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51
New User Introductions / Re: Hello from NZ
« Last post by iDLe on October 29, 2025, 05:52:51 AM »
     I should be visiting the North Island in 2027 or 2028.  I usually fly into Wellington.

Hi Robert, well it would be great to catch up when you make it over. Be good to make some international friends. :)
52
New User Introductions / Re: Hello from NZ
« Last post by iDLe on October 29, 2025, 05:49:50 AM »
Always nice to see more NZ people on the forums, I'm based in Christchurch.
I tend to focus on national/international hardware repair jobs and support, contract/commercial Amiga hardware development work, and a bit of 68k software development.  I'm not particularly interested in games, the Amiga is mainly a work machine.   My website, which never gets enough attention from me, has been continuously running on an A4000T for nearly 25 years: http://amiga.serveftp.net/sysinfo.xgi

Hi. My friend Edwin told me about you over the weekend and sent me a link to your site. He mentioned a scan doubler in your past.  :)

It's great to see the site being hosted on an A4000.

Do you write software for yourself or for others too?

Quote
The last Amiga group in NZ I was aware of, Amiga Auckland, hasn't been around since 2022, after one of the main committee members passed away.  Someone in Auckland still looks after the club software/document library, I can find contact details if interested.


Thanks. I'd like to get in touch with groups currently running, or perhaps with people open to starting a group. Seems like low odds, but I live in hope.

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Apparently there's a NZ Fascistbook group, I get contacted by them for repair jobs.  Not sure who's on there or the topics of discussion, I don't do social media.  Not aware of any physical meetups nationally either.

I joined it, but don't really use FB much. I probably should pay attention or ask on there about locals too I guess.

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Not sure about trying to do software development on an unaccelerated A500.  While it's possible, the lack of a decent source code editor would be painful.  I use CubicIDE myself, mainly for C and ARexx, though you'd need an expanded system to run that.

I've heard of Cubic's predecessor GoldEd, but used Cygnus Editor back in the day.

I can imagine needing a more advanced editor/IDE for C, but for assembly, I like DevPac and AsmTwo.. I'll look into Cubic if my needs get more advanced. I sort of have Visual Studio Code on my Mac, but with Microsoft adding copilot into everything including Paint and Notepad, I'm losing confidence that documents I write or load into modern software won't be injected into an LLM. :/
53
New User Introductions / Re: Hello from NZ
« Last post by RobertB on October 29, 2025, 12:09:59 AM »
     I should be visiting the North Island in 2027 or 2028.  I usually fly into Wellington.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
54
Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion / Re: Amiga 3000 zip ram problem
« Last post by agr on October 28, 2025, 11:59:01 PM »
What was the result of exchanging U850 and U852?  Did the fault result of ZIPtest move with the moved DRAM, or did it stay in the same U850 physical location?
Just checked again, ziptest shows the same output after exchanging U850 with U852.
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I'm not sure what you've ordered, do you mean you've got new replacement 74F245 ICs on the way?
74FCT245
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You could diagnose further with a logic analyser, but it's a very tedious process to set it up then interpret the results.  Sorry, I've not got enough time (or patience!) to describe exactly what to do over dozens of forum posts.
...
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If you have a digital scope, it's easy to see if the octal transceiver U891 is writing data to the DRAM data bus (RD 0:7 on the schematic).  If you're not sure what you're looking at, the correct signal of what to expect should be on U892 (RD 8:15 on the schematic).
good point, I will do that

PS: my A3000 Bank 0 showed up one time and system/mouse frozen right after, Workbench bar had 2MB + 4MB
55
A600GS & A1200NG / Re: ScummVM added to AmiBench on the A1200 NG and A600GS
« Last post by AmigaOldskooler on October 28, 2025, 08:58:10 PM »
This opens up a big world of great games on AmiBench! Tried it and it worked nicely on the A1200NG. Looking forward to testing different games in the coming days. Thanks for this update! :)
56
New User Introductions / Re: Hello from NZ
« Last post by Castellen on October 28, 2025, 07:47:09 PM »
Always nice to see more NZ people on the forums, I'm based in Christchurch.

The last Amiga group in NZ I was aware of, Amiga Auckland, hasn't been around since 2022, after one of the main committee members passed away.  Someone in Auckland still looks after the club software/document library, I can find contact details if interested.

Apparently there's a NZ Fascistbook group, I get contacted by them for repair jobs.  Not sure who's on there or the topics of discussion, I don't do social media.  Not aware of any physical meetups nationally either.

I tend to focus on national/international hardware repair jobs and support, contract/commercial Amiga hardware development work, and a bit of 68k software development.  I'm not particularly interested in games, the Amiga is mainly a work machine.   My website, which never gets enough attention from me, has been continuously running on an A4000T for nearly 25 years: http://amiga.serveftp.net/sysinfo.xgi

Not sure about trying to do software development on an unaccelerated A500.  While it's possible, the lack of a decent source code editor would be painful.  I use CubicIDE myself, mainly for C and ARexx, though you'd need an expanded system to run that.
57
Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion / Re: Amiga 3000 zip ram problem
« Last post by Castellen on October 28, 2025, 07:12:26 PM »
I ordered chips, have to wait and practice my soldering skills again on some other hardware.

Any chance to tackle the problem with a digital scope ?
Otherwise I have a cheap logic analyzer 24MHz only ... any chance to down-clock my A3000 to 16MHz instead of 25MHz ?

What was the result of exchanging U850 and U852?  Did the fault result of ZIPtest move with the moved DRAM, or did it stay in the same U850 physical location?

I'm not sure what you've ordered, do you mean you've got new replacement 74F245 ICs on the way?

You could diagnose further with a logic analyser, but it's a very tedious process to set it up then interpret the results.  Sorry, I've not got enough time (or patience!) to describe exactly what to do over dozens of forum posts.

If you have a digital scope, it's easy to see if the octal transceiver U891 is writing data to the DRAM data bus (RD 0:7 on the schematic).  If you're not sure what you're looking at, the correct signal of what to expect should be on U892 (RD 8:15 on the schematic).
58
Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion / Re: SCSI controller crashes A2000
« Last post by Castellen on October 28, 2025, 06:56:09 PM »
If you've tried completely different SCSI hardware and media (would be very useful to know they work correctly in another machine) and get the same result, that would suggest some kind of hardware issue with the main board.  A possible clue is that many SCSI controllers use DMA (direct memory access) hardware modes to transfer data to/from memory, where booting from floppy won't use that same hardware.  At a guess, there might be some kind of problem with hardware specific to interrupt requests or DMA.

You might get some further clues using DiagROM, which is about all you'll be able to do without any test equipment.

Beyond that, and without another known good machine to test the SCSI hardware, there's probably not much more you can practically do.  You'll likely have to send the main board and one of the SCSI controllers for assessment/repair.  I can help with that if you can't find anyone locally: http://amiga.serveftp.net
59
Yes, the ROMs are in the correct sockets, and I'm leaving an empty socket row to the left. I think /ROMOE may be wrong indeed, but what puzzles me in fact is that the mere presence of the GAL (XU1) makes the processor freeze completely. When XU1 is fitted, /AS is not asserted even a single time since power on! Today I was studying the schematics to see if XU1 can assert some signal in a way it could block the CPU completely, but I found nothing conclusive. As far as I know, even if ROM is wrongly enabled, I would see the processor trying to fetch some instructions, right? That is not happening when XU1 is on the board.

I think you're on the right track, though I don't know why you're not seeing any address strobe cycles.  In that state, they'll be generated by the 68020 CPU.  What you should normally see immediately after the system comes out of reset is:

[copied from my A4000 notes, but the A1200 should be mostly the same]

The initial CPU procedure after reset is:
1. Place $00000000 on address bus
2. Set both _AS and _DS low
3. The system acknowledges the address/data strobe by pulling _DSACK0 and _DSACK1 low (It does this twice to read the longword at $00000000)
4. Execute ROM code read from $00000000

On the scope you should see two low-going strobes of _AS, _DS, _DSACK0 and _DSACK1 and at the same time ROM pin 12 (_ROMEN) will strobe low.

If the _DSACK0 and _DSACK1 strobes are present, but there is no activation of _ROMEN then the ROM address might be incorrectly overlaid at $F80000 - check that CIA U350 pin 2 (OVL) is high at power on, if not then replace U350.  OVL is normally set low after the first few CPU cycles when correct ROM data is executed from $00000000, after which the entire ROM moves to $F80000 and $00000000 becomes read/write chip memory.



I'm not very good at this, but I'm studying and trying to understand. And I also made the same analysis with the JED file I dumped from the XU1 chip BEFORE reprogramming, and it turned out to be IDENTICAL to the one I pasted above. So, XU1 programming was fine since the beginning! I'm now suspecting the chip might be alive for programming, but may have fried output drivers? I don't know, but I think the only reasonable thing to do in this scenario, is to get a new chip, the original one is probably bad.

I'd agree, something doesn't sound healthy with XU1.  Just because the fuse contents validate, it doesn't mean the inputs and outputs are all working correctly.

Regarding the AI interpretation of the CUPL source:
"ROMOE_N asserts low when either AS_N or ROMEN_N is low: ROMOE_N = AS_N OR ROMEN_N."

I'm definitely no expert in CUPL, but I don't think that ROMEN should be enabled whenever address strobe is asserted, I don't know how that would even work.  The clue on the schematic is "Generate fast ROM OE".  Not sure what they're trying to do exactly, not that it probably matters either.  If you can't easily find a replacement XU1, perhaps try and find a new compatible 16R4 PLD and program that, you might be able to source some from AliExpress.
60
Amiga Events / AmiWest 2025
« Last post by SACC-guy on October 28, 2025, 05:09:26 PM »
Oct 28th, 2025

SACRAMENTO, California – The Sacramento Amiga Computer Club is proud to present AmiWest 2025 on Nov 1st and 2nd. This is a special year for the Amiga Computer, launched by Commodore in 1985, marking the platform's 40th anniversary. So far this year, Amiga enthusiasts have been treated to the AMIGA/040th in Silicon Valley and the Amiga40 in Germany, along with a host of other special events.

AmiWest, the longest-running Amiga show in the world, will be celebrating the Amiga 40th anniversary with a focus on the community. In place of a traditional show floor banquet, we will be traveling to a local Sacramento Burgers and Brew. In place of a conventional speaker, we will allow the attendees to share their Amiga Computer journeys and experiences.

The show floor will see several new exhibits joining our long-time supporters. We will have the Amiga "Lorraine" wire-wrap prototypes, the AMIGA/040th FutureWall, Tunefinder - Marcin Spoczynski, and more. We will also present AmigaOS 4 Update 3, the new Mirari PPC board, and AmigaOS 3.3 beta. To top it off, the A-Eon A1222+, motherboard and complete tower systems will be on sale at the AAA table!

For presentations, the show will have unique content:

*Carl Sassenrath presents the history of the Amiga
*Jason Neus talking about AmiPCI
*A-eon updates from Trevor Dickinson and Matthew Lehman
*Steven Solie is providing an update on AmigaOS 4 multicore
*And more!

Like AmiWests in the past, we will have the Raffle, Games Competition, and live internet broadcast!

Check amiwest.net for the latest details on the show!

Contact: Jerry Gray
SACC Vice President
info@Amiwest.net
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