Questions concerning TF534 in Atari ST

[terriblefire]

Out of interest, what is particularly bad about the card? For Ataris I mean...

1. the buffer on it is buffering the wrong thing.
2. mechanisms for crossing clock domains is awful.
3. The ram speed is terrible.
4. the whole stability of the card is appalling.

[Steve]

@terriblefire couldn't be clearer, thank you

[Markus608]

Actually, i have got two TF536.

I have not build a TF534, i have got it ready build and used TF534 Amiga-card and reflashed it for Atari.
If Agranlund is happy with it, why shouldn't i ?
I don't care about Floppy working, but IDE or ACSI/SCSI access should work.

And yes... i decided to try it as well because of the FPU.

And... i was thinking about trying the TF 536 Rev.5 as well...

Markus

[agranlund]

I think @agranlund might have not used the floppy drive even ? I only got it working from cartridge to run GB6. In any case, the fix was a respin of the board. But people moaned about the lack of ram on the 534 so TF added more on the 536. Nobody cared about the fpu so it was removed as creating a low price point was one of the main objectives.

A lot of problems and fixes were only recently done by myself and @agranlund on the 536. The 534 remains a basically outdated and buggy card. Its a bit of a kick in the teeth for me and all the work I put into testing/fixing/updating the ST536 when people jump 2 generations backwards

I can't remember if I tried the floppy drive but I suspect that I was just as anti-floppy back then as I am today.. so probably not

The best option is surely the dedicated ST version of the TF536 but if you have an old TF534 laying around collecting dust then all I can say is that I was very happy with mine when I used it. It worked fine in my short ST and for what I used it for - your mileage may vary and other more finicky Atari models might not like it as much?


I do agree with removing the FPU though.

Even though, yeah, it's quite unfortunate that anything built with -m68020-60 and Mintlib automatically refuses to start without an FPU, even programs that aren't using floating point at all.. to me this is an issue with the "default" toolchain though.
So you're stuck using 68000 versions of most gcc built applications unless the programmer actively took steps to get around this.

A software FPU emulator would be nice. Doesn't even have to be fast, I guess it'll mostly be there to make -m68020-60 executables start and then probably sit there very much unused. Maybe it's easy enough to repurpose the one built into m68k Linux or BSD?

[exxos]

A software FPU emulator would be nice. Doesn't even have to be fast,

Wasn't there some discussion about just that a while back ? Can anyone remember ? I thought there was a FPU emulator which someone was trying out at some point "recently"

[Markus608]

Anyways...

i still have the problem that it starts to desktop.
Floppy isn't working, so i can't start any HD-Driver from desktop.

Do i need to use a different IDE-cable... maybe with some wires twisted or something ?

If i can't get it working i'll try to use CPU and FPU in another accelerator...

[Steve]

Anyways...

i still have the problem that it starts to desktop.
Floppy isn't working, so i can't start any HD-Driver from desktop.

Do i need to use a different IDE-cable... maybe with some wires twisted or something ?

If i can't get it working i'll try to use CPU and FPU in another accelerator...

Markus only way around it is that you create a drive image in Hatari, put hd-driver on it, then write it to your CF card. In regards to the IDE cable stuff, agranlund details it quite thoroughly in his thread I think. But from what the others here say, it probably isn't worth the effort.

[Markus608]

OK thanks...

i'll giveit up then.

At least the 534 should boot from one of the CF-cards the TF 536 is already booting from.

CASE CLOSED

[agranlund]

Anyways...

i still have the problem that it starts to desktop.
Floppy isn't working, so i can't start any HD-Driver from desktop.

Do i need to use a different IDE-cable... maybe with some wires twisted or something ?

If i can't get it working i'll try to use CPU and FPU in another accelerator...

Markus only way around it is that you create a drive image in Hatari, put hd-driver on it, then write it to your CF card. In regards to the IDE cable stuff, agranlund details it quite thoroughly in his thread I think. But from what the others here say, it probably isn't worth the effort.

@Markus608, the IDE port pinout is different on Amiga vs Atari.
I used a modified cable on mine and I believe I detailed it on some thread like @Steve mentioned.
(You'll have the same issue on the TF536r2 as well - but the ST version probably works out of the box? I think?)

Eventually ended up making an adapter PCB and the whole thing looked like this:

IMG_6245.png (189.13 KiB) Viewed 3317 times

IMG_6250.png (157.8 KiB) Viewed 3317 times

I already had my CF card prepared since the previous IDE interface so I never had a reason to boot from a floppy.
Don't know if it makes a difference or not but my card had a bunch of partitions that were all TOS 1.04 compatible (<512MB and no Tos/Win dual compatibility mumbojumbo )


I feel like I should explain some of the reasons why I was so happy with these cards..

My expectations where all based on it being made by someone in their spare time, primarily for a different computer, and released to the public completely for free - that it ended up working as well as it did was great in my book.
A lot (most?) of the enjoyment for me came from tinkering and making things work. If this had been a piece of tech from the store where you'd want and expect everything to just work out of the box then I'm sure I probably would have had a different reaction

I'll second the opinion of exxos and terriblefire. Anyone considering a TF53x for the Atari should get the TF536-ST version.
You'll get something specifically made for the machine and support the exxos store while at it so it's a bit of a win-win really.

Saying that, if you already have an older 534 or 536 then I don't see any reason to throw them in the bin. I think both of these has worked really well in my computer.

[exxos]

but the ST version probably works out of the box? I think?)

Yep, rev5 I fixed the IDE port. Also did away with the bodge cable for autoboot eventually as well.

TF536_REV5_ATARI_ST.jpg (172.21 KiB) Viewed 3311 times

Saying that, if you already have an older 534 or 536 then I don't see any reason to throw them in the bin. I think both of these has worked really well in my computer.

Was this before or after the massive investigation into the cache / floppy / MAPROM / TOS issues ?