Interest in Indus GT SRAMCharger board

[tregare]

1.20 ROM is fine, there is no 1.4 !

To run CP/M you need 1.20 (some drives have eariler versions 1.00, 1.10)

Run CPMTool and see what it shows.

 

 

ok, it's good to know the info I found was bogus.

 

cpmtool reports ERROR 1 and crashes. I'm trying to run it under REAL DOS.

 

I wonder what the heck the "1.4" rom I saw for the indus was. I'll have to find it again and check it and see WTF it is.

[trub]

cpmtool reports ERROR 1 and crashes. I'm trying to run it under REAL DOS.

Error 1 means that there is no extended RAM at $8000. Check if A15 enables it.

 

I wonder what the heck the "1.4" rom I saw for the indus was

You probably saw a file "indus14.bin" which in fact is the older 1.10 ROM. The 1.20 file is "indus12.bin".

[tregare]

cpmtool reports ERROR 1 and crashes. I'm trying to run it under REAL DOS.

Error 1 means that there is no extended RAM at $8000. Check if A15 enables it.

 

I wonder what the heck the "1.4" rom I saw for the indus was

You probably saw a file "indus14.bin" which in fact is the older 1.10 ROM. The 1.20 file is "indus12.bin".

 

 

Thanks Trub it turns out that the low power 628128 chips I had from another project will not work in the indus SRAMcharger. I swapped it with a standard Hitachi 628128 non LP device and it works like a champ and passes the ram test. now to just complete the last 2 I am assembling for now and I can write up the part list and errata (1 jumper wire) and start the process of making these available in kit form, bare board with parts list and complete sramcharger and I have assembled and tested 2 with the horizontally attached connector like you need for the indus style drives that weren't made by indus

[trub]

Thanks for the info. Good job !

[Defender II]

Great project!

 

Will this upgrade work on all of the different Indus GT releases?

 

Any idea on the cost yet? I know I want some, but the cost would determine which kind I would order.

 

I am still looking for an original Indus GT SRAMCharger board for my collection as well, if anyone has one to sell.

[trub]

Will this upgrade work on all of the different Indus GT releases?

 

Indus GT with firmware version 1.20 is required. According to the service manual, earlier ROM releases have serious bugs and should be replaced anyway

ROM version is displayed while Synchromesh is being loaded and can also be checked with CPMTool.

 

In LDW Super 2000 drives (Indus clones) the connector J3 is not soldered in. In such case an easy fix should be done prior installing the board (see info on my page).

Edited May 14, 2010 by trub

[tregare]

Great project!

 

Will this upgrade work on all of the different Indus GT releases?

 

Any idea on the cost yet? I know I want some, but the cost would determine which kind I would order.

 

I am still looking for an original Indus GT SRAMCharger board for my collection as well, if anyone has one to sell.

 

costs will roughly be:

completed board will be under $30.

bare board with part-list and errata will be around $7.50-10

kit, somewhere in-between, most likely under $20 (depends on how much i end up paying for the 2 most expensive parts, the SRAM and the connector to Indus main-board)

 

and shipping naturally.

 

completed boards have been run through a couple of memory tests and as soon as I can get the disks made will be booted to CP/M I am planning on including a boot disk with the card including Trub's CPMtool program. although I really recommend downloading it from his site and running it on your Indus to see what ROM version you have. I should be receiving some 27c32's shortly so if needed I can burn a 1.2 replacement ROM to ship with the board/kit/complete unit if needed.

 

part of the cost on the kits and complete board are partly due to the sockets, as I have put turned-pin IC sockets on the ones I have already assembled for ease of repair should one get fried, the only active components that need desoldered to replace are the monolithic no polarized decoupling capacitors on the board I personally prefer the turned-pin sockets as they are more rugged and in my experience less prone to failure than the cheaper dual-wipe sockets.

 

I will be posting in the marketplace once I have preparations complete, I am hoping to be able to provide completed units and PCB's by Monday 5/17 and as soon as the 2 batch of chips, sockets, connectors and capacitors arrive I can do the kits.

 

and for a little extra, I can print out the reconstituted Indus GT field service manual and include that too (haven't decided how much, probably $10 or less) although I have made the PDF available for free on my server

[Defender II]

I'll take some kits. 2 or 3 depending on the final price.

[tregare]

cpmtool reports ERROR 1 and crashes. I'm trying to run it under REAL DOS.

Error 1 means that there is no extended RAM at $8000. Check if A15 enables it.

 

I wonder what the heck the "1.4" rom I saw for the indus was

You probably saw a file "indus14.bin" which in fact is the older 1.10 ROM. The 1.20 file is "indus12.bin".

 

 

Thanks Trub it turns out that the low power 628128 chips I had from another project will not work in the indus SRAMcharger. I swapped it with a standard Hitachi 628128 non LP device and it works like a champ and passes the ram test. now to just complete the last 2 I am assembling for now and I can write up the part list and errata (1 jumper wire) and start the process of making these available in kit form, bare board with parts list and complete sramcharger and I have assembled and tested 2 with the horizontally attached connector like you need for the indus style drives that weren't made by indus

 

 

By the way, the chips I foudn that didn't want to work are BSI BS62LV1027PCP70. the chips power down when de-selected and I am suspecting they are not finishing up the power back up cycle before it attempts to access it

[HiassofT]

By the way, the chips I foudn that didn't want to work are BSI BS62LV1027PCP70. the chips power down when de-selected and I am suspecting they are not finishing up the power back up cycle before it attempts to access it

Oh, the BSI chips, I also had my "fun" with them while building my 512k SRAM upgrade...

 

I'm not sure what exactly is going wrong with them, but I managed to get them working correctly using these equations:

/OE = RW * PHI2
/WE = /RW * PHI0 * PHI2
/CE = [address lines] * (PHI0 + PHI2)

The "PHI0 * PHI2" term in the WE signal is just to work around timing problems with some Ataris by shortening the WE cycle. But the CE timing seems to be crucial to get the BSI chips working properly.

 

For all other RAM and flash chips I just used a combinatorial term without PHIx (depending only on the address lines) for CE and it worked fine. But with the BSI chips that resulted in occasional errors when the RAM upgrade was configured to modes without separate ANTIC access. So the next try looked like this:

/CE = [address lines] * PHI2

This worked fine so far, but a few months ago a friend told me that he had problems with the current BSI chips in his 130XE. Replacing PHI2 with (PHI0 + PHI2) in the CE term cured these problems. So it seems the chip has problems when /CE is not asserted before /OE or /WE...

 

mega-hz reported another interesting thing: he also had severe problems with the BSI chips but they disappeared once he added a diode to the VCC line to the BSI chip (to support battery backup of the RAM). This leads to VCC of the BSI chip being at ~4.3-4.5V.

 

So: it's all very strange and I never had any of these problems with any other manufacturer...

 

so long,

 

Hias

[tregare]

By the way, the chips I foudn that didn't want to work are BSI BS62LV1027PCP70. the chips power down when de-selected and I am suspecting they are not finishing up the power back up cycle before it attempts to access it

Oh, the BSI chips, I also had my "fun" with them while building my 512k SRAM upgrade...

 

I'm not sure what exactly is going wrong with them, but I managed to get them working correctly using these equations:

/OE = RW * PHI2
/WE = /RW * PHI0 * PHI2
/CE = [address lines] * (PHI0 + PHI2)

The "PHI0 * PHI2" term in the WE signal is just to work around timing problems with some Ataris by shortening the WE cycle. But the CE timing seems to be crucial to get the BSI chips working properly.

 

For all other RAM and flash chips I just used a combinatorial term without PHIx (depending only on the address lines) for CE and it worked fine. But with the BSI chips that resulted in occasional errors when the RAM upgrade was configured to modes without separate ANTIC access. So the next try looked like this:

/CE = [address lines] * PHI2

This worked fine so far, but a few months ago a friend told me that he had problems with the current BSI chips in his 130XE. Replacing PHI2 with (PHI0 + PHI2) in the CE term cured these problems. So it seems the chip has problems when /CE is not asserted before /OE or /WE...

 

mega-hz reported another interesting thing: he also had severe problems with the BSI chips but they disappeared once he added a diode to the VCC line to the BSI chip (to support battery backup of the RAM). This leads to VCC of the BSI chip being at ~4.3-4.5V.

 

So: it's all very strange and I never had any of these problems with any other manufacturer...

 

so long,

 

Hias

 

thank you, I was starting to worry it was just me I have a bunch of Hitachi 80ns 628128 srams on their way to me they just work

 

looking at the datasheet i was able to find didn't give me any clues as to why it was doing what it was doing...

[Defender II]

Any updates?

[tregare]

Any updates?

 

 

Yes, the hitachi chips work just peachy. Trub ordered a pair of PCB's (it was his schematic I started from) and I sent him what he ordered, plus a bonus since it was his schematic initially. I feel kind of homored, as he is replacing his wire-wrap proto with one of my boards.

 

so, I have bare boards, kits and completed boards (unless you have the LDW and CA drives, then I can have a completed one in about an hour )

[trub]

I can confirm that. The boards are great !

Excellent quality, compact and perfectly populated.

Just "plug-and-play" it into your Indus GT and voila !

 

I will put the photos on my site soon

[sloopy]

i am getting an indus gt sometime this week, when it gets running, i will get a board... i saw this thread as it was made and was interesting, now that i will have a indus, its very interesting...

 

sloopy.

[tregare]

i am getting an indus gt sometime this week, when it gets running, i will get a board... i saw this thread as it was made and was interesting, now that i will have a indus, its very interesting...

 

sloopy.

 

 

Thanks sloopy

[ataridano]

I'd love to get one too if it's not too late.

[tregare]

I'd love to get one too if it's not too late.

 

 

nope, I have bare boards, kits and assembled-tested units

[+Stephen]

I'd love to get one too if it's not too late.

 

nope, I have bare boards, kits and assembled-tested units

What good timing. I would like a kit please . PM sent with my info.

[Defender II]

Any updates?

 

 

Yes, the hitachi chips work just peachy. Trub ordered a pair of PCB's (it was his schematic I started from) and I sent him what he ordered, plus a bonus since it was his schematic initially. I feel kind of homored, as he is replacing his wire-wrap proto with one of my boards.

 

so, I have bare boards, kits and completed boards (unless you have the LDW and CA drives, then I can have a completed one in about an hour )

 

What are the final prices and shipping?

What is different about the LDW and CA drives?

[trub]

What is different about the LDW and CA drives?

The difference is just the connector. Indus extension should have the connector facing down towards the male slot on the drive's PCB, while LDW/CA extension connects horizontally to the optional male slot on the side.

[tregare]

since I'm short of $ and need to rebuild my transmission on my truck I cut the price to

$5 for a bare board,

$15 for a kit and

$25 for a complete tested board, $4.95 priority mail flat rate shipping.

 

I'll cover delivery conf myself.

 

so, 9.95 for bare board shipped, 19.95 for kit shipped and 29.95 for completed tested board shipped.

 

I've been very busy at work lately so I haven't read the forums much, but I do have all w ready to ship (just need to pop into a flat rate box with packing material and have it dropped at post office by my lady.

[tregare]

since I'm short of $ and need to rebuild my transmission on my truck I cut the price to

$5 for a bare board,

$15 for a kit and

$25 for a complete tested board, $4.95 priority mail flat rate shipping.

 

I'll cover delivery conf myself.

 

so, 9.95 for bare board shipped, 19.95 for kit shipped and 29.95 for completed tested board shipped.

 

I've been very busy at work lately so I haven't read the forums much, but I do have all w ready to ship (just need to pop into a flat rate box with packing material and have it dropped at post office by my lady.

 

 

BTW: that is US flat rate shipping I think also canada is the same cost as us flat rate.

[Defender II]

since I'm short of $ and need to rebuild my transmission on my truck I cut the price to

$5 for a bare board,

$15 for a kit and

$25 for a complete tested board, $4.95 priority mail flat rate shipping.

 

I'll cover delivery conf myself.

 

so, 9.95 for bare board shipped, 19.95 for kit shipped and 29.95 for completed tested board shipped.

 

I've been very busy at work lately so I haven't read the forums much, but I do have all w ready to ship (just need to pop into a flat rate box with packing material and have it dropped at post office by my lady.

 

 

BTW: that is US flat rate shipping I think also canada is the same cost as us flat rate.

How many kits can I get shipped for $4.95 priority mail flat rate shipping?

[tregare]

since I'm short of $ and need to rebuild my transmission on my truck I cut the price to

$5 for a bare board,

$15 for a kit and

$25 for a complete tested board, $4.95 priority mail flat rate shipping.

 

I'll cover delivery conf myself.

 

so, 9.95 for bare board shipped, 19.95 for kit shipped and 29.95 for completed tested board shipped.

 

I've been very busy at work lately so I haven't read the forums much, but I do have all w ready to ship (just need to pop into a flat rate box with packing material and have it dropped at post office by my lady.

 

 

BTW: that is US flat rate shipping I think also canada is the same cost as us flat rate.

How many kits can I get shipped for $4.95 priority mail flat rate shipping?

 

at least 4 will fit into the box with packing materials. I need to see what the weight limit is for the small flat rate box