Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[grelbfarlk]

I run my A4000 with the case closed. I did make a couple changes. The blank PCI plate of the Sonnet I drilled holes in and mounted a low speed fan to pull fresh air in from the PCI/Slot cage. I also added a Slot cooler to the expansion slot between the card slots and the power supply. System runs perfectly stable and looks stock from the front at least. The Sonnet is rated for 67C, don't know about the Voodoo but it runs hot. I measured the PPC on the Sonnet at about 45C after it had been on a while. I never actually had any cooling problems but I just sort of started making changes and didn't stop.

Here's a site that explains pretty well how cooling in the A4000 works:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/...k/coola4k.html

I think the basic policy is run the system, and if it becomes unstable when it warms up, add cooling.

[Hedeon]

Sonnet is not really the problem. The voodoo runs hotter. I ran my A3000D closed and only blew up one voodoo in that time and I think Denise got unsettled (erratic mouse behaviour) that got fixed by just pressing on the chip. Lately, I just leave my case open. Need to be in it too much of the time.

[grelbfarlk]

Well, that's not really encouraging either assuming the A3000 is even more cramped than the A4000 (maybe I don't know). But another way to look at it, the A4000 was often used as a VideoToaster system with all available slots loaded and with an original PAL based A3640 and they ran for years and years. Someone posted a picture of a 3d printed Mediator Fan holder-thing, might have been someone in this thread, I think that's a good idea. I just hung a 120MM fan from the crossbar over the Zorro slots.

And make sure your power supply fan blows out and not in-apparently this was a fairly common manufacturing mistake. If you're really in doubt add the slot cooler to the expansion bay between the slots and the power supply like I did. It should all be fine then.

Other ideas, get a drive bay cooler to fit in the 5 1/4" bay with a couplefew fans that blow out, or in your face when you're sitting in front of it, then you can tell by smell whether it's running too hot.

[trixster]

I run with the case on and have no problems with the voodoo so far. I have extra cooling fans to move air over the zorro/pci slots and over the cpu card ram. The psu fan also blows out rather than in.
When the sonnet arrives I am just a little worried it's extra heat might cause an issue. I like the idea of drilling holes in the sonnets pci backplate though as the would allow the fan to exhaust some of the hot air on that side of the case.

[trixster]

Would you guys be able to post up a few photos of your setup, particularly the pci/zorro side of the case?

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

I run with the case on and have no problems with the voodoo so far. I have extra cooling fans to move air over the zorro/pci slots and over the cpu card ram. The psu fan also blows out rather than in.
When the sonnet arrives I am just a little worried it's extra heat might cause an issue. I like the idea of drilling holes in the sonnets pci backplate though as the would allow the fan to exhaust some of the hot air on that side of the case.

The grill next to the slots is supposed to pull in fresh air and that air cycles around the busboard over the accelerator and out the power supply fan. I suppose you could do it the other way, flip your power supply fan around so the air would cycle backwards, though I don't think that's a good idea either.

Here's a picture from the webzone I linked the blue arrows are how the air is supposed to flow:


Here's that 3d printed fan holder thing for mediator, I think this is a good idea.

From: https://www.ikod.se/a4000-chillin/

I would post pictures but my A4000 is not exactly photogenic, who am I kidding it's a monstrosity.

[kev]

just remember you can use pci riser cables/card if you like to mount cards in different locations


search 32bit PCI riser card as searching PCI risers will show tons of PCI-E
the image above is 1 with flex cable

[trixster]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Here's that 3d printed fan holder thing for mediator, I think this is a good idea.

From: https://www.ikod.se/a4000-chillin/

I would post pictures but my A4000 is not exactly photogenic, who am I kidding it's a monstrosity.

Even if it's a lens-cracker I'd still love to see it!

I have exactly that fan holder..... but it does not fit with the voodoo3 card in any slot other than the top two - the bracket where the front screw pillar is fouls the edge of the card - and with the sonnet being a similar size to the voodoo it can't go in slot 1 or 2 either with the fan in place. With the Voodoo having to go in slot 1 or 2 so the sonnet can fit in slot 3 the fan holder just doesn't quite work.

If the 3D file were tweaked slightly to extend the arm perhaps 1cm further back then it'd be perfect. What I've done instead is cut off the arm and place the fan mount over the motherboard ram slots - it's now well away from the PCI slots but air is still pushed nicely across all the cards.

[wawa]

i have ran an a4000 closed cover with mediator 4kdi, csppc, voodoo3, deneb and whole bunch of other cards. practically every zorro/pci slot and drive bay occupied. i used a pci fan set in a slot below the voodoo. yeah i had to sacrifice one pci slot, but i was worth it, the system went stable, even if i consider such ahardware like voodoo an overkill, we should use more energy sensible options, perhaps like dedicated fpga hardwqare.

btw. congratulations on a sensible and constructive thread here. i have not followed it all along but as i take it, currently the solution is not only meant for sonnet, but also as up to date warpup replacement for csppc. right? perhaps i could see how it works with aros, since the genuine warpup worked out of the box already. is there a link to the libraries needed?

[strim]

Originally Posted by wawa

currently the solution is not only meant for sonnet, but also as up to date warpup replacement for csppc

Nope. Only Sonnet is supported.

Although it would be interesting to test whether Sonnet powerpc.library (previously known as sonnet.library) would work on AROS 68k.

[wawa]

Originally Posted by strim

Nope. Only Sonnet is supported.

Although it would be interesting to test whether Sonnet powerpc.library (previously known as sonnet.library) would work on AROS 68k.

i dont have the sonnet hardware, but you can simply try it out with aros nightly if you like. its just a line of startup-sequence you need to edit and delete a file to get it boot on amiga. i ll just repost a simple instruction here just in case:

download amiga-m68k-bootiso here:
http://aros.sourceforge.net/de/nightly1.php
decompress it to a bootable amiga partition.
then you have to do two changes:
edit your s-s adding this line at the beginning of it:

boot/amiga/AROSBootstrap ROM boot/amiga/aros.hunk.gz

it will softkick aros from your amiga rom. optionally you can add p96 driver files in the same line as arosbootstrap to activate your rtg card, like that for instance:

boot/amiga/AROSBootstrap ROM boot/amiga/aros.hunk.gz boot/amiga/PicassoIV.card boot/amiga/CirrusGD5446.chip

the other thing, not necessary but advisable is to delete prefs/env/sys/theme.var to get rid of decoration. it will be too heavy on aga for now due to alphablending and such. it can be turned on again later. ah and disable the window and desktop backgrounds in wanderer prefs, they take ages to load.

ill try to put up together a simple out of the box distribution next days if people are interested, i just dont have any server at hand.

sorry for ot. carry on, please.

edit: ah, just realized that mediator hardware is actually not expected to work, so neither sonnet nor voodoo will probably do. does powerpc.library deliver the access to mediator as such or are elbox libs needed? i could give it a try as soon as im in berlin again, if i can test something without sonnet itself. i do have mediator4kdi and voodoo3.

[strim]

or are elbox libs needed?

Elbox pci.library is needed, no one ever had the time to reimplement that wheel.

Since all the Sonnet related software really needs Sonnet, there is little point in testing not having it .

[wawa]

Originally Posted by strim

Elbox pci.library is needed, no one ever had the time to reimplement that wheel.

Since all the Sonnet related software really needs Sonnet, there is little point in testing not having it .

elbox pci lib is already a showstopper in this respect i suppose. you are right, i was under wrong imprerssion. sorry for interruption.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by wawa

elbox pci lib is already a showstopper in this respect i suppose. you are right, i was under wrong imprerssion. sorry for interruption.

Well in the other thread, if most other Zorro/68k drivers for devices are working, maybe Mediator would work, or is it just known that PCI.library doesn't work and won't configure Mediator RAM? I'll try and try this out for myself soon just to see what happens.

[wawa]

its a very long time i tried it. i dont remember details.

[trixster]

Can i just check what the mediator jumpers should be set to before i add the sonnet to the system?

At the moment I have Swap Config closed, Master closed and winsize open.

This is with a Voodoo 3 installed. If i set winsize closed I get really bad graphical corruption when booting into workbench.

[Hedeon]

Winsize should be 512MB which is closed, I think.

What you could do is a pciinfo dump after starting without startup-sequence (with winsize closed -> 512MB).

Originally Posted by trixster

Can i just check what the mediator jumpers should be set to before i add the sonnet to the system?

At the moment I have Swap Config closed, Master closed and winsize open.

This is with a Voodoo 3 installed. If i set winsize closed I get really bad graphical corruption when booting into workbench.

[trixster]

I'll give that a try tomorrow. I guess winsize closed should work ok with a voodoo 3? Does the sonnet not work with winsize open?

Just to clarify, my sonnet has not arrived yet, I just want to set the jumpers now so that I'm ready for it!

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

I'll give that a try tomorrow. I guess winsize closed should work ok with a voodoo 3? Does the sonnet not work with winsize open?

Just to clarify, my sonnet has not arrived yet, I just want to set the jumpers now so that I'm ready for it!

There should be no problem with Winsize open with a Voodoo 3, but closed is preferred for the 512MB window. I would say just leave Winsize closed. Congratulations on finding your Sonnet, you know you'll have to beat Hedeon and I in a 2-on-1 Quake 2 Deathmatch for support, so I'd practice up, but then all of the mysteries should be answered in this thread by now.

Not sure why you're getting graphical corruption, do you have Zorro cards installed?

[trixster]

I was brilliant at Quake, back in the day, so you're on!

No zorro cards installed, I've removed the 256mb zorram already in anticipation.