ACA500 plus?

[Daedalus]

The firmware update file is an ADF that the ACA normally unpacks and runs automatically. If it's bricked, you can simply write that ADF to a real floppy disk and boot the Amiga from it. That will write the image to the ACA when the ACA is unable to do it itself.

[StingerHU]

Okay... so back to the roots. Is it possible to downgrade the fw somehow to an earlier version ?

[demolition]

I think you can just boot from a floppy containing the older version.

[Daedalus]

Yep, and if the new firmware is working enough to flash it, just putting the old firmware update on the CF card and running the updater will let you downgrade it. Bear in mind that there are a couple of different parts to the firmware, and some parts require certain versions. It's fine when upgrading, but be careful when downgrading that you also downgrade the installer module for example if needed.

[Rockwater]

Hi folks,

I've spent the past couple weeks dusting off my 3D modeling skills and figuring out how to tune up my 3D printer to do good PETG prints. Why you ask? How about this:



What could that be?



But how does it look when plugged in?



Ooo, not bad! Buuut, what about how it mates with the A500 case?



Grrr... damn it! One fricking millimeter off!



Anyhow, I'm intending to keep working on this into the new year... there are several problems that I have to fix, and things I need to add:

• vent holes for airflow
• proper standoffs for the ACA12XX boards (mine is in the mail from Germany!)
• VGA header space for an Indivision ECS (which I don't own yet!)
• an internal conduit and a 40x40x10mm fan for active cooling
• testing adding a DC-DC voltage regulator and tap the inbound 12v line to power the 5v/3.3v fan
• adding acrylic light channels so the LED displays will be visible
• a button for the ACA500+ button
• additional structure around the CF slots to help with proper alignment of the cards on insertion
• fixing some mating and space issues at the card edge connector

Note: I'm just a solo guy who hates the acrylic plate cases and the CAT case who is spending waaaay too much time on this, but also is thinking that maybe this is when I get a Formlabs Form2 and create a high precision master then cast case shells out of plastic resin. I'd like to, because it really sounds like fun, and I'd love to give the ACA500+ the kind of neat case it deserves.

Hopefully Jens will find the time to do another run of Indivision ECS units so I can get my hands on one soon.

Regards,

-jason

[E-Penguin]

Very nice! Any chance of printing it in brominated-plastic yellow?

[Rockwater]

Originally Posted by E-Penguin

Very nice! Any chance of printing it in brominated-plastic yellow?

The available colors of PETG are somewhat limited, and color-matching an old computer that has been discolored by fluorescent lighting is going to be rough, as each device is going to be a slightly different shade depending upon it's UV "tan". And, honestly, I'm pretty sure no-one really likes the godawful color of yellowed plastic, so no supplier is going to make their filament in that exact shade of ugliness.

That being said, should I get to the point that I start resin-casting shells I do believe that the resin can be tinted like normal paint. Which mean, yes, I could likely do something reasonably close.

[Exit]

Originally Posted by Rockwater

The available colors of PETG are somewhat limited, and color-matching an old computer that has been discolored by fluorescent lighting is going to be rough, as each device is going to be a slightly different shade depending upon it's UV "tan". And, honestly, I'm pretty sure no-one really likes the godawful color of yellowed plastic, so no supplier is going to make their filament in that exact shade of ugliness.

That being said, should I get to the point that I start resin-casting shells I do believe that the resin can be tinted like normal paint. Which mean, yes, I could likely do something reasonably close.

Hi jason, first prototype looks awesome..if you add all the things you mentioned, i want to ask you is it possible to make it more like a A590 shape?
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.co.../a590_1_sm.jpg
and after development, are you going to sell your 3d files for printing, or do you start selling complete case incl screws etc..?

Regards

Exit

[Larky]

Hi all,

I just received my aca500plus and I have to say from what I’ve seen so far; what an incredible device. It works like a charm, preparing and installing the boot hd with wb3.1 in a jiffy. Upgrading firmware; no sweat. Excellent.

I have one question though - and maybe it already has been asked before, but I could not find a conclusive answer. On almost each cold boot it ends up in a blue screen and the dismo showing code ff. Doing a softxreset boots directly to the card’s menu. I have upgraded to the latest fw version, except for hrtmon. It is a bare a500 with a trapdoor ram expansion.

Is this expected behaviour, or not? Anyone can explain it?

Thanks

[honx]

Originally Posted by Larky

I have one question though - and maybe it already has been asked before, but I could not find a conclusive answer. On almost each cold boot it ends up in a blue screen and the dismo showing code ff. Doing a softxreset boots directly to the card’s menu.

same behavior here with my aca500plus on a-500 plus with 1mb chipram expansion. seems to be normal.

[E-Penguin]

I get that from time to time. It seems to happen more if I have an accelerator plugged in as well, so probably it's a power thing.

[demolition]

I have seen the same behaviour and my conclusion is also that it seems to be power-related. With one of my old original power supplies, my A500+ACA500plus will always fail to start from cold while with another self-built (and much beefier) PSU it only happens <10% of the time. I think maybe it could be due to the stabilization of the 5V rail is not as fast in the old supply as it is in the modern one.

[Larky]

Ok. So this is nothing to worry about. I have a heavier psu here, I will try if it still occurs when connected to that one.

Thanks

[Toni Wilen]

ACA500plus does first RAM test accesses (2 writes, 2 reads) after setting dismo=FF, immediately after test (whatever the result) background color is changed so if it gets stuck at FF with dark blue color: something went wrong in hardware level.

[honx]

when this happens in my config and aca500plus gets stuck after dismo=ff, the colour is dark blue.
what does this colour mean exactly? is there any colour code or documentation about this matter?
in my case this behaviour also occurs mostly on cold boot (power on).

[alpine9000]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Thanks. Confirmed and will be fixed in next update. (vbrmove gets incorrectly activated after exiting AR, even when it wasn't active when AR was entered)

Has there been an update yet with this fix ?

[honx]

don't know if the fix you ask for is implemented already...
meanwhile firmware got update to 0.110 and update for installer module (0.8) as well.
you can download both here: http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA500plus_Firmware

have a quesion as well: do i need to install this hrtmon update?
where can i check which version is installed on my aca500plus?
(...do i need to install update or is update installed already?)

[Rockwater]

Originally Posted by Exit

Hi jason, first prototype looks awesome..if you add all the things you mentioned, i want to ask you is it possible to make it more like a A590 shape?
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.co.../a590_1_sm.jpg
and after development, are you going to sell your 3d files for printing, or do you start selling complete case incl screws etc..?

Regards

Exit

This looks feasible, but I'd definitely need to get a SLA printer to accomplish that look. The biggest concerns are the need for CF card access, location of standoffs for screws, acrylic channels for led lights, and the cooling needs of the ACA 13x0 boards.

At the very least I'll probably make this version available for sale. Depends upon how difficult it is to make a good master and then make molds for resin casting them. It'd be a kit with screws and whatnot included.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by alpine9000

Has there been an update yet with this fix ?

It was fixed in september, not sure which version exactly.

Originally Posted by honx

when this happens in my config and aca500plus gets stuck after dismo=ff, the colour is dark blue.
what does this colour mean exactly? is there any colour code or documentation about this matter?
in my case this behaviour also occurs mostly on cold boot (power on).

They don't mean anything else than: if colors stop changing, something went wrong and it most likely is hardware related. Errors that don't cause hangs are reported in dismo (flashing red + error code). This usually happens when flash is corrupted, bad ram or there is bad connection in some not 100% important line (like interrupt level).

Only way to troubleshoot this is to: try another PSU or have two Amigas, power up the other one for 30 mins or so, move PSU to Amiga with ACA500plus connected: does it still hang. And so on..

Originally Posted by honx

don't know if the fix you ask for is implemented already...
meanwhile firmware got update to 0.110 and update for installer module (0.8) as well.
you can download both here: http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA500plus_Firmware

have a quesion as well: do i need to install this hrtmon update?
where can i check which version is installed on my aca500plus?
(...do i need to install update or is update installed already?)

If you want to use hrtmon: yes, if you don't need: no or yes

if I remember correctly, there has been only 3 versions: first version that is not compatible since beginning of 2017, second that is compatible, third (spring 2017) that implemented aca500plus action replay hardware to save and restore custom registers.

[honx]

as filedate of latest hrtmon update .adf is april 3, is there a chance that it is installed already as i purchased aca500+ in june?
how exacly can i check this? don't want to install an update which might be installed already in order to not break anything.