Zorro II or ISA Ethernet card

[spirantho]

Thanks for the encouragement.

Today I removed all the IC sockets, and checked all the ICs that are socketed to make sure they're good.
I found that the 74LS74 was dubious so that's gone. I also noticed several tracks not reaching the pins of the IC sockets.
I've now taken hi-res photos of the board where the sockets are, and replaced the chips.  I plugged the board in and tested the memory and everything came up as zeroes, so RAM access is still dead, but the board is autoconfiguring correctly at address $200000, and is recognised ok as an A2386SX.

I've mapped out the connections from five of the ICs now, and verified them. Next step is to check the connections of the other seven or so from the photographs. Could be a while!

[J-Golden]

A while indeed!  But if you can finally get it working after all this time... well, we MAY have to throw you a Youtube party of something:lol:

[AmigaPixel]

"particularly getting the Trumpcard SCSI working with the Fusion Forty,"

I seem to recall having a similar issue with a Trumpcard SCSI in my A2000 when I added an 030 board.

[AmigaPixel]

I too plan on adding a ethernet to my A2000. What would be recommended if I stick to Zorro II? or would an old ISA NIC work in an A2000 without a bridgeboard? Will Workbench be able to sonfigure it

[AndyLandy]

I too plan on adding a ethernet to my A2000. What would be recommended if I stick to Zorro II? or would an old ISA NIC work in an A2000 without a bridgeboard? Will Workbench be able to sonfigure it

The ISA slots are inactive on an A2000. You won't be able to use an ISA network card from the Amiga unless there is something bridging between the Zorro II and ISA slots.

[spirantho]

"something" being a Goldengate II or a Commodore bridgeboard. I think a 2286 may work, but not sure.

Incidentally, for those who are interested.... About an hour ago I got RAM access on my 486 BB! Every time since, though, it's gone back to crashing before initialising when running Binddrivers (i.e. no memory access). GARGH.

[J-Golden]

@Amigapixel
 
What they are saying is that the only way to use the ISA slots in a big box Amiga for anything other then power, you need exta hardware called Bridge boards.
 
When Commodore layed out the slots, they did not connect the ISA slots to the Amiga data-wise.  Never understood this, but that is the way it is.  That is why this thread is mainly talking about Bridgeboards and their uses for networking.
 
These bridge boards not only allow you to access Early PC software, but they also connect the ISA slots to the Amiga, bridging between them and the Amiga.
 
If you install a bridge baord, you will have access to ISA video cards, network cards and several other cheap items.

[J-Golden]

Incidentally, for those who are interested.... About an hour ago I got RAM access on my 486 BB! Every time since, though, it's gone back to crashing before initialising when running Binddrivers (i.e. no memory access). GARGH.

That great!  I know it's not fully functional yet, but your are getting closer and closer.  KEEP IT UP!!!:)

[psxphill]

What they are saying is that the only way to use the ISA slots in a big box Amiga for anything other then power, you need exta hardware called Bridge boards.

There was a cheap card that had no pc emulation on that allowed isa boards to be used from amigaos. It came with drivers for the usual suspects. From memory the hardware is pretty trivial, it's basically a handful of chips so it can be autoconfig'd and some buffers so the bus can be tristated.
 
It should be very easy for someone to make them.

[spirantho]

That great!  I know it's not fully functional yet, but your are getting closer and closer.  KEEP IT UP!!!:)

Yes, I'm encouraged by the fact that I got some memory access, even if it was only 4 bits that were correct!

But I can't get it to happen again! *sob*.

At least now it doesn't hang solid, it just guru's instead (7fffffff.48454C50 - that's ASCII for HELP by the way!). It even occasionally opens janus.library successfully... though of course nothing happens because the RAM isn't talking for some crazy reason.

[spirantho]

There was a cheap card that had no pc emulation on that allowed isa boards to be used from amigaos. It came with drivers for the usual suspects. From memory the hardware is pretty trivial, it's basically a handful of chips so it can be autoconfig'd and some buffers so the bus can be tristated.
 
It should be very easy for someone to make them.

Yes, that's the GoldenGate II. The GoldenGate I was an emulator board, the GG-II just a bridge to the ISA slots. You could use NE2000 cards and things, but AFAIK there was never an RTG graphics driver made.

[psxphill]

Yes, that's the GoldenGate II. The GoldenGate I was an emulator board, the GG-II just a bridge to the ISA slots. You could use NE2000 cards and things, but AFAIK there was never an RTG graphics driver made.

Ah, I'd forgotten what it was called and thought the GGII was just another version of GG.
 
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=344

[mousehouse]

Actually there is a GG2 for sale on Amibay... If it's only networking though and not for the thrill of getting a bridgeboard up and running I'd go for a Deneb or zorro Ethernet!

[Motormouth]

I too plan on adding a ethernet to my A2000. What would be recommended if I stick to Zorro II? or would an old ISA NIC work in an A2000 without a bridgeboard? Will Workbench be able to sonfigure it

With the help of all the people in this thread, I was able to get both ISA NIC to work and the Zorro II, to work with the Amiga side.  You could possibly use a A2088 as the bridge and an old ISA NIC, both they are typically cheap with etherbridge.device the only issue I had was finding the ISA NIC dos drivers.
Edit *only problem with this is the a2088 can only use 8bit ISA NIC*

I still have not gotten the Zorro II to work with the PC side......though I think it is user  configuration error, (the ATUtilities is in German, my German is a bit rusty, has been 20 years since I used it regularly)

[Motormouth]

I am having problems getting amicdex working with my config, I suspect this may be the fusion forty interaction with the trumpcard, I am going to try another scsi.  I have a spare dataflyer (same scsi chip as the trumpcard, both are PIO) or borrow a friends GVP scsi (a true dma card).  I have a scsi cdrom connected to the PC side cardinal scsi controller, However I would like to remove this, so I can close my case.

Update:
I was able to get amicdex to work with the GVP scsi card/Fusion Forty.   before I condemn the trumpcard it could be the Fusion Forty/trumpcard PIO that could be the issue.

[J-Golden]

Update:
I was able to get amicdex to work with the GVP scsi card/Fusion Forty.   before I condemn the trumpcard it could be the Fusion Forty/trumpcard PIO that could be the issue.

Could very well be it, but how will you resolve it if it is?  It's whole lot cheaper to get a SCSI card than an Accelerator these days.  I'd talk to your friend and see if he would be willing to swap for the GVP SCSI card...