A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Blogs & guides and tales of woo by forum members.
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 10472
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Badwolf wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 4:40 pm
rubber_jonnie wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 3:53 pm OK, so power on DEL needs the RTC/CMOS chip in place to work according to Ian over on Stardot.

I'll try power on plus r later.
My A3000 was just blinky LED errors until a replacement CMOS chip was back onboard. No key combo would persuade it to show a screen.

Interestingly the chip was working until I started cleaning up the corrosion and then it stopped! They seem a bit flakey in general.

BW
Thanks, I have the original RTC chip, but it's a bit crusty so I may just frankenstein it on to see if I can get any more life out of it until the new one arrives and I can fit it properly. I need to be careful not to do any more damage to the PCB though, it's a little fragile.

I suspect that if it is just wired up, even without the RTC oscillator, it should work from having the CMOS available to the machine.

Both the RTC IC and missing capacitor from the RTC oscillator are on the way.
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...
User avatar
stephen_usher
Posts: 5580
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Oxford, UK.
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by stephen_usher »

Did you try hacking the RTC chip onto the board in the end?
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 10472
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

stephen_usher wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 6:51 pm Did you try hacking the RTC chip onto the board in the end?
I didn't in the end as the legs looked pretty skanky, however the replacement parts arrived whilst I was at work today!!! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

As I was in London for work today, I didn't get home until gone 19:00, but after chatting with the other half, headed up to the workshop to 'de-compress' at around 21:00 :)

I set to work prepping everyting, including making 2 new 'pads' out of flattened kynar wire for the I2C connections, feeding into their original connecting vias:

PXL_20220525_200006399.jpg
PXL_20220525_200006399.jpg (312.87 KiB) Viewed 1363 times

Shortly after this photo, pad number 8 fell off when I tried to tin it, a further victim of the battery leak!! Next the remaining pad for C153 then fell off when I tried to solder the new capacitor to it!!

Undeterred, I carried on and finished bodge wiring the damaged traces for the RTC/CMOS IC:

PXL_20220525_211148201.jpg
PXL_20220525_211148201.jpg (335.43 KiB) Viewed 1363 times

Then I checked that pin 8 had 5v as expected (it did) before adding in the new IC:

PXL_20220525_221113226.jpg
PXL_20220525_221113226.jpg (392.06 KiB) Viewed 1363 times

Bear in mind the IC is only 6mm x 7mm, so you can get an idea of the area I've been working in. It'll get a clean with IPA tomorrow in case you were wondering.

I powered on, but was still getting POST flashes from the FDD LED, so popped them into the decoder to find that they were normal status codes and the CMOS error was gone. Still no boot, and as one of the errors related to memory, I thought I'd try popping in the RAM expansion to see if it helped. Boy did it help!!

Suddenly I have Supervisor mode!!

PXL_20220525_213650286.jpg
PXL_20220525_213650286.jpg (163.35 KiB) Viewed 1363 times

I typed 'desktop' and hit return to get this:

PXL_20220525_214133020.jpg
PXL_20220525_214133020.jpg (210.78 KiB) Viewed 1363 times

And the FDD seems to have stopped sending me POST codes and is trying to boot. Hmmm, progress!! I like progress :)

So I looked up how to reset the CMOS on the A5000, and it is relatively simple, just hold down 'delete' on boot to clear. Floppy flickers again like it's trying to boot, and now this:

PXL_20220525_214432177.jpg
PXL_20220525_214432177.jpg (162.81 KiB) Viewed 1363 times

Attaching the mouse with no ball (See the earlier pic of a disintegrated pile of bits that used to be a ball!!) I manipulated the horizontal and vertical rollers and open the configuration panel:

PXL_20220525_215039776.jpg
PXL_20220525_215039776.jpg (181.72 KiB) Viewed 1363 times

Woo hoo, we have life!!! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

So tonight I'm very happy with the progress, it really has made me smile :)

There is still work to do, as it does need a battery to retain the settings, however I do have some rechargeable CR2032s that might just fit the bill. If not I'll order in a proper replacement.

It's not seemingly detecting the HDD either, but that may either be some damage I haven't found/fixed yet, or possibly some configuration operation I've yet to do. Possibly even a dead HDD.

I'll settle for this though, it's a good start!
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...
User avatar
Badwolf
Posts: 2231
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:09 pm

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by Badwolf »

rubber_jonnie wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 11:47 pm
I'll settle for this though, it's a good start!
Great work, RJ!

If you’ve reset the CMOS, I think you have to redecalare the HD. I’ve never fully understood how those commands work, but the internet will provide, I’m sure.

BTW, with a bit of judicious wiring and a DE9 socket, you can use that Atari mouse there on the Archie. I’ve installed a port on the back of my A3000 in ST pinout bar the right and middle button pins are swapped as middle is more useful on the Archie.

The A3000 has a dedicated alternative mouse pin header on the board. Perhaps the 5000 does too?

I use it with my Smalliermouse (which was originally a BBC/Archie product) which is ST configured and then translated by my wiring back to Archie. All a bit daft :D

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 10472
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Badwolf wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 12:29 am
rubber_jonnie wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 11:47 pm
I'll settle for this though, it's a good start!
Great work, RJ!

If you’ve reset the CMOS, I think you have to redecalare the HD. I’ve never fully understood how those commands work, but the internet will provide, I’m sure.

BTW, with a bit of judicious wiring and a DE9 socket, you can use that Atari mouse there on the Archie. I’ve installed a port on the back of my A3000 in ST pinout bar the right and middle button pins are swapped as middle is more useful on the Archie.

The A3000 has a dedicated alternative mouse pin header on the board. Perhaps the 5000 does too?

I use it with my Smalliermouse (which was originally a BBC/Archie product) which is ST configured and then translated by my wiring back to Archie. All a bit daft :D

BW
Thanks :)

I just found a document that mentions declaring the HDD, so will have a look tomorrow, looks like it's done via supervisor mode.

Thanks for the mouse info, I will look into it.
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...
atari030
Posts: 315
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:43 pm

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by atari030 »

Very good start, nicely done.
User avatar
stephen_usher
Posts: 5580
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Oxford, UK.
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by stephen_usher »

That’s excellent!

To set up hard drives you go into the “Discs” control panel and increase the number of IDE disks to 1. I can’t remember if you have to reboot or not for the machine to detect the drive then.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 10472
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

atari030 wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 12:39 am Very good start, nicely done.
Thanks 😁
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...
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 10472
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

stephen_usher wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 6:37 am That’s excellent!

To set up hard drives you go into the “Discs” control panel and increase the number of IDE disks to 1. I can’t remember if you have to reboot or not for the machine to detect the drive then.
I'll give that a go later, though I think there may be a damaged trace somewhere as the drive spins up and down all the time. More work required.

I also think that the battery connection to ground is bad (+ is OK) so more digging there before I fit the battery, which I ordered last night.

We'll get there, just a little more work to do.
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...
User avatar
stephen_usher
Posts: 5580
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Oxford, UK.
Contact:

Re: A5000 - diving in at the deep end!

Post by stephen_usher »

The drive spinning up and down doesn't sound good. That sounds like a bad drive.

The problem will be getting a working RiscOS system and formatting it. I think the A5000's IDE sub-system is better than the A4000's in that it can handle partitions and drives larger than 512MB. You may have to hack something together using a Raspberry Pi running RiscOS and a USB-IDE adapter and do a bit of hacking.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
Post Reply

Return to “MEMBER BLOGS”