Recreating the RSVE mod…

[Darklord]

[sporniket]

And now we wait...

A little shot just after inserting the ICs, but before putting polyimide tape underneath and putting in anti-esd pouch and packing...

2022-12-17--done.jpg (122.02 KiB) Viewed 1329 times

[DoG]

Are these tested or are Darklord doing the testing?

[sporniket]

Darklord will do the testing.

[Darklord]

And now we wait...

A little shot just after inserting the ICs, but before putting polyimide tape underneath and putting in anti-esd pouch and packing...

They're...they're... beautiful!

[Darklord]

Darklord will do the testing.

Yeah, so buckle your seat belt folks, you know what kind of ride
it's gonna be...

[Darklord]

Okay, quick question - is it best if all -3- grounds are hooked up?

The previous RSVE mod I had experience with only had 1 ground
and I hooked it up to the ground plane around the outside of the
Mega ST's motherboard.

If yes, then can I spread them around? One to pin #36 and say 2
to the ground plane or elsewhere?

Thanks.

[Darklord]

Okay, I got the package Tuesday but haven't had a chance to do anything until today.

So I stripped the Mega ST4 down and had a go at it. Installation went (mostly) okay.

Being a 1st class klutz with 2 left feet, all thumbs and a 61 year olds failing eyesight,
things always turn out more exciting than they should be.

Long story short, I've got it installed. According to the RSVE docs, the red LED is
supposed to light up when the higher speeds are being accessed. I've got the HSmodem
software installed, set (to the best of my knowledge) to 38400 baud, and the red LED
does indeed come on, and stay on all the time. I'm not sure if that's right or if it's only
supposed to come on when a program is directly accessing the higher speeds? Not sure.

I think it's right though. I can run HSmodem again, with the RSVE switch (cookie?) turned
off and the LED goes off. Run it and turn the RSVE part back on, and the red LED comes
back on.

HSModem is supposed to be re-mapping all 19200 speeds to 38400 automatically, if I've
got the settings right.

The problem is, it appears that there is no communication between the RSVE equipped
Mega ST4 and the WiModem232 I use. I set the WiModem232 to 38400 and once I do that,
with the HSModem software set to RSVE aware, I can't access the WiModem232 from any
terminal software like TAZ, STalker, etc,...

Normally, if everything is working right, you can access the WiModem232 directly from a
comms package. Typing in ATI gives some basic info, AT&V will show the settings, AT*N
will scan for all available networks, etc. I can not get a prompt from any comms software
when the RSVE mod is turned on via HSModem. I can get the prompt and issue those commands
if I re-run the HSModem software and turn the RSVE part off (and the WiModem is set back to
19200).

I tried calling in with SyncTerm on a Win10 box and while the WiModem232 flashed the
"Incoming Call" message, the RSVE equipped Mega ST4, with my BBS software running,
never acknowledges/answers that call.

I tried running a bare AUTO folder with nothing but DRIVN.PRG andd MFP.PRG in it but
that didn't change anything.

I also disabled the SERIAL.CPX but that didn't make a difference either. I could not tell
from the documentation if the SERIAL.CPX was supposed to be left in place or not. I did
try it both ways.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. I think the mod is good, I just can't figure out how to get
the RSVE equipped Mega ST4 and the WiModem232 to talk to each other. It's probably
something simple (and obvious to anyone but me), so I'll keep experimenting...

Thanks.

PS I'll post some pictures next message...

[Darklord]

Okay, here's some pictures of my Mega ST4 with the RSVE mod in place.

The MFP chip is under the power supply on the Mega ST, so after you
strip it down, removing the RF shield, etc, you also have to take the
P/S out. After that, everything is readily accessible.

I just wanted to thank Sporniket and Exxos again for all their help with
this project.

Now that it's in place, I just need to get the Mega ST4, the WiModem232,
and the software all working correctly together. I hope that'll happen soon.



Mega ST4 stripped down to the motherboard:

RSVE Mod - Mega ST4-01.JPG (317.15 KiB) Viewed 1197 times

There's the MFP chip in all its glory:

RSVE Mod - Mega ST4-02.JPG (331.58 KiB) Viewed 1197 times

Here's where I decided to tuck the RSVE mod safely away to:

RSVE Mod - Mega ST4-03.JPG (141.08 KiB) Viewed 1197 times

Here you can see the RSVE mod with the wiring in place. I put one ground on pin #36 on the
chip, one on the grounding plane of the motherboard (far right) and one joined with the
ground from the audio mod to the one of the screws that holds the P/S down (middle top):

RSVE Mod - Mega ST4-04.JPG (317.28 KiB) Viewed 1197 times

And finally, you can see the red LED is lit up when it's running with the HSModem software
set to enable the RSVE mod:

RSVE Mod - Mega ST4-05.JPG (277.14 KiB) Viewed 1197 times

[sporniket]

I am glad that the parcel arrived safely. I cannot help at all about how it is supposed to work, but the fact that it is able to switch on/off the led when enabling/disabling the mod is encouraging. One thing to try, as silly as it seems, would be to maintain pressure on the oscillator package (the metallic case in the middle), in case the contact with the "socket" I made is not good enough to transmit the reference clock to the GAL.

Okay, quick question - is it best if all -3- grounds are hooked up?

The previous RSVE mod I had experience with only had 1 ground
and I hooked it up to the ground plane around the outside of the
Mega ST's motherboard.

If yes, then can I spread them around? One to pin #36 and say 2
to the ground plane or elsewhere?

Thanks.

Sorry for seing this late, I was already sleeping tight when you posted that question. If possible, it's better to hook the 3 ground wire together at the same point to avoid forming a ground loop, and to keep all the wires of the ribbon together until the latest inches. The idea being that keeping the ground wires close to a signal wire contains a little the electric field radiating from the latter, thus less noise spreading around.

That said, this is just theoritical, and the fact that you get something when you disable hi-speed shows that that fitting is correct too.