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Offline CommodoreRockTopic starter

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New Minimig, possible problem
« on: January 03, 2012, 07:06:21 PM »
Hi everyone.  I got my Minimig from Acube a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't realize it didn't come with power supply, and I ordered one from Amigakit.  It arrived the other day, and I plugged it in to test, and instead of the blue light described, I only get two red lights, one small, one large and bright.  I plugged in to VGA output and got no display.

Prior to doing this, I formatted the SD card to FAT16 and added the minimig1.bin file from Acube website and what I believed to be the kick rom (I believe it was the one that had "A595" in the name from the Amiga Forever disc) and renamed it "kick.rom".   Even if I had the wrong kick, I would have assumed it wouldn't have anything to do with the proper lights lighting up on the board or ability to display something to my monitor.  I am completely new to Amiga and this device, and right now, I feel I may have bitten off more than I can chew.  Would anyone be able to weigh in with some ideas?  If I've left out any important information, please let me know, and I will attempt to provide.

Against advice, I went with the 2MB Minimig to cut down on costs as I'll probably only be playing games, and I got the version without PIC, since I thought I understood that it was only required for hard drive support.

Thanks in advance.
 

Offline amigadave

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2012, 07:14:24 PM »
Quote from: CommodoreRock;674169
Hi everyone.  I got my Minimig from Acube a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't realize it didn't come with power supply, and I ordered one from Amigakit.  It arrived the other day, and I plugged it in to test, and instead of the blue light described, I only get two red lights, one small, one large and bright.  I plugged in to VGA output and got no display.

Prior to doing this, I formatted the SD card to FAT16 and added the minimig1.bin file from Acube website and what I believed to be the kick rom (I believe it was the one that had "A595" in the name from the Amiga Forever disc) and renamed it "kick.rom".   Even if I had the wrong kick, I would have assumed it wouldn't have anything to do with the proper lights lighting up on the board or ability to display something to my monitor.  I am completely new to Amiga and this device, and right now, I feel I may have bitten off more than I can chew.  Would anyone be able to weigh in with some ideas?  If I've left out any important information, please let me know, and I will attempt to provide.

Against advice, I went with the 2MB Minimig to cut down on costs as I'll probably only be playing games, and I got the version without PIC, since I thought I understood that it was only required for hard drive support.

Thanks in advance.

The PIC chip is required to load the file that turns the FPGA into a clone of the Amiga hardware.  It can be sold without the PIC chip for people that already have their own custom PIC chips, or IIRC the PIC chip can be replaced by an add-on board with an ARM chip which gives you more features on your MiniMig.

More people that have actual experience with the MiniMig will join this thread with more help shortly, if they haven't already while I was typing this.
How are you helping the Amiga community? :)
 

Offline freqmax

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2012, 07:38:28 PM »
There should been a system test out-of-the-box ready image to write onto a SD-card. Anyone inclined to write one? ;)
 

Offline CommodoreRockTopic starter

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2012, 07:49:39 PM »
Wow.  Thanks, everyone.  I feel like a heel.  I feel like I should have asked a lot more questions before I ordered.  Sounds like this is going to be a headache.  I guess I should have ordered the PIC version.  I wonder, is it easy to order one and attach or is it something I need to send back to Acube for (I have no soldering experience if required)?
 

Offline Dazxy2001

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2012, 08:21:40 PM »
The PIC plugs into the long socket on the board next to the SD card
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Offline Darrin

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2012, 11:39:46 PM »
The early minimig cores (such as the one you may have downloaded from aCube's site) doesn't support encrypted Kickstarts such as the ones distributed by Cloanto.  Either download a KS 1.3 image from the net or "rip" the Cloanto image from within a running Workbench environment on WinUAE (you'll end up with a decrypted image that way).

Here's a pic of a bare Minimig board:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Minimig_2890.jpg

The PIC socket is the long socket to the right of the SD Card slot.  In the picture it is unpopulated.  In order to work, you will need a PIC chip in this socket or the ARM board.

It shouldn't cost too much to get one from aCube.
A2000, A3000, 2 x A1200T, A1200, A4000Tower & Mediator, CD32, VIC-20, C64, C128, C128D, PET 8032, Minimig & ARM, C-One, FPGA Arcade... and AmigaOne X1000.
 

Offline amigadave

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2012, 01:49:14 AM »
Quote from: CommodoreRock;674178
Wow.  Thanks, everyone.  I feel like a heel.  I feel like I should have asked a lot more questions before I ordered.  Sounds like this is going to be a headache.  I guess I should have ordered the PIC version.  I wonder, is it easy to order one and attach or is it something I need to send back to Acube for (I have no soldering experience if required)?

Don't beat yourself up too much.  We all have to learn these things some how. :roflmao:

Reading up more about your next purchase would be a good idea though, BEFORE you click the purchase button online.  Contact the company you bought it from and explain your mistake and ask for the missing PIC chip with clear instructions on how to insert it in the correct direction and you should be all set.  The MiniMig is a great little product and the guys that keep improving the core code for them have done an amazing job at speeding it up and providing better compatibility and functions/features.

With products like the MiniMig, Chameleon, & FPGA Arcade Replay board being produced, people will be able to run AmigaOS1.x to 3.x and all of the great old Amiga software for many decades into the future.

Thank you Dennis Van Weeren for your amazing work that showed everyone that it could be done.
How are you helping the Amiga community? :)
 

Offline bbond007

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2012, 02:13:16 AM »
Quote from: CommodoreRock;674169
Hi everyone.  I got my Minimig from Acube a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't realize it didn't come with power supply, and I ordered one from Amigakit.  It arrived the other day, and I plugged it in to test, and instead of the blue light described, I only get two red lights, one small, one large and bright.  I plugged in to VGA output and got no display.

Prior to doing this, I formatted the SD card to FAT16 and added the minimig1.bin file from Acube website and what I believed to be the kick rom (I believe it was the one that had "A595" in the name from the Amiga Forever disc) and renamed it "kick.rom".   Even if I had the wrong kick, I would have assumed it wouldn't have anything to do with the proper lights lighting up on the board or ability to display something to my monitor.  I am completely new to Amiga and this device, and right now, I feel I may have bitten off more than I can chew.  Would anyone be able to weigh in with some ideas?  If I've left out any important information, please let me know, and I will attempt to provide.

Against advice, I went with the 2MB Minimig to cut down on costs as I'll probably only be playing games, and I got the version without PIC, since I thought I understood that it was only required for hard drive support.

Thanks in advance.


The main benefit of the 4MB one is that WHDLOAD works pretty well. I'm not so sure how well it will work with just 2MB.

I think you get HD support even with the PIC. I believe it just goes slower.

The interesting thing is that the exit keys for WHDLOAD actually work and it's not supposed  to work with a 68000 (only 68010+)
 

Offline Darrin

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2012, 02:33:17 AM »
Quote from: bbond007;674231
The main benefit of the 4MB one is that WHDLOAD works pretty well. I'm not so sure how well it will work with just 2MB.


Not very well for multi-disk games as you really only get 1.5MB because the Kickstart takes up the other 0.5MB.  So you either have to configure it as 1MB Chip 2MB Fast or 2MB Chip 1MB Fast (if you assign all available memory).  At least with the 4MB option you can do 2MB/1.5MB.

Quote
I think you get HD support even with the PIC. I believe it just goes slower.


Correct.  For small HDF files the PIC is fine, but if you use large HDF files then you'll notice a hell of a difference.  I have the ARM controller that replaces the PIC and it is worth the extra money.

Quote
The interesting thing is that the exit keys for WHDLOAD actually work and it's not supposed  to work with a 68000 (only 68010+)


Interesting.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Minimig has a 68SEC000 rather than the 68000 that came with the original Amigas.
A2000, A3000, 2 x A1200T, A1200, A4000Tower & Mediator, CD32, VIC-20, C64, C128, C128D, PET 8032, Minimig & ARM, C-One, FPGA Arcade... and AmigaOne X1000.
 

Offline bbond007

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2012, 02:59:23 AM »
Quote from: Darrin;674235
Correct.  For small HDF files the PIC is fine, but if you use large HDF files then you'll notice a hell of a difference.  I have the ARM controller that replaces the PIC and it is worth the extra money.

Yes. I have the ARM controller as well.

I ended up not doing much with my Minimig initially and then recently I started messing with it again when I got the new case and bluetooth adapter and buzzer. I'm really impressed with the latest core. I really want the new minimig.

When I initially configured it i don't believe it supported FAT32 or long filenames :) I just had a bunch ADFs with 8 character filenames in the root of a 2GB FAT16 card. No wonder I did not do much with it.

Did you do the SPI Mod? If you do the SPI MOD (like I did) can you even use the PIC anymore without putting the resister back?
 

Offline Darrin

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2012, 03:08:08 AM »
Quote from: bbond007;674238
Yes. I have the ARM controller as well.

I ended up not doing much with my Minimig initially and then recently I started messing with it again when I got the new case and bluetooth adapter and buzzer. I'm really impressed with the latest core. I really want the new minimig.


Bluetooth adapter and buzzer???!!!  I'm missing something.  Tell me more!  :)

Quote
When I initially configured it i don't believe it supported FAT32 or long filenames :) I just had a bunch ADFs with 8 character filenames in the root of a 2GB FAT16 card. No wonder I did not do much with it.


I remember those days (a pain in the backside).  I can't remember when FAT32 support came in.  I think I got it with the ARM prototype and then it came in later for the PIC.  It certainly made life a lot easier.

Quote
Did you do the SPI Mod? If you do the SPI MOD (like I did) can you even use the PIC anymore without putting the resister back?


Yes, I did the mod.  I was going to do the RAM mod myself too, but bottled out and sent it to AmigaKit instead.  I still have 4 unused RAM chips.  Again I did the mod SPI mod when I got the ARM prototype and never went back to the PIC.  I don't even have a PIC anymore as I gave it to another user who had problems with his board.
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Offline bbond007

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2012, 03:25:58 AM »
Quote from: CommodoreRock;674178
Wow.  Thanks, everyone.  I feel like a heel.  I feel like I should have asked a lot more questions before I ordered.  Sounds like this is going to be a headache.  I guess I should have ordered the PIC version.  I wonder, is it easy to order one and attach or is it something I need to send back to Acube for (I have no soldering experience if required)?


I don't think I need this PIC anymore. Its yours if you want it. I don't know what software is on it so it probably needs updated.
 

Offline amigadave

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2012, 03:28:52 AM »
I bought the bare pcb and all of the parts (but think they sent me the wrong RAM.  I have had the parts probably for almost 2 years and have not started any soldering yet.  I am intimidated by the fine pitch surface mounted parts, so I might chicken out and send it to someone else to solder it for me, or maybe just the few fine pitch surface mount parts and have me finish it myself.

Any volunteers that have successfully soldered these kind of parts before?
How are you helping the Amiga community? :)
 

Offline bbond007

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2012, 04:46:02 AM »
Quote from: Darrin;674239
Bluetooth adapter and buzzer???!!!  I'm missing something.  Tell me more!  :)
/QUOTE]

If you put a buzzer on pins 5 & 6 you get simulated floppy noise. It is pretty cool except those AntiClick and NoClick utils don't seem to work like they do on my 1200.

the bluetooth thing is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812191154

I made a little program in .NET to transfer files to and from my MiniMig you can see in this post

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=672956&postcount=2

I also have been trying to get AmiTCP to connect with ppp.device to my windows7 machine over the bluetooth link, but I'm unsuccessful so far...
 

Offline CommodoreRockTopic starter

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Re: New Minimig, possible problem
« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2012, 08:59:50 PM »
So, I just want to make sure I understand.  Is the lack of video output and only getting the two red lights and not a blue light (as the manual describes and as I've seen in online videos) part of the same issue, caused by the lack of a PIC or could the device be faulty altogether?

By the way, assuming the Minimig isn't faulty and doesn't have to go back, bbond007, I would be interested in the PIC.  I appreciate the offer.  I'll contact you to discuss price and shipping etc., once I know for sure I don't have a broken device.