Another A4000 project!

[Paul_s]

Just had a look now, only have 1 of them left over!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Just had a look now, only have 1 of them left over!

Maybe its just the Cap by the CPU slot causing the greif becuase a re-seat cures it for a short while.

I tried cleaning the connectors earlier in the week but that didn't help.

Man its getting hard to type, anyone here got a ZBoard? Try typing on this after a few drinks

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Maybe its just the Cap by the CPU slot causing the greif becuase a re-seat cures it for a short while.

I tried cleaning the connectors earlier in the week but that didn't help.

Man its getting hard to type, anyone here got a ZBoard? Try typing on this after a few drinks

I have some 47uF 16V caps which I think are on the main 4000 board.. will that do (got three of them)?

[fitzsteve]

Hey Paul_s, I'll check the Caps specs tomorrow and let you know.

Thanks again

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Testing was done with Cosmicfrogs A3630 since its not booting now at all with the A3640

Think the Caps need doing or something.

How about replacing he 68040.library for a proper one?

BTW: the 65XE don't appeared to this very day!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by rkauer

How about replacing he 68040.library for a proper one?

BTW: the 65XE don't appeared to this very day!

Hi rkauer,

I'm sure its not lib related as it works sometimes and not other times, if the libs were wrong then I guess it just wouldn't work at all, no?

Also some further testing today on the Ram. The first 128mb works flawlessly, 192mb shows correctly but when you get down to about the last 40mb it gets erroneous. And with 256mb only 208 shows and the Ram is completely erronous

I think maybe there is a problem with bank three or four, I set the jumpers as per the manual so I know they are correct.

Anyway, more testing to come.

About the 65XE, I've updated the Amibay thread so we can resolve.

Needless to say all three parcels were sent, you have my word on that and also I was out of pocket on the transaction because as you know I spent a whole day trying to pack in two parcels but due to weights I could not make it work so in the end it had to go as three and cost me more.

Steve.

[rkauer]

I believe you my friend. The issue is on discussion at Amibay. Very sorry for the hijack.

[fitzsteve]

New addition to this little big fella

Cybervision 64/3D replaces the PicassoII



And replaced CWB ADV with CWB P96



X-Surf setup and working:



Can't wait to get the 33mhz 040 in this!

[cosmicfrog]

Yummy Ribbits Dude

I`m starting to seriously think of getting a USB card

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

Yummy Ribbits Dude

I`m starting to seriously think of getting a USB card

Yeah I though about USB, but what Amiga I have so many!

I could use 1 Subway for A1200T and 1 Deneb for A4000D

[alexh]

If you sold your X-Surf you could almost afford a Deneb and I'd send you a supported USB->Ethernet dongle (or you could get your own from ebay for £2)

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by alexh

If you sold your X-Surf you could almost afford a Deneb and I'd send you a supported USB->Ethernet dongle (or you could get your own from ebay for £2)

Thanks for the offer and advice Alexh

I'm using the X-Surf to drive an IDE DVDRW at the moment though since it wont play nice with the CF on native IDE.

Of course all this wont matter once my SCSI Hard Drive turns up from ebay, but its taking ages...

Going to run that bad boy off the Z3 Fastlane.

Oh and a little project update... I've got an official Scan Doubler on the way for the CV64/3D

[fitzsteve]

A little update, my NOS Scan Doubler for the CV64/3D came today from TorajaBoy off Amibay

All installed and working great





And I made a little Vid for my Youtube page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkIUIgyS8Bw

Enjoy!

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by rkauer

I believe you my friend. The issue is on discussion at Amibay. Very sorry for the hijack.

Just an update for public concern: after three months of waiting the three packages(!) came in mint condition.

[cosmicfrog]

wow that is indeed good news rkauer

steve every time I look at that last pic I keep thinking the A4000 has no sims on the motherboard, Yes I know its the z3 but I still keep seeing it as the bottom of the A4000

[prowler]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

steve every time I look at that last pic I keep thinking the A4000 has no sims on the motherboard, Yes I know its the z3 but I still keep seeing it as the bottom of the A4000

Hey, that's exactly what I thought when I saw it for the first time (but I was too shy to be the first to admit it )!

Of course, my A4000 motherboard has no SIMMs on it, nor even SIMM sockets ATM!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by prowler

Hey, that's exactly what I thought when I saw it for the first time (but I was too shy to be the first to admit it )!

Of course, my A4000 motherboard has no SIMMs on it, nor even SIMM sockets ATM!

So you made some progress then

[Paul_s]

I found one of those Kingston KNE20BT's in a network cabinet brand new a month ago caked in dust (thankfully the outer packaging held the dust off the card)... I forgot where I put it now...

[prowler]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

So you made some progress then

Slow but sure.

[cosmicfrog]

Hopefully you will show us some picturs of it working this year Prowler

I live in hope as that what my pond is called

[fitzsteve]

Just the CPU to go and then this project is done, in the mean time the case is closed and and complete

[CritAnime]

Could be the drink in me. But all this a4000 stuff is really exciting. I wanna build my own 4000 now.

[fitzsteve]

Awsome news guys! I got my A3640 back yesterday from d0pefish, caps replaced, upgraded to Rev3.2 and Overclocked to 33mhz.

Dale has done an awesome job on this card, I really can't thank you enough mate

Here is something from the request thread over at Amibay:

Originally Posted by d0pefish

Fitz:

I found (and think I have fixed) the reason your card was unstable.

Again, as I did with Taj's card, I just put it into my 4000 as I received it to see how well it worked as it was, and it took some persuasion to get it to start. Had a few yellow screens and sometimes not booting at all.

So, as before, I removed the oscillator, and removed the capacitors. The last one... uh-oh... what's this:



This capacitor had completely blown and stealthily leaked a puddle of corrosive electrolyte all over the tracks underneath its base, completely hidden from view with the capacitor sitting on top. It had actually damaged a via - notice the leftmost one which only had a "half-moon" of the hole left:



A simple repair with some very thin wire going from one side to the other has fixed this trace:


This via actually led directly to a pin on the 68040, so some signal was definitely very iffy before this fix. It's sorted now, and the other vias around the the leakage area are fine, having checked each one

All other capacitors have been replaced without incident, I scrubbed the edge connector with IPA to clean them up and the machine booted up first time with the 33MHz clock and your new 040!

It still sometimes didn't want to boot after some power cycling and reseating the card, so I inspected it again. The soldering on the edge connector looked a bit suspect - some dry joints very likely.

I have just finished fluxing and resoldering all two hundred pins and it seems to be booting up much more reliably now

I think I would like to hang onto it for a couple of nights just to keep an eye on it, but I think we have a full fix and overclock.

Stay tuned!

Originally Posted by d0pefish

All done!

I can haz pr0n tiem naw?

One of the offending chips:


Off it comes, and the pads get cleaned and fluxed ready for the socket.


Socket soldered into place:


Repeat three more times, and the shiny new chips that Hikey programmed for me can be inserted. As mentioned, I tested the card between replacing chips so that if there was a problem with the card booting, I would know that the last piece of work would be the most likely cause. There were no problems at all


The card, as modeled by Taj's motherboard (it's on my worktop being given some love in the other thread).


So, like before, I'll do some tests with various CPU-intensive software, and see if I can get any more freezing. I'm convinced it's solved now though, as my machine has now been running for quite some time with your card in place. Before, it would hard-lock within minutes without cold air being blown on it, and not even a power-cycle could bring it back without letting it cool down.

Now, all seems great!

If all goes well, she could well be back home with you early next week, Steve!

I think I have a few little fans that could be placed on the 040, but they'll have the PC motherboard-style 3-pin header plugs on them. But I think I've also got some Molex HDD-style power plugs that I could solder onto it instead if there's one free in your A4000. I'll have a rummage tomorrow.

Cheers!

Here's a final pic after the work was finished finished:



As I say, its all back with me now and installed in the A4000, its working great and even the Z3 Fastlane is quite happy to run with 192mb at the moment

I've installed Warp3D and got the gears Demo working, albiet very slow lol. No luck getting GL Quake to run yet, but I will try again.

I'm getting just shy of 25Mips from this badboy so I'm very, very pleased.

This project then is pretty much finished

Steve.

[cosmicfrog]

nice 1

by the way that power computing case looks very familiar

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

nice 1

by the way that power computing case looks very familiar

Thanks bud!

As far as I can tell, other than the back panel + Mobo mount the A4k and A1200 Power Towers are the same

Its not the prettiest case but its the most robust I've had!

Steve.

[roberthazelby]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Thanks bud!

As far as I can tell, other than the back panel + Mobo mount the A4k and A1200 Power Towers are the same

Its not the prettiest case but its the most robust I've had!

Steve.

Is your Power Tower like mine, in as much as getting the casing on and off is a complete bastard of a job?

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by roberthazelby

Is your Power Tower like mine, in as much as getting the casing on and off is a complete bastard of a job?

Its easy once you know how

[fitzsteve]

Here she is folks, all setup next to her little big Brother



(Click to expand)

[fitzsteve]

Just a little update to this, I made a short Video for my Youtube page of this running after the upgrade from d0pefish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS1aHdrVjdk

Enjoy!

Oh and my USB/PS2 Mouse adapter:



Works great on this A4000 with an optical PS2 mouse (Had problems on my A1200T)

Its hanging off the back for now but I should be able to mount it inside the case when I'm feeling creative.

ps - d0pefish is da Man!

[fitzsteve]

Hey guys - little update to this project of mine

Using my NinJah Skills I was able to get an Apollo 4060, it arrived today in just 4 days from Canada - of course this was by UPS not Royal Snail lol...

So here she is - isn't she boot-a-ful?

(Click thumbnails for large image)



She came with 48mb Ram which I have upgraded to 96mb, annoyingly I do have 4 matching 32mb Simms but it looks like one of them is faulty which is a shame. (Yeah the build became a fault finding mission there for a while lol)

So here she is installed, as you can see I'd removed the FDD/HDD cage for access to the Simms when I was doing all the switcheroo's



Must say I'm really impressed with the Apollo 4060, it seems faster than the Blizzy 060's @50mhz I've used, she's sitting behind me running Quake now pretty smooth indeed for a basic 060

As you may know these Apollo's are also pretty clockable, so with my variety of x-tals here and a nice H/S Fan I might have a play over the weekend.



Zorro Cards all back in, the 128mb on the Z3 Fastlane working well with the Apollo for a total of 248mb thanks to a 16mb Simm I crammed in the last slot on the Apollo!





Next upgrade will be the Mediator PCI I bought last weekend, lets hope Royal Snail bring it tomorrow as I have a Voodoo 5 sitting here doing nothing!

[prowler]

Nice work, mate, (as usual )!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by prowler

Nice work, mate, (as usual )!

Thanks mate

Sadly no sign of the Mediator today!

So the next update willl be next week...

[Retrofan]

Great work . Waiting to see it complete

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Great work . Waiting to see it complete

Thanks my friend

I'll reward your kindness with moar pr0n!

XC 060 was getting pretty hot even at 50mhz so I've fitted a HeatSink/Fan which has kept it cool even after an hour of Quake. I did try setting the Ram clock to 040 and tried some other x-tals (60/64/66mhz) but no boot so I think I need one of the latest mask 060's.

Anyway, here's the pics

[thgill]

Very, very nice Steve!

I think I need to have a look around and try to source me an A4000.

Actually I think I want 2 of them. Give one to my brother as he used one back in the 90's in high school to do Toaster video work. All we could ever afford to have back then was 500's and then 1200's!

[LuMan]

Hey Steve - Once again a brilliant bit of work (and luuurvly pics!)

I've got my A1200 in one of those Power Tower units. Oddly, I never got the LEDs to work properly until I started messing around with it again (just before I joined this forum). Now they work perfect and dance and glow like happy little sprites (must stop drinking at work ).

Like roberthazelby said, I had a few issues with getting the case off and on, but I've figured out the old 'tilt-slide-dropabit-slide-grabitlikeagirlatadisco-dropandtiltinwego' method

Keep up the good work and keep feeding us the pr0n!!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by thgill

Very, very nice Steve!

I think I need to have a look around and try to source me an A4000.

Actually I think I want 2 of them. Give one to my brother as he used one back in the 90's in high school to do Toaster video work. All we could ever afford to have back then was 500's and then 1200's!

Thanks for the kind words mate

I've seen quite a few resonably A4000's in the USA so you should be able to pick up a bargain

Originally Posted by LuMan

Hey Steve - Once again a brilliant bit of work (and luuurvly pics!)

I've got my A1200 in one of those Power Tower units. Oddly, I never got the LEDs to work properly until I started messing around with it again (just before I joined this forum). Now they work perfect and dance and glow like happy little sprites (must stop drinking at work ).

Like roberthazelby said, I had a few issues with getting the case off and on, but I've figured out the old 'tilt-slide-dropabit-slide-grabitlikeagirlatadisco-dropandtiltinwego' method

Keep up the good work and keep feeding us the pr0n!!

Glad you enjoyed the show, I agree these Elbox Towers take a few strip downs to get your head around but once you do they are a very sturdy tower, just a shame the looks like a Camels backside

Anyway, you're in luck! My Mediator just turned up as I was typing this - moar pr0n on the way later

Steve.

[fitzsteve]

Ok! Progress

Slow - but moving along....

So, my Mediator arrived today yay!



Time to install! Luckily I have already the right connectors in the Tower so no need to mess around with new PSU's etc. Straight away though it doesn't quite fit, it sticks out more than the old Zorro board so this means the brass stand offs are too short and the PCI slots are in the wrong place, however moving on... Wont let that stop me from testing her out!



Here she is, installed the best I can.



Don't worry, there are lots more Zorro & PCI cards to go in, this is just what I needed for testing. Voodoo 5 5500 PCI, CV64/3D+SD and the Mediator Riser Board.

Well as I type Doom is running behind me on the Voodoo and I have a nice 24bit Workbench so we have some success

However not without its issues which I've come to expect anyway! I am having to run the Mediator in 256mb Zorro window as it yellow screens with the X-Surf in place (yeah sorry added that later) and also crashes with RamLib error if you have the Voodoo Monitor Driver in place (in 512mb Mode) Now this is supposed to be required for a Voodoo 5 5500 but I've tricked it into thinking its a Voodoo 3 and seems to work, lets see later if I can Warp3D going (wish me luck)

Also at this stage as warned by Kinny it does seem to be CV64/3D or Voodoo and not both as the CV64/3D isn't being picked up at all with the Voodoo Driver loading, but I can always try the Picasso 96 driver for the CV64/3D as now I'm running CGX4 and P96 at the same time - yeah confusing

Scan Doubler is working though so not all bad...

More to come when I figure things out - kind of working in the dark here with no Manual and just my old Mediator CD from the A1200

Hope you enjoyed the pr0n

Steve.

[cosmicfrog]

Nice 2 see your working on my xmas present steve

[fitzsteve]

Just a little update here, after the drama with PCI I went back to pure Zorro on this system.

I just installed a Deneb which arrived today - great bit of kit, really fast compared to the Subway USB and Thylacine USB that I've used.

Really responsive, as soon as you plug a device its up and running, no waiting, no system slowdown. Awesome





A little annoyance is that I had to pull the Z3 fastlane, the manual says that it cannot run together with the Deneb on a Buster 11 setup which sucks, and as expected no boot when I tried it

So I'm now missing my extra 128mb of Ram, I guess since I was not using the SCSI I could look at a ZorRam, but 128mb on the Apollo 4060 is enough I guess

Oh and also tried to install my FastATA 4000 but after installing the drivers the system gets in a reset loop so I had to pull that too lol



Ya gotta love these systems, I wonder if its possible to find 7 Zorro cards that all work together so I can fill this system up? 3x 256mb ZorRam's in the empty slots maybe?

Edit:

Well as a workaround I put the Deneb in PIO mode and its working with the Z3 Fastlane

Of course its using the CPU now and not FPGA so its not going to be as fast, but still seems just as quick to me...

I'm thinking or having a switcharound between the other A4000 though to find the best combination of hardware - should keep me busy for a while lol...

Anyway Moar Pics! Of course with the extra hardware installed:



And everything working!