exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I've finally gotten around to building a rev 2 TF530 - the bad news is I just cannot get it working.

Reflowed all the main ICs twice. Cannot work out what is going on - Logica and DiagROM wont boot to the point I get any text.

With Kickstart 1.3 it goes Dark Grey, Light Grey, then hangs for a second or two before reseting. Almost like there's a memory related issue. Does anyone remember if there's a fix wire or anything needed on the rev 2? The only possiblity BOM related - I've used 1K resistors instead of the 2 x 47K - is that the issue? The reason for this, I was told (I think) these two were related to the IDE and should be 1K as per the TF534, but maybe that's my issue?

Running at 25Mhz btw! Tried 3 different r2 firmwares. Is this a firmware issue perhaps? Does anyone know which firmware should work with 25Mhz R2 board, or will any of the latest builds work?

Are these RAM chips the wrong ones maybe? (AS6C8008-55) 100% certain there are no bad solder points on the CPLDs or the RAM - reflowed already, inspected before and after (looked fine before reflow - same behaviour after reflow).

Something else that might be a clue - if I switch the clock sel jumper to the inner position (away from PCB edge) - it give a green screen!?!? This is repeatable. I get the dark grey, light grey, pause few secs reset in the outer position, green screen in the inner position.

I am out of ideas, it must be either a mod needed doing to the early rev 2 boards, or there's a defect on this board - perhaps a bad via somewhere.

Never built one, but some thoughts
- mount an FPU, something with clock load
- use the correct firmware for 25Mhz and for the Amiga you are using
- check the pinheaders for good contact and maybe try without the riser

That memory was also used by others so that wount be a problem.

Someone else will probably come along with more options.

Happy hunting!

The TF530 behaves much better with the FPU in ...

DiagROM do anything?

FPU fitted (again, removed it the first time because the socket was crap) - still just the same.

I need to connect serial up, because it outputs no text at all. Does the usually flashing green and black at the start etc.

I can remove the RAM CPLD and run without it? I am thinking I could rule it out that way - perhaps remove the RAM and the CPLD. If it still doesnt work, swap the RAM CPLD for the BUS CPLD and re-program that to see if the CPLD failed or something.

Erase RAM CPLD before you remove it and test then.

pretty sure you need ovr and int2 connected on the rev 2.

dalek wrote: 04 Mar 2021 04:52 pretty sure you need ovr and int2 connected on the rev 2.

No you don't, only INT2 for IDE. You probably have a solder issue somewhere... can you check with a microscope? You can erase the RAM CPLD and see if it will boot without it. If not, it's probably the bus CPLD.

I am very fond of the 530 rev2, IMHO it works better than the rev3. You may also be using a wrong firmware, as with these boards you needed a different one for every speed.

alenppc wrote: 04 Mar 2021 13:30

dalek wrote: 04 Mar 2021 04:52 pretty sure you need ovr and int2 connected on the rev 2.

No you don't, only INT2 for IDE. You probably have a solder issue somewhere... can you check with a microscope? You can erase the RAM CPLD and see if it will boot without it. If not, it's probably the bus CPLD.

I am very fond of the 530 rev2, IMHO it works better than the rev3. You may also be using a wrong firmware, as with these boards you needed a different one for every speed.

Thanks! Do you know which one should work with 50Mhz?

I thought you were running at 25?

You can try these two. the first one should be good for 25 mhz and up, although to be honest I don't remember anymore, it's been a while. The 50.zip will only run at 50. There is a whole bunch of others also, but hopefully one of these two will work.