29f800/160 custom ROM

[Knight2011]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

These can be preprogrammed for people, the only caveat is that people must prove ownership of the rom in order for these to be sold legally. I believe this could be done by the buyer sending the files to the seller for writing. Once written it can be treated like a regular read only rom for most people that have no intention/need to rewrite it.

If instead I provide you the link to any of the million places where you can find AMIGA roms, is it the same that downloading the files then sending them to you?

[pandy71]

Place you driving license (id card) side to original ROM

[Bastich]

Does owning a copy of Amiga Forever count?
Would it be possible to make a version to fit the A4000?

[demolition]

It would be nice if the kickstart selection could be done with the keyboard, e.g. holding down a specific key to select a certain KS. Many of us do not like making holes in the chassis to install extra switches.

Originally Posted by Knight2011

If instead I provide you the link to any of the million places where you can find AMIGA roms, is it the same that downloading the files then sending them to you?

The difference is who to blame. If you download the file and forward it to Kipper2k, then he does not know where you got it from and is in good faith (unless you tell him).

[kipper2k]

yah, as Demolition states, if you send me the file i can assume you have ownership, a link wouldn't cut it.

Regarding the question on cutting holes in the case etc to select roms, i would also like to try to avoid doing this, so... with a little help from my friends hopefully, we can design something that doesn't need a hole and i am thinking a small daughter board that sits under the upper grill that can use a light sensitive switch that can detect light/"lack of" to achieve the same result.

If someone has a design that could allow keypresses that would select up to 4 images then that also would be a good option

One thing i have noticed is the 2mb 29f160DB -70 (70nanosecond) is very unstable, the bootup success rate is very poor except for just one chip i have. I think 70ns is too fast a chip and has a hard time being recognised by the Amiga (all of them). The 1mb 29f800bt -90 chips i have work fine, so i think speed is a definate issue. I have ordered some 90ns 29f160 chips so i will verify this theory

[Yulquen74]

On my 4 x Eprom/kickstart board, I used a simple 8-pin microcontroller
(PIC12F629) and a demultiplexer (74LS139) to detect resets (listen for loss
of activity on A0) and select ROM images using long (2 seconds) resets.

One long reset toggles to the next kickstart, if reset is held, the next is selected and so on. A small buzzer gives aqoustic feedback to every long reset operation (kickstart 1 =
1 short beep, kickstart 2 = 2 short beeps and so on).

A long reset toggling through all kickstarts introduces a second setting,
how many kickstarts to use, and at last, the save function (long beep) which saves how many kickstarts to use together with the current selected kickstart
which becomes the power-up default.

Originally Posted by kipper2k

yah, as Demolition states, if you send me the file i can assume you have ownership, a link wouldn't cut it.

Regarding the question on cutting holes in the case etc to select roms, i would also like to try to avoid doing this, so... with a little help from my friends hopefully, we can design something that doesn't need a hole and i am thinking a small daughter board that sits under the upper grill that can use a light sensitive switch that can detect light/"lack of" to achieve the same result.

If someone has a design that could allow keypresses that would select up to 4 images then that also would be a good option

One thing i have noticed is the 2mb 29f160DB -70 (70nanosecond) is very unstable, the bootup success rate is very poor except for just one chip i have. I think 70ns is too fast a chip and has a hard time being recognised by the Amiga (all of them). The 1mb 29f800bt -90 chips i have work fine, so i think speed is a definate issue. I have ordered some 90ns 29f160 chips so i will verify this theory

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Yulquen74

On my 4 x Eprom/kickstart board, I used a simple 8-pin microcontroller
(PIC12F629) and a demultiplexer (74LS139) to detect resets (listen for loss
of activity on A0) and select ROM images using long (2 seconds) resets.

One long reset toggles to the next kickstart, if reset is held, the next is selected and so on. A small buzzer gives aqoustic feedback to every long reset operation (kickstart 1 =
1 short beep, kickstart 2 = 2 short beeps and so on).

A long reset toggling through all kickstarts introduces a second setting,
how many kickstarts to use, and at last, the save function (long beep) which saves how many kickstarts to use together with the current selected kickstart
which becomes the power-up default.

love to see it, it sounds like a great solution.

update, Yulquen74 has sent me a keyboard input option for selecting the rom so hopefully i can get it working

[kipper2k]

k, here is a beta board for the a1200 using Yulquen74's keypress logic design, the board should be compatible with 1mb and 2mb 29fxxx flash roms, if there are any addons out there that this design would clash with (ie physical location) then let me know and i can redesign the logic portion of the board to elsewhere?

once finished it should hopefully be able to boot via keypresses with the audible acknowledge sound and also be able to boot via toggle switches



the other boards (1 romchip Amigas) will be different physical shape

[kipper2k]

here is a picture of the completed board (beta) ready for some testing, it will wprk with either toggle switches or keypresses (hopefully)

[demolition]

With keypresses do you mean holding down different keys for different roms or is it controlled by long resets like Yulquen74 has done? If it is the first, do you not need additional wires soldered to the MB?

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by demolition

With keypresses do you mean holding down different keys for different roms or is it controlled by long resets like Yulquen74 has done? If it is the first, do you not need additional wires soldered to the MB?

same as Yulquen74

[K.C.Lee]

In my A1000 hacking days, I made a kickstart board to boot the A1000 with KS 1.3/2.04 ROM. Also replaced 2 PALs to get the ROM chips to work without the KCS, but that was the longer story. That was so long ago.

Basically, on the rising edge of the A1000 /reset line, it latches the logic level of a toggle switch with a 74LS74. The D F/F complementary outputs are used to select one of the kickstart ROM. Since the ROM switching is only made at CPU reset, it is very reliable. My startup-sequence looked at the KS version and re-direct it to the right OS directory.

For the old FLASH chips, they must be programmed from RAM as the ROM array disappears. You have to kill all the multitasking, interrupts etc so that nothing tries to access the ROM or else those code would crash and you'll brick. I suppose someone could make a bootstrap loader in a write protected FLASH bank that boot up the machine without AmigaOS and loads the RAM with programming code. That sounds a bit too much for an otherwise simple project/product.

[kipper2k]

Hi All,

Here's a progrep on the romboard, here it is...



So the board has the capability of up to a 2mb Flashrom and selectable 4 x 512k images by selecting A18 and A19 (by various means) dependent on whether the 1mb or 2mb flashrom is installed. All the pin connections are available on the board so anyone who has a programmer capable will be able to program these chips as many times as they like. (No annoying UV erasures YaY!.

There are multiple ways that the enduser can select which method to choose an image to boot... switch on the board, switch remote... keypress... and last but not least the other way (which i am not going to reveal yet).
The last method will appeal to a lot of people

Boards are actually being produced as we speak and should be ready in about 2 weeks

edit... forgot to mention, the A1200 romboard is actually 1 board that contains the 2 roms and has same capabilities of the single rom boards

[Knight2011]

Will it work with A500 and MB rev5???

[mfilos]

What a bunch of epic win board!!!
Now lets hope Redskull or Toni can gief some help on the load ROM from the Amiga to the EEPROM

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Knight2011

Will it work with A500 and MB rev5???

short answer yes, long answer ... it will need a bit of tweaking, there is not a lot of real estate to start adding more jumpers ... i cant even remember what needs to be done for the rev 5, i think it has to do with lifting a pin and making a jumper, if you have a link handy for the mod can you post it.

edit, i do have an idea for yet another way to boot up using another addon card but thats for later

more edit... after some searching (i even found an old picture of me doing it) here is info...

"For Amiga 500 Rev 3 and Rev 5 boards, the ROM socket must have pin 1 connected to pin 31 and the ROM IC must have connected pin 21 to bent-up pin 31"

http://www.kipper2k.com/amiga/a500rev31mod.jpg


so it would be a simple fix, i can make the mod for those that are going to use it in a Rev 5 or less mobo

[Toni Wilen]

I only talked about A500.

Gayle based systems (A600 and A1200) seems to have flash ROM support built-in (I assume Gayle generates correct chip select and RW signal when writing to ROM space which Gary refuses to do), only simple address decoder components are missing and few signals, at least according to schematics.

Is it possible to support this configuration?

EDIT: address decoding circuit apparently is only needed when using 8-bit chips. So only missing part is to wire /WE, /OE and /FLASH signals to correct chip pins.

[Knight2011]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

so it would be a simple fix, i can make the mod for those that are going to use it in a Rev 5 or less mobo

That would be really fine :-). I'll be pleased to have ROM 1.2 and 1.3 for games compatibility and 2.04 plus 3.1 for new features and improved workbench.

Any idea how much it can cost (with shipping to France)?

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Knight2011

That would be really fine :-). I'll be pleased to have ROM 1.2 and 1.3 for games compatibility and 2.04 plus 3.1 for new features and improved workbench.

Any idea how much it can cost (with shipping to France)?

shipping to pretty well most parts of Europe would be $9.40. I haven't figured out the price of the romboards yet. depending on 1 rom or 2 rom boards probably between $19 to $29. The Canadian $ is doing a nosedive so it would be in US $

[Jope]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

"For Amiga 500 Rev 3 and Rev 5 boards, the ROM socket must have pin 1 connected to pin 31 and the ROM IC must have connected pin 21 to bent-up pin 31"

I'm pretty sure only the 1-31 swap is necessary in this flash board application, the 21 to bent up pin 31 part is to force the 27c200/27c400 into 16bit mode.