User avatar
TommyE

Posted Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:54 am

Hello again.

I dug out an old A2000A memory board with 512KB on it and soldered in the pinconnectors.

Plugged it in, I get everything from yellow to red to mostly black screens when powering on.

@Christian, if you are able to share the 80ns hack you mentioned I'd be interested in trying that.

Maybe I'll burn out an diag rom and see if it can see the memory that I believe should now be existing on $c000000...


Tommy

User avatar
TommyE

Posted Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:39 am

IMG_6712.JPG
IMG_6712.JPG
OK.

So now the board works :)

I now have 512KB extra memory on the A1000 coming from the A2000A memory board.

I inspected the soldering thru a microscope, and there it was, the smallest braid of copper ever, shorting to address lines.

Removed it, and it booted.

The thing now is that the machine is very unstable and throws gurus at me all the time.

I can use it for everything from 1 minute to 5 and then it gurus.

So I would like to look into the 80ns trick mentioned.

Regards
Tommy
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User avatar
Christian

Posted Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:19 pm

Hi Tommy

I’ll dig the hack up in the next several days and will reply once I find it.
Christian

User avatar
Christian

Posted Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:48 pm

I just did the modification on my A2000A RAM expansion board and the upper 512K memory bank (starting at c80000) started having memory test errors.

The upper bank (socketed) had 41256-15 DRAMs while the lower bank (soldered in) had 41257-15 DRAMs (probably faster than labeled since those also support Nibble Mode).

Anyway, I replaced the upper bank DRAMs with 41256-10 (100ns instead of 150ns) and the memory tests fine now.

The performance (Sysinfo 2.73) increased from 0.86 times the speed of a B2000 to 1.00.

See if yours already has the modification (see below). If so, you may have to reverse it if the memory on the card is too slow.

Modification to remove the 1 waitstate:

Change the patch wire that goes from

pin 9 on U16 to pin 12 on U13

to

pin 9 on U16 to pin 17 on U13.

A good way to test unstable c00000 memory is either to add real fast mem (which will have a higher priority, keeping OS and programs out of c00000) or to use Kickstart 1.0/1.1 which don’t automatically add c00000 memory.

Then use GVPMemTest or Microbotics MBRTest-2 (don’t know if that runs under 1.0/1.1).
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User avatar
TommyE

Posted Tue Apr 09, 2019 3:11 am

Christian wrote:I just did the modification on my A2000A RAM expansion board and the upper 512K memory bank (starting at c80000) started having memory test errors.

The upper bank (socketed) had 41256-15 DRAMs while the lower bank (soldered in) had 41257-15 DRAMs (probably faster than labeled since those also support Nibble Mode).

Anyway, I replaced the upper bank DRAMs with 41256-10 (100ns instead of 150ns) and the memory tests fine now.

The performance (Sysinfo 2.73) increased from 0.86 times the speed of a B2000 to 1.00.

See if yours already has the modification (see below). If so, you may have to reverse it if the memory on the card is too slow.

Modification to remove the 1 waitstate:

Change the patch wire that goes from

pin 9 on U16 to pin 12 on U13

to

pin 9 on U16 to pin 17 on U13.

A good way to test unstable c00000 memory is either to add real fast mem (which will have a higher priority, keeping OS and programs out of c00000) or to use Kickstart 1.0/1.1 which don’t automatically add c00000 memory.

Then use GVPMemTest or Microbotics MBRTest-2 (don’t know if that runs under 1.0/1.1).


Hello Christian

Thanks for the information

I tried the hack, but all it did for me in the A1000 was to identify the board as 1MB instead of 512KB as mine is.
When undoing the hack, the machine went back to seeing 512KB.

Was looking for some chips to expand the card to 1MB, but could only find 10chips in my drawers. Maybe I´ll order a few more to try the hack with a fully populated board.

I can also add that hack did show an increase in speed in sysinfo, but the machine was unusable due to it thinking it had 1MB ram extra...

Tommy

User avatar
Christian

Posted Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:16 pm

Please check the jumper settings of the card.

User avatar
TommyE

Posted Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:37 am

Hello Christian

A while, but now I've tried a little more with my sidecar.

As to you pointers for DIP switches, I think I have them correct.
But I might have a problem with the sidecar itself..

It makes a 'chirp' as if the PC side boots, but when I try to start the PC software on the Amiga the screen is garbled.
Sometimes the Amiga will give a guru and other messages.

It looks like it behaves the best after it has been of for a while and cooled down a bit.

I measued the voltages and also swapped out some memory chips on the interface board that was a little hot, to no avail.

I would love to get this working, but as of now, I have no idea where to start.

I have even tried two a1000 motherboards and powersupplies.

Regards
Tommy

User avatar
Christian

Posted Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:09 pm

Hi Tommy:

I think a lot of Sidecar issues come down to the connector. I recently got a Sidecar and I got the A1000 to boot and I did see the diagnostic screen (of the Sidecar - had the DIP switches set that way) in the PC Mono window. But that was once - the connector was damaged when I got it and it didn't get any better. I am trying to get replacement 86 pin connectors from a manufacturer - the regular 90 degree connectors are too short and don't make good contact (I desoldered the damaged connector and inserted (but didn't solder it) the replacement, and it's about 0.1"/3 mm too short - won't make good contact).
I have to find out how much it will cost and what their minimum order is as it is not a standard size.
Once I get my Sidecar to work, then I'll also try the A2000A memory expansion to see if I can get it to work.

Christian

User avatar
Bulletdust

Posted Sat Jul 27, 2019 11:23 pm

Are those screenies meant to be upside down?

User avatar
TommyE

Posted Tue Jul 30, 2019 1:35 pm

Christian wrote:Hi Tommy:

I think a lot of Sidecar issues come down to the connector. I recently got a Sidecar and I got the A1000 to boot and I did see the diagnostic screen (of the Sidecar - had the DIP switches set that way) in the PC Mono window. But that was once - the connector was damaged when I got it and it didn't get any better. I am trying to get replacement 86 pin connectors from a manufacturer - the regular 90 degree connectors are too short and don't make good contact (I desoldered the damaged connector and inserted (but didn't solder it) the replacement, and it's about 0.1"/3 mm too short - won't make good contact).
I have to find out how much it will cost and what their minimum order is as it is not a standard size.
Once I get my Sidecar to work, then I'll also try the A2000A memory expansion to see if I can get it to work.

Christian
Hi Christian

I have also had my doubts about the connection of the side connector. I have tried with some very fine grit sandpaper to clean it. It looks really nice and shining when looking thru my magnifier glass. Waiting for bunch of chips to arrive, will try to swap out a few that seems abit too hot.
Also if you get a quote on the connectors, I'd be interested in two or three.
Was actually thinking of desoldering one from a A590, maybe I could retrofit that....?

Regards
Tommy





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