[Pre-Orders] Kipper2K Dual-Rom / Quad-Rom - hold reset to switch Kickstart rom boards

[solidcore]

Orders are now build on demand.

* KEY Features *

- Simply hold RESET (CTRL-A-A) for a small period of time to switch kick roms. A quick reset will not switch roms. No more case modding switches, no more jumper swapping!

- Remembers last ROM selected even after power down.

* Important please read me *

It goes without saying you are required to provide legal and valid rom images via e-mail once purchased. Unfortunately this romboard cannot be reprogrammed without desoldering the rom chip(s) from the pcb. If you want to test/dev a rom prior to your order being fulfilled you are welcome to do so with your kit and re-programmable ROMs.

This item is intended for convenient switching of legally owned roms on your Amiga without removing the case to alter jumpers or cutting a case and installing a switch.

* Options *

- Quad-Rom (4 in 1) as 16bit or 32bit @ £32.99 excludes P&P
- Dual-Rom (2 in 1) as 16bit or 32bit @ £23.99 excludes P&P

*Dimensions*
32bit (two chip configuration) romboard
58mm*36mm dimension

16bit (single chip configuration) romboard
58mm*18mm dimension

Supported Systems:
- A500 /A500+
- A1500
- A600 /A600HD
- A1200 /A1200HD
- A2000
- Other (PM)

Obviously your legally obtained ROM must be specific to the hardware in the above list, it is not possible to use an A1200 ROM in an A4000 or vise versa.

* How to pre-order *

All interested parties must declare their interest and are required to PM me, all paid orders are on a first come first serve basis. Production will begin in the next few weeks and will be dispatched immediately in batches.


* Credits *
Hardware design by Kipper2K
Programming by Mike Stirling
Production by SolidCore
And a big thanks to the other team members Indigolemon and Freemilk

* Kipper2k's original announcement *
[url]http://www.kipper2k.com/romboard/16bitrom.html

Pm for order

[seb132]

For which Amiga? All?

[McTrinsic]

Interested.

Pending some questions.
- for A500/ ... ?
- can it be completely disabled?

[solidcore]

Hi guys

Sory about that

There are 16 bit (single chip) and 32 bit rom ( twin chip) boards available .

So 16bit boards for the a500, a600 and 32bit board for the a1200 and any other cross compatible Amiga that would normally work fine with said Amiga kickstart chips .

No the rom board can’t be disabled otherwise your Amiga won’t boot therefor we didn’t see any point to adding that as a feature ? I do recommend diagrom as a rom along side kickstart ROMs though .

[pgovotsos]

Can these be programmed by the end user? I mean can we install new images ourselves? Would we need a blaster or something like that? I didn't really see anything about this on kipper2k's site.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by pgovotsos

Can these be programmed by the end user? I mean can we install new images ourselves? Would we need a blaster or something like that? I didn't really see anything about this on kipper2k's site.

In short no .

In length if you are able to remove the rom chip yourself with hot air you could program them yourself with any ROMs. No warranty is given if you do this .

Alternatively - If you have the equipment to program the rom and are confident soldering it to the pcb you may buy as a kit pm me if interested.

[McTrinsic]

Ah sorry need to withdraw.
The logic to switch between the Roms will probably interfere with the Rom-switching logic of the Phoenixboard. So on that special case I would want to be ‚without Rom‘ indeed.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by McTrinsic

Ah sorry need to withdraw.
The logic to switch between the Roms will probably interfere with the Rom-switching logic of the Phoenixboard. So on that special case I would want to be ‚without Rom‘ indeed.

Let’s clear some things up...

From what you have now revealed to me I understand you have a concern whereby the New rom switcher would “override” your Phoenix boards ability to switch between ROMs mechanically, this is however not so, the rom switcher behaves the same as a regular kickstart rom and can not override the motherboards mechanical switch between ROMs. It would be shutdown in your circumstance but on a regular a500, a600 or a1200 it cannot be shut down without modifications to the main board naturally.

The logic to switch between the ROMs is only contained on the rom board itself which intelligently identifies when the user is holding reset on his Amiga for a short period of time.

According to page 36-37 in the Phoenix board manual . The Phoenix board switch is mechanical in nature and it should swap between ROMs on your board normally and only when this kickstart rom board is selected can the reset then be used to swap between ROMs and utilise them as expected, this doesn’t interfere with your other kickstart ROMs or how you switch between them mechanically.

Furthermore, the Phoenix manual states swapping ROMs in runtime results in a crash. Conveniently the new rom board requires a held reset to switch ROMs and therefore boots up normally between rom changes without the risk of accidentally swapping in runtime.

[pgovotsos]

Originally Posted by solidcore

Alternatively - If you have the equipment to program the rom and are confident soldering it to the pcb you may buy as a kit pm me if interested.

So the chip has to be written to out of circuit? The whole thing can't be put in an EPROM programmer and write to the banks? These are functionally equivalent to EPROMs of the appropriate size to be written with 2 or 4 banks?

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by pgovotsos

So the chip has to be written to out of circuit? The whole thing can't be put in an EPROM programmer and write to the banks? These are functionally equivalent to EPROMs of the appropriate size to be written with 2 or 4 banks?

Yup there is no way to do this as a unit. It must be programmed out of circuit indeed. Willem / tll with a tsop 48 zif socket . If you send me your ROMs I can program this for you otherwise I can send it as an unsoldered kit. If already assembled to reprogram would require removal of the chip with hot air. In most cases four ROMs of a good particular choice should be suffice . If you plan on debugging a test rom you should do that in a more practical way before ordering the rom.

[McTrinsic]

I’ll send a PM.

I have a different unit as a ROM-switcher. It ‚overrides‘ the Phoenix Rom-Switcher.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by McTrinsic

I’ll send a PM.

I have a different unit as a ROM-switcher. It ‚overrides‘ the Phoenix Rom-Switcher.

Thanks happy to discuss this with you.
And in any case if you want I could send out a sample to test prior to payment in this circumstance , any issues just send it back .

[pgovotsos]

Can the chip be mounted in a socket on the board so that it can be removed, programmed, and replaced? I've got the adapter for the willem but soldering is no longer a strong point with me - hands shake too much with aging

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by pgovotsos

Can the chip be mounted in a socket on the board so that it can be removed, programmed, and replaced? I've got the adapter for the willem but soldering is no longer a strong point with me - hands shake too much with aging

I’ll say no for now since it has additional circuits which are likely to interfere wifg that but I’ll run some tests when all the parts arrive - waiting on China for the boards right now .

If you send the ROMs I can do it for you . Debugging ROMs can be done prior to the final decision on something else ? This is more of a convenience design as you don’t need to case mod a switch or pull your Amiga cass off to swap ROMs via a jumper .

*update*

Not possible to rewrite the ROMs without desoldering the chip from the pcb which is expert only and no warranty is given in that event as desoldering could lead to killing chip or the pcb itself in which you would have to buy a replacement .

[pgovotsos]

Thanks for checking into that. Another question - does it "remember" the last selected one and use that one for subsequent reboots? Both hard and soft, or only soft? Or does it always default to the first one?

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by pgovotsos

Thanks for checking into that. Another question - does it "remember" the last selected one and use that one for subsequent reboots? Both hard and soft, or only soft? Or does it always default to the first one?

Hi,

Yes, it remembers last rom loaded and survives a cold reset

[Mick]

By cold reset do you mean a temporary power off or will it remember permanently?

[solidcore]

Hi Kipper2k!

Originally Posted by Mick

By cold reset do you mean a temporary power off or will it remember permanently?

You can turn your amiga off, go back to it tomorrow and it'll boot up on the last selected rom.

I've corrected the OP with various information including the dimension and cleared things up somewhat.

[Mick]

So to be absolutely sure it will never ever forget? I've ordered some (Amibay) I just want to make sure it defaults to 3.1 if there's any possibility of it forgetting after 2-3 weeks of inactivity. I guess I'm asking does it store the state in memory or just live off a bit of stored energy?

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by Mick

So to be absolutely sure it will never ever forget? I've ordered some (Amibay) I just want to make sure it defaults to 3.1 if there's any possibility of it forgetting after 2-3 weeks of inactivity. I guess I'm asking does it store the state in memory or just live off a bit of stored energy?

To be a bit more specific, the PIC will write to nv (non-volatile for long term storage) memory to identify which rom is active. Furthermore, the chip has been programmed specifically with this in mind with anti-wear, so that you are not re-writing the same bit each kickstart swap but rather go through the memory bits eventually wrapping around at the start again.

Hope that answers your questions Mick.