A500 Clockport + Silver Surfer problems

[cpfuture]

Hi friends,

I bought an A500 Clock Port Adapter from Jens Schönfeld's Individual Computers including a Silver Surfer serial device a long while ago and finally got around to installing them this night.

I installed the clock port adapter per instructions and then connected the Silver Surfer in a standard A500+ with a 68000 CPU and 2 Megs of Chip RAM. I was trying to use it with AmiPPP to speed up the serial PPP link I have to my iMac, which in turn has a RS232-to-USB adapter that allows for fast serial comms.

Alas, AmiPPP just says "Could not open serial device" when I select silversurfer.device as the serial device to use, no matter what baud rate I try.

Now, I'm suspecting either the clock port adapter or the Silver Surfer is broken, but how can I be sure which one it is? Is there any utility that can detect the presence of a clock port so I can rule out the clock port? I don't mind buying a new clock port adapter if it's broken, but buying both seems like a waste of money.

 :-(

[Argus]

Did you attach the silversurfer to the correct clockport and in the correct orientation (differs for each clockport card)?  Also, I think you may have to use a different driver for the silversurfer to point it to the clockport adapter address on the A500 board.  Try emailing Jens, he's pretty quick with support.  :-)

[cpfuture]

Hi Argus,

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I connected the Silver Surfer to the correct clock port (0). I also believe the orientation is correct, because it's the only way it would physically fit on clock port 0.

I'll try and ask Jens. I don't mind buying a new Clockport adapter or Silver Surfer, but I'd rather not buy both if only one of the two is busted. ;-)

Thanks again!

[Argus]

You're welcome.  btw, there is an extra little socket that needs to go under one of the CIA chips iirc to make the A500 clockport adapter work....just wondering if you connected that as well.  There may be also some A500 incompatibility with early versions of the clockport adapter which I think was meant to function in the Phoenix motherboard and maybe original A1000s.  I think the second run of these boards (which are white in color) fixed the minor incompatibility issues (again, ask Jens for clarification on that).  You might also want to try the Silversurfer in the other clockport if you haven't already.

Let us know how it works out.  I would like to do the same some day to my A500.

Good luck.

[cpfuture]

I have tried the second clock port as well (although it was a tight fit). Unfortunately that didn't work either. I have the 1.2 version IIRC, which has a white board. I connected the extra socket under the correct CIA chip.

The little wire that that connects the Clockport board tothe CIA socket did come loose and I resoldered it to the board. My soldering skills suck, but it really looks like I've reattached it to the board OK. I suppose this could be a possible cause, although I hope not, because I don't think I could do a better job than I've already done.

I mailed Jens, BTW. Will definitely report back as soon as I have more news.

[cpfuture]

Hi,

Just an update. I didn't get any answer from Jens yet, so I assume he's busy. I've had some time tonight to see if it's just AmiPPP that's having problems with silversurfer.device, so I wrote a short program in Blitz Basic that opens the serial.device and then the silversurfer.device. Serial.device returns a non-zero value (which is good), but the silversurfer.device doesn't, so obviously it's almost certainly a HW problem.

I also tried an older version of silversurfer.device from the included driver disk and the latest version from Jens' site, but all gave the same results. I'm guessing that the clockport adapter is busted. Unfortunately I haven't found a way to test for the presence of a clock port, but I've just ordered a new one from Vesalia and will know soon enough.. I'd really like that hardware accelerated, faster serial port on my A500!!

[cpfuture]

Well, the new A500 Clockport arrived yesterday and I tried it immediately, Unfortunately I have the same problem, so I'm assuming it's the Silver Surfer that was faulty. This sucks, as the original Clockport I had was probably just fine. Sigh... I just ordered a new Silver Surfer. I *really* hope that will fix it....

[Oli_hd]

This is gonna sound silly but could it be the serial driver is compiled for the 68020 and as such simply doesnt work on the A600's 68000? (16bit vs 32 bit)
I would also try connecting a normal serial device, an old mouse or modem for example and see if that works. (Although as you wrote a program to open the serial port and even that returned an error then its doubtful its the usb to serial adaptor or cable)

[HyAmi]

IIRC the silversurfer wasn't ment to physically fit in the A500 when put directly on the clockport adapterboard. I have an adapter from the first run, and I believe that's what Jens mentioned to me. But please first verify this with Jens as I don't want to become the guy that helped you fry your silversurfer :roll:

[cpfuture]

Hi Oli_hd,

Yeah, I just checked to be sure. The driver on the included disk supposedly wasn't 68000 compatible, but the latest driver on Individual Computers' site is. I downloaded and tried that one as well. I've tried three different versions in total and none of them seemed to work. The most recent one I found is version 2.104.

The program I wrote uses OpenSerial() which is (I assume) an OS call that BlitzBasic simply calls, which should return a structure pointer on succes and 0 on failure.  The regular serial.device returns a non-zero value, but all the versions of silversurfer.device I tried returned 0.  :-(

Unfortunately I don't have any serial modems lying around anymore and the included connector is the 25-pin kind and I don't have a 25-to-9 pin adapter to connect a mouse. I assume the RS232-USB device is OK, since it works perfectly on my A500's standard serial port (albeit slow and CPU hungry!)

[cpfuture]

Hi HyAmi,

I have the 1.2 board which should be compatible. I originally planned to connect the A500 Clockport Adapter + Silver Surfer to my CDTV. I still have an email from Jens telling me that should work just fine, so I'm guessing this version works fine in a 68000 A500 as well.

[HyAmi]

Hi cpfuture,

I was referring to the board layout, meaning that the silversurfer wouldn't fit inside the A500 casing (or you should leave the case off or make a hole in the case). The only way I can see that happening is when the clockports face the A500 extension slot and the silversurfer on top of that sticking outside the boundaries of the A500 case.
But then again, I'm not completely sure.

[cpfuture]

Hi HyAmi,

The Clockport Adapter has 2 clockports. There's only 1 way it will fit on clockport 0 without modifying the A500's case. Clockport 1 is placed in such a way that it's possible to connect the Silver Surfer in 2 ways. I just tried it the other way around (since I'm already getting a new Silver Surfer) and the A500 won't even startup, just displaying a black screen. When I flip the Silver Surfer around on clockport 1 the A500 will boot normally again. So although I can't fit the Silver Surfer the other way around in clockport 0 I assume that's not the correct way, since my A500 does boot OK with the Silver Surfer connected to clockport 0 in the only way it can be without modifying the case.

I just remembered that I have an A1200 lying around somewhere. I guess I could install the Silver Surfer in my A1200 to see if it's really busted.

[HyAmi]

And if you install it in a way you should modify the case? Anyway, if there's in the end one working silversurfer left that you'd might let go, think of me!

[patrik]

@cpfuture:
I bought the same equipment about a year ago with the same result - it doesnt work. I have fitted the Silver Surfer on clockport 0 in "the only way which it can fit without modifying the A500 case".

Also tried all available drivers to no avail.

Tried the Silver Surfer in an A1200 where it worked, so it doesn't seem like I have attached it the wrong way in the A500.

I actually also emailed Jens, asking if the Silver Surfer is supposed to work with the A500 clockport adapter, but never got a reply.

Found the stuff laying around today and googled to see if someone else had this issue and found this old thread.

Would be glad if someone could confirm wether or not it is supposed to work in the A500 with this clockport adapter.


/Patrik