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4MB external ram expansion will be soon.

Started by Piotr, 18:35, 18 October 17

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LambdaMikel

Hey guys, if anybody else has the CPC 464 (not m4x version), please run Batman one disk version and report if it works for you.


I will also try a bigger PSU tonight and report whether it made a difference.

LambdaMikel

Tried a different PSU with 3 A, no difference. It is a timing problem it seems.

LambdaMikel

#102
... and now a really beefy PSU - 40 Watts.
I did a systematic testing of all my 464's, and the result is devastating.
See picture for details...

The 464's are perfectly fine - they all passed a RAMTEST.bin from XMem Flash Rom.
The PSU has 40 Watts (5 V, 8 A - stabilized!!) Certainly not a power problem  ;)

I am out of ideas. All of these 5 CPCs work perfectly fine with Batman Demo with XMem.

4 MB is a complete failure on all 464's. Not a single one of the 5 464's passed.
However, ZMem situation is slightly better - 2 464's passed!
(One has a Vortex 512 KB built in though, I did not expect that to work - and of course it didn't - so it is really 2 out of 4 that passed).

So, 4 MB: 0 %, 1 MB ZMem: 40 % (50 %) passed.

I also tried to see if DDI3 - maybe in combination with the mem expansions - might be the problem.
I hence used DD1 controller with external HxC. No difference.

I also tried hooking up DDI3 directly behind the mem expansions, and over a small cable (maybe stability I was thinking).
Still no difference. 

LambdaMikel

I will post the mainboard and chip details of these tomorrow.

LambdaMikel

These are the ones that work with ZMem:
they all have 40010 Gate Array.

LambdaMikel

These are the ones that DO NOT work with Zmem:

LambdaMikel

... and, none of these works with 4 MB Piotr's expansion.

LambdaMikel

Piotr instructed me to try Phortem, it loads, but one can clearly see the memory errors:

LambdaMikel

ToTO instructed me to try Phortem, Still Rising, and R-Type 128k.
First one doesn't work at all, 2nd and 3rd work nicely on the following CPC.

LambdaMikel

Quote from: LambdaMikel on 03:07, 26 February 18
Piotr instructed me to try Phortem, it loads, but one can clearly see the memory errors:

Ouch, this was a PSU problem again! I needed to calibrate my new PSU.
It is exactly at 5 V now. It seems that mem expansion are extremely sensitive
wrt to their voltages. After the correction, Phortem works like a charme with Piotr's 4 MB.
Badman still not. Still Rising doesn't work either.

Audronic

@LambdaMikel


Could you Monitor the Voltage that is  ON the 4 Meg card Please.


Thanks    Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

LambdaMikel

Quote from: Audronic on 07:26, 26 February 18
Could you Monitor the Voltage that is  ON the 4 Meg card Please.

Hi Ray,
I am afraid I currently don't have the time to do so. I am getting another 4 MB from Piotr, and hopefully, that'll work just fine.
If not, I can try to help with hardware debugging further. For now, I would assume that I have done already more than the average
CPC 464 user can do in order to get the mem expansions running. IMHO they are not ripe for selling yet. Some further development
needs to happend first before they can be sold to "end users".

Cheers,
Michael

Piotr

This 4 mb board take less from 100mA . But 5 volt not 6  ! I think LambdaMikel your board is faulty, maybe i screw up assembly, it is hand made interface.  I suspend sale and i do investigation on my CPC collection yesterday and today...

LambdaMikel

Quote from: Piotr on 16:32, 26 February 18
This 4 mb board take less from 100mA . But 5 volt not 6  ! I think LambdaMikel your board is faulty, maybe i screw up assembly, it is hand made interface.  I suspend sale and i do investigation on my CPC collection yesterday and today...

Thanks for being responsive and taking care of the issue, Piotr! 
Yes, but I'd like to mention that I tested a couple of PSU, one is indeed only 5 V, the other is 6 V, and also with monitor GT 64.
I don't think that I have damaged anything, because PHORTEM is indeed working with one PSU at ~ 5 V. So it seems to be a timinig
issue. But we will see. Looking forward to the M4X version of your extension,

Thank you and best regards
Michael

Piotr

I also not blame you of course , as i say, it is amateur hand made interface . Maybe cold join, maybe i use wrong firmware, I'm not hide , i unpack all my CPC and i sit and test from yesterday . Also 2 expansion  boards go to firmware author for check firmware for sure. So i'm working on it.

Piotr

Well,  more tests  464, 4MB via thru and DDI3 connected, Phortem was running 4 times, now time to Batman demo. As you see, i have lot of CPC , different models for tests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH8YcL3yO4Q&feature=youtu.be


Bryce

@Piotr: Have you possibly changed any IC manufacturer or IC version between your prototype and the "production" version? Faster RAM or a different TTL type etc? That can sometimes make enough difference to mess up the timing.

Bryce.

Rennert

I have timing issues with 4MB card on my buscard with busdriver(LS541).
Before LS541 all works fine, after LS541 the first bank was not found (7Fxx).
But the A-HA Video always works.
...KC Compact

Piotr

Bryce, my extension is made on typical 512x8 memory chip R1LP0408CSP-5SI i have over 1000 pieces and i use it for this extension .  I change nothing, video is made from today assembled board. Production verson.

Rennert. It is ram expansion for  CPC, not for clones and for bus drivers.

Rennert

#119
It works on clone (KC Compact) without errors with buscard like MX4 Board. The X-Mem  512k RAM also works behind the LS541. The 4MB generally works on my  busdriver card, Eramtest show all banks, and in Future OS the first bank is missing.

My busdriver card with LS541 works on my CPC6128 and 4MB without errors.
...KC Compact


GUNHED

Today I received my 4 MB RAM card from Piotr and it works like a charm. I did test it with the 6128 Plus and running FutureOS, also running "A Tribute to the Sisters" which is using RAM higher than the first 512 KB if connected. Everything is fine. Of course I will run more tests the coming days.
Congratulations to a great piece of hardware.  :) :) :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

GUNHED

One more test of this excellent piece of work: It runs perfect with a CPC6128. In this case it was located on the AMSDAP board and there was the M4 board too. (I forgot how to switch the switches on the AMSDAP, guess the both need to be to the left. PDT told me on the meeting but I forgot). All together a wonderful hardware setup.  :) :) :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

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