Random STuff

Blogs & guides and tales of woo by forum members.
Post Reply
Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Random STuff

Post by Steve »

Ah cool, I butchered my masteries asci2stms trying to convert them to V2. Be interested in benchmarks between these two devices when you get time.

I have a feeling my asci2sd hasn't been programmed. Seems I've soldered it all fine. When I plug it in I get the usual 'found device noise' scsi2sd-util stops searching and it says usb hid errors:0, but I cannot read or save to the device.
Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Random STuff

Post by Steve »

@DoG I fixed mine :) I had one bridged pin on the sd-card slot.
User avatar
DoG
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:26 pm

Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

Steve wrote: Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:43 pm @DoG I fixed mine :) I had one bridged pin on the sd-card slot.
Nice. It most often is something small like that. Or a pin not soldered. :D
User avatar
DoG
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:26 pm

Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

Steve wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:10 pm Ah cool, I butchered my masteries asci2stms trying to convert them to V2. Be interested in benchmarks between these two devices when you get time.
I don't know where my ACSI2SD has gone, but here is my test for ACSI2STM V2 at least. Tested on a Mega ST4 and with TOS v2.06. I got the same speeds under TOS v1.04 so that apperently doesn't matter.

20210710_181842.jpg
20210710_181842.jpg (115.9 KiB) Viewed 4252 times
20210710_180855.jpg
20210710_180855.jpg (215.96 KiB) Viewed 4252 times
User avatar
DoG
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:26 pm

Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

Steve wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:10 pm ...Be interested in benchmarks between these two devices when you get time...
Found my ACSI2SD v1 by eltradec. Speed tested it with TOS v2.06 and HDDriver v10.15. Pretty much the same speed as ACSI2STM.

ACSI2SD with HDDriver v10.15.jpg
ACSI2SD with HDDriver v10.15.jpg (271.8 KiB) Viewed 3969 times
ACSI2SD speed test with TOS v2.06.jpg
ACSI2SD speed test with TOS v2.06.jpg (251.16 KiB) Viewed 3969 times
User avatar
DoG
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:26 pm

Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

Fixed my RamCart to not have individual bit erasing during CPLD initializing as described on tOri site. I also uploaded the 'new' v1.20 firmware on it and fixed the battery holder and I found a suitable switch to use so I changed that too.

RamCart_fixed.jpg
RamCart_fixed.jpg (222.63 KiB) Viewed 3961 times
User avatar
DoG
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:26 pm

Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

I bought a Mega ST4 some time ago with a keyboard but it had a missing space bar key. I didn't have any luck finding that on its own. I thought about modding a standard ST keyboard space bar for a while. But I tried searching first for an old Cherry keyboards with 9U spacebar on the net and actually found one that seemed pretty spot on. I also tested the Mega keyboard first of course and all seemed fine but I had to exercise some keys several times to get a registered press.

So I bought new MX Cherry Clear for the normal keys and MX Grey for all keys with stabilizer metal bars instead of fixing the old MX Black keys. MX Clear have tactile feedback to them. I also bought new spring for the keys but never changed them in the end. The PCB was drenched in old flux (or some other sticky substance) and had a strange odor to it. Clean that of with IPA and all the keys with soapy warm water. The black metal sheet, where all the keys fits on to, was also cleaned with IPA.

I also found that you could attach a LED under the CAPS LOCK key. All cherry keys have a place holder for a 3mm LED and it fitted perfectly on the PCB. The schematics also supported my thoughts and a transistor is also missing on the board. How ever, the controller chip doesn't seem to be programmed for it. I checked the leg on the chip that drives the transistor but it always high no matter what you do to the caps lock key. Bummer.
The silkscreen for the transistor and tracks leading to it seemed also wrong when checking with schematics so maybe they scrapped it because of that. Who knows.

The new space bar fits very well but it's slightly of in color. I did not do any retro bright to it. I reflowed the solder on the mouse and joy port as well.

2021-07-27 16.05.12.jpg
2021-07-27 16.05.12.jpg (200.03 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
2021-08-10 19.23.29.jpg
2021-08-10 19.23.29.jpg (153.57 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
2021-08-10 19.10.41.jpg
2021-08-10 19.10.41.jpg (389.64 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
2021-08-10 19.50.04.jpg
2021-08-10 19.50.04.jpg (511.21 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
2021-08-10 19.50.13.jpg
2021-08-10 19.50.13.jpg (388.15 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
2021-08-13 19.05.04.jpg
2021-08-13 19.05.04.jpg (279.75 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
2021-07-27 16.09.11.jpg
2021-07-27 16.09.11.jpg (98.99 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
2021-08-16 17.15.55.jpg
2021-08-16 17.15.55.jpg (167.77 KiB) Viewed 3465 times
User avatar
DoG
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:26 pm

Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

A few people asked me about my PCB for ACSI2STM I made a couple of posts back. I decided to fork out ACSI2STM on github and uploaded the gerbers for my PCB and wrote a little readme for it: https://github.com/tomtebloss/acsi2stm/ ... er/gerbers
User avatar
DoG
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:26 pm

Re: Random STuff

Post by DoG »

It's has been a while since I wrote something in this thread.

Finally got some time to build/solder and program my Retro Chip Tester with latest (beta) firmware and do some testing with it.

Retro Chip Tester 2.jpg
Retro Chip Tester 2.jpg (435.89 KiB) Viewed 2808 times
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 10465
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: Random STuff

Post by rubber_jonnie »

DoG wrote: Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:37 pm It's has been a while since I wrote something in this thread.

Finally got some time to build/solder and program my Retro Chip Tester with latest (beta) firmware and do some testing with it.

Retro Chip Tester 2.jpg
Nice, I'm considering one of these myself.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
Post Reply

Return to “MEMBER BLOGS”