ICD Adram 520 issue....

[zektor]

Before I begin, I might as well say "hello" to everyone as this is my first post Been around for many years, just never registered here for some reason. Anyway...

I have a ICD Adram 520 1MB that I pulled out of one of my A500's (Rev 5) and wanted to put it in my Rev 6a board. I know it works fine as it does work perfectly with the Rev 5 board, but it will just not work on the 6a. I am installing it exactly as the Rev 5 with the mini board to the Gary chip and wired from there to the ICD which of course resides in the trapdoor.

But, upon boot, only the standard 512k. It should report 1.5MB as it does with the rev 5, but it does not. I do not have the manual for the Adram, but I suspect it is either not compatible with a rev 6a board, or a jumper needs to be adjusted.

A long shot I suppose, but does anybody have any information (manual..etc) or any advice? I would love to get this running on this machine.

[save2600]

Assuming nothing is wrong with your 6a mobo, does it have 1mb of chip ram by any chance? I wonder if there is a memory conflict with that AdRam board of yours...

[zektor]

No, the Amiga with the 6a board is stock, never updated to 1MB chip memory or anything. There must be some sort of conflict. I removed it and installed my 512K Micromegs expansion to make sure the trapsoor ram slot was not the problem, and that works fine in upgrading the machine to 1MB. I have done countless internet searches for the 520's documentation which would probably help me, but to no avail.

[save2600]

Taken from Joerg's site:

    Interface
trapdoor slot, Gary socket
 
16 DIP sockets accept up to 2 MB RAM supports 256k×4 DIPs accepts DIPs in
groups of four giving 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 MB configurations can be configured to
provide 512 kB Chip RAM and up to 1.5 MB Fast RAM battery backed up clock
the RAM board connects to the trapdoor slot the adapter board connects to
Gary's socket - if 1 MB Chip RAM is present, a wire has to be soldered between
the adaptor and the motherboard.

Question is, "what wire"?!? Are you 100% positive that tiny little jumper pad (it's not a jumper per se) is in the correct position on your late model A500 board? Your Agnus is a 1mb agnus, but there is only 512mb or ram soldered to your mobo. I bet if you were to solder more dips, your system would surely be 1mb chip.

Linky to what I am talking about. Be prepared to get your spectacles out. That jumper pad JP2, located between the CPU and Kickstart IS small. I see the revision for these docs are for a 5 board. Still, might be similar for your 6a. I'd be willing to bet the 6a's were pre-configured/etched for 1mb chip the addition of ram and you either need to add that mystery wire or dumb the mobo down to 512kb chip. If anyone could confirm, that would be grrrrreat!  

The docs to enable 1mb chip ram say to do as follows: 'You have to cut the existing connection and solder the other two pads together'.

You may have to do the reverse of this in order to get your AdRam board to work.

BTW: Sega's Zektor rocks. A buddy of mine here in town happens to own that game  :pint:

[Methuselas]

Now, I don't know if it's a relation, but my AdRAM 540 did not play nice with my Rev5 mobo. I remember having to cut a trace and run a wire somewhere, but for the life of me, I cannot remember which ones.

That could be the problem. Shoot a message to MetalGuy66 (Ken) on here. He has my old 540 and he might be able to help you figure it out.

[zektor]

Thanks for all of the replies and info. I had a feeling it may have something to do with soldering a wire somewhere....I read that on one of the info sites for the 520 Adram. As a matter of fact, the rev 6 board (from what I see clearly from looking at my board) can accept the additional 512k on the board, so it looks like this is what is stopping the Adram from functioning.

I don't think I'll be messing with this one, as I am not very good with the solder iron. I did successfully solder a cr2032 battery holder to the Micromegs expansion card last week and it works...so I was pretty happy about that. Today I replaced the 1.3 kick with a 3.1 pulled from an Amiga 2000 and that also worked. I am afraid if I attempt this one I am just going to screw something up

Anyway, I do have 1MB between the A500 and the micromegs, as well as a Supra Ram 500RX with 2MB onboard. All the trouble for the additional 512k the Adram will give me is just not worth it. Wish it was as simple as plug it in and it works

I will still contact Metalguy (I know he is on AtariAge as well) and ask. If all else fails, I have a 1MB Adram 520 with a new 2430 clock battery for sale