Page 3 of 5

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 10 Jan 2023 11:25
by exxos
HigashiJun wrote: 10 Jan 2023 11:17 My PAK (FPU fitted) was rock stable at 40 Mhz in my Mega ST, and there was no need for a PUPLA either.
Isn't PUPLA some sort of weird bus buffer board ?

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 10 Jan 2023 11:31
by HigashiJun
exxos wrote: 10 Jan 2023 11:25
HigashiJun wrote: 10 Jan 2023 11:17 My PAK (FPU fitted) was rock stable at 40 Mhz in my Mega ST, and there was no need for a PUPLA either.
Isn't PUPLA some sort of weird bus buffer board ?
Yes, it is supposed to help with stability issues.

I will try with the PUSTE, specially made for the STE series, to see what happens.

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 10 Jan 2023 20:02
by Badwolf
exxos wrote: 09 Jan 2023 22:01 I think after all the troubles @Badwolf had with the FPU, I don't think it is worth all the hassle.
Plus these days we have a very effective soft-FPU, thanks to Anders:

https://github.com/agranlund/tftools/bl ... /fpemu.prg

:thumbup:

BW

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 10 Jan 2023 20:49
by exxos
Did that ever get finished for official release ? It should be put in the software essentials section as it would be useful to keep it handy there.

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 10 Jan 2023 21:14
by HigashiJun
Badwolf wrote: 10 Jan 2023 20:02
exxos wrote: 09 Jan 2023 22:01 I think after all the troubles @Badwolf had with the FPU, I don't think it is worth all the hassle.
Plus these days we have a very effective soft-FPU, thanks to Anders:

https://github.com/agranlund/tftools/bl ... /fpemu.prg

:thumbup:

BW
Good to know that.

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 14 Jan 2023 02:29
by HigashiJun
Tried yesterday my PAK68 with its original PUSTE only to discover a white screen at boot-up...

No doubts here about the culprit: the Winslow socket pins are not making contact with the CPU socket when inserted.

Winslow.JPG
Winslow.JPG (231.04 KiB) Viewed 1644 times

If you look carefully, you will notice that the pins are bent inwards.

As i didn't want to tinker with the PUSTE anymore, I decided to build exxos' DIP adapter (as two sets were biding their time in my spare parts box) and compare its behaviour with Badwolf's one.

The result is:

TOS306.JPG
TOS306.JPG (456.97 KiB) Viewed 1644 times
PAK68.JPG
PAK68.JPG (382.58 KiB) Viewed 1644 times

No more memory errors nor freezes or reboots at startup.

Ultrasatan and FDD doesn't work though, but I didn't tried with PUPLA/2 yet.

I didn't revert to original SILs and still use exxos' recommended values.

Have to investigate a bit further to see if there's a way to make Badwolf's adapter work with my PAK.

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 14 Jan 2023 02:59
by Darklord
Excellent progress. :)

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 14 Jan 2023 03:02
by HigashiJun
Tried the last setup with the PUPLA/2 and had issues as previously (memory errors and freezes) and there was no way to get to the desktop.

Guess there's too much buffers in now: exxos' adapter buffers and PUPLA/2 buffers.

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 14 Jan 2023 03:04
by HigashiJun
Darklord wrote: 14 Jan 2023 02:59 Excellent progress. :)
Thanks !

:)

Re: PAK 68/3 in STE

Posted: 14 Jan 2023 03:50
by TheNameOfTheGame
Nice work!