Ultimate A500+ Project

Just wanted to share a photo documentary of my ongoing A500(+) project.

Goals for this project are:

1. ☑ Memory Expansion
2. ☑ Performance Enhancement
3. ☑ Internally Mounted HxC floppy emulator
4. ☑ A500+ Motherboard Upgrade
5. ☑ 3.1 / 1.3 switchable ROM
6. ☑ Internal IDE Controller
7. ☑ Indivision ECS
8. ☑ 68010 fallback for WHDLoad
9. ☑ Auto-boot IDE
10. ☑ YouTube video of progress to date
11. ☐ Mount CF Adapter for external access
12. ☐ MMR 32-bit memory board (on the hunt: wanted thread)

To get started I found a dirty and untested SupraRam 500RX unit sold as-is on evil bay that went for cheap -- cleaned it up with a magic eraser and ordered a new set of zip chips for it (8M):

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

Outside was nasty but inside it was still in great shape:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

And after some plugging we have it fully populated:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

Next up I grabbed a 40Mhz '030 + FPU Mega-Midget Racer (thanks to ads1500 on AmiBay):

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

And after popping out the 68k I was able to plunk the MMR into place:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

And with all that ready it was time to hook it up and see if it would boot, SRAM wasn't mapped at the time so it's actually 512k more than shown here:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

And checking the CSA status app I can see that the '030 is up and running:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

And I had to go "Awww.. :)" when I saw the message this app gives after you reboot in 68k mode:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330475139

So with memory pumped up and performance boosted up to '030/40Mhz it was time to move on to buying and installing the HxC floppy (to be continued..)

Yeah, keep coming! We love hardware pr0n, here!

My personal A500 is bit more pimped ATM, but it is a rev6 mobo (so usually 1Mb chip RAM) upgraded to 2Mb (MegAchip), , 3.1 ROM plus external SCSI and internal IDE for CD and a second HD. Only 4Mb FAST...

But the little beast is a pleasure to work with.

No pictures yet...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rkauer

My personal A500 is bit more pimped ATM, but it is a rev6 mobo (so usually 1Mb chip RAM) upgraded to 2Mb (MegAchip), , 3.1 ROM plus external SCSI and internal IDE for CD and a second HD. Only 4Mb FAST...

But the little beast is a pleasure to work with.

---

Excellent -- I'm looking forward to finding an internal IDE solution to work with the MMR (I've read that IDE68k works) don't know if I'll go as far as putting a CD drive in it though. I have a 3.1 / 1.3 switchable ROM in transit which will go in eventually too.

Luckily the A500+ Rev 8A (PAL) board I ordered arrived today and only had a tiny bit of non-fatal battery leakage -- it's all cleaned up now and I'll be installing it shortly.

The HxC install is complete as of last night so I'm going to post the next roll of pics now :)

Go for Tomtull's IDE+4 plus for CD and an external SCSI for HDD and auto-booting. You can hack the CD on the back of the top, and if you are extremaly meticulous you can even hide it perfectly under the grill with minimal cuts (and some soldering for the hidden eject button).

Oops! I speak to soon about my project!!!

Recently one of the excellent HxC floppy emulators from http://www.lotharek.pl/ I'd been waiting for arrived so I forged ahead with testing it out and then preparing for an internal installation in the A500.

First up I needed to build a few adapter/extension bits so that I could separate the LCD and button functions from the board. So using some ribbon cable, a common bus prototype board and some pin headers and sockets from DigiKey I was able to whip some up:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

And here's the assembly all plugged together for testing:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

Next up was to prepare and cut out a nice spot on the A500 top cover for the display and buttons; I would have liked to mount the display lower but the keyboard circuitry and bracket was in the way:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

After the case mod it was time to get the external bits of the HxC into place. Buttons were the easiest as they just needed to use the through-hole threading and hex nut they came with. The LCD was a bit trickier but some hot glue made short work of that ;)

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

Next up I had to find the right mounting rig for the HxC board itself, it turns out that you can use an A500 floppy bracket plus an extra pair of stand-offs of the same height to position it perfectly to line up the SD slot with the floppy opening:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

With all that ready it was time to get the mounted HxC into the case and connected:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

And finally time to connect up the adapters and make sure everything fits nicely. The HxC only needed the 5v line so I mounted a little fan on the 12v line to help keep the MMR chips cooled:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

And then with the case closed you can see the LCD and buttons mounted as well as how neatly the SD slot lines up with the case's floppy opening:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

And of course, time to power it up and see that everything is still functional; had a few A500 demos loaded up and working well :)

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

And now? Well luckily the Rev 8A 500+ mobo arrived today, so now it's time to tear it back down a bit and swap out the motherboard :lol:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1330481579

Thanks for staying tuned, more to come in the near future. (to be continued...)

Very nice work mate. :)
The HXC does have a function to output it's display to the monitor for the Amiga and Amstrad. You still need access to the "eject" button though. It's called the Host Control Tool.
It's very useful, I use it on my CPC6128.

Excellent work :) looks great :thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by r0jaws

Very nice work mate. :)
The HXC does have a function to output it's display to the monitor for the Amiga and Amstrad. You still need access to the "eject" button though. It's called the Host Control Tool.
It's very useful, I use it on my CPC6128.

---

Thanks! I actually use that tool as my autoboot but like being able to load up, swap and browse the large selection of slots I've set up from the display and buttons without having to restart. For my other machines I've got an A1010 with no drive in it that I picked up here on AmiBay and I'm going to mount another HxC in it when I get the chance -- the A500+ is the only one I planned on installing internally.

If I was trying to keep it pristine I'd definitely have gone for the menu-only usage but I have three A500's and fully intended to hack this one up -- I do have one that's in immaculate condition and intend to keep it that way though :thumbsup:

Today my 1.3 / 3.1 switchable ROM arrived so I went ahead and installed it; ( 68k was just in there temporarily for testing, MMR has been reinstalled since :) ) :

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1331006475

And with that I needed a spot to put the 1.3 / 3.1 switch wired up to the ROM and also decided to add the hardware switch for the MMR that lets me swap back and forth between 68000 and 68030 mode:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1331006475

And finally since I haven't posted one yet, here's a nice SysInfo shot showing the MMR in action:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1331006475

Thanks for staying tuned.. next up hopefully I'll have an Indy ECS or an internal IDE solution to install soon :D

I think MKL is still selling some internal IDE solutions HERE, either that or Tomthul HERE

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by r0jaws

I think MKL is still selling some internal IDE solutions HERE, either that or Tomthul HERE

---

I've messaged MKL via PM as well as he's posted in the thread recently that he only has 'incomplete' boards with no acknowledgement of when and if they'll be completed. Ideally one of his built-in CF boards is what I would like to install.

I like the look of Tomthul's board but I don't need it's RAM and I was hoping for something that will auto-config with the A600 ROM like the ide68k and work with my switcher. Also it needs to fit under a Mega-Midget Racer on my 500+ without hitting the 1000uF capacitor which it doesn't appear it will do. I suppose I can relocate the cap on it's side which I'm thinking of doing to give the MMR some breathing room anyways (it's gently resting on the cap now) but I'm still not sure that board would fit.

Tomthul's IDE adaptor doesn't hit the capacitor.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rkauer

Tomthul's IDE adaptor doesn't hit the capacitor.

---

That's good news; though I ended up grabbing a 4mb/IDE from tom to try that's much much smaller than the one in that thread plus an external just in case it didn't work out underneath the MMR.

I also managed to pick up an A500+ 8A.1 board which has a smaller 1000uf cap so the MMR should no longer be resting on it (and I can remove my keyboard spacer shim to finally snap the case fully closed on the left side :Doh:)

Also have a pair of Indy ECS (second one is for my A600) that should be arriving this week along with the IDE adapters so I should be able to finish up this project very soon :D

@cjcliffe

Nice setup mate :thumbsup:

Looking your switchable 1.3/3.1 ROM... Do you have a diagram?

I have one A500 rev6A and some 27C800's..... I want to selfmade one like showed in your pics.

Thanks in advance :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by merlinkv

@cjcliffe

Nice setup mate :thumbsup:

Looking your switchable 1.3/3.1 ROM... Do you have a diagram?

I have one A500 rev6A and some 27C800's..... I want to selfmade one like showed in your pics.

Thanks in advance :)

---

Thanks -- though I have 1.3 and 3.1 ROMs I don't have the gear to make it myself; if you do a search on the evilbay (sorry :oops:) there's a nice chap offering to do custom ones with that sticker. I'm sure he'd be willing to give you any info you need for the ROM itself if asked.

I do have pin wiring info for it though -- if you want I will scan or doodle the diagram for the SPDT switch hookup.

Hi mate,

I have every original Amiga ROMs and also all materials needed (programmer, EPROMs, sockets, wires, solder station,.... :lol:) But I need an schema to build it.

Quote:

---

I do have pin wiring info for it though -- if you want I will scan or doodle the diagram for the SPDT switch hookup.

---

Any help will be much appreciated :bowdown:

Thanks & sorry to hijack a bit your thread :oops:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by merlinkv

Hi mate,

I have every original Amiga ROMs and also all materials needed (programmer, EPROMs, sockets, wires, solder station,.... :lol:) But I need an schema to build it.

---

Nice, I might have to discuss and see if you know how to do one that will boot the ide/ram board too :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by merlinkv

Quote:

---

I do have pin wiring info for it though -- if you want I will scan or doodle the diagram for the SPDT switch hookup.

---

Any help will be much appreciated :bowdown:

---

Here's a snapshot of the diagram:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332226661

And the relevant bits of the accompanying text:

"When you insert the ROM remember that pin 1 must be outside of the ROM socket (If you have amiga 500 or 2000 where the ROM socket has only 40 pins then do not insert pins 1 and 42)

Middle pin goes to ROM pin 1
Right pin goes to +5v (or ROM pin 22)
Left pin goes to GND (or ROM pin 12)"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by merlinkv

Thanks & sorry to hijack a bit your thread :oops:

---

No problem it's still relevant information to how the A500+ was built :D

@cjcliffe

Thanks a lot mate. :thumbsup:

If I have time, I will try to built it this evening/night :)

Best wishes

The IDE / Memory boards arrived today so I took some pictures of the latest hardware additions soon to be tested and installed.

First up, the new 8A.1 revision A500+ PAL motherboard which has a shorter 1000uF capacitor than the 8A to help relieve some stress on the MMR and make the case fit again:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332463884


Next up, a tiny IDE / 4MB combo board that fits into the 68k socket. It doesn't auto-boot so I'm building a HxC image for it but it does work with both 1.3 and 3.1 and can be kept active on soft-boot via RAM drive (as can the external one):

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332463884


If that doesn't do the trick the next option I've got is to use an external IDE adapter, this one works on the A500(+) or A1000 via the edge connector and CF/IDE adapter is plugged directly into the board:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332463884

And with CF/IDE adapter connected:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332463884


And finally, not specifically IDE related, but a handy 4MB memory board that fits under the 68k that makes a nice combo with the external adapter:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332463884


And with that it's time to start tinkering with the new toys to try and get them up and running with WHDLoad :D

To be continued...

@cjcliffe

Whoooooo! I want to buy expansions like this ones...... :wooha:

specially the 4MB RAM for the CPU socket.... :lol:

A super A500+ here :thumbsup:

When are these expansions likely to be available? (the 4MB RAM 68k and the external CF adaptor)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by merlinkv

Whoooooo! I want to buy expansions like this ones...... :wooha:

specially the 4MB RAM for the CPU socket.... :lol:

A super A500+ here :thumbsup:

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by woodycool

When are these expansions likely to be available? (the 4MB RAM 68k and the external CF adaptor)

---

You can contact 'tomthul' on here directly if you're interested in adapters; I'm not sure on the status of the 4MB+IDE as it was only a spare from the last batch he had found but there may be external available as well as 8MB versions of the 68k RAM.

I managed to get the IDE adapter situated neatly underneath the MMR last night and it works! :cool: It's also the first I've seen an A500+ running 14.5MB of RAM (Manual says 10MB is maximum possible?).

Will be posting some more pictures of the progress tonight and if I'm lucky the Indy ECS will arrive today.... Haven't decided whether to try the external + 68k 4MB on my A1000 or put it in the spare A500+ yet but will probably post that here too. :)

Manual will not count the 32bit RAM. 8Mb in Zorro-II space, plus 2Mb chip, plus 1.5Mb in Ranger, plus the amount on the 32bit area of the MMR.

So 11.5Mb not counting 32bit RAM.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rkauer

Manual will not count the 32bit RAM. 8Mb in Zorro-II space, plus 2Mb chip, plus 1.5Mb in Ranger, plus the amount on the 32bit area of the MMR.

So 11.5Mb not counting 32bit RAM.

---

Interesting, it appears to be counting all 14.5MB in both OS 3.1 and 1.3 but the breakdown is as such:

2MB via Chip RAM (1M onboard + 1M in trapdoor)
8MB via 500RX (sidecar ZIP chips)
4MB via IDE+4MB board (68k socket)
0.5MB static ram (Mega-Midget, 32-bit)

500RX and Chip RAM are the only ones auto-config'd and as far as I know that's 14mb of non-32bit RAM and only 0.5 of 32bit. I'm keeping my eye out for a 4 or 8MB 32-bit RAM board for the MMR but I'm guessing that will be hard to find :P

In the meantime I should probably run some tests to see if I can actually address all that memory somehow or if it's just going to crash/loopback on itself -- in which case I can just omit the 500RX (or decrease the RAM in it) and still be ok with 6.5MB for WHDLoad.

Than RAM on the IDE+4 is on the upper area of the Zorro autoconfig space.

Only if the 500RX (which I also have) can page outside Zorro area (doubtfully) you can achieve this amount of RAM. For some reason one of the RAM expansions are relocated outside Zorro space.

Check with Sysinfo the memory areas. Chances are the 500RX memory is shadowing the IDE+4 address but for some odd reason Workbench is reporting all memory.

Copying things to RAM to surpass the first 4Mb of RAM might bring a visit of Mr. Guru.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rkauer

Than RAM on the IDE+4 is on the upper area of the Zorro autoconfig space.
Only if the 500RX (which I also have) can page outside Zorro area (doubtfully) you can achieve this amount of RAM. For some reason one of the RAM expansions are relocated outside Zorro space.
Check with Sysinfo the memory areas. Chances are the 500RX memory is shadowing the IDE+4 address but for some odd reason Workbench is reporting all memory.
Copying things to RAM to surpass the first 4Mb of RAM might bring a visit of Mr. Guru.

---

I've grabbed some screenshots from SysInfo, from the looks of it I've got:

01000000 - 0107FFEF = 512k MMR
00400000 - 007FFFF7 = 4MB+IDE
00200000 - 009FFFFF = RX500
00000000 - 001FFFFF = CHIP

If I'm reading that right it appears the 4MB+IDE range is sitting right in the middle of the RX500?

I've attached screens from sysinfo so you can confirm :)

Yep, the IDE+4 memory is shadowed inside the Zorro space. I think you must disable it or reduce the amount of the RX to 4Mb to avoid an imminent guru.

With all the parts ready it was time to try and install the internal IDE+4MB board.

First thing was to ensuring it wasn't going to cause me to run out of space or make it so I couldn't close it. I removed the protective socket from the MMR and did a height check:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332552815


It looked to be nearly identical height to the riser so I decided to go ahead and connect it to the MMR in its place.

I found that the IDE cable connector was just a tiny bit too tall so I carefully shaved a few layers off of the top of the plastic and was able to make it fit just right:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332552815

Then it was time to connect the MMR to the new 8A.1 board, I added some carefully clipped A4000 CPU risers as well to make the whole thing solid.

The 4MB+IDE fits perfectly between the 68k socket and the ROM, only the cap at the base of the socket had to be disturbed a bit:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332552815


After that I found an ok spot for the Master/Slave CF adapter; one CF holds the 1.3/3.1 OS and work partitions and the other is a Fat95 transfer for moving files around. The cable I had was just long enough that I could fit it inbetween the keyboard and trapdoor RAM; this should also make it so I only have to pop the trapdoor to pull out and swap files using the Fat95 CF:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332552815

And after a bit of work preparing a HxC boot image with the appropriate startup driver and tools from tom I then booted it up and was greeted with the IDE and RAM mounting information: :D

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332552815

And after a few seconds I was greeted with a desktop full of mounted partitions:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332552815

It works and seems to have decent performance as well! I've started working on a 3.1 boot config and was able to start it up as WB 3.1 too but still need to do some additional configuration.

That's it for the IDE; honestly it went much smoother than I had anticipated!

Up next I'll try to cram in an Indivision ECS and see what happens ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rkauer

Yep, the IDE+4 memory is shadowed inside the Zorro space. I think you must disable it or reduce the amount of the RX to 4Mb to avoid an imminent guru.

---

I think I'm OK with that -- if I want 10MB I can use the 500RX, or if 6MB is fine I can just run the AutoAddRAM tool -- I'm wondering if there's a way I can detect if the RX500 is enabled at boot and skip the AAR automatically though; that would be handy. :p

Got a nice delivery from amigakit today, my Indivision ECS units have arrived! :D

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332805516

Looking forward to getting them installed in the A500+ and A600 -- seems like it might be a tight fit with the MMR but I'm going to give it a go; worst case I might end up ordering some sockets to make my own extender..

The Indivision looked like a pretty tight fit so to start off I inspected and measured up the spacing:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332821062

Not a lot of space but it looked like it might just make it so I proceeded to install:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332821062

I was skeptical but a quick check showed that it was perfectly level with the top of the IDE connector!

Next up was to re-install the MMR and see how it goes, so I plopped it into place and luckily it fit just perfectly above the indy with not a millimeter to spare :-D

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332821062

And a closer look at the install shows just how tight the fit was:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332821062


A quick test showed it was working, having some issues getting it to work on the LCD TV but appears to work on every other LCD monitor. Going to read up on any configuration I might be able to do to help with that.

Up next I need to find a nice mounting spot for the VGA port -- for now I've got it hanging out the expansion slot. Any suggestions or links/pics of other installs for reference would be welcome :)

I was a bit disappointed when the Indy ECS arrived that the cable wasn't long enough to put the VGA port where I wanted to; I was looking at having to do some sort of awkward or unnatural case modification to make it work with what it came with...

So I decided to put it where I wanted it anyways :) -- first up I hacked together an extension cable for the Indy ECS using an old IDE cable so that it would reach:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332971686

Here it is side-by-side with the one it shipped with:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332971686

After applying a bit of hot glue to protect the little wires and keep it from contacting anything it was time to prepare the mounting spot for it. My ideal location was where I had placed the 68k switch initially; but no worries as I should have enough space to move it to the other side of the ROM switch:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332971686

After carefully removing the ribbon clip and connector I was able to slide the back off the ECS cable and then fit it through the opening. Using a pair of elongated hex port bolts from an old serial adapter made it possible to clamp it tightly to the plastic backing:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332971686

And a close look at the finished result :D

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1332971686

Going to do some more tinkering with the screen modes and then see about perhaps doing up a YouTube video showing this machine doing it's thing :)

@cjcliffe

What type of A500 drive did that bracket come from? I can defo use one of them :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ElectroBlaster

What type of A500 drive did that bracket come from? I can defo use one of them :)

---

Not sure if they're specific to any type of drive -- I had one of them on a dead A500 Epson drive and the same one on a dead Chinon. I used the one bracket as-is and just grabbed the stand-offs of the same height from the other. I could have used the double rail bracket type as well but it wasn't as solid and easy to mount to.

Note you have to alternate the extra stand-offs attached to the HxC so that one is facing up and one is facing down. One stand-off screws into the bracket itself and the other you use the screw from the case bottom and thread it through the bracket from below and into the upside-down stand-off (towards back of case) when re-assembling.

More to come; added two new goals to the project -- Ordered up of a pair of 68010 CPUs and an IDE68k v402 adapter. Going to see if I can replace the 4mb+IDE with an IDE68k from mkl plus tomthul's 4mb board. Also to keep the WHDLoad quit key happy and gain some 68020 compatibility while running in 68k mode I'm going to replace the 68k with a 68010 ordered here from LTAC. :)

Happy to announce both the IDE68k and the 68010s arrived this past week so I will be trying them soon :lol:

In the meantime some hardware pr0n..

Here's a shot of the 68010s from @LTAC and IDE68k v402 from @mkl:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1336523592

And the IDE68k close-up:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1336523592

And finally the 68010 close-up shot:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1336523592

next up, the experimenting and installation.. :thumbsup:

Started the installation of the IDE68k, first step was a quick height check to make sure it would still fit the case:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1336627300

Next I did some test fitting and found that the IDE connector was just a tiny bit too close to the accelerator. To keep moving I decided to remove the connector plastic from the IDE socket but the ribbon connector was still too close, it gave it some flex room as well but not enough.

Finally I made an IDE connector length notch in the MMR since the overlapping area was just empty PCB and was able to fit the connector in neatly:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1336627300


And a view from the top:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1336627300

Booted it up and it appears to be working normally; going to try connecting a CF adapter once I can splice up some power cables for it.

Next up after the IDE test I'll try to fit the 4MB Ram adapter and 68010 :)

Nice work, looking good :thumbsup:

First up, thanks for sharing. We do love some nice hardware pr0n here on Amibay! This certainly looks like an awesome project and I look forward to more updates.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjcliffe

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rkauer

Yep, the IDE+4 memory is shadowed inside the Zorro space. I think you must disable it or reduce the amount of the RX to 4Mb to avoid an imminent guru.

---

I think I'm OK with that -- if I want 10MB I can use the 500RX, or if 6MB is fine I can just run the AutoAddRAM tool -- I'm wondering if there's a way I can detect if the RX500 is enabled at boot and skip the AAR automatically though; that would be handy. :p

---

You're quite restricted in what you can do with a 16-bit Amiga bus. The memory map only allows for up to 2MB ChipRAM, 8MB FastRAM (Zorro II address range) and about 1.5M for "Ranger" RAM. The RX500 will fill the Z2 space, so the 4MB on the tomthul board will conflict with it.

To get things working reliably, you'll either need to disable the RAM on the tomthul board, or drop the RX500 to 4MB.

Unfortunately, whatever way you cut it, all this 16-bit FastRAM will likely cripple the performance of the MMR. You'll get blistering performance out of the 512K SRAM on the board, but anything over that and you'll probably end up running like treacle.

It might be a tall order, but your best bet is probably to find a RAM board for the CSA MMR. They come in DIP and ZIP flavours, and if you've already got 8MB of ZIPs in the RX500, you could use those on the ZIP board ("Mega Memory 2150"). As far as I can tell, the RAM modules for the MMR are still in the Z2 address range (so 8MB limit) but have 32-bit pathways between the '030 and the RAM, so you should at least get decent performance.

Good luck and keep us updated as you go!

:thumbsup:

You'll also need to be a bit creative to get the keyboard to fit as well as the cfide68k and the MMR...

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=23549

Looks horribly familiar, doesn't it :D

Andy, I think that the MMR memory maps into 32 bit space... It certainly does not autoconfig so you need to use the csa-mmr command like you're doing right now to get the 32 bit sram...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chiark

Andy, I think that the MMR memory maps into 32 bit space... It certainly does not autoconfig so you need to use the csa-mmr command like you're doing right now to get the 32 bit sram...

---

According to The Resource™, the MMR memory is limited to 8MB max. To me, that implies it's likely in the 24-bit Z2 address range. I'd hope it has a 32-bit data path between the '030 and the FastRAM though, it would be a horrifically hobbled design otherwise!

SRAM maps from 01000000 to 0107FFFF - inaccessible to 24 bit addressing.
8MB of DRAM maps from 02000000 to 027FFFFF - similarly inaccessible to 24 bit addressing.

In other words the CSA stuff sits above the ROM ending at 00FFFFFF and is in 32 bit space.

Autoconfig address space: 00200000 to 009FFFFF

It's limited to 8MB, sure, but I guess that's due to the amount of address lines that they've put into the RAM daughter board...

(Yes, I've just booted my CSA-MMR 500+ frankenmachine to check :) )

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chiark

SRAM maps from 01000000 to 0107FFFF - inaccessible to 24 bit addressing.
8MB of DRAM maps from 02000000 to 027FFFFF - similarly inaccessible to 24 bit addressing.

In other words the CSA stuff sits above the ROM ending at 00FFFFFF and is in 32 bit space.

Autoconfig address space: 00200000 to 009FFFFF

It's limited to 8MB, sure, but I guess that's due to the amount of address lines that they've put into the RAM daughter board...

(Yes, I've just booted my CSA-MMR 500+ frankenmachine to check :) )

---

Oh, nice! That's Some Kind Of Awesome™ right there! So, it would be possible (indeed desirable) to combine the MMR RAM with the 8MB of Z2 FastRAM and have 16MB.

Tasty indeed! :thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DutchinUSA

Nice work, looking good :thumbsup:

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

First up, thanks for sharing. We do love some nice hardware pr0n here on Amibay! This certainly looks like an awesome project and I look forward to more updates.

---

Thanks, hopefully a lot more to come since I now have enough parts to upgrade the other A500+ and A500 or A1000 I have here :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjcliffe

I think I'm OK with that -- if I want 10MB I can use the 500RX, or if 6MB is fine I can just run the AutoAddRAM tool -- I'm wondering if there's a way I can detect if the RX500 is enabled at boot and skip the AAR automatically though; that would be handy. :p

---

You're quite restricted in what you can do with a 16-bit Amiga bus. The memory map only allows for up to 2MB ChipRAM, 8MB FastRAM (Zorro II address range) and about 1.5M for "Ranger" RAM. ....

---

Yeah the overlap being allowed appears to be a fluke, haven't tried pushing it to a Guru while that's enabled.. I was able to use the free memory check in my startup-sequence to see if the 500RX was already enabled and skip the AAR tool. Interestingly if I don't remove the lowest address range from the AAR tool memory list it will actually add the 500RX memory while it's turned off :picard -- the switch must just disable the autoboot feature :) Works well so far, I can just leave the 500RX connected and switch off to get the 4MB+2MB chip and turn it on for 8MB+2MB chip.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

... Unfortunately, whatever way you cut it, all this 16-bit FastRAM will likely cripple the performance of the MMR. ...

---

Indeed it does, though I can run some tracker and other tools that require the '030 instructions which makes it worth it even with the 16-bit RAM. The 500RX memory seems to run identical performance to chip RAM but using tomthul's 4MB chips actually gives it a tiny boost (only about ~0.04 additional MIPS in sysinfo).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

... It might be a tall order, but your best bet is probably to find a RAM board for the CSA MMR. ...

---

For sure, you can see I've already been looking for it in the Amiga Wanted section: thread link :D I have no problem using it without the 32-bit RAM as the 32-bit ROM (full 512k ROM to SRAM) re-mapping feature gives me a decent boost in general system performance as-is. Once I find one of these it'll just be a big bonus and reason to go back to try more software and tinker again ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

... Good luck and keep us updated as you go!

---

Aye, hopefully plenty more experiments and hardware pr0n still to come :thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chiark

You'll also need to be a bit creative to get the keyboard to fit as well as the cfide68k and the MMR...

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=23549

Looks horribly familiar, doesn't it :D
...

---

To be honest some of my motivation was partially in part to seeing what was possible in your thread :thumbsup: I'm totally about to copy your choice of CF adapter location; it's planned to affix to the bottom of the HxC bracket and I'll put a slot in the side for the two CF cards :)

I hadn't any problem with the keyboard fitting to date. The main reason for this was that I removed the extra protective 68k socket from the bottom of the MMR and both the IDE+4MB and IDE68k are the exact same height as the original socket extension. I was also extremely lucky that the MMR had acquired a gradual upward warp from front to back such that the pins of the SRAM are just barely above the surface of the Denise on the back of the Indy ECS -- without this subtle warping I'm sure it wouldn't have fit :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chiark

SRAM maps from 01000000 to 0107FFFF - inaccessible to 24 bit addressing.
8MB of DRAM maps from 02000000 to 027FFFFF - similarly inaccessible to 24 bit addressing....

---

Oh, nice! That's Some Kind Of Awesome™ right there! So, it would be possible (indeed desirable) to combine the MMR RAM with the 8MB of Z2 FastRAM and have 16MB.

Tasty indeed! :thumbsup:

---

I'm definitely looking forward to finding a MMR memory board, I'd be happy to have an A500+ rockin' 16MB of fast RAM :lol:

--

Thanks all, going to start tackling the IDE testing and then on to seeing if I can hack the 4MB 68k memory on top of the MMR :thumbsup:

Thinking about it, I'm using an NMB keyboard which is a little thicker than the membrane keyboards - it drops down below the supports quite a bit. That probably explains the hassle :)

I'll look into removing anything from the bottom of the MMR, or even replacing the pins with something shorter to accomodate the cfide68k... Good plan!

I had a chance to tinker again so everything is up and running now. Here's the latest reel of photos:


First up I had to splice the HxC floppy power leads so that I could connect the CF drive adapter (since ide68k uses 40 pin connector, 4mb+ide was powered from 68k socket):

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1337218738

Next I had to solder up the /OVR and /INT2 lines required to connect to the ide68k and emulate A600 Gayle IDE behavior:
http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1337218738


And then I installed the 68010 onto the MMR fall-back socket, re-installed the MMR onto the IDE68k, connected the /OVR and /INT lines and connected the SD adapter:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1337218738

And finally an overview of the installation thus far:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1337218738

System boots quickly and works well. The 2MB chip ram is fine for most applications and a fair number of WHDLoad games and the 500RX is available for an extra 8MB. I'm still going to weigh my options on installing the 4MB 68k socket RAM but I believe I may move it to another machine.

Thanks for staying tuned, should be more to come :thumbsup:

Amazing project cjcliffe, Im planning on doing something similar with my 500+ sans floppy emulator and accelerator card - what was it that convinced you to go for the IDE68K over tomthul's IDE card?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djos

Amazing project cjcliffe, Im planning on doing something similar with my 500+ sans floppy emulator and accelerator card - what was it that convinced you to go for the IDE68K over tomthul's IDE card?

---

Auto-boot functionality was what I had hoped to achieve by moving to the IDE68k.

To be honest it's been a tad disappointing; It adds significant delay to the start-up of the HxC floppy making loading of demos and disk games take longer; it also chooses the IDE first every time so I have to jump into the early boot and choose DF0:. Another problem being that only one of the CF card brands I have (SanDisk CF) works with it, the rest refuse to show up in any disk tool (Transcend, AData and Magicstor / Segate micro drives). Finally Tom's IDE+4 can boot 1.3 and the IDE68k cannot, this means I can use only the HxC drive while the ROM is in the 1.3 switch position.

I'm going to attempt to put a disable switch on the IDE68k for when I'm using the HxC -- and if that doesn't work out nicely I'm swapping the IDE+4 back in since at that point the IDE68k could be put to better use in one of my other machines that have only a floppy drive at the moment.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjcliffe

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djos

Amazing project cjcliffe, Im planning on doing something similar with my 500+ sans floppy emulator and accelerator card - what was it that convinced you to go for the IDE68K over tomthul's IDE card?

---

Auto-boot functionality was what I had hoped to achieve by moving to the IDE68k.

To be honest it's been a tad disappointing; It adds significant delay to the start-up of the HxC floppy making loading of demos and disk games take longer; it also chooses the IDE first every time so I have to jump into the early boot and choose DF0:. Another problem being that only one of the CF card brands I have (SanDisk CF) works with it, the rest refuse to show up in any disk tool (Transcend, AData and Magicstor / Segate micro drives). Finally Tom's IDE+4 can boot 1.3 and the IDE68k cannot, this means I can use only the HxC drive while the ROM is in the 1.3 switch position.

I'm going to attempt to put a disable switch on the IDE68k for when I'm using the HxC -- and if that doesn't work out nicely I'm swapping the IDE+4 back in since at that point the IDE68k could be put to better use in one of my other machines that have only a floppy drive at the moment.

---

Thanks for the info, I won't be bothering with a hxc type system and will only run v3.1 from my CF (glad I bought a sandisk 4GB based on your report!), any games that won't run on 3.1 I'll run on real floppies under 1.3 - speaking of, which rom switcher did you use and where did you buy it from?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djos

Thanks for the info, I won't be bothering with a hxc type system and will only run v3.1 from my CF (glad I bought a sandisk 4GB based on your report!), any games that won't run on 3.1 I'll run on real floppies under 1.3 - speaking of, which rom switcher did you use and where did you buy it from?

---

Yeah, I think it will be fine in another system without the HxC -- using the HxC to boot Tom's adapter is reasonably quick and without the IDE init the HxC boot menu loads right away too.

The 1.3/3.1 switchable ROM is available via a buy-it-now eBay listing: which can be found here. Apologies for linking e-bait but it appears the BIN links are ok by the rules; though you should also already own both the 1.3 and 3.1 ROM if you want to keep things clean... Be sure to use the 'request total' site feature with message regarding the switch after purchase if you want it already wired to the ROM (recommended).