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11
Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion / Re: Amiga 2000 Video & Audio Issues
« Last post by TmaxElectronics on April 28, 2024, 02:14:44 PM »
Ok so I just played around with the DiagRom a little more and noticed that running the 320x200 Screen test makes the system hang indefinetely until a hardware reset. I'm still not sure what that tells me though. I've just re-swapped all chips (except buster of course) with my other a500 and that boots into workbench without problem. All very confusing to me.

Oh and I forgot: I'm using diagrom 1.2.1 as thats what I have, and I don't own a programmer to upgrade to 1.3.
12
Amiga Tutorials / Getting online with PiStorm32, Miami DX and Encrypted WiFi
« Last post by AndyFC on April 28, 2024, 01:07:20 PM »
Here are the steps I took to be able to browse using the new WiFiPi wireless network driver, and Miami DX.

Version 0.1: First version to document my experiences - still finding and fixing typos

Downloads:
Emu68Tools from 23 April: https://github.com/michalsc/Emu68-tools/releases/download/nightly/Emu68-tools-20240423-75ea45.zip
Emu68 release 1: https://github.com/michalsc/Emu68/releases
Prism2v2: https://aminet.net/driver/net/prism2v2.lha
MiamiDX (demo): https://aminet.net/comm/tcp/MiamiDx10cmain.lha and https://aminet.net/comm/tcp/MiamiDx10c-MUI.lha (I already had this up and running with a 3COM PCMCIA card)

The info for where to copy the files is based on Michal Schultz's post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/wi-fi-alpha-102261532

Set up the Wireless network driver
1: Unpack Emu68 tools
2: Copy file Emu68-WiFi/Devs/Networks/wifipi.device to DEVS:Networks
3: Copy the whole folder emu68/WiFi/Devs/Networks/Firmware to Devs: (so you end up with Devs:Firmware containing a series of txt, bin and clm_blob files) NOTE: I didn't have the Devs:Firmware folder to start with but some of you might)
4: Unpack Prism2v2.lha you can choose to run the installer or copy some files manually

IF MANUAL
5: Copy Wirelsssmanager to C:
6: Create a text file in Envarc:sys/ called wireless.prefs
7: Add the lines
network={
     ssid="<name of your wireless network>"
     psk="<your network passphrase>"
}
8: Save the file
9: Reboot

IF USING THE INSTALLER:
5: Use expert mode
6: Choose 'No' when asked to install firmware for the Hermes chipset
7: Choose 'Yes' to set wireless preferences
8: Enter you wireless network name and password when prompted
9a: Choose whether or not to start WirelessManager automatically (it's up to you - see 'Observations' at the end)
9b: Finish the install and reboot

What's the difference between the two?
The process using the installer creates an encrypted version of the wireless password and uses that instead of the open text version. Handy if you don't want your password saved in plain text on your Amiga.
My personal experience is that I couldn't connect after setting up the wireless.prefs file manually, I would just get a timeout. Users Lemaru and Shaytam on the PiStorm discord assured me it should work without the encrypted PSK, so I uncommented the plain text line and commented out the encrypted line, rebooted and it then worked. The timeout was probably not related to the setup method I used (I have an old house with thick brick internal walls and Wifi can sometimes drop).

STARTING THE NETWORK
10: If you chose to use the installer and start automatically, and all being well, the wifipi.device should have been initialised on reboot.
11: If you have chosen the manual route open up a Shell and enter 'Wirelessmanager wifipi.device' - after a few seconds you hopefully get confirmation that you are associated with a MAC address, key negotiation is completed and CTRL-EVENT-Connected ie you're connected to the access point.

Configuring MiamiDX (Note I already use MiamiDX with a PCMCIA card and copied the original settings)
12: If not already done, install MiamiDX
13: Run and open up Hardware > New
14: Give it a name e.g. WiFiPi
15: Type of driver should default to SANA-II driver (if not change it to that)
16: In Driver enter DEVS:Networks/wifipi.device
17: Open SANA-II parameters
18: Choose 'Query Device' - the settings should auto-complete.
19: Choose OK to close the SANA-II parameters screen and again to close the Hardware Definition Screen
20: Choose Interfaces from the MiamiDX menu
21: Choose 'New'
22: My settings are:
 - Name: eth1
 - Alias: WiFiPi
 - Type: Ethernet
 - Hardware: (whatever you called the interface in step 14)
 - Priority: 10
 - IP type: Static
 - IP Address: something relevant to my network
 - Netmask Type: Static
 - Netmask: 255.255.255.0 (pretty common)
 - Gateway Type: static
 - Gateway: ip address of my router
 - Multicasts: disabled
 - Multicast pri: 0
 - Control panel: ticked
 - GUI default: unticked
 I don't have any Auto-connect/disconnect settings or Manual routes/aliases
TCP/IP settings:
 - Use ICMP: ticked
 - Fake IP: unticked
 - Get dynamic hostame, priority: 0
 - Get dynamic DNS servers: Ignore
 - Preferred offline state: Suspended
 - Get time: unticked
 - DHCP Enable: Ticked
 - Send hostname in request: Ticked
 - Host Name: Something you want to identify your Amiga on if looking in your router interface
23: OK to close the Interface TCP/IP Settings Window and again to close the Interface Definition Window
24: Right-click and choose 'Save' from the Settings menu

Now to test:
25: In MiamiDX, and the Interfaces section, select your newly created Interface and select 'Online'

Observations:
I Use Tinymeter and as soon as I run wirelessmanager the CPU drops to around 30%-33% free, so I'm going to continue to run this manually for now, only when I want to go online.
If you make any changes to the wireless.prefs file reboot for them to take effect.
14
Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion / VERY Dim video output from Amiga 4000
« Last post by Retronaut on April 28, 2024, 12:41:32 PM »
Before making this video, please watch (this section) as you'll get an idea of the issue....

Amiga 4000: Is the Fastlane Z3 the best home for a BlueSCSIv2 Upgrade?

When I filmed that, I had to post process it A LOT to increase its brightness to acceptable levels for this video. I had assumed that the issue was to do with the RGB to SCART cable (unlikely) or that my trusty SAMSUNG LED with SCART was on its way out (more likely).

However, today, I tested this by plugging in my A500, and the video looks bright and clear, as I remember it. So, A4000 has a problem  ::).

Calling on the ancient wisdom of the Amiga collective. Would anyone know what this is a symptom of?

My guess, if I were someone else, would be that capacitors were going down the swaney, and providing too low voltage. However, I had this machine re-capped just last year. So its very unlikely this is the issue. However, the recap was because of some leakage in the video area, however, I was lucky in that it seemed to be early days. I have cleaned that area, so Im surprised if its on-going corrosion.

Anyway, over to you guys. Wondering if Christ Edwards lurks here, as I would assume he might recognise the issue...

15
Amiga Editorials / Re: Dominik Diamond writes about the Amiga for the Guardian
« Last post by BozzerBigD on April 28, 2024, 11:03:16 AM »
Great article! Thank you for sharing!
16
Thanks for confirming and the updates on your progress. From your other replies you've clearly got much more electronics knowledge than me, so just a few more questions for clarification, to try and help diagnosis.

At the end of your original post you wrote  this happens even with the floppy unplugged, so is the Panasonic drive your floppy drive or your hard drive?

You wrote that you tried without accelerator, have you also tested with just floppy drive and no hard drive, no accelerator?

What are the ratings of the power supplies you've used? Are they all official Amiga PSUs or do you have something more powerful? (I was recently given 5 PSUs and the specified outputs vary, even for units with the same part number.)
17
The only reason this sloppy E clock timing works at all is because the 8520 CIA is not a Motorola 6800 peripheral chip. If it was, this 14 MHz accelerator design would fail. Commodore designed these custom chips for the Amiga and using the E clock to drive them somewhat simplified the Amiga's I/O hardware design.
That's the impression that I got reading the 68000 datasheet and noting that the Amiga has no actual M6800 peripherals.

But just because you can sometimes get away with sloppy timing does not means it's often good idea to do so.
Definitely.

The fundamental timing problem is still not corrected because @ 28 MHz the CPU's E clock cycle will end in one 7 MHz clock. A more reliable way to handle this problem is to disable the CPU E clock cycle by disconnecting VPA and connecting a pull-up resistor. You then add logic to generate VMA when the E clock is low and keep it latched when the E clock is high.
That's a point.  Currently /VMA is unconnected on the PCB (and per the schematic), I guess there's an internal pullup...? What's the consequence of the short E pulse?

Here are some example boolean logic equations:

/VMA = /E * /VPA # /VMA * E
I did not find the pound sign (#) in the list of standard boolean operators.  What did you mean?

Next you need to generate ETERM to terminate the cycle:

/ETERM.D = ETERM * E * /AS * /VMA
/EDTACK.D = EDTACK * /AS * /ETERM
/DTACK.D = DTACK * /AS * /EDTACK
/DTACK.T = DTACK * /AS * /EDTACK
 
NOTE: ETERM and EDTACK are registered on the rising edge of the 7 MHz clock (but you can experiment with the falling edge). DTACK is registered on the 14 MHz clock. Also, DTACK is a Tri-State signal.
I'm not familiar with the .D and .T notation.  What did you mean?  ETERM and EDTACK symbols are connected to what?

As far as creating the proper 60/40 duty cycle, that's probably not as important as having the E clock at the proper frequency and having the rising edge synchronized with the 7 MHz clock.
I found a dedicated divider part that will generate the proper frequency E pulse in under 1ns.  That will definitely get it working, at least on par with the unmodified 14MHz accelerator.  I like the fact that it keeps with the minimalist spirit of the original project in OP.  But latching with the rising edge of the 7MHz clock is definitely something that I can do.  I also found a decade counter that would let me generate it from the 7MHz reference.

The main reason to keep the correct duty cycle is performance concerns.
Yeah, I had a hunch about that, are you able to quantify what is affected by the pulse width?

BTW, some 68020+ systems can be modified for improved performance. Here is the link:

https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=74945.msg850556
Nice project, useful toward "Amiga-like computer from scratch" projects that don't use any original Amiga components (which will be my final goal, eventually).  Thanks for providing the code.  I wouldn't mind learning that type of PLD syntax/notation.  I'm more fluent with VHDL and Verilog.

So the unmodified 14MHz accelerator has a problem I noted a while back.  I have an ide68k+mem68k sandwich, and it does not work at all with the 14MHz accelerator, I get flashing colors when I power on the machine.  At 28MHz I get a black screen with this peripheral.  Unfortunately I don't have them separately so I don't know which of them has the problem, I got this peripheral with one of my A1000.  It does work properly with the stock 7MHz 68000.  Do you have any idea what could be the issue?  I might give it a closer look next week to see which signals are connected so I could eliminate some factors.  I will be building two kinds of IDE interface, so need to put together BOMs for that.

I need to gather parts lists from multiple projects, then I'll be able to continue with this.  I like to build large carts to save on shipping.  I really like the lists feature on DigiKey as it lets me keep BOMs for projects.
18
Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion / Amiga 2000 Video & Audio Issues
« Last post by TmaxElectronics on April 28, 2024, 02:12:21 AM »
About half a year ago I started repairing a badly battery damaged A2000 which had some memory issues. After a looong time of letting the project settle I finally got somewhere in the repair. The problem was a almost rotted trace for _UDS, just outside the area which I cleaned. It was still good enough to sometimes work but bad enough to not do so reliably. Also broken was the Even CIA and probably some ram chips (I just replaced all because I started being frustrated lol). I Fixed those issues and now Diagrom boots up without any memory errors and the memory test and the CIA tests succeed.

Now however I'm faced with another Problem:
Although diagrom boots I can only use it with the serial terminal. Nothing is ever displayed on the screen except for some flashing green bars at startup and then some random colors as the rom is "forcing stuff to run in fastmem if avaible".
Running any graphic tests also yields nothing but a slightly differently color-filled screen, except in "test raster" where I get some purple-green lines across the screen. I've verified that the color value output from Denise is actually what the display shows (so eliminated the Vidiot as a possible fault) and tested the monitor with my working a500.

And another issue I noticed is that the audio tests are non functional. They do play a tone but it is interrupted (sounds just like morse code). No idea if the two faults are related though.

I'm once again out of ideas for what to try as I've swapped around All chips between another A500 and the A2000 and none make any kind of a difference. Has anybody maybe seen this issue before?
19
Actually yes it is a newer panasonic drive.  This is an Escom Amiga made in France.  I've suspected it could actually be the floppy drive drawing too much current on motor start.  Its not a shielding problem, its the 5V rail dipping and the monitor loses sync, I can see it on my scope.  It happens even with all shielding installed.  I've tried different power supplies so its not the supply.  I've tried a different video cable.  This is a bare bones mainboard no accelerator.

Panasonic Drives are known to require a re-cap. Could be a failing cap putting out too much noise on the motor. Worth a try.
20
Hi,

Simple answer is “Yes”, have had this even on a Rev 1D1 mainboard. The answer maybe that the top RF shielding is needed. Or the drive motor has become too noisy on the drive.
Is the drive by chance a Panasonic one?

Actually yes it is a newer panasonic drive.  This is an Escom Amiga made in France.  I've suspected it could actually be the floppy drive drawing too much current on motor start.  Its not a shielding problem, its the 5V rail dipping and the monitor loses sync, I can see it on my scope.  It happens even with all shielding installed.  I've tried different power supplies so its not the supply.  I've tried a different video cable.  This is a bare bones mainboard no accelerator.

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