Impulse Firecracker 24 help

[HammerD]

Hi, I have an Impulse FireCracker 24 board in my Amiga 2000. It appears to be working, shows up in ShowConfig, and the pass-thru functionality works - if I connect the cables it will pass-thru the Amiga native display and display it on my 1084S-D1 monitor. I can see the workbench thru the board's output.

It is installed in an Amiga 2000 with Blizzard 2060 (68060) with a CyberVision 64/3D graphics card running CyberGraphX V4.

I have several issues with it though:

1) The "Light24" program that comes with the FireCracker just freezes right after I click on the icon. Maybe it doesn't like the 060? If I set the Workbench to NTSC (eg. don't use the Cybervision 64/3D), it still freezes.

2) Using ImageFX 2.6's FireCracker render module, it doesn't display anything via the Firecracker. When I select the Firecracker render module, and click "render", the output on the 1084S-D1 turns white, then when I press the "Show" button, it turns black. It's either all white, or all black. So it's doing something, just not the right thing.

Has anyone ever got this board working? I'm running OS 3.9.

Thanks
Darren

[TribbleSmasher]

Is any of the installation disks for the card bootable and maybe also has a setup / test program on it?

[HammerD]

The only disk I have is the Light24 disk and it's not bootable.  It has the fc24.library which you copy to libs: and the Light24 program.  That's all.  I have copied the fc24.library to libs:  and when I click on Light24 it's an immediate freeze.  Snoopdos doesn't say much, if anything.  I could try it with an 030 card instead of an 060 card, but that would be a pain

[TribbleSmasher]

You could try ViewTek to show a test picture.
http://aminet.net/package/gfx/show/ViewTEK21

Maybe you have to readjust the colours on the card itself?

[10MARC]

I have a Retina card in my A4000, and I find a lot of the Retina- specific software does not work right if I am using the Picasso-96 RTG interface. You might be running into something similar with your Cybergraphx RTG software.
I suppose the only way to test that theory is to boot into standard ECS mode with no Cybergraphx running and test it from there
I also find ImageFX 4.5 is a bit odd with RTG cards and you need to experiment a bit. I have a Picasso II, and my system uses Picasso-96... But in ImageFX on my A2000 I have to use a Cybergraphx viewer to get it to display? I try the Picasso and get nothing, I use the Cybergraphx and it come up great.
Maybe you are experiencing the same thing

[HammerD]

I have a Retina card in my A4000, and I find a lot of the Retina- specific software does not work right if I am using the Picasso-96 RTG interface. You might be running into something similar with your Cybergraphx RTG software.
I suppose the only way to test that theory is to boot into standard ECS mode with no Cybergraphx running and test it from there
I also find ImageFX 4.5 is a bit odd with RTG cards and you need to experiment a bit. I have a Picasso II, and my system uses Picasso-96... But in ImageFX on my A2000 I have to use a Cybergraphx viewer to get it to display? I try the Picasso and get nothing, I use the Cybergraphx and it come up great.
Maybe you are experiencing the same thing

Yes, possible.  I can try with a Vanilla OS 3.9 (or even 3.1) setup.   

[HammerD]

You could try ViewTek to show a test picture.
http://aminet.net/package/gfx/show/ViewTEK21

Maybe you have to readjust the colours on the card itself?

I will try that Viewtek program first.  There are pots for adjusting RGB levels on the card.  When passing thru the Amiga video (eg. NTSC) the colours are pretty good.  I just found the manual for it, it doesn't really have a troubleshooting section nor talk about Picasso96 or CyberGraphX...

[HammerD]

You could try ViewTek to show a test picture.
http://aminet.net/package/gfx/show/ViewTEK21

Maybe you have to readjust the colours on the card itself?

Ok tried Viewtek_FC24.  Loaded a small jpeg, image on the 1084S turns white, solid white.  (was black).  so it's doing something but I don't get the image, just a white screen.  Card is toast? :-/  ImageFX did the same thing.  Unless the RGB pots are totally off....I can try adjusting.  Have to haul the card out of the machine to do it :-/

[TribbleSmasher]

amiga.resource.cx  mentioned something about internal genlock incompatibilities. Any chance the card gets such a signal from somewhere?

[HammerD]

amiga.resource.cx  mentioned something about internal genlock incompatibilities. Any chance the card gets such a signal from somewhere?

I'll have to read up in the manual, but I have no other genlock in the Amiga 2000.  I do have a flicker fixer in the A2000 video slot - a Microway AGA 2000.   Could that potentially be an issue?  The FireCracker is a Zorro II card, it does not use the Video slot of the A2000.

Darren

[HammerD]

Actually I just tried Light24 again from shell, it also turns the 1084S monitor screen to all white....I guess it looked "frozen" because you lose mouse control on the workbench.  You'd have to quit Light24 and probably it would come back, but as the screen just turns white I can't see anything other than white

[TribbleSmasher]

Sounds like a fixable problem, still. You already took the card out for cleaning the contacts, didn't you?

[HammerD]

Made some progress...got the Light24 program to start.  I changed my workbench from a CyberGraphX screen to NTSC.  started light 24 and it came up on the 1084S!  I get white "snow" in the background, when I load an image I don't see it, but the program interface is there and it's working, mouse is working.  Maybe the memory on the board is not working properly? (or pots are totally out of wack).  I haven't removed the card yet.

Ignore the diagonal bars - they do not show up to the naked eye.  You can see the white snow in the background behind the GUI.

[TribbleSmasher]

Yeah, that old software has certainly troubles with the 060 and the grafics, maybe memory size too.

[HammerD]

Made some progress...got the Light24 program to start.  I changed my workbench from a CyberGraphX screen to NTSC.  started light 24 and it came up on the 1084S!  I get white "snow" in the background, when I load an image I don't see it, but the program interface is there and it's working, mouse is working.  Maybe the memory on the board is not working properly? (or pots are totally out of wack).  I haven't removed the card yet.

Ignore the diagonal bars - they do not show up to the naked eye.  You can see the white snow in the background behind the GUI.

Ok, took the card out, cleaned the contacts.  The card itself is very clean, no dust, connector was clean.  Cleaned it anyway.  Changed it to another slot.  Adjusted the RGB pots - which are working and they were/are at good positions.  I can change the red, green, and blue levels.   But that did not have an affect on the output.  I can turn the Amiga display on and off (using the software - AON and AOFF), but when I load a picture it doesn't show anything other than a white screen.   

   

I don't think it's a Zorro slot problem as all the other cards in the machine are working: Prisma megamix, Emplant, C= 2065, CV 3D, and of course the Blizzard 2060.   The Firecracker is now in the slot where the Emplant was.

To be sure I will have to try a different processor card...maybe tonight I will try that, I have a C= 2630 card. The good news is the software runs from shell, even with no startup-sequence, so I can just put it on a floppy and run it, as I will lose access to the SCSI hard drive attached to the Blizzard when I remove it... 

EDIT/Update: Actually the Blizzard 060 can be deactivated by holding down the 0 key while turning on the computer....so I will try that safer method first and see if the Firecracker responds!

Darren