exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hi guys

I've built 2 of the tf536 from the first bulk buy batch, both of them I can't get the ide working.

I've checked a few times for both of the boards for my soldering under my optical microscope and cant find any bridges or poor soldered pins

I've tested several cf cards cables and adaptors that work on winaue and an a1200 with no problems but do not work on the tf536, I do see a little activity at first switch on (few led flashes on the cf card adaptor)

I've tried both tf536 in a rev6 500 and rev8 500+ board with ks 3.1 and 3.1.4 and still no ide

Both tf536 are stable one has a gold 50mhz 030 and the other one has a black 33mhz 030, tpassed all mem, cia & irq tests and boots first time every via floppy to games / workbench or to ks

All the main ics and cpu seem to run luke warm

Tryed both firmwares that are on git hub

I have also sonic cleaned the boards in ipa aswell

I'm now a bit bit lost ... seems strange that both have the same fault.

any ideas?

Cheers Rich

Use this one mentioned here..

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 536#p41739

You havent said if you are using buffered or unbuffered IDE

@carmonster
Have built both versions, buffered and unbuffered - both are working well..
just to be sure, U don't need to populate ide buffers on top side if 0 Ohm Resistor Networks are populated..

8 Bit Dreams wrote: 20 Jun 2020 08:07 @carmonster
Have built both versions, buffered and unbuffered - both are working well..
just to be sure, U don't need to populate ide buffers on top side if 0 Ohm Resistor Networks are populated..

Hi guys , both are unbuffered , my next thought was to try buffering one of them to see if it changes things

Dont try buffering until you have unbuffered working.

Let me generate the OBV file for this version so you can do tests. You will need to check all the connections across the buffers are connected... so not adding buffered chips will help you as the pads are easy to access.

Also confirm you've tried the firmware i linked to in that post.

terriblefire wrote: 20 Jun 2020 06:59 Use this one mentioned here..

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 536#p41739

You havent said if you are using buffered or unbuffered IDE

Just been reading though this .. it sounds like its what goose is going with his boards

I have been using the r1 firmware, which gets the boards working but no ide, r2 firmware gets the same as goose .. green screen and no boot

I'll try the firmware that works for 8bit dream in a bit

Cheers

carmonster wrote: 20 Jun 2020 09:05

terriblefire wrote: 20 Jun 2020 06:59 Use this one mentioned here..

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 536#p41739

You havent said if you are using buffered or unbuffered IDE

Just been reading though this .. it sounds like its what goose is going with his boards

I have been using the r1 firmware, which gets the boards working but no ide, r2 firmware gets the same as goose .. green screen and no boot

I'll try the firmware that works for 8bit dream in a bit

Cheers

Q1. https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =65&t=2938

I've edited the topic name because you have given us completely wrong information about your issue. Your issue was you couldnt get the thing to boot with the rev2 firmware so you tried firmware for the wrong board. Rev X will never work on rev Y. There was 2 versions of rev2 and 2 versions of rev 1 firmware on github so saying i tried both versions wasnt helpful either.

terriblefire wrote: 20 Jun 2020 09:10

carmonster wrote: 20 Jun 2020 09:05

Just been reading though this .. it sounds like its what goose is going with his boards

I have been using the r1 firmware, which gets the boards working but no ide, r2 firmware gets the same as goose .. green screen and no boot

I'll try the firmware that works for 8bit dream in a bit

Cheers

Q1. https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =65&t=2938

I've edited the topic name because you have given us completely wrong information about your issue. Your issue was you couldnt get the thing to boot with the rev2 firmware so you tried firmware for the wrong board. Rev X will never work on rev Y. There was 2 versions of rev2 and 2 versions of rev 1 firmware on github so saying i tried both versions wasnt helpful either.

Guy's The firmware that 8bit dreams used , now ide on both of my boards work!! .. cheers

If i had found this information from goose's post before I started this post, i obviously wouldn't of posted...

I don't post that often here, i do try to workout out my issues myself without help, finding help on here without asking is like trying to find a needle in a haystack as all the posts changes on a daily basis.

Sorry @terriblefire If i've made you cranky when I asked you to repeat yourself again!!

Many thanks Rich

Its fine. But try to post whats actually happening so we can help.