but I don't know how to do it electronically

Set the RDB up correctly and with the right filesystem, then it would work. Just all hangs on wether ACATune is able to run on 1.3.

[Schoenfeld]

ACAtune requires Kick2.0 or higher to run.

The ACA630 auto-configs it's memory using Z3 autoconfig. This is not available under kick1.3, so the (virtual) Z3 card is ignored by kick1.3. The system starts up, but does not see any additional memory. You can use addmem to add the 32M of the ACA630 (starting at 0x4000.0000) and run a HD-less computer with lots of spare memory.

Making a Frankenstein Kickstart 1.3 with scsi.device won't really help, as you would only want to use kick1.3 for backwards-compatibility with old software that does absolute jumps into the rom. You should not change *anything* on such a rom, otherwise you risk going incompatible, which is the opposite of what you want to achieve. It would not even be a "because we can"-thing.

Instead of a Frankenstein 1.3, I'd suggest looking into the kick1.4 that came with the early 16MHz A3000's. It might have a place for scsi.device and it might also have an expansion lib that can do Z3 autoconfig. The funny thing about that kick is that you hardly ever get to see the window design, and if you do (with a bad boot HD on the A3000), it really looks like an Amiga from a parallel universe - *this* would be some fun on ACA630, as it supports loading kickstart from a file :-)

Jens

[fitzsteve]

Hey thanks for the info guys, I thought there would be more to it then that.

Its cool as I have 1.3/3.1 rom on a switch anyway so I'll be able to work with it as is.

Now I just need to find £136 in my back pocket...

Agh, bummer - just a sweat wrapper and a tooth pick

[Amigafanboi]

Jens, any news on a possible ACA500 series accelerator?

[vroom6sri]

Should I be able to see my ACA1230 when I bring up the Boot Options on my A1200?

[tin]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I've had several customers in Germany who had stability problems with their ACA1230-28. Three of them have now confirmed that the attached timing fix is perfectly working for them.

I have snapped pictures and wrote the attached document. Should anyone of you have stability issues with the ACA1230, please check if you have the capacitors E123C and E125C installed. Only remove them if you really have stability problems. By removing them if you don't have any problems, you're likely to introduce timing issues. In other words: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Jens

Jens and/or Chris, could you elaborate on this problem? I've just had a frustrating entire day of accelerator/motherboard/ROM/PSU/HD swapping all over the place and general Amiga destruction, and it's left me a little unclear about my next move.

I have both a 1D1 and a 1D4 that are both exhibiting severe graphic corruption and hang very soon after boot when fitted with ACA1230/28. (The 1D4 also sometimes claims it has 65 meg of RAM and not enough memory at the same time ). Firstly is this the kind of problem experienced by others?

I read the above post, and so to test, I have hacked together a setup with a 1A motherboard and this appears stable so far. The unfortunate thing is the keyboard side of this motherboard is screwed, and the video streaking fix has not been done so I will need to do more work on either my 1D1 or 1D4 (preferred) or the 1A (hopefully not) to get a proper working 1200 with acceleration. Hence the request for advice before proceeding (and also hence on EAB and not a support request. I think probably the accel is OK)

My 1D1 has the E123C/R and E125C/R all fitted. However I am given to understand from the internet at large, that 1D1 doesn't generally suffer from timing issues (for example, Eyetech declared it their preferred motherboard for testing).

The 1D4 has all 4 removed. However, I am given to understand that removing them is supposed to solve the problem! Or is it a bit more "grey" than that?

In addition both machines work fine with a Blizzard 1230 IV (one each). These have been swapped all over the place today during testing with no issues shown. Furthermore the 1D1 Amiga is a proper workhorse, and has been running literally for weeks and months at a time with the Blizzard in place, with no perceptible issues. I guess, that the Blizzard, faithful workhorse though it is, is perhaps not as hardcore when it comes to timing as the ACA? Or should I reasonably expect a machine that can operate for weeks on a Blizzard to work with ACA no problems?

Therefore you can see hopefully how I am a little confused at exactly what may be going on in Amiga-motherboard-timing-land, and what is the best method to proceed. If you could explain a little and advise I would be grateful, and perhaps would some others on here.

<edit> Haha, maybe spoke too soon. Further use of the 1A has resulted in some crashing, but in a more conventional kind of way. I'll check it out a bit more.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by tin

Jens and/or Chris, could you elaborate on this problem? I've just had a frustrating entire day of accelerator/motherboard/ROM/PSU/HD swapping all over the place and general Amiga destruction, and it's left me a little unclear about my next move.

I have both a 1D1 and a 1D4 that are both exhibiting severe graphic corruption and hang very soon after boot when fitted with ACA1230/28. (The 1D4 also sometimes claims it has 65 meg of RAM and not enough memory at the same time ). Firstly is this the kind of problem experienced by others?

I read the above post, and so to test, I have hacked together a setup with a 1A motherboard and this appears stable so far. The unfortunate thing is the keyboard side of this motherboard is screwed, and the video streaking fix has not been done so I will need to do more work on either my 1D1 or 1D4 (preferred) or the 1A (hopefully not) to get a proper working 1200 with acceleration. Hence the request for advice before proceeding (and also hence on EAB and not a support request. I think probably the accel is OK)

My 1D1 has the E123C/R and E125C/R all fitted. However I am given to understand from the internet at large, that 1D1 doesn't generally suffer from timing issues (for example, Eyetech declared it their preferred motherboard for testing).

The 1D4 has all 4 removed. However, I am given to understand that removing them is supposed to solve the problem! Or is it a bit more "grey" than that?

In addition both machines work fine with a Blizzard 1230 IV (one each). These have been swapped all over the place today during testing with no issues shown. Furthermore the 1D1 Amiga is a proper workhorse, and has been running literally for weeks and months at a time with the Blizzard in place, with no perceptible issues. I guess, that the Blizzard, faithful workhorse though it is, is perhaps not as hardcore when it comes to timing as the ACA? Or should I reasonably expect a machine that can operate for weeks on a Blizzard to work with ACA no problems?

Therefore you can see hopefully how I am a little confused at exactly what may be going on in Amiga-motherboard-timing-land, and what is the best method to proceed. If you could explain a little and advise I would be grateful, and perhaps would some others on here.

<edit> Haha, maybe spoke too soon. Further use of the 1A has resulted in some crashing, but in a more conventional kind of way. I'll check it out a bit more.

Thats proberly your problem,
Your supposed to remove E123C, E125C.

With the other board, you have all four removed? its only supposed to be two removed.