I'm back, this time with an A5000
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Ok, seems it didn't like the EPROM I used first, so changed it out and tried v1.10, all good, then tried v1.19 again and it's fine, so happy days.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Ok, so for now at least, I have decided to call the A5000 done, and I'm reassembling it.
All the repairs are done, and whilst I could easily continue tinkering with the IDE interface, in reality, having the SCSI drive means it isn't entirely necessary. Plus I can easily add another SCSI drive if I need to.
My limited selection of IDE drives seems to be a problem too, since it seems to be sensitive to different drive sizes and geometries.
I'll possibly revisit IDE later, but as far as I can tell, I have caught all the battery damage and everything buzzes out ok, the CMOS/RTC is working fine and the battery replacement is also working well.
The one item I won't be repairing are the traces to the FPA socket, since the FPAs are quite expensive and kind of unnecessary. I have fitted a socket to make it look nice, but only the 4 corner pins are soldered in case I change my mind later.
All the bare traces are now lacquered too.
Looking tidy inside:
Morley SCSI card to the left (V1.19 ROM), Laser Direct card to the right.
Just got to drop the lid back on. Mouse working too, I changed from heat shrink on the rollers to silicone tube and added a 22mm steel ball, and though it requires a surface with a decent amount of friction to work, work it does
Total tally of repairs:
1x CMOS/RTC chip
1x 74HCT245 buffer
7x mainboard capacitors (Maybe a few more than that!!)
15x capacitors in the PSU (Super fishy PSU this one!)
A bunch of bodge wires
A ton of time
Could have been much worse I imagine, seeing some of the other forum posts.
It's been an interesting project, but next I need to learn properly how to drive it (The O/S is a bit, well, odd IMHO) I think network access is going to be a must too, as despite the vast array of floppy disk formats the machine can do (Good job there Acorn), it's a troublesome way to get software onto the machine.
Currently it has econet installed, and I have no way to connect it, so at present it is very much offline. I'm sure I can find some sort of adapter over here
All the repairs are done, and whilst I could easily continue tinkering with the IDE interface, in reality, having the SCSI drive means it isn't entirely necessary. Plus I can easily add another SCSI drive if I need to.
My limited selection of IDE drives seems to be a problem too, since it seems to be sensitive to different drive sizes and geometries.
I'll possibly revisit IDE later, but as far as I can tell, I have caught all the battery damage and everything buzzes out ok, the CMOS/RTC is working fine and the battery replacement is also working well.
The one item I won't be repairing are the traces to the FPA socket, since the FPAs are quite expensive and kind of unnecessary. I have fitted a socket to make it look nice, but only the 4 corner pins are soldered in case I change my mind later.
All the bare traces are now lacquered too.
Looking tidy inside:
Morley SCSI card to the left (V1.19 ROM), Laser Direct card to the right.
Just got to drop the lid back on. Mouse working too, I changed from heat shrink on the rollers to silicone tube and added a 22mm steel ball, and though it requires a surface with a decent amount of friction to work, work it does

Total tally of repairs:
1x CMOS/RTC chip
1x 74HCT245 buffer
7x mainboard capacitors (Maybe a few more than that!!)
15x capacitors in the PSU (Super fishy PSU this one!)
A bunch of bodge wires
A ton of time

Could have been much worse I imagine, seeing some of the other forum posts.
It's been an interesting project, but next I need to learn properly how to drive it (The O/S is a bit, well, odd IMHO) I think network access is going to be a must too, as despite the vast array of floppy disk formats the machine can do (Good job there Acorn), it's a troublesome way to get software onto the machine.
Currently it has econet installed, and I have no way to connect it, so at present it is very much offline. I'm sure I can find some sort of adapter over here

Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
I've now figured out some of the basic stuff and the machine is built with all of the default software for this machine from riscos.com including universal !boot, and I've figured out how to save the desktop so I get the same each boot.
Need to sort out some software to play with now.
Also going to try burning the Wizzo ROM for the 5th column slot to see if it improves the IDE situation.
Need to sort out some software to play with now.
Also going to try burning the Wizzo ROM for the 5th column slot to see if it improves the IDE situation.
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Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Ahh, ok, that sounds like a good plan, I will give that a go.IanJeffray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:03 pmYou can try Wizzo by just softloading the two modules - no need to make a real ROM.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Hey Ian, I've been looking at how to softload the modules, I have both the Wizzo ROM image from another post on here and the 2 modules, IDEFSFiler and IDEFSROM (And the associated!Boot file) from the 3.15 archive.IanJeffray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:03 pmYou can try Wizzo by just softloading the two modules - no need to make a real ROM.
I've had a look at how to do the softload, but I'm coming up with a blank, could you advise how I can do this please?
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Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Just double-click IDEFSFiler, then double-click IDEFSROM. That's it - if its startup messages show it's detected a disk, you know you're good and worth making a ROM. If you want the filer icon to appear, you'll need to do a desktop shutdown and restart (not a full machine restart - just a desktop restart)Ronin47 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 4:43 pmHey Ian, I've been looking at how to softload the modules, I have both the Wizzo ROM image from another post on here and the 2 modules, IDEFSFiler and IDEFSROM (And the associated!Boot file) from the 3.15 archive.
I've had a look at how to do the softload, but I'm coming up with a blank, could you advise how I can do this please?
Last edited by IanJeffray on Wed Jun 22, 2022 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
I get a message to 'Use *Desktop to start IDEFiler' when I double click on it, so stuck again I'm afraid. I will go and look at the docs, but if you have any immediate advice I'm listeningIanJeffray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 4:44 pmJust double-click IDEFSFiler, then double-click IDEFSROM. That's it - if its startup messages show it's detected a disk, you know you're good and worth making a ROM.Ronin47 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 4:43 pmHey Ian, I've been looking at how to softload the modules, I have both the Wizzo ROM image from another post on here and the 2 modules, IDEFSFiler and IDEFSROM (And the associated!Boot file) from the 3.15 archive.
I've had a look at how to do the softload, but I'm coming up with a blank, could you advise how I can do this please?

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Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
There is no option to ignore, just cancel, and it doesn't seem to load.
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Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Thanks, will try.IanJeffray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 5:04 pmIt will have loaded, trust me.
Or don't trust me and type *modules and you'll "IDEFiler" in the list.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
I trust youIanJeffray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 5:04 pmIt will have loaded, trust me.
Or don't trust me and type *modules and you'll "IDEFiler" in the list.

It had loaded, but still no IDE action, will go and dig out my spare drives again.
I presume IDE and SCSI happily co-exist in an A5000?
Also considering that I should perhaps replace the other 74HCT245 just in case that's dead too, I only replaced the one closest to the battery.
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Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
I don't know what "IDE action" you were expecting -- all I suggested was to watch the startup messages produced as you loaded the IDEFSROM module - if that says it detected a drive, you'd know the hardware was OK, just not an 'ADFS-friendly' disc

If it says 0 hard drives ... as shown below ... then it's a fair bet you've still got a hardware fault on the board (not a compatibility issue).
Certainly
If you've buzzed aplenty, then yes, that's a reasonable course of action.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
I was just looking for drives to be detected, but it's pretty erratic, like this:IanJeffray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 7:12 pm
I don't know what "IDE action" you were expecting -- all I suggested was to watch the startup messages produced as you loaded the IDEFSROM module - if that says it detected a drive, you'd know the hardware was OK, just not an 'ADFS-friendly' disc
If it says 0 hard drives ... as shown below ... then it's a fair bet you've still got a hardware fault on the board (not a compatibility issue).
Or as per the picture you posted with no hard drives found.
I've buzzed and buzzed and buzzed, but it all seems to connect to the right places now, so I think the other buffer will get replaced.IanJeffray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 7:12 pmIf you've buzzed aplenty, then yes, that's a reasonable course of action.
If after that there is no change, then I think I will just stick to SCSI and perhaps add a 2nd, larger drive.
As ever, I appreciate the help, thank you.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
I replaced the 2nd 74HCT245 and now get this:
The drive details were garbled before, and now they're not. Wizzo also sees it.
The drive won't format, says bad drive at the end of the process, but I'll take that as progress
The drive details were garbled before, and now they're not. Wizzo also sees it.
The drive won't format, says bad drive at the end of the process, but I'll take that as progress

Last edited by Ronin47 on Thu Jun 23, 2022 2:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Excellent.
That's !HForm. With ADFS. With a CF card. So I'm really, really not surprised.
Now is the time to burn that Wizzo ROM.

Last edited by IanJeffray on Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
I've just gone back and tested my Transcend 128MB Flash module and it formats and works just fine, so I expect that the others didn't work as the geometry or something else didn't play nice with the A5000.
That however is good enough for me, 2 drives, 1 SCSI & 1 IDE.
At least I can say that the IDE interface is actually working and I am able to copy to it, create/delete folders and files, so fairly good result
That however is good enough for me, 2 drives, 1 SCSI & 1 IDE.
At least I can say that the IDE interface is actually working and I am able to copy to it, create/delete folders and files, so fairly good result

Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Somehow I missed your post!!IanJeffray wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:28 pmExcellent.
That's !HForm. With ADFS. With a CF card. So I'm really, really not surprised.
Now is the time to burn that Wizzo ROM.Even with a softloaded Wizzo, you can use !IDEForm to partition and format it - you'll be able to create up to four 499MB partitions (512MB is the 'maximum' size, but 499MB is the best size / efficiency trade-off). You may find you have to repeat the partitioning process.
As it goes, I just don't seem to have any drives that are happy with it, and some may even be toast, I've little to test IDE drives with these days.
As it goes I will stick with the Transcend 128MB module, that should be sufficient for my needs.
You never know, I may get the urge to burn the Wizzo ROM at some point down the road, but for now I am going to call it done, as the IDE interface does at least work now

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Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
With ADFS? Sure. ADFS's compatibility really blows. Have a read though this thread.
Wizzo is the way to go, for sure.
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Hmm, the whole Wizzo thing is buzzing in my head now!!!! Thanks Ian!!
So, am I correct in saying you can burn it to a 27C512 and pop it in the 5th column ROM socket?
I presume it would go in the notch end of the socket as it is shorter, but is that correct?
Also would it need any jumpers setting to specify the ROM type?
Thanks
So, am I correct in saying you can burn it to a 27C512 and pop it in the 5th column ROM socket?
I presume it would go in the notch end of the socket as it is shorter, but is that correct?
Also would it need any jumpers setting to specify the ROM type?
Thanks
Re: I'm back, this time with an A5000
Thanks I will have a readIanJeffray wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 2:32 pmWith ADFS? Sure. ADFS's compatibility really blows. Have a read though this thread.
Wizzo is the way to go, for sure.
