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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: kamiga on February 19, 2014, 12:10:34 AM
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Trying to get an Expansion Systems Dataflyer RAM card to work on an Amiga 500 rev 5 mobo.
I've got the card populated with (8) 30-pin 1M simms, which have supposedly been tested.
There are a series of jumpers JP1-JP4.
JP1: a cryptic 2x7 block of jumpers. I must be an idiot, because I have no idea how to read their chart.
JP2: PLUS/2000 should be ON, DF200 = OFF. Not exactly sure, but I think that PLUS implies that it's to be used with a 500, so I have it ON.
JP3: a 2x3 jumper block. Options appear to be INDEPENDENT, ATTACHED, EXTERN SUPPLY. I have it set to INDEPENDENT. With this option, I've got +5v measured at each of the ICs socketed ICs, so I guess this is right.
JP4: a 2x3 jumper block. No clue what this is used for.
Picture says a thousand words, blah blah.
http://techtravels.org/amiga/dataf500.jpg
The amiga boots fine, an avail command yields nothing but the 512k onboard, and the memory is otherwise unrecognized. I've tried using an "addmem" command but I'm not sure exactly where this memory would be mapped. I guessed at $200000 but I can't find anything that doesn't simply hang the command.
The dataflyer DMS disks don't seem to have any special ram mounting command that I can find.
I'm thinking this SHOULDN'T autoconfigure, but who knows.
I also have the DataFlyer Plus Revision 2.1 SCSI only card, and this RAM card can stack on the RAM header. I get the same bad results stacked, so I figured I'd eliminate the card as a point of failure, and just get the RAM card working first.
Thanks
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Not sure it's any help at all, but I notice amiga.resource.cx has a pretty high resolution (2000 pixel wide) image of that card. Maybe try setting your jumpers to match the one in their pic?
Also BBOAH has some info on setting jumpers for memory. Good luck!
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Not sure it's any help at all, but I notice amiga.resource.cx has a pretty high resolution (2000 pixel wide) image of that card. Maybe try setting your jumpers to match the one in their pic?
Also BBOAH has some info on setting jumpers for memory. Good luck!
Yeah I've found those images and resources. I've been experimenting and tried those jumpers.
I've found the chart too, but nothing is labeled on the board, and I can think of a couple ways to count.
Same result, nothing! ;)
Thanks
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Looking at the top left of that image I linked to, does their onboard guide make any sense to anyone?
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Wondering why you don't look at the manual....
http://amiga-manuals.xiik.net/manuals/Hardware/DataFlyer_8MB_Ram___Manual_ENG.rar
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Wondering why you don't look at the manual....
http://amiga-manuals.xiik.net/manuals/Hardware/DataFlyer_8MB_Ram___Manual_ENG.rar
Thanks for the link.
The other manuals I found either didn't cover the RAM card specifically, or did so without enough detail. There were a couple ASCII transcribed manuals, and those were junk too.
This likely solves the jumper issues but not sure if addresses (pun!) the auto-configuration issue.
It sure doesn't look like the memory autoconfigs -- which makes me think that perhaps the drive controller is REQUIRED with an A500(with the memory card piggybacking on it), because it has the onboard ROM. I don't know if the ROM contains just hard-drive autoboot code, or if it includes what's necessary to add the additional memory into the free memory pool.
Thanks
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I had one of these cards ages ago. I think it should autoconfig, regardless of being independent or mounted on the DataFlyer interface. I don't remember if my revision was the same as yours, but it sure looks like it. And mine definitely autoconfig'd.
My best guess is that the jumpers set in the picture you linked look correct, to me. And if you're getting power in the card, that would also be likely correct.
One thing I'd ask... What ROM are you running in the Amiga, and does the card show up in the Amiga early startup or sysinfo?
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KS1.3. I don't see anything special or different than I normally do when booting. What should I be seeing?
I don't have sysinfo immediately available, but I'll get it copied onto a disk that I can use. No reason why I can't use that in 1.3, right?
"avail" shows only the base 512k. Booting all the way in WB1.3, also only shows the 512k.
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KS1.3. I don't see anything special or different than I normally do when booting. What should I be seeing?
I don't have sysinfo immediately available, but I'll get it copied onto a disk that I can use. No reason why I can't use that in 1.3, right?
"avail" shows only the base 512k. Booting all the way in WB1.3, also only shows the 512k.
The card didn't show a thing different when booting, as far as I remember.
KS1.3 should be fine. It is what I used with that card. I was just hopeful that you had KS 2.0 or up, so you could check the early startup menu. (It wasn't introduced yet in 1.3....)
If the board is functioning, but needs an addmem command, it should show up as something in sysinfo and give you the starting location. If not, I'd have to assume it is a defective board, provided that you know your SIMMs are good. (Do you know your SIMMs are good? If not, I might try removing all but bank 0, and setting the jumpers to 2MB in 1MB SIMMs, and see if it recognizes then. If not, swap a SIMM, etc...)