The ACA500 Compatibility Thread

Hi Guys,

I thought I'd start this thread so we can share what types of CF Cards and Turbo/Ram boards we have tested with the new ACA500 so we can build a compatibility list for the community.

So I have tested the following Accelerators:

ACA1220 (overclocked to 26mhz) = Working perfect as expected
ACA1232/33 = Working perfect as expected

Both the above are officially supported of course but ACA1220's sold before 5th September 2013 will need a Firmware fix before you can use them with the ACA500, contact Jens at icomp.de as he will do this at the same time if you pre order the ACA500 direct.

If you bought your ACA1220 after 5th Sept 2013 it should have the fix already but please check with your reseller.

I have also tested the following CF cards:

4gb Sandisk Ultra 30mb/sec = Working in AUX Slot / Not tested on Boot Slot
4gb Kingston (flower type) = Not tested on AUX Slot / Working on Boot Slot
4gb Generic/Unbranded CF Card = Working in AUX Slot / Working on Boot Slot
2gb/4gb Transcend 133x = Not tested on AUX Slot / Working on Boot Slot
2gb Verbatim = Not tested on AUX Slot / Not Working on Boot Slot*

*Stops the A500 from even detecting the ACA500

I hope this helps and please feel free to add your own experience and I will create the full list and update as I test further.

blizzard 1230 mk4 working here.
but i dont expect others will have the same experience.
sandisk cards work,and intergral.ive only tried small cfs so far upto 1gb

i had one cf not work,some wong hung low brand from china.no loss...

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Originally Posted by roy_bates

blizzard 1230 mk4 working here.
but i dont expect others will have the same experience.
sandisk cards work,and intergral.ive only tried small cfs so far upto 1gb

i had one cf not work,some wong hung low brand from china.no loss...

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Is wong hung low the actual name of the CF? :whistle:

Can you say what ports you tested them on too and I will add them to the list :thumbsup:

Jens has said that not everyone will get the same results with non ACA Accelerators so for sure it wont be guaranteed to work for everyone but will give some hope :)

What Rev is your A500 by the way?

nah, the cheapo brand was just called "compactflash" i actually havent had it work on anything apart from the pc,it was dirt cheap though:whistle::lol:

the other two well known brands steve,work in both ports no problem.:)

oh sorry,you must of asked that after.

i tried it in two 500+'s and a 500.
the revisions are: 8A 8A.1 and 6 steve.i didnt bother with the other two steve there the same revsions.

the only little niggle was the lack of chipram in the revision 6 on bootup if theres no expansion memory in the trapdoor.thats about it.
oh,all the 500+'s i have have 2mb of chipram all four.

i havent tried it on its own yet,i havent had time.i'll probably try cwb 68k.its quiet nice.

are you using the blizzard 1230@50mhz roy?

yes mike,as far as i know all the 1230 mk4's are 50mhz.

and the aka500 cope ok at 50 mhz ?

be nice to have a 50mhz A500 on the go

any change of an sys info?

same as the card is in the 1200,it isent any faster or anything like that.

im going to get an aca1230 at a later date.

the only thing o want to do is secure the card and make a case.

okay fair enough , 50mhz and 120mb ram in an A500

now why didn't Commodore do that....

we could of shown those Pc boys a thing or two i tells ya

I've note been able to find a difinitive answer, does the ACA500 work on an A500+

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Originally Posted by woodycool

I've note been able to find a difinitive answer, does the ACA500 work on an A500+

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yes:lol:

Can anybody check the ACA 500 with a Blizzard 1240/40. My first tests were very positive and it seems that the card is working with the ACA 500. I can made more tests after Christmas. ;)

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Originally Posted by AMike

Can anybody check the ACA 500 with a Blizzard 1240/40. My first tests were very positive and it seems that the card is working with the ACA 500. I can made more tests after Christmas. ;)

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Interesting, Jens said anything above 030 wouldn't work. Any time to produce some screen shots for us inc SysSpeed/SysInfo?

Would be great to see a Video if you have time :thumbsup:

No, not really, the ACA is a christmaspresent for me. After delivery I've done some quick tests with all my A1200 Turbocards. I've booted the workbench from disk and showconfig showed me the 040CPU and the memory of the Blizzard 1240. I can do more tests after christmas, and if necessary a short video. ;) But in the meantime some reports of other User would be interesting

The cards I've tested
http://www.a1k.org/forum/showpost.ph...1&postcount=11

Hi AMike, thanks for taking the time to post, do you mind if I quote this translated to English?

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• Blizzard 1220 - after switching on black screen - zero signs of life
• Blizzard 1230 IV - works right away - a dream - a significant increase in speed vs. the GVP A530.
• Blizzard 1240 - the surprise of the night - because something is going on. Under System3.9 is loaded from the CF and the second reboot triggered - reloaded short - yellow Guru. Since I'm going to continue testing.
• Blizzard 1260 - there is the "normal" rainbow screen of the 1260, then yellow screen and end
• BlizzardPPC I ended up not tested - because Musicman was it - does not work
• GVP Jaws II 1230 - black screen after power - zero signs of life
• DCE Typhoon 1230 MK II - after switching on black screen - zero signs of life
• MTec 1230/28 - after switching on black screen - zero signs of life

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Of course these tests offer no guarantee to anyone else since Jens mentioned it might depend on the A500.

Perfect Steve - thank you for translation.

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Originally Posted by AMike

Perfect Steve - thank you for translation.

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Don't thank me, thank Google :D

Thanks for the info and I hope you have some fun on Christmas day with your 040 powered A500!

may i include then blizzard 68060 toooooo

Has anyone already found the great "chipram" hack the card is able to do for you?

If you have an Amiga 500 with ECS agnus but haven't modified the mainboard to facilitate for 1MB chipram (this normally means cutting a track between two jumpers and soldering another) the ACA500 will do this for you; no soldering required.

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Originally Posted by Tahoe

Has anyone already found the great "chipram" hack the card is able to do for you?

If you have an Amiga 500 with ECS agnus but haven't modified the mainboard to facilitate for 1MB chipram (this normally means cutting a track between two jumpers and soldering another) the ACA500 will do this for you; no soldering required.

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Indeed Jens mentioned that feature over at EAB :)

I'm going to do a full review on my Blog once I have all the facts :thumbsup:

Anyone tested the ACA500 on an Amiga 1000?

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Originally Posted by Astral

Anyone tested the ACA500 on an Amiga 1000?

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Jens, said do not try it. He will be working on A1000 one after A2000 one.

Anyone tested Blizzard IV SCSI Kit yet?

no mate,i dont have one anymore.

if i had the scsi,i might of tried it to bung another 128mb in there.just for giggles.

the scsi on the 060 is a no go ...but on a 30 it should work?

hang on i'll try again

---------- Post added at 19:07 ---------- Previous post was at 19:04 ----------

SCSI doesn't crash now but the RAM allocation is wrong ...but it boots (no its not , wrong simm in it stupid)

after some quick tests...

DKB Cobra 030(flashed dkb to latest), *Almost* working - random guru's. But can boot to cli and run sysinfo. Gets as far as speed/mips, hangs on mflops...

Blizz 1240 seems to work with updated firmware and patched 040.lib

Amiga 1000 - dead :( black screen - no flashing lights on power-up. I suspect its the same issue as my csa-mmr (needs kick in rom?) No harm to card - still works when put back in a500

Rev 5 a500's seem incompatible. I'm 0 for 3 on them. Mine were all kick 1.3 ocs agnus.

why are trying to get to work in a 1000,when youve been told its not for the amiga 1000 and wont work?:picard

He he, I guess someone was going to try it :lol:

To be fair if it wasn't for people like joekster we'd still be sitting in a Cave rubbing two sticks together :D

I've had to opportunity to test a Power Computing Viper 1230 (the 8mb type like the MTEC 1230) and it does not work on my setup, (A500+/ACA500) the machine does not boot.

Steve, do you think (or have one to test) an a1200 memory expansion would work? I have a Hawk card with 8Mb sitting unused, would help to get the most out of whdload without an accelerator.

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Originally Posted by wmsteele

Steve, do you think (or have one to test) an a1200 memory expansion would work? I have a Hawk card with 8Mb sitting unused, would help to get the most out of whdload without an accelerator.

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Hi Mate,

I haven't read of any reports to say they work or not so I can't say.

I'd be happy to test if you send it to me? (I don't have any here)

Steve.

ps. I will ask in the EAB thread.

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Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Hi Mate,

I haven't read of any reports to say they work or not so I can't say.

I'd be happy to test if you send it to me? (I don't have any here)

Steve.

ps. I will ask in the EAB thread.

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Thanks, might do that, interested in the ACA500 but really don't need an accelerator, just the extra memory.

Did Jen not talk about releasing a 4Mb 'special' version at one point? I remember some reason about the extra 2Mb being fairly expensive that's why it wasn't added as standard. I think at the time it was suggested this would add £50 to the total price. Sounded good to me, 4mb on the card, but it would eat into ACA1200 sales so I can see why this wasn't a favored option!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wmsteele

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Hi Mate,

I haven't read of any reports to say they work or not so I can't say.

I'd be happy to test if you send it to me? (I don't have any here)

Steve.

ps. I will ask in the EAB thread.

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Thanks, might do that, interested in the ACA500 but really don't need an accelerator, just the extra memory.

Did Jen not talk about releasing a 4Mb 'special' version at one point? I remember some reason about the extra 2Mb being fairly expensive that's why it wasn't added as standard. Although I think at the time it was only suggested it would add an extra £50 to the total price for the extra 2Mb. Sounded good to me but it would eat into ACA1200 sales so I can see why this wasn't a favored option!

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He abandoned the idea of the 4mb version saying he couldn't make it for that price.

If you have an A500+ with 2mb chip Ram and use a physical 3.1 rom (i,e no Maprom) you can have 2mb chip & 2mb fast which is enough with a very light workbench to run a good selection of WHDLoad games if you use the ACA stand alone.

I asked at EAB if anyone has tried an A1200 trapdoor Ram board or even a Kipper2k Ram board.

I really think even with just the 2mb Ram as a stand alone version it's still worth getting :thumbsup:

ive got a hawk and a rca120, both don't work.


i think jens said you could send the card back to have it reworked for 4mb,personally i would rather pay a little bit extra lads and put an aca in there instead.

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Originally Posted by roy_bates

ive got a hawk and a rca120, both don't work.

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Even with 4mb?

no mate,no setting works on either.

if you still want to try ,go for it.it wont hurt to try.

Hi Roy, not to worry I just had a reply from Jens himself at EAB:


Me:

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Has anyone tried a an 4/8mb A1200 trapdoor ram upgrade with the ACA500?

Or maybe one of Kipper2k's 8mb upgrades?

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Jens:

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None of them will work, because the A1200 slot on the ACA500 is meant to provide an interface to talk to the A500, but it can't be used "the other way round". If you want that, then the 68EC000 CPU would have to "talk 68020" through that bus, and that's about as much logic requirement as a full memory controller.

Jens

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cheers steve:)


i was just going through a box full of old cards.

if it needs to talk to a card with a cpu on board say anything over a 020 i might have a couple more to look at.

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Originally Posted by joekster

Amiga 1000 - dead :( black screen - no flashing lights on power-up. I suspect its the same issue as my csa-mmr (needs kick in rom?) No harm to card - still works when put back in a500

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Unofficially it appears to work with some A1000s, older models with daughterboard may unstable, sometimes it works, sometimes it does not and it can hang quite quickly.

You did connect it correctly? There are mysterious rumors that say A1000 slot is up-side down. It is totally incorrect, never ever connect any expansions (A500 or not) to A1000 slot up-side down!!

ACA500 does not need KS ROM, it will work without physical ROM chip.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Hi Roy, not to worry I just had a reply from Jens himself at EAB:


Me:

Quote:

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Has anyone tried a an 4/8mb A1200 trapdoor ram upgrade with the ACA500?

Or maybe one of Kipper2k's 8mb upgrades?

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Jens:

Quote:

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None of them will work, because the A1200 slot on the ACA500 is meant to provide an interface to talk to the A500, but it can't be used "the other way round". If you want that, then the 68EC000 CPU would have to "talk 68020" through that bus, and that's about as much logic requirement as a full memory controller.

Jens

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Thanks chaps, that's that then! For me better to opt for something else.

My a1000's have the daughterboard (ntsc). I've never had good luck with them: csa-mmr doesn't work, adspeed doesn't work, but trr saphire 020/881 does work... Also mixed luck with zorro-2 cards with the tom thul adapter as well...

Anyways, i do have the aca500 connecter properly (front-to-back, but NOT bottom-to-top).

I'll try pulling the bootstrap roms - maybe they cause confusion?
I'll also try the two motherboard revisions (thikn I have a rev.6 and a rev.a)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by joekster

DKB Cobra 030(flashed dkb to latest), *Almost* working - random guru's. But can boot to cli and run sysinfo. Gets as far as speed/mips, hangs on mflops...

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SysInfo crashing can be normal, for stability testing use something else. It could be also FPU related.

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I'll try pulling the bootstrap roms - maybe they cause confusion?
I'll also try the two motherboard revisions (thikn I have a rev.6 and a rev.a)

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My NTSC A1000 (with daughterboard, says rev A under the floppy drive) sometimes keeps hanging when ACA500 is connected. At the moment ACA500 works fine with it, even with Blizzard 1260 connected :)

Lolz, 060 powered A1000 :lol:

:lol: come on lads lets all put 060's in our 20+ year old amiga's

tested aca500 on a500 rev 6 with 1,75mega of fast ram in trapdoor

work fine with more cf size 32mb to 4 giga on boot space

work fine cd fat32 in the other space

with cobra blue screen
with gvp jaws II black screen
with blizzard 1230 IV without ram (the card is broken) work fine but only 1 mega of fast ram

next test with apollo1240/60

Tried on another a1000, and works! I think it's even more awesome on an a1000 than on the a500... My a1000 now has kick31 in flash/rom, 68040, and a CF hard drive! Played for about an hour, rock solid. Screenshots below:

Hooley Dooley! I found it odd that my answer to A1000 compatibility previously was "Jens is working on an A1000 version" especially when electrically the A500 Zorro is the same as an A1000 Zorro, abietly with a bit more electrical noise :D

So, this is so freakin' awesome to see this working!

Now, I'm just going to put this out there. With much *RESPECT* to Jens for his creation, considering the market, options, opinions, pros/cons, physical compatibility considerations with other existing hardware, and all the other who-har that has already been talked about before...the only thing the ACA500 needs now is an "external to internal" convertor. Bugger having a case. Re-route the thing back inside the Miggy! Volia - stock looking 68060 super-powered A1000! :lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by joekster

Tried on another a1000, and works! I think it's even more awesome on an a1000 than on the a500... My a1000 now has kick31 in flash/rom, 68040, and a CF hard drive! Played for about an hour, rock solid. Screenshots below:

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Holy sh**!!! This is awesome! :thumbsup:I wonder what the difference would be between ACA500 and the one that Jens is supposed to be working on for the A1000 :whistle:

I'd hazard a guess that the ACA1000 would be a vertical design, that would make sense given the layout of the card/connector.

It will expand your A1000 to 2mb Chip Ram as well by default :)

Anymore news and features we have to wait until after the ACA2000 is done, Q2 next year would be my guess!

EDIT:

The ACA1000 will also have an internal connector to the A1000's Angus socket so will require opening your A1000

Quote:

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Originally Posted by joekster

Tried on another a1000, and works! I think it's even more awesome on an a1000 than on the a500... My a1000 now has kick31 in flash/rom, 68040, and a CF hard drive! Played for about an hour, rock solid. Screenshots below:

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Ok a couple of questions:

What trapdoor expansion do you have ? 256 or 512 k? Did it work with ACA?
I have 512 k expansion, and to use the upper 265k of it I need the addmem program. Does anyone know if it'll work with ACA?

Assuming that you had 512k chip and Aca500 memory (without the a1200 turbo) how much memory is left when you boot WB?

Amiga 500Plus, Apollo 1260/80Mhz 32mb - working (without memory)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ogezFzQjkg

I'm gonna do some more serious tests within few days ( waiting for new CF cards ). Any ideas why memory installed on Apollo can't be recognized ?