Shponglefan wrote on 2024-09-23, 13:21:

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work. […]
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BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-22, 23:49:

Yah, you're maybe going to want to make yourself a Greaseweazel... annnnnd DSDD disks are a bugger to find... and you might want a kickstart switcher and 1.3 or 2.x kickstart. 1.2 very original but might be limiting, not sure, never went lower than 1.3.

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work.

Greaseweazel is an option I'll look at. It would save me having to open up the Amiga at least.

As for Kickstart versions, I've been some reading about all the different versions. Some people seem to recommend 1.2, others 1.3, while some say there is no practical difference.

Then I just learned there are differences between NTSC and PAL versions, and games written for different systems. This whole Amiga thing is getting rather convoluted rather quickly. 😅

I'm spelling it wrong... but from something fairly simple they have really made the later boards complicated, took more digging than I anticipated to find the basic model https://github.com/keirf/greaseweazle/wiki/Blue-Pill-Direct which is great if you've got a spare bluepill board around, it seems like the only reason they don't recommend that is due to hinky connections if you just wire it with push on duponts, in which case soldering it up, maybe just to decent quality sockets at the bluepill end, would likely improve that. Anyway, for me that would be the favorite option because I have everything I need in the junk box and a blue pill. Otherwise, just finding one cheap on eBay or Ali is less bother.

edit: programming info, they wanna support the "spend money" way as less troublesome, but with ch340 or similar usb serial adapter, basics are, grab the firmware binary and do something like ...
program using stmcube ide and usb or serial converter ... in STMcube IDE from ST, go to project properties: C/C++ Bulild->Settings->Tool Settings->MCU Post Build outputs.. and the hookups are shown in that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L670v-Oghs4 (but that's arduino IDE putting script onto interpreter rather than compiled bins) He might have another vid that's more specific to that way.

IDK if I'm just adding confusion 🤣 I'm trying to lay it out as simple as it seemed when I first looked at it a few years back, and it's gone bloated and "idiotproofed"

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-09-23, 13:21:

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work. […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-22, 23:49:

Yah, you're maybe going to want to make yourself a Greaseweazel... annnnnd DSDD disks are a bugger to find... and you might want a kickstart switcher and 1.3 or 2.x kickstart. 1.2 very original but might be limiting, not sure, never went lower than 1.3.

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work.

Greaseweazel is an option I'll look at. It would save me having to open up the Amiga at least.

As for Kickstart versions, I've been some reading about all the different versions. Some people seem to recommend 1.2, others 1.3, while some say there is no practical difference.

Then I just learned there are differences between NTSC and PAL versions, and games written for different systems. This whole Amiga thing is getting rather convoluted rather quickly. 😅

Like I said stick with it, its worth it in the end. Your best bet with the monitor would be to see if you have a monitor that can sync to the Amigas refresh rate and get a buffered custom made cable. That would be the cheapest option and these can be found on Ebay last I checked. Otherwise I can direct you to some new solutions for a flicker fixer device so you can just run a regular VGA cable to any monitor, but those will be more expensive. I can guarantee you're going to have to open the Amiga to get it into a shape that you can use.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-09-23, 13:21:

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work. […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-22, 23:49:

Yah, you're maybe going to want to make yourself a Greaseweazel... annnnnd DSDD disks are a bugger to find... and you might want a kickstart switcher and 1.3 or 2.x kickstart. 1.2 very original but might be limiting, not sure, never went lower than 1.3.

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work.

Greaseweazel is an option I'll look at. It would save me having to open up the Amiga at least.

As for Kickstart versions, I've been some reading about all the different versions. Some people seem to recommend 1.2, others 1.3, while some say there is no practical difference.

Then I just learned there are differences between NTSC and PAL versions, and games written for different systems. This whole Amiga thing is getting rather convoluted rather quickly. 😅

Try Rob Smiths Drawbridge if you have an Arduino at hand (who doesn't?). You just need an arduino, a floppy drive, 15 minutes and some wires.
https://amiga.robsmithdev.co.uk/instructions

Baleog wrote on 2024-09-23, 15:29:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-09-23, 13:21:

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work. […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-22, 23:49:

Yah, you're maybe going to want to make yourself a Greaseweazel... annnnnd DSDD disks are a bugger to find... and you might want a kickstart switcher and 1.3 or 2.x kickstart. 1.2 very original but might be limiting, not sure, never went lower than 1.3.

Fortunately I do have a couple dozen DSDD disks on hand. Though I'll have to test them to see how many still work.

Greaseweazel is an option I'll look at. It would save me having to open up the Amiga at least.

As for Kickstart versions, I've been some reading about all the different versions. Some people seem to recommend 1.2, others 1.3, while some say there is no practical difference.

Then I just learned there are differences between NTSC and PAL versions, and games written for different systems. This whole Amiga thing is getting rather convoluted rather quickly. 😅

Try Rob Smiths Drawbridge if you have an Arduino at hand (who doesn't?). You just need an arduino, a floppy drive, 15 minutes and some wires.
https://amiga.robsmithdev.co.uk/instructions

Cool, didn't know about that one, might make one of those since I've got a few pro minis and they're smaller. Can probably get it all in a drive case... like the one I evicted an LS120 out of to be an internal.

Had a lot of issues with getting a MSI K7TM (MS-6340 VER 1) up and going. A lot of caps were sorted out with golden polys (no typo, they really are golden, off a broken Z77 Extreme4 from ASRock) byt I still had funny issues due to the Winbond BIOS chip I used. Switched to a SST 39VF020 for the time being, and albeit I get a "Unknown Flash Chip" at boot, so far no more issues seem to happen anymore.

656W TDP 😀, but it's quite well tuned.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-09-23, 21:39:

Had a lot of issues with getting a MSI K7TM (MS-6340 VER 1) up and going. A lot of caps were sorted out with golden polys (no typo, they really are golden, off a broken Z77 Extreme4 from ASRock) byt I still had funny issues due to the Winbond BIOS chip I used. Switched to a SST 39VF020 for the time being, and albeit I get a "Unknown Flash Chip" at boot, so far no more issues seem to happen anymore.

I was gonna say "bet it needs a recap" problem with some of those socket A MSI boards is that they are actually HP OEM and have some subtle differences to retail which locks all the convenient stuff out or leaves it a bit feature light.

Surprisingly this one is retail and its OEM variant is for Packard Bell 🤣. I have a copy of the Packard Bell branded BIOS too.

So far it still occasionally locks up and I wonder if the polymers I used aren't a bit too low for the values I replaced (originals were Chhsi 1000uF 6.3v, polymers I used are Nichicon LF 820uF 2.5v).

Did you check them before they went on? If they were down to 700 or so already it might not be enough, but if they were still at 820 or a bit above it should have been inside margins.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-23, 22:12:

Did you check them before they went on? If they were down to 700 or so already it might not be enough, but if they were still at 820 or a bit above it should have been inside margins.

Unfortunately not as I don't have a LCR meter, but from experience I've had some mainboards be absolutely picky about capacitance. One of them was a Gigabyte 686LX that would roughly do the same thing after recap. Replacing all the 820uF Panasonics I used in the first run with 1000uF counterparts restored functionality.

There is that reforming effect too if they haven't seen power in a couple of years, might be that a few power cycles restores them to full capacity and it works fine.

So far they've been through almost numerous power cycles due to freezing. I'll just stick to the classic recap and replace the polymers with lytics.

^It's probably down to how the CPU VRM feedback circuit was designed.
Like with ATX PSUs, you can have a CPU VRM that becomes sensitive to caps with too low of an ESR/impedance. Remember, a buck-regulated VRM forms an LCR series circuit and as such could resonate like one. When you lower the ESR/impedance, you lower the "R" value in the series LCR circuit, and that increases "ringing" noise (self-resonance) from the circuit, which in essence translates to extra noise/ripple. Now, depending on how the VRM feedback circuit is designed, it might be able to react to / counter this noise via regulation, or it might take it as feedback and further amplify it (reason why some conventional ATX PSUs that use regular caps often have issues with polymers or ultra-low ESR caps).
Then there's the capacitance part. If the mobo manufacturer already reduced the capacitance down to the lowest possible (that's still stable with supported CPUs they listed on their manual) for $$ savings, lowering it further by your polymer recap was perhaps just enough to trip it.
Now, you can see if it's a capacitance or an ESR-related issue by taking out a few of the polymer caps and replacing them with much higher capacitance electrolytic ones (don't even have to be very low ESR.) If that "magically" fixes the circuit, then it's just a capacitance sensitivity most likely.
For this reason, I rarely ever do a full poly recap. A mix with polymers and regular electrolytics tends to give the "best of both worlds". 😀

Given my Gigabyte hated polys entirely and this MSI seems to follow it, a regular lytic recap will be in order. I do have a FIC PA-2013 coming in tomorrow, maybe that one'll like polys.

I got most of my ISA and VLB video cards photoed and posted in the retroweb discord channel.

I rabbitholed when reviewing some pics of my motherboards... one Biostar VLB board picture was a little fuzzy, and I thought the silkscreen said jumpers could give you free choice between soldered QFP and PGA socketed CPUs... put a SX down on the pads, and a POD on the socket and switch back and forth and...NO... read it wrong, just does the normal thing, disables QFP in favor of PGA when PGA fitted.

I've spend the last few weeks experimenting with various Linux distributions on my Pentium 233 MMX and Celeron 533Mhz "Mendocino" systems. CentOS 3.9 worked best on the Pentium 233 and CentOS 5.11 or CentOS 6.10 on the Pentium 533.

I also experimented with getting vintage 3D accelerators to work. I managed to get my ATI Rage XL working on CentOS 5 and my Voodoo 3 on Fedora 11 with OpenGL acceleration.

Lots of fun, although the UI is universally laggy, despite 2D acceleration being enabled, leading to an overall unpleasant experience compared to Windows.

Shagittarius wrote on 2024-09-23, 14:35:

Like I said stick with it, its worth it in the end. Your best bet with the monitor would be to see if you have a monitor that can sync to the Amigas refresh rate and get a buffered custom made cable. That would be the cheapest option and these can be found on Ebay last I checked. Otherwise I can direct you to some new solutions for a flicker fixer device so you can just run a regular VGA cable to any monitor, but those will be more expensive. I can guarantee you're going to have to open the Amiga to get it into a shape that you can use.

The existing CRTs I mainly use are all 30KHz, so I suppose they need a scandoubler to work with the Amiga?

I may just wait for the Checkmate monitors to arrive, since I ordered those with a scaler that includes a native SCART connector. Those monitors are designed to work with Amigas, so that might be the easiest solution.

Baleog wrote on 2024-09-23, 15:29:

Try Rob Smiths Drawbridge if you have an Arduino at hand (who doesn't?). You just need an arduino, a floppy drive, 15 minutes and some wires.
https://amiga.robsmithdev.co.uk/instructions

I do happen to have a couple Arduinos on hand, so that looks like a possible solution. 😁

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-23, 14:22:

IDK if I'm just adding confusion 🤣 I'm trying to lay it out as simple as it seemed when I first looked at it a few years back, and it's gone bloated and "idiotproofed"

Heh, no worries. It's all good info. 😀