My own experience with ACA 630/25MHz

[Predseda]

At first, my ACA arrived today, damaged a bit, but I think it doesnt matter


I tried to install it this way, with CF adaptor on top of ACA.


I closed the case an tighten the screws and it worked fine, but after 45 minutes of idle run it just froze and didn't want to boot even after reboot or OFF/ON switching.

So I opened the shell again, removed the ACA, cleaned the CPU feet with alcohol and reinstalled the board. I deicided to put the CF in other way.



Seems to be better now, but I dont know what caused that lockup - or better - what helped.

I tried to insert my SRAM card into PCMCIA port and got this nice result:



I encountered a problem though. With PCMCIA CF adapter. I have 4 CF cards: 8MB NIKON, which contains 3 amiga games, 256MB sandisk, that I use in my digital camera, 512MB emtec, which was previosly inside my other Amiga and contains FFS and 4GB sandisk, which is full of WHDload games.

8MB pretends it is a NDOS disk.

256mb works a bit, but there are weird file names (for example NIKON it reads as JIKOJ).

512mb locks amiga for few seconds after inserted and then it shows no files.

4GB freezes the whole Amiga immediatelly until reset.

My Orinoco and Netgear network cards are immediatelly recognised correctly.

My OS is WB2.05, KS 37.300, Mobo reviev 1.3.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Predseda

At first, my ACA arrived today, damaged a bit, but I think it doesnt matter

Its not damaged, thats how its supposed to be.
Im guessing Jens angled it to stop it shorting against keyboard.

With PCMCIA problem, what jumper settings do you have?

[Predseda]

Thank you. I use jumper like this:

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Thank you. I use jumper like this:

Remove "No Disk" jumper as you have a floppy drive.
I put mine on one pin of the "Card Disable" (Angled Jumper).

See if that helps.

[Predseda]

Wonderful, it works now!!!!

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Wonderful, it works now!!!!

Awesome,

Enjoy, .

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by FOL

Its not damaged, thats how its supposed to be.
Im guessing Jens angled it to stop it shorting against keyboard.

Thanks for telling! I'm pretty sure one has already straightened it

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Thanks for telling! I'm pretty sure one has already straightened it

lol.

[Bloodwych]

Oh, another picture thread - great!

How hot will that flash card get on the accelerator?

Could you fold the connector over and position it down like mfilos did? Or is it fine where it is?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

Oh, another picture thread - great!

How hot will that flash card get on the accelerator?

Could you fold the connector over and position it down like mfilos did? Or is it fine where it is?

Check his second picture, .

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

Oh, another picture thread - great!

How hot will that flash card get on the accelerator?

Could you fold the connector over and position it down like mfilos did? Or is it fine where it is?

I dont know how hot was the card, but imho very. The upper cooling shield of ACA630 was after 2 hours so hot that it was unable to keep a finger on its surface, but the keyboard, which almost (or maybe) touches it was absolutelly cold. The upper plastic cover of my A600 was warm, but not much.

And yes, I flipped the cable with connectors and folded it to left, it is much better now.

My ACA630 has serial number 07334. I wonder how Jens allocated those numbers as my friend who also got it yesterday has 02073



This is the total amount of the memory just after the boot



My next step is to set-up a network, which I will do today. PCMCIA is now working, so transferring files is easy. I managed to install cnet.device, newest compactflash.device, and miami. My Amiga recognized my network card properly, but at 0:30 am I was too tired to work out why miami is unable to resolve IP address, so I gave up for the moment. I am sure I will be succesfull today, though.

[Predseda]

I managed to establish network connection, but unfortunatelly it has no use for me now, because both Aweb and iBrowse want me to have at least OS3.0 and also jabberwocky wants locale.library, which is a part of OS3

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I managed to establish network connection, but unfortunatelly it has no use for me now, because both Aweb and iBrowse want me to have at least OS3.0 and also jabberwocky wants locale.library, which is a part of OS3

Maybe there are some apps you can use like messaging and IRC or FTP? Just for fun until you upgrade the Rom, assuming you'll do that?

Great write up by the way, its nice to read everyones individual experience. These really look awesome

Have fun with it.

Steve.

[twiggy]

Couldn't you maprom a 3.1 ROM from a file? Then make it OS 3.1? Maybe use WinUAE to initially set it up.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by twiggy

Couldn't you maprom a 3.1 ROM from a file? Then make it OS 3.1? Maybe use WinUAE to initially set it up.

Yep, I'm pretty sure thats possible with the ACA Tune tool.

[DDNI]

Originally Posted by Predseda

My ACA630 has serial number 07334. I wonder how Jens allocated those numbers as my friend who also got it yesterday has 02073

Ahhh you see that is NOt a serial number... Its just Jens being friendly! Turn it through 180' and it reads hello (nearly)

[Bloodwych]

Originally Posted by FOL

Check his second picture, .

Thanks for keeping me informed FOL!

In my defence, the second picture wasn't showing at the time and none of them are now, but good to know you'd already sorted it Predseda.

Time to make use of all of that nice mem now.

[AmigaFriend]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Yep, I'm pretty sure thats possible with the ACA Tune tool.

Indeed you have the power at your hands with the ACA, put it to good use!

[Nikolaj_sofus]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Yep, I'm pretty sure thats possible with the ACA Tune tool.

so meaning that you can load a kickstart 3.1 image from HD in early startup, and then load os 3.1 on the machine without a physical 3.1 rom?

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Nikolaj_sofus

so meaning that you can load a kickstart 3.1 image from HD in early startup, and then load os 3.1 on the machine without a physical 3.1 rom?

Yep, thats one of the features of ACA tune.

From Amigakit Blub:

There are more optimizations under the hood that can be selected conveniently with the ACAtune software tool:

The MapRom function allows copying the kickstart-rom (256k, 512k or 1MB) to fastmem and use it like a normal ROM there. This speeds up most operations significantly, because large parts of the operating system are located in the kickstart ROM. The MapRom function is similar to the Fastrom-option that the Amiga OS CPU command offers. However, the ACA630 does not requrie the MMU for that. If you require the MMU for a different use, there will be no conflict.

Re-Kick:
Similar to MapRom, a Kickstart image is stored in Fastmem where it will apear just like a ream ROM chip to the user. The different is that the Re-Kick option does not use the Kickstart ROM as a source, but a file from your harddisk. After a re-boot, the new Kickstart is available, and it stays active until the next power cycle. The ACA acceperators are the first commercially available products that support true 1MB kickstarts!

[Nikolaj_sofus]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Yep, thats one of the features of ACA tune.

From Amigakit Blub:

I read that much even before buying the cards. I just weren't sure that you could install os 3.1 in a machine, which has kickstart 2.05 in the rom socket.

[mfilos]

I'm not sure of that either. I was under the impression that you can kick having a 3.0+ kickstart but I might be wrong on that one.

You better ask AmigaKit or FOL instead

[Oliver_A]

I am formulating this as neutral as possible:

You can load and map ANY rom image from harddisk as your new Amiga operating system. Once it is loaded and mapped, it stays reset-proof and works like you just have swapped the rom chip in your computer. Plus, it's executed from very fast SDRAM.


acatune -maprom <romfile> >NIL:


Where <romfile> is the filename, including full path, on your harddisc. It works on ALL ACA's and both Kickstart 2.x and 3.x.

Enjoy.

[Nikolaj_sofus]

Nice, i'm gonna try that out this weekend i think... would be nice if i can run os 3.1 without getting a new rom

Originally Posted by Oliver_A

I am formulating this as neutral as possible:

You can load and map ANY rom image from harddisk as your new Amiga operating system. Once it is loaded and mapped, it stays reset-proof and works like you just have swapped the rom chip in your computer. Plus, it's executed from very fast SDRAM.


acatune -maprom <romfile> >NIL:


Where <romfile> is the filename, including full path, on your harddisc. It works on ALL ACA's and both Kickstart 2.x and 3.x.

Enjoy.

[Nikolaj_sofus]

I've had some time to try out my board a bit.
But i have a lot of problems with whdload games.
Anything that you've experienced as well?

A few small games works, but a lot of others don't
I'm using the same cf card as i've been using in my a500 (68020) with 4 mb fast mem and 0.5 mb chip, kick 2.05.

Most of the games works on the a500. but not the a600.

Any ideas?

I dont mean to hijack the thread, just wanted to hear about your experience with it

[fitzsteve]

What is your MaxTransfer set to?

[Nikolaj_sofus]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

What is your MaxTransfer set to?

i don't actually remember for this card, since it's the first i ever formatted.

But the os and most of the non whdload works fine.

Wouldn't it have an influence on that too?

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Nikolaj_sofus

i don't actually remember for this card, since it's the first i ever formatted.

But the os and most of the non whdload works fine.

Wouldn't it have an influence on that too?

Max transfer will cause problems loading bigger files, i.e the larger WHDLoad games, when you said the smaller games work I thought this could be the first thing to check.

Also this problem is more to do with the IDE on the A600/A1200 so I doubt whatever HDD solution you used on the A500 was affected.

I think its best to re-do the CF card from scratch for the A600 (or another CF) and use MaxTransfer 0x1FE00

When you enter this value you must press enter or it will not be saved.

Steve.

[Predseda]

Mapping ROM3.1 from HDD is a very nice idea, I must try it, so the iBrowse and other 3.0+ applications should work? Thats awesome!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Mapping ROM3.1 from HDD is a very nice idea, I must try it, so the iBrowse and other 3.0+ applications should work? Thats awesome!

I don't see why they wouldn't. MiamiDX and IBrowse both work on my A600 with 3.1Rom

Have a look at AWeb as well, it isn't a bad browser.

[Nikolaj_sofus]

Ok, i'll give it a try.
what about SFS, would that work with os 2.1?
Might be the better solution and save me a couple of headaches in the future.

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Max transfer will cause problems loading bigger files, i.e the larger WHDLoad games, when you said the smaller games work I thought this could be the first thing to check.

Also this problem is more to do with the IDE on the A600/A1200 so I doubt whatever HDD solution you used on the A500 was affected.

I think its best to re-do the CF card from scratch for the A600 (or another CF) and use MaxTransfer 0x1FE00

When you enter this value you must press enter or it will not be saved.

Steve.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Nikolaj_sofus

Ok, i'll give it a try.
what about SFS, would that work with os 2.1?
Might be the better solution and save me a couple of headaches in the future.

Why use OS2.1? Your ACA630 can re-kick 3.1Rom so why not use OS3.1? (or even 3.9 if you're brave!) I'm not sure if you can use SFS with OS2.1 but I know it needs at least an 020 processor, of course your ACA has better however if you want to disable the ACA then your 68k fallback would not be compatible.

You could look as PFS3 which supports both or just stick with FFS, I'm using FFS on my A600 and its doing a great job, 2mb/sec off the IDE with my Apollo 620

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Why use OS2.1?

I understand him, I would also keep OS2 in my A600 if it would be possible, just because OS2 simply belongs to Amiga 600 in my opinion. But unfotrunatelly it prevents me to use jabber / web browser, so I will probably switch to OS3 as well.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I understand him, I would also keep OS2 in my A600 if it would be possible, just because OS2 simply belongs to Amiga 600 in my opinion. But unfotrunatelly it prevents me to use jabber / web browser, so I will probably switch to OS3 as well.

With a 68000 and just Fast Ram for sure I agree stick with OS2.1 but if you've gone and stuck this rocket of an ACA630 in then as you say for the apps that take advantage of the 030 you're going to need a more up to date OS...

[Nikolaj_sofus]

ok... think that i'm gonna try to reformat with FFS and the correct settings.

Even though i shouldn't have to with whdload, it would be nice to be able to disable the ACA in case i want to play some old games which does not agree with the 030 cpu.

What about the maprom option?
I got kickstart 3.1 on my a1200, but i do not own a 3.1 rom for my a600 or 500. Are there even a way how i can aquire a 3.1 rom image for my a600 legaly?

Otherwise i don't see a reason for not changing the rom physically on the mainboard.
Even if i wanna do a dual boot with fallback to os 2.1, i guess the 3.1 rom shouldn't cause a problem.

[twiggy]

I have OS3.1 running on my A600 (which really has an 2.0 ROM in it) using WinUAE to set it up and adding the maprom line to it (after installing ACATune), works fine.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Nikolaj_sofus

What about the maprom option?
I got kickstart 3.1 on my a1200, but i do not own a 3.1 rom for my a600 or 500. Are there even a way how i can aquire a 3.1 rom image for my a600 legaly?

You could buy the Rom and dump the Image, I'm not sure if its part of Amiga forever, I doubt it being less common...

Anyway I doubt anyone will string you up if you get the Rom from another source

Otherwise i don't see a reason for not changing the rom physically on the mainboard.
Even if i wanna do a dual boot with fallback to os 2.1, i guess the 3.1 rom shouldn't cause a problem.

I've never tried, but I imagine there could be a chance of things not being compatible. You could install a Rom switch if you were worried about that and wanted the real roms installed.

[duga]

Originally Posted by Nikolaj_sofus

ok... think that i'm gonna try to reformat with FFS and the correct settings.

Even though i shouldn't have to with whdload, it would be nice to be able to disable the ACA in case i want to play some old games which does not agree with the 030 cpu.

What about the maprom option?
I got kickstart 3.1 on my a1200, but i do not own a 3.1 rom for my a600 or 500. Are there even a way how i can aquire a 3.1 rom image for my a600 legaly?

Otherwise i don't see a reason for not changing the rom physically on the mainboard.
Even if i wanna do a dual boot with fallback to os 2.1, i guess the 3.1 rom shouldn't cause a problem.

I guess it's legal if you are running not more than one Amiga with 3.1-kick (either in ROM or from HDD) at the same time.

[Predseda]

Eeerrrmmm, and if so, does it really matter?

A sticker

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Oliver_A

I am formulating this as neutral as possible:

You can load and map ANY rom image from harddisk as your new Amiga operating system. Once it is loaded and mapped, it stays reset-proof and works like you just have swapped the rom chip in your computer. Plus, it's executed from very fast SDRAM.


acatune -maprom <romfile> >NIL:


Where <romfile> is the filename, including full path, on your harddisc. It works on ALL ACA's and both Kickstart 2.x and 3.x.

Enjoy.

Damn, I added ACAtune -maprom dh0:Kickstart3.1 >NIL: as the first row to my startup-sequence, where acatune is in DH0:C, Kickstart (rev40.63, 524288 bytes) is in the root of DH0: and after reset there is a black screen and Amiga doesn't boot. If I reset it again, I get a green screen (chipmem fail I think), then black and thats all. Unfortunatelly I can't even remove the first row from startup-sequence, because it is not possible to boot my Amiga without startup-sequence - I can't get into early startup even if I turn off and the on my computer. I will have to try to boot from Workbench floppy probably.