Can anyone identify this RAM expansion board??

PowerPie5000 · 29 July 2009, 18:51

Hi all, i now have 2 x A500's up and running after i just fixed my very old A500 (one with GVP HD8+ and one basic 512k

)... So i went on ebay looking for a good RAM expansion board for the newly fixed A500 and came across this....

The seller could not give a good description as he does not have an a500 to test it on, but i bought it anyway

I know it has got to be at least 1mb (the gary adapter and full set of RAM chips hints at this

) but i do not know the make/model of this particular board?? Does anyone have any ideas?
First thing i am going to do when i receive it is remove that dodgy big blue battery - It may have leaked already as i think i can see green on the legs of the top-right chip below the wires

.

I had to buy it as it's not the most common of upgrades for a vanilla A500. Anyway a good clean up and hopefully it should be fine

EDIT: The seller has just confirmed there is absolutely no leakage

I have also just pulled out the KS 1.2 roms from this old A500 as i have been told this board needs KS 1.3 roms to operate... which i also have! I still don't know who manufactured this board and what the memory size is

coze · 29 July 2009, 21:01

if you can tell us the chip part numbers, we can tell you the memory size at least. but in general it looks like a 1.8 FAST ram board.

PowerPie5000 · 29 July 2009, 22:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by coze

if you can tell us the chip part numbers, we can tell you the memory size at least. but in general it looks like a 1.8 FAST ram board.

I will have to wait until i get it, which should be soon hopefully! I also just bought a good condition A590 from the same guy for £14.99

I hope this ram board works with the extra ram in the A590

(I also only paid £10 for the ram board which i think is quite good considering how uncommon it is

)
I will now have one A500 with a GVP HD8+ and another A500 with an old A590

I will just have to wait and see how it all works when i receive it, can anyone tell me if the ram on the A590 will play nice with the ram on the expansion board?? Cheers

Peter · 29 July 2009, 22:48

PP5K - Your spare room must be getting as full as mine...!

Photon · 29 July 2009, 23:06

Looks like a slowmem expansion for A500 with a kickstart switch? Didn't know that was possible through the expansion port. Possibly softkicking using some slowmem address range?

alexh · 29 July 2009, 23:12

It is probably a Zydec A500 1.5Mbytes (bringing the total to 2Mbytes)

It is a TrapDoor slow mem RAM card with a gary/68000 board to increase the address lines to more than 512Kbytes.

It plugs into the trap door and you take out either the Gary or the 68000 and plug it into the smaller board and then into the motherboard.

It is a way of adding more than 512Kbytes more RAM via the TrapDoor.

Not a bad buy for £14!

PowerPie5000 · 30 July 2009, 02:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

It is probably a Zydec A500 1.5Mbytes (bringing the total to 2Mbytes)

It is a TrapDoor slow mem RAM card with a gary/68000 board to increase the address lines to more than 512Kbytes.

It plugs into the trap door and you take out either the Gary or the 68000 and plug it into the smaller board and then into the motherboard.

It is a way of adding more than 512Kbytes more RAM via the TrapDoor.

Not a bad buy for £14!

Yep it was £14 inc p&p and i thought i may as well get it as you don't see them every day

I thought the A590 was a bargain too! I just hope the 2mb ram on the A590 will run alongside the ram on the expansion board (so hopefully i will have 4mb on this spare A500

)

Firthy2002 · 30 July 2009, 02:25

You got a good deal there.

Lets hope it works!

PowerPie5000 · 30 July 2009, 02:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter

PP5K - Your spare room must be getting as full as mine...!

I have bits everywhere at the moment as i am sorting through a load of stuff! Forgot how many consoles and games i own until recently when i decided to empty the cupboards and go through what was supposed to be my "gaming room" but looks more like a storage room

(never got round to setting it all up!)
I have even sold a load of consoles and games recently because i have a habit of forgetting what i already own and go and buy duplicates.... impulse buying gets the better of me

Skylight · 30 July 2009, 02:34

It's an AlfaRAM RA5-2MB.

http://hardware.amiga.hu/photos/alfaram502,1

The PCB color is typical for AlfaData and BSC.

Ciao, Rick ...

PowerPie5000 · 30 July 2009, 02:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylight

It's an AlfaRAM RA5-2MB.

http://hardware.amiga.hu/photos/alfaram502,1

The PCB color is typical for AlfaData and BSC.

Ciao, Rick ...

Nice find! cheers for that

... well it seems this will be fine! All i have to do is wait for it and then fully test it - with and without the A590. I will also remove the old blue battery before it leaks acid everywhere.... I don't need a clock anyway

or i could just put a coin type battery holder in it's place

Skylight · 30 July 2009, 02:40

With the right Agnus u can even use 1MB of this AlfaRAM RA5-2MB as Chip-RAM.

Ciao, Rick ...

PowerPie5000 · 30 July 2009, 02:47

I just hope the jumpers are all set as i think it would be hard locating a manual or the jumper settings online!

EDIT: I also wonder what the blue and red wires are for? they are not attached to the board in the Amiga hardware link?

Skylight · 30 July 2009, 02:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by PowerPie5000

I just hope the jumpers are all set as i think it would be hard locating a manual or the jumper settings online!

EDIT: I also wonder what the blue and red wires are for? they are not attached to the board in the Amiga hardware link?

The wires r probably for an external switch.

And for the jumpers u can ask fc.studio, he's using an AlfaRAM RA5-2MB
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...2mb#post391043

I got one too, but i have no time to dig through 100+ cardboard boxes.

Ciao, Rick ...

PowerPie5000 · 30 July 2009, 03:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylight

The wires r probably for an external switch.

And for the jumpers u can ask fc.studio, he's using an AlfaRAM RA5-2MB
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...2mb#post391043

I got one too, but i have no time to dig through 100+ cardboard boxes.

Ciao, Rick ...

Thanks, i just read through it and it occured to me that i did not think about the A500 motherboard jumpers! I thought all i had to do was change the KS rom from 1.2 to 1.3 and then plug the Gary chip into the adapter and pop that on the motherboard... along with the expansion board in the trapdoor. But is there more to it

Skylight · 30 July 2009, 03:23

U must not change any mainboard jumpers if u don't wanna increase the mainboard memory from 512k to 1MB too.

Ciao, Rick ...

Skylight · 30 July 2009, 03:30

btw .. why u think u must upgrade to Kick 1.3?
I can't remember any Slow-RAM expansion board that needed Kick 1.3 to work.

Ciao, Rick ...

PowerPie5000 · 30 July 2009, 03:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylight

btw .. why u think u must upgrade to Kick 1.3?
I can't remember any Slow-RAM expansion board that needed Kick 1.3 to work.

Ciao, Rick ...

I read it somewhere, it was for another A500 expansion similar to mine and it said something about requiring KS 1.3? I have different versions of KS so it's no problem

PowerPie5000 · 30 July 2009, 03:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylight

U must not change any mainboard jumpers if u don't wanna increase the mainboard memory from 512k to 1MB too.

Ciao, Rick ...

The A500 i am upgrading is one of the very first (came with KS 1.2 roms and has a red power led) If i choose to have 1mb mainboard memory then would that mean changing the Agnus chip? I may just keep all the jumpers as they are to be safe

Skylight · 30 July 2009, 04:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by PowerPie5000

The A500 i am upgrading is one of the very first (came with KS 1.2 roms and has a red power led) If i choose to have 1mb mainboard memory then would that mean changing the Agnus chip? I may just keep all the jumpers as they are to be safe

Then u should have a Rev. 3 mainboard and there u need to replace the RAM chips if u wanna have 1MB onboard.

And u need an Agnus 8372 or 8372A for 1MB Chip-RAM.
And an Agnus 8372AB or 8372B for 2MB Chip-RAM.
For 2MB Chip-RAM u need an Gary-Adapter again.
Some 2MB Chip-RAM upgrades just use 2 clips for the Gary pins instead.

The 8372AB and 8372B are hard to find spare parts.
I just have two unused 8372B and one of these is reserved for my Phoenix board.

Better don't mess with the mainboard.
U can upgrade ur memory more easily.

Ciao, Rick ...

29 July 2009, 18:51	#1
PowerPie5000 Miggy Ate My Hamster! Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 1,566	Can anyone identify this RAM expansion board?? Hi all, i now have 2 x A500's up and running after i just fixed my very old A500 (one with GVP HD8+ and one basic 512k )... So i went on ebay looking for a good RAM expansion board for the newly fixed A500 and came across this.... The seller could not give a good description as he does not have an a500 to test it on, but i bought it anyway I know it has got to be at least 1mb (the gary adapter and full set of RAM chips hints at this ) but i do not know the make/model of this particular board?? Does anyone have any ideas? First thing i am going to do when i receive it is remove that dodgy big blue battery - It may have leaked already as i think i can see green on the legs of the top-right chip below the wires . I had to buy it as it's not the most common of upgrades for a vanilla A500. Anyway a good clean up and hopefully it should be fine EDIT: The seller has just confirmed there is absolutely no leakage I have also just pulled out the KS 1.2 roms from this old A500 as i have been told this board needs KS 1.3 roms to operate... which i also have! I still don't know who manufactured this board and what the memory size is Last edited by PowerPie5000; 29 July 2009 at 19:30.

29 July 2009, 23:12	#6
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	It is probably a Zydec A500 1.5Mbytes (bringing the total to 2Mbytes) It is a TrapDoor slow mem RAM card with a gary/68000 board to increase the address lines to more than 512Kbytes. It plugs into the trap door and you take out either the Gary or the 68000 and plug it into the smaller board and then into the motherboard. It is a way of adding more than 512Kbytes more RAM via the TrapDoor. Not a bad buy for £14! Last edited by alexh; 29 July 2009 at 23:27.

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29 July 2009, 21:01	#2
coze hastala vista winny vista Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: mt fuji Age: 46 Posts: 1,335	if you can tell us the chip part numbers, we can tell you the memory size at least. but in general it looks like a 1.8 FAST ram board.

29 July 2009, 22:48	#4
Peter Still an Amiga user Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent Age: 55 Posts: 2,715	PP5K - Your spare room must be getting as full as mine...!

29 July 2009, 23:06	#5
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,602	Looks like a slowmem expansion for A500 with a kickstart switch? Didn't know that was possible through the expansion port. Possibly softkicking using some slowmem address range?

30 July 2009, 02:25	#8
Firthy2002 2nd era... Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Leeds, England Age: 40 Posts: 288	You got a good deal there. Lets hope it works!

30 July 2009, 02:34	#10
Skylight Crazy Collector Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Munich/Bavaria + Saxony + Thailand Age: 52 Posts: 151	It's an AlfaRAM RA5-2MB. http://hardware.amiga.hu/photos/alfaram502,1 The PCB color is typical for AlfaData and BSC. Ciao, Rick ...

30 July 2009, 02:40	#12
Skylight Crazy Collector Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Munich/Bavaria + Saxony + Thailand Age: 52 Posts: 151	With the right Agnus u can even use 1MB of this AlfaRAM RA5-2MB as Chip-RAM. Ciao, Rick ...

30 July 2009, 02:47	#13
PowerPie5000 Miggy Ate My Hamster! Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 1,566	I just hope the jumpers are all set as i think it would be hard locating a manual or the jumper settings online! EDIT: I also wonder what the blue and red wires are for? they are not attached to the board in the Amiga hardware link?

30 July 2009, 03:23	#16
Skylight Crazy Collector Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Munich/Bavaria + Saxony + Thailand Age: 52 Posts: 151	U must not change any mainboard jumpers if u don't wanna increase the mainboard memory from 512k to 1MB too. Ciao, Rick ...

30 July 2009, 03:30	#17
Skylight Crazy Collector Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Munich/Bavaria + Saxony + Thailand Age: 52 Posts: 151	btw .. why u think u must upgrade to Kick 1.3? I can't remember any Slow-RAM expansion board that needed Kick 1.3 to work. Ciao, Rick ...

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