Terrible Fire Accelerators

[alenppc]

In my case the IDE interface hangs very shortly after boot without the INT2 wire.

Also I just tested the 8GB SanDisk Ultra card (labeled "50 MB/s") and it works fine, achieves about 6.5 mb/s according to SysInfo with fastrom.

[8 Bit Dreams]

Originally Posted by alenppc

In my case the IDE interface hangs very shortly after boot without the INT2 wire.

Also I just tested the 8GB SanDisk Ultra card (labeled "50 MB/s") and it works fine, achieves about 6.5 mb/s according to SysInfo with fastrom.

Do You have also Rev.2 card? Is Your firmware 24Mhz? Asking just to be sure..
soldered some boards now to be able to test different setups, will try 50Mhz now

[alenppc]

Yes, rev 2, 25 MHz. Same behaviour with 33/36 MHz. My cards won't boot with higher frequencies, but to be fair I don't have any faster CPUs, so that's probably why.

[Black68]

Ok! I got some progress going!
I built a TF530 Rev.2 board and I was still getting the same thing on screen as with the Rev.3 (green and black alternating). So I picked up another A500 board and boom! The TF Rev.2 booted fine. The Rev.3 is still not working (gives me a grey screen, or black depending on the kickstart I use) so I'll take a look to it later.

I remember seeing a link to floppy disk image with some tools (sysinfo, etc). I dont remember if it was here on the forum or over youtube. Could someone point me out to this adf?

[8 Bit Dreams]

just tryed this bad boy with 50Mhz firmware (tf530_rev2_50m_bus.jed & tf530_rev2_50m_ram.jed), but it rejected to boot giving me a light yellow screen (don't have any 40Mhz crystals atm.. Also tryed 24Mhz firmware with 25Mhz crystal, it gives 4313 Dhrystones - it's about 1000 more than other board with a 24Mhz crystal. Also there is another comment now, saying: "Cowabunga!"
@EzdineG
one of my boards can't run systest - it just crashes at start (also FPU isn't working), other programs are working fine, added INT2, my miga loads the Workbench much faster now, however, R1 is still 10k as i don't have any 1K resistors atm.
Other board runs test at round 6.1 right now, no mistakes found.

Originally Posted by Black68

Ok! I got some progress going!
I built a TF530 Rev.2 board and I was still getting the same thing on screen as with the Rev.3 (green and black alternating). So I picked up another A500 board and boom! The TF Rev.2 booted fine. The Rev.3 is still not working (gives me a grey screen, or black depending on the kickstart I use) so I'll take a look to it later.

I remember seeing a link to floppy disk image with some tools (sysinfo, etc). I dont remember if it was here on the forum or over youtube. Could someone point me out to this adf?

You need Rev.6A Amiga to be able to use KS 3.1 (without additional mods KS 3.1 will not work on Rev.3 & Rev.5 Amiga's) and You need 3.1 Kick to be able to boot from IDE

[Black68]

Originally Posted by 8 Bit Dreams

You need Rev.6A Amiga to be able to use KS 3.1 (without additional mods KS 3.1 will not work on Rev.3 & Rev.5 Amiga's) and You need 3.1 Kick to be able to boot from IDE

I do have a 6A board with a dual kickstart (1.3/3.1). I just wanted to make a fast test out from the floppy drive. I think I saw an ADF with some tools here in this thread...

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by alenppc

In my case the IDE interface hangs very shortly after boot without the INT2 wire.

Also I just tested the 8GB SanDisk Ultra card (labeled "50 MB/s") and it works fine, achieves about 6.5 mb/s according to SysInfo with fastrom.

Wowzer!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by 8 Bit Dreams

You need 3.1 Kick to be able to boot from IDE

Technically 2.05 (A600HD) and higher will all boot from HD.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[8 Bit Dreams]

@EzdineG
this test is running over one hour now...
Nice and stable, as i said...
it's Rev.2, NOT Rev.3

[Black68]

Good news! I got my Rev.2 board fully working at 24mhz.
I took a CF card from my A600, plugged in and it just booted! I had installed Sysinfo there so I could check the TF is running at the speed is supposed to. It reported 23.40 mhz.

Now I should try to fix my Rev.3 board

Thanks once more plasmab for making this project publicly available!

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by Black68

Thanks once more plasmab for making this project publicly available!

My pleasure!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[amilton]

Wow, this is an awesome project! Open source is just what retro computing needs as far as I'm concerned. This is really cool stuff!

I have an Amiga 2000 without an accelerator board in it, and a TF530 or similar would be a quite nice addition to it. But I'm thinking about adapting it to a "TF2030" (or maybe "TF2038"?) accelerator board for the CPU expansion slot, as it's already there and not being used. An added benefit would be to be able to run the A2000 as a vanilla 68000 system if I had the urge.

From what I can see all signals I would need are present on the connector, so that should be quite easy right? (Famous last words... I have studied EE at university level, but that was some 15 years ago now.)

What I have not been able to wrap my head around is how A2000 accelerator boards handle handing over control to the 68000. I have never had an A2000 with an accelerator board, so I don't have any experience whatsoever with it. I have read that for at least some boards you could hold down a mouse button to boot in 68000 mode.

What I'm trying to ask is this: What would I need to add to be able to convert the TF530 design to an Amiga 2000 CPU expansion card?

If this is too OT the mods can delete my message or whatever.

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by amilton

Wow, this is an awesome project! Open source is just what retro computing needs as far as I'm concerned. This is really cool stuff!

I have an Amiga 2000 without an accelerator board in it, and a TF530 or similar would be a quite nice addition to it. But I'm thinking about adapting it to a "TF2030" (or maybe "TF2038"?) accelerator board for the CPU expansion slot, as it's already there and not being used. An added benefit would be to be able to run the A2000 as a vanilla 68000 system if I had the urge.

From what I can see all signals I would need are present on the connector, so that should be quite easy right? (Famous last words... I have studied EE at university level, but that was some 15 years ago now.)

What I have not been able to wrap my head around is how A2000 accelerator boards handle handing over control to the 68000. I have never had an A2000 with an accelerator board, so I don't have any experience whatsoever with it. I have read that for at least some boards you could hold down a mouse button to boot in 68000 mode.

What I'm trying to ask is this: What would I need to add to be able to convert the TF530 design to an Amiga 2000 CPU expansion card?

If this is too OT the mods can delete my message or whatever.

Just plug it in. It works already


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[amilton]

Originally Posted by plasmab

Just plug it in. It works already

I know that the TF530 works in the 2000, but then I can't boot in 68000 mode if I would need that for compatibility (or nostalgic) reasons. But maybe I wouldn't want to

But you're probably right that that's the right approach. I might wait for a revision with more RAM though.

Thanks for your reply and your contribution to retro computing!

[Black68]

I didnt notice you would need a cpu relocator board to be able to close the computer case. Is there something like this available? If not I could make such a board myself.

[amilton]

I'm trying to source some parts while deciding on what to build. Earlier in the thread it has been mentioned that the MC68EC030RP40C is working. Does the MC68EC030RP40B work as well? Will I miss out on anything if I'm not buying one of the more expensive older 68030's?

I'm also thinking if I should buy a couple of different oscillators in case I need to troubleshoot something. I'm thinking one 24/25 MHz and a 40 MHz. Maybe a 50 MHz as well? WWSD (what would Stephen do)?

Also, in the BOM it says that the FPU should be a 68881, but here people are saying that it should be a 68882. Which one should I get?

Edit:
These are the ones I'm looking at at the moment; MC68EC030RP40B and MC68882FN40A. Would those work?

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by amilton

I'm trying to source some parts while deciding on what to build. Earlier in the thread it has been mentioned that the MC68EC030RP40C is working. Does the MC68EC030RP40B work as well? Will I miss out on anything if I'm not buying one of the more expensive older 68030's?

C's are usually able to clock higher than B's because they are better processes. But thats anecdotal and not always the case. I've found the B's clock to 50Mhz and i've not got the badger running reliably at 60Mhz.

I'm also thinking if I should buy a couple of different oscillators in case I need to troubleshoot something. I'm thinking one 24/25 MHz and a 40 MHz. Maybe a 50 MHz as well? WWSD (what would Stephen do)?

I use a signal generator to avoid such dilemas.

Also, in the BOM it says that the FPU should be a 68881, but here people are saying that it should be a 68882. Which one should I get?

Edit:
These are the ones I'm looking at at the moment; MC68EC030RP40B and MC68882FN40A. Would those work?

Use a 68882 and burn all 68881s in a Terrible Fire.

[amilton]

Thanks! I'll take my chances with the B. As for the oscillator I might just use my thumb. It should be able to hit 50 MHz after years of Nintendo training.

[EzdineG]

Originally Posted by 8 Bit Dreams

@EzdineG
this test is running over one hour now...
Nice and stable, as i said...
it's Rev.2, NOT Rev.3

Thanks for running the test!

I should have a Rev 2 in my hands soon enough and I can put the RAM issue to bed once and for all.

[8 Bit Dreams]

Originally Posted by plasmab

C's are usually able to clock higher than B's because they are better processes. But thats anecdotal and not always the case. I've found the B's clock to 50Mhz and i've not got the badger running reliably at 60Mhz.



I use a signal generator to avoid such dilemas.



Use a 68882 and burn all 68881s in a Terrible Fire.

have tryed to flash the card with 50Mhz (btw. wich 50Mhz firmware is working for sure on Rev.2? can someone point me please?) and MC68EC030RP40B - not booted, got light yellow screen..