PPC cards doesnt work on Escom A1200 motherboards ?

[lempkee]

confirmed from the OTHER amiga escom mobo owner aswell now , he also powered it with a big psu , still same probs , he now use 1.4.d and none of them problems show up..

(though its abit buggy on 1.4.d on his setup but nothing compared to the escom mobo)

there... that out of the picture  i hope

[Calen]

utri007

They are all originaly Commodore models, 1d.1 1d.4 and 2b. i have two of them that date back to '93,  but yeah,  people who bought them in the escom era probably got the same revisions, rebranded & perhaps repaired.

[lempkee]

utri007: can u explain abit further please? ,
if i buy a newmagic pack now , what revision should it be? and will that WORK with bppc ?

also why doesnt 1.d.1 work with bppc? , they even have the wire fix!..

thanx, please help!

[lempkee]

problem is customs here, buy a dirt cheap a1200 fro uk or germany and it will probably cost more than a brand new one due to customs here in norway.


;(

[lempkee]

anyone have a full list of all revisions made of the a1200 ? , and years they was made?

and maybe most of all , the patches they need (if any)

a list over all patches would have been very nice right now.

[Calen]

Not sure what use this is to you but thought i'd post it anyway.

Eyetech-supplied Amiga International Magic Packs

Like several other Amiga dealers Eyetech has been supplying Amiga 1200 Magic packs since the became available from Amiga International in late 1997. Where applicable these packs bought from Eyetech have had the 1.D.4 and 2.B modifications already carri ied out. There are however two design limitations on these Magic Pack computers which were not present in the earlier Commodore-manufactured A1200's. These are design limitations rather than manufacturing defects and the rectification of them - although u usually possible - is specifically excluded from all warranty provisions.

These limitations are as follows:

    * Some copy protected games software uses floppy disk drive signals which are not present on the Magic Pack floppy disk drives. This software - which is in a minority - will not run on the Magic Pack A1200's without the addition of Eyetechs EZ-D DF0 floppy drive interface.
    * Changes to the A1200's video circuitry to meet new EC interference emission standards means that some monitors exhibit horizontal 'tearing' of the screen image when using the PC-compatible screen modes of DBLPAL, DBLNTSC, Super72, Productivity etc. (Standard 15 kHz screen modes work fine). Eyetech can undertake a (charged) modification to the A1200 main board to replace these suppression components with ones which allow the vast majority of PC-type monitors to function perfectly. However do check fi irst - you may find that your A1200 functions fine with your monitor in these screen modes without further modification.

Please contact Eyetech if you experience these symptoms and would like to arrange for your motherboard to be suitably modified.

Technical support

got from here

[lempkee]

calen: thanx but no info about ppc , really weird this...

there must be others who had problems for sure, but if that made them leave amiga etc, well i doubt they will answer here..

[Calen]

There are still quite a few Amiga owners around here with ppc cards, hopefully they will see this thread.
I think Ryu ? has more than one bppc card, perhaps he has a mixed bag of mobo revisions and can share some info.

[utri007]

If you buy now you probably will get rev 2b

[lempkee]

can anyone confirm that the cable on the picture of themotherboard ( http://www.amiga-hardware.com/a1200mb1d1.jpg ) is the TIMER FIX ?

also does anyone have the documentation for it? (as i heard just a few mins ago that supposedly its more than just a cable u need to add)

anyway both motherboards mentioned earlier (escom) has this cable allready , so big question is , is it the TIMERFIX ? or not?

might solve all of this

[Ryu]

the revision 1D1 motherboards are the best to use... AFAIK escom didnt produce any 1D1 motherboards themselves only ever repaired and shipped them out as new... as already said the 1D1 motherboards haad buggy custom chips, so C= fixed them with the rework wires you can see on the 1D1 motherboards. Revision 2B and 1D4 motherboards dont have the rework because it was expected these would get the new revisions on the custom chips which didnt have the bugs, but as already said most of them never did so they remained buggy... Now having said that I have succesfully had a BPPC with an 040 running on an original C= 1D1 motherboard for 3 years, and have just replaced it with another 1D1 motherboard and its functioning fine too... I have also had it working fine on a 1D4 motherboard but I have never tested a 2B one, I belive those to be the worse revision and were mainly produced by escom... The main problem with BPPC cards is the +5v rail... often due to the small tracks on the amiga mobo the card doesnt get a stable 5v supply so behaves erratically. The easiest way to fix this is to feed 5v into the fan connector on the BPPC but be carefull you get it all the right way round and I would suggest you get one of those little devices that cleans the current up (cant remember the name atm). That should make it work fine on all...

My 2nd BPPC is suffering because I think the +5v is dropping low... its a rev 1D4 mobo and the BPPC doesnt have the extra feed.

I hope that helps a little...

[Calen]

I have also had it working fine on a 1D4 motherboard but I have never tested a 2B one, I belive those to be the worse revision and were mainly produced by escom... The main problem with BPPC cards is the +5v rail... often due to the small tracks on the amiga mobo the card doesnt get a stable 5v supply so behaves erratically.

Yeah that was my original problem on my 1d.4 mobo, not getting the extra power so the system was quite unstable, all was fine later though with some little cable from eyetech to get the extra power fed to it.

I have also used my bppc card with bvison on a 2B board, it was pretty much as stable as the 1d.4 board after i got the power issue sorted, a double warm reset and she was OK, suffice to say i havent powered her up in some time so thats all alittle cloudy, i'm also unclear if my 2B board has had timing issues fixed as i bought it 2nd hand  but i would go with no, both are Commodore models, i have no experience with any later escom rebranded boards.

[lempkee]

ryu: thank you for telling that about the floppy connector, gonna try that.

but now , anyone can tell me about the timer fix? , where and why and how? .

[lempkee]

calen:can you guide me to this cable? , where to find etc..

hope eyetech has em , but my guess is that he is too busy to even answer my emails if i send any..

anyway i need instructions really for both timer fix and this cable for ppc->floppy drive so i can send my friend..

cheers

[Ryu]

floppy connector? fan connector... You used to be able to buy a prebuilt cable from eyetech that does the trick, and mine at least came with the filter on too.. I wouldnt use anymore power from the A1200 but instead id take the 5v line directly from your PSU and drive it straight into the fan connector.

[Ryu]

infact the AT PSU i have here has a little power cable on it that fits the BPPC fan connector perfectly... and its one of the newer last AT PSU's so i dont even need to use my cable with it...