The latest member of the family

[alexh]

Shame about the numeric * key as that is the default quit to workbench in most WHDload slaves. Not an issue as you should be able to use a global replacement in the setup file but certainly good to know that key doesn't work.

I wonder you strip down the keyboard and isolate the membrane if it is something as simple as sticky cola or a break in the ribbon you can fix with conductive paint.

[rubber_jonnie]

Shame about the numeric * key as that is the default quit to workbench in most WHDload slaves. Not an issue as you should be able to use a global replacement in the setup file but certainly good to know that key doesn't work.

I wonder you strip down the keyboard and isolate the membrane if it is something as simple as sticky cola or a break in the ribbon you can fix with conductive paint.

I did do some tracing on the membrane after cleaning it and there seems to be some breaks in the conductivity between certain pads. There was certainly nothing sticky in there and I've had a good look under my microscope for corrosion and there is none.

A keyboard matrix diagram would make it easier but I've been looking on and off all day and haven't found one. I expect there is something common between them that is broken but it's hard to tell as the traces are difficult to follow.

As for WHDLoad, that's a bit of a way off. Whenever I connect anything to the IDE interface (Other than a 44 pin cable) the machine won't boot. I have checked the cable orientation and there is a well marked 1 on the A500 8MB/IDE board and a dot marking 1 on the CF adapter. Whatever I do, even just plugging in the adapter without a CF card it keels over.

I did also try real spinning rust drives but it made no difference.

I tested the CF adapter on my PC and it's fine, I mean they are super simple so why wouldn't it just work?

Time to go back over the docs, see if I missed anything.

[Maximilian]

No I didn't do the chip mod as the trapdoor RAM is now working.
It's prepared if I decide to do it later.

If the trapdoor is working you now have 0.5MB chip, 0.5MB slow...
As you have a fastram expansion, you would be much better off converting that slowmem into 1MB chipram.

You can never have enough chipram..especially if you want to use the workbench from the HDD.

[rubber_jonnie]

No I didn't do the chip mod as the trapdoor RAM is now working.
It's prepared if I decide to do it later.

If the trapdoor is working you now have 0.5MB chip, 0.5MB slow...
As you have a fastram expansion, you would be much better off converting that slowmem into 1MB chipram.

You can never have enough chipram..especially if you want to use the workbench from the HDD.

I'll look into it, thanks, but my priority right now is to get the IDE working I have .5MB each of chip and fast mem plus 8MB of other.

I do now have the IDE working, I think it was a bad connection, not to mention the dot on the CF adapter was lying...

[Maximilian]

o.5 chip, 0.5 slow, 8 fast :wink:

Ide is strange.
It is normal when the connection is reversed.
Lotharek said that it can damage the Ide part of the upgrade.

Does it boot with the CF adapter connected but without a cf card?

Pin one is clearly marked on the board, If I read it correctly the documentation is from another board, and it has the IDE connector around the other way,

[rubber_jonnie]

o.5 chip, 0.5 slow, 8 fast :wink:

Ide is strange.
It is normal when the connection is reversed.
Lotharek said that it can damage the Ide part of the upgrade.

Does it boot with the CF adapter connected but without a cf card?

Pin one is clearly marked on the board, If I read it correctly the documentation is from another board, and it has the IDE connector around the other way,

The dot on the CF adapter does not indicate pin 1 so it's now flipped. The cf card is now visible but I need to prep it properly, which I'll do tomorrow.

What is odd that the cf adapter on its own was stopping it from booting with no cf card inserted.

The documentation is from another board, yes.

[Maximilian]

Does it look like this?
https://lotharek.pl/img/products/amiga500ide_2.jpg

This is how it should look like if i am to believe the Lotharek site.

If it is the other way around it will short some lines...

[rubber_jonnie]

Does it look like this?
https://lotharek.pl/img/products/amiga500ide_2.jpg

This is how it should look like if i am to believe the Lotharek site.

If it is the other way around it will short some lines...

Well mine is on a cable so hard to say but it's working anyway.

It boots and I can see the cf card now.

I just need to prep it as per the instructions.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so things are looking up :) It turns out the CF weirdness was down to the 2GB card I was using, clearly not compatible, and preventing the machine from even starting up. It would occasionally, but mostly not at all.

I'll see if I can find some other larger cards that work with it now that I know the symptoms.

So I swapped to a 1GB card, followed (to the letter) the partitioning instructions and this is the first boot:

IMG20250216120009.jpg

Next I decided to do the trapdoor RAM mod to enable it as chipmem. It was a small cut of JP2 so that pads 2 & 3 were no longer jumpered, then I put a solder blob across pads 1&2. As it happens my (now working) trapdoor RAM has a jumper on it for this express purpose, so I didn't have to cut any more traces. You can see the new amount of RAM here:

IMG20250216120903.jpg

IMG20250216121208.jpg

You can see the 1MB in the Workbench menu bar and in ShowConfig.

I did also finally swap the ROM socket, but for now I'm still using one of the BooBip 27C400 emulators. I do have an eprom on the way, but for now the emulator will do the trick, and if the eprom i've bought is poop, then I'll just leave it in there.

[HigashiJun]

@rubber_jonnie

Nice progress since the beginning of this journey.

Well done !

As promised, here are my settings for ADF disks:

1.JPG

2.JPG

Just tried to write Workbench32.adf and it went smooth as usual.

My GW is the last revision one (4.1) and the 3.5" FDD is a Y-E DATA 702D-6238D/D33253 (720 KB, 1.2 MB and 1.44 MB).

Hope this helps you.

;)