Problem with the video slot? (Solved)

[Ross1]

Hi, My toaster in my A4000 has been acting up recently and I would like to know if there is a way to make sure that the video slot is functioning properly.
I have tried my spare toaster card as well and that makes no difference. The video output is all garbled and I know the card works fine.
Could using an ATX power supply with an adapter be causing the problem?

Thanks

[Ross1]

Thanks for the quick reply,
So the ATX adapter could be the problem, I wonder if the pins are in the right spots for the toaster to work. The Amiga runs fine it boots up great and runs all programs fine. the only issue seems to be when I start up the toaster (that uses the video slot) wont pass video through properly the picture seems all out of sync.

[Ross1]

Hi guys, Thanks for all the advice so far.

I have tried both toaster cards in the amiga and both do the same ting. I then swaped out the Daughter board with another one, same problem.
I then switched monitors to my old 1084 and still the same problem.
just for clarification the Amigas video out (workbench etc) works fine its the video though the Toaster card thats garbled. I did the adjustment on the "center frequency on the toaster card but it is not the problem. It is staying at 2.54 olts no matter where i put it, it should be at -2.1 volts. so thats why i am thinking the the ATX power supply adapter is not wired properly or something like that But again the Amiga its self runs fine. The toaster software boots up properly and i do get the switcher screen i just do not se any framestores loaded onto the two digital inputs and the video is all garbled or none at all.
By the way i am running a toaster flyer system but have also disconected the flyer card just to see if that helps. no difference.

[Ross1]

Yes is a NTSC monitor, This system worked for a long time and now it is not and I have done no changes to it.

[Ross1]

Tigger wrote:
Some things to try.  

1) do you have a non-NTSC monitor selected?   If so at least some of them wont allow the Toaster to sync.

Using a toastscan hooked up to an LCD monitor but have also connected a 1084 directly to the RGB out of the amiga and no change.    

2) Unplug anything but a moniter from the 23 pin video plug, unplug anything from the Parallel port or the audio ports, be sure you have a sync strainer if you are using a multi sync moniter

Did that and no change,

3) Autohue the toaster is not a bad idea either.

 Yup did that and it wouldn't do an auto Hue as it says to have a video signal hooked up to the input #1 (which I do) but it wont sysnc because the video through the toaster is all garbled.

4) Give me a better idea what happens when the toaster boots, and also tell me what version of software.  Do you get a toaster video output but the amiga output is bad, vice versa, both of them bad?
     -Toastin Tigger

The Amiga boots up with no issues and the display on the RGB out is solid and all icons are present. I see a distorted black video image on the program monitor and when i boot up the toaster software the program screen goes all nuts but the switcher screen does load but no images (bars and toaster logo load up into the frame buffers. I'm running Version 4.3 with the millennium package installed. I have even done a reinstall of the software.

[Ross1]

Thanks rkauer and Tig for your input so far.

@ rkauer, The Toaster card is fine as it works in my second A4000 system. I had Newtek look at it just last month and they sent it back saying that they replaced the main board. But it is still doing the same thing.

@ Tig, When you say a short of the Toaster to the memory are you saying the Amigas system ram? should I place some sort of plastic sheet between the back of the toaster card and the ram?
The system battery was removed several years ago and in its place I have a rechargeable Ni metal hydrate coin battery. Could this be a problem?

The video that I have connected directly to the vidoe input 1 is barely visible due to the garbled image (like its out of sync) it shows and sometimes not at all on both the program and preview but yes I can switch between inputs as there is a change on the program and preview monitors when I do a cut and transitions do show on the amiga monitor but because the toaster is out of sync they do not show up properly on the program out.
When the Toaster was working I would get a nice clean black screen on the program monitor when I first boot it up or after a soft reset it would pass through the video on input 1 nice and clean. but now its a very fussy black screen or the distorted and usually a black and white image with a tinge of green showing on program. ALso when I exit out of the Toaster software the workbench screen is suposed to show on the program output but instead I get a very distorted jittery immage of the workbench or just black fuzz.

[Ross1]

Thanks Tig,

I will be trying the old A4000 Power supply that I still have around tonight. I just dont like using it because I have a Cyberstorm PPC and a SCSI 9gig drive as my system drive so they draw a far bit of juice and I dont want to over drive the A4000 power supply. I already tried swaping the riser board from my other one and the same problem is there.

Given all the knowledge you seem to have do you or did you work for Newtek at one point?

[Ross1]

Thats great that you did allot of the work on that software, Millennium is a great package. I'm glad I am part of this community its proven to be a great help so far. :-)
If this power supply test dosent solve it I'm going to try swaping the A4000 MB (not an easy task) I have one of my systems in a Tower (the one I am having troubles with) to give better cooling and thats the one I use the most.

[Ross1]

Well, I tried the original A4000 PSU and low and behold it worked
It appears that the ATX to amiga PSU adapter is possably not wired properly. I bought it from Amigakit, It seems to work properly with the Amiga its self but not with the Toaster???
Tig, do you have any ideas why this would happen? could it be a bad ATX PSU? Or the wires hooked up to the wrong pins on the ATX side?
Anybody using an ATX power supply with a Toaster that does work?

[Ross1]

If you could look at what pins are connected to what that would be great. I'm thinking of building my own adapter. I have the Amiga 6 pin end I just need to either cut off the end of an ATX PSU and hard wire it directly to the wires or get another ATX 20 pin connector but I am thinking it would be better to hardwire it so there are less connections that can go wrong.

[Ross1]

Hi Tig and everyone else who helped me in this thread,

I found a wiring diagram on the net for the Amiga PSU and rewired the new ATX power supply that I bought yesterday and my system works like a charm :-)
One question I have is are the wires coming from the ATX PSU heavy gauge enough to drive the Toaster cards and Cyberstorm etc? They are only 18g wire where the A4000 PSU uses 16 and 14g wire. Can a person double (tie two together) up on the ATX wires as there are several +5v, and +12v wires that come out of the PSU or will I short it out.

[Ross1]

Thanks for the answer Framiga,

I actualy cut off the ATX connector and simply soldered the wires needed to the A4000 connector wires that I cut off the Amiga 4000d power sup. that I had (it was shot and no good anyhow so now I only have one spare for testing) and then heat shrinked the exposed ends. That will make sure that I have a good connection.