Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[Atarian Computing]

WIP Nessi firmware for the adventurous to test.
NESSI_WIP_251029.jed.zip

Thanks to @PhilC I got back to looking at bus timing in the Nessi firmware.
Something I've felt has been needed for a while but I haven't done because it stopped being fun last time I went there.
This time I am enjoying it again.

This version has been tested to work on my computer with 50,48,40,32,25 and 4(!) mhz oscillator. And with both 2x and 1x cpu speed.
Something that wasn't possible before due to slightly dodgy and timing sensitive cpu<->mainbus and cpu<->68150 communication.
This version will become the next release assuming it works fine on not just my computer.

And a word of caution, even though I am notoriously bad at doing so myself, I'll have to do the usual recommendation of backing up your disk in case there are bugs that cause IDE access errrors or something like that. In fact, it's probably always good to have backups.. or so they say

Just flashed it after backing everything up. Running fine so far.

[LarryL]

Hi,
Quick question: where did you guys connect which fan?
One of the Fans (12V) is temp controlled by the ntc on the board (via the Eiffel) - I expect this is a good one for a case fan, right?
What about the CPU Fan? The 5V connector near the CPU? But this is in no way temperature controlled, right?
I saw that the CKBD connects to one of the temp sense pins of the CPU - is this in any way evaluated?

Cheers
Michael

[Mikerochip]

The Eiffel/CKBD connects to a NTC 10K.

The two thermal pins on the 68060 are unconnected, afaik?

(I presume, really, you need to do independant therman and fan management, like in the early days, with probes and a fan controller?)

[LarryL]

The Eiffel/CKBD connects to a NTC 10K.

The two thermal pins on the 68060 are unconnected, afaik?

(I presume, really, you need to do independant therman and fan management, like in the early days, with probes and a fan controller?)

Well, in the GitHub description of the CKBD there is mentioned, that you can (have to?) connect one of the 060 thermal pins to the CKBD/Eiffel
https://github.com/agranlund/raven/tre ... rades/ckbd
But I am not sure if anything (and if so, what) will be controlled…

[agranlund]

Hi,
Quick question: where did you guys connect which fan?
One of the Fans (12V) is temp controlled by the ntc on the board (via the Eiffel) - I expect this is a good one for a case fan, right?
What about the CPU Fan? The 5V connector near the CPU? But this is in no way temperature controlled, right?
I saw that the CKBD connects to one of the temp sense pins of the CPU - is this in any way evaluated?
Cheers
Michael

Yep, your asessment is correct.
The only temp controlled one is the 12V and is good for a case-fan since the sensor is on the motherboard.
(though perhaps mostly a novelty, I've only seen mine spin up by lowered the threshold enough to verify that it actually works - it's never been hot enough to warrant spinning up when set to trigger at a sensible threshold)

I have my CPU fan connected to the 3.3V connector for a bit reduced speed compared to using the 5V connector.
Figured you always want the cpu fan running with such high overclocking anyway so it wasn't worth the hassle, or the risk of burning a cpu in case of bugs related to fan control.

CKBD can read the cpu temperature, if you run optional bodge wires from the CPU thermal pins, but it won't have the ability to control CPU fan speed.
At the moment there's not really anything using that information for anything.
(except for Gokmase's taskbar which does recognise Raven and can display board+cpu temperture - but I'm not sure that version is released yet)

[LarryL]

CKBD can read the cpu temperature, if you run optional bodge wires from the CPU thermal pins, but it won't have the ability to control CPU fan speed.
At the moment there's not really anything using that information for anything.
(except for Gokmase's taskbar which does recognise Raven and can display board+cpu temperture - but I'm not sure that version is released yet)

Thanks, Anders - that clear things up for me.
And I feel the same for having the need to run the CPU fan continuously…

But it is very interesting, to have the temp values available for read out. And that there is a SW already using it. Cool
Will check, what exactly Gokmase‘s taskbar is…

Cheers
Michael

[Atarian Computing]

@agranlund

I can report one bug, I'm pretty sure.

My installation of MagiC can not read the RTC. Any access or modification to date functions are extremely laggy, like changing the date and time in CLOCK.CPX. Once you do manage to change it, it does not stick. I created a new file in MagiC and the time stamp in TOS/MiNT was 1.1.1980.

Can you confirm this on your end, or should I attempt a clean install?

[agranlund]

Thanks! That makes sense now that you mention it.
I’ll check on my computer too and figure out where to best add support for it (probably in MagiC itself is my immediate gut feeling)