Assembling RC2014 Zed Pro Pride and having a problem detecting CF Card module

[Steve Gibson]

Hi all,

I'm quite the electronics/hardware noob, so forgive my ignorance.

I've successfully assembled the backplane, CPU, 512kROM/RAM, Dual Clock, and SIO/2 modules. These are all working as expected and I'm able to plug in my USB-serial cable to port A on the SIO/2 board and see the system boot up to the RomWBW boot menu.

However, when I add the newly assembled CF Card module, the boot sequence stops at the part where it looks like it's trying to enumerate IDE devices to see what's there:

RomWBW HBIOS v3.2.0, 2023-03-18

RCBus [RCZ80_std] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS

SIO0: IO=0x80 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
DSRTC: MODE=STD IO=0xC0 NOT PRESENT
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=256KB
FD: MODE=RCWDC IO=0x50 NOT PRESENT
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC

It hangs at this spot for about a minute before giving up and continuing and displaying the boot menu prompt.

IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC
IDE0: NO MEDIA
IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT

Unit        Device      Type              Capacity/Mode
----------  ----------  ----------------  --------------------
Char 0      SIO0:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Char 1      SIO1:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Disk 0      MD0:        RAM Disk          256KB,LBA
Disk 1      MD1:        ROM Disk          384KB,LBA
Disk 2      IDE0:       Hard Disk         --
Disk 3      IDE1:       Hard Disk         --


RCBus [RCZ80_std] Boot Loader

Boot [H=Help]:

I've tried different slots on the backplane, carefully removed and reset all three chips, removed and reseated the CF card, visually inspected the solder joints under a magnifier for any bridges or iffy looking welds. Ran a q-tip with alcohol around the solders to clean up any potential flux or other debris. Unfortunately, I still get the same behavior whenever the CF module is installed in the backplane.

I guess the next step is to reflow each solder joint, but I thought I'd ask if I'm missing something obvious before I do that. Is there any configuration or setup that I'm missing?

Again, I'm a noob with the hardware side of things and don't have an oscilloscope, nor would I know how to use one if I did. I do have a multi-meter, but not sure if that would be helpful.

 

Thanks for any advice!

-Steve

[Wayne Warthen]

Hi Steve,

Your construction looks pretty good to me.  Do you know how to upload files to your RC2014 system?  You can use the RAM Disk for this (A:).  If so, I will send you an application that boots RomWBW with IDE driver diagnostics enabled.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Matt Callow]

I would check that each leg of the CF socket is actually soldered to the board by gently trying to move them with a small screwdriver or similar.  If they are soldered, there should be no movement.

Matt

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[Spencer Owen]

Hi Steve,

Good work on the build so far, and looking at the photos of your CF card, your soldering looks great and everything looks as it should do.

My suspicion would be with the CF socket soldering.  The Pride kit modules are much harder to do the surface mount soldering than the regular blue PCBs with traditional solder resist.  I do check every socket for continuity after soldering, and although I found a lot more needed a bit of attention than normal with these.  That being said, at the time they left here, they *should* have worked fine... however, I don't know how much knocking and banging they got in the postal system, so if any joints were only just good enough to pass, then that might have been the issue.

I'd suggest using your multimeter to beep out the pins on the CF socket based on the schematic here; https://rc2014.co.uk/modules/compact-flash-module/ I would hope that everything beeps out ok, but if there's a pin or two that doesn't then I apologize, and suggest gently touching it with a soldering iron and that should reflow it.

Let us know how you get on

Spencer

--

[Steve Gibson]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks, that would be great! I’ll admit I don’t know how to upload an application to the RC2014 yet, but could probably figure it out. I’m guessing via xmodem?

Thanks,

-Steve

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Steve Gibson

  :___;

{ o , o }

| ) ___ )

 - " - " -

[Steve Gibson]

Thanks, Spencer. I’ll see if I’m able to check the pins with my multimeter. I looked briefly at the schematic, and I’m assuming I need to check from the pin in the CF holder to the first point of contact with another component?

Thanks,

-Steve

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[Wayne Warthen]

Here is the file to upload and run under CP/M.  The filename extension was changed from .COM to .MOC to get through gmail.  Change it back to .COM before you upload it to your RC2014.  Yes, XModem is the way to do this.  Make sure that you are uploading to the A: drive (RAM Drive).  If you try to upload to the default B: drive (ROM Drive), it will fail because ROM Drives cannot be written to.  When you run the file, your system will act just like you pressed the reset button, but you will get additional boot messages.  Post those messages.

This may not tell us any more than that you have a hardware issue (as other replies have pointed out), but may still be helpful.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Steve Gibson]

Thanks, Wayne.

I pulled the file down, uploaded to the A: RAM drive via XM.COM with no errors and tried running it. Unfortunately it just hangs immediately after execution. I did notice that on the Linux side using sx to send the file, the bytes sent was 37,248, a bit more than the actual file size 37,121.  I'm guessing that's because CP/M stores files in 128 byte blocks?

Here's what I've got from console output on both sides:

[ Linux ]

root@freyja:~# ls -l RC*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 steve steve 37121 Jul 17 22:37 RCZ80DBG.COM
root@freyja:~# md5sum RCZ80DBG.COM
5341ee2d60bb6f5800915bcc0f2e03a0  RCZ80DBG.COM
root@freyja:~# sx RCZ80DBG.COM < /dev/ttyACM0 > /dev/ttyACM0
Sending RCZ80DBG.COM, 290 blocks: Give your local XMODEM receive command now.
Bytes Sent:  37248   BPS:1863

Transfer complete
root@freyja:~#

[ RC2014 ]

RomWBW HBIOS v3.2.0, 2023-03-18

RCBus [RCZ80_std] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS

SIO0: IO=0x80 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
DSRTC: MODE=STD IO=0xC0 NOT PRESENT
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=256KB
FD: MODE=RCWDC IO=0x50 NOT PRESENT
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC

IDE0: NO MEDIA
IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT

Unit        Device      Type              Capacity/Mode
----------  ----------  ----------------  --------------------
Char 0      SIO0:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Char 1      SIO1:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Disk 0      MD0:        RAM Disk          256KB,LBA
Disk 1      MD1:        ROM Disk          384KB,LBA
Disk 2      IDE0:       Hard Disk         --
Disk 3      IDE1:       Hard Disk         --


RCBus [RCZ80_std] Boot Loader

Boot [H=Help]: c

Loading CP/M 2.2...

CBIOS v3.2.0 [WBW]

Formatting RAMDISK...

Configuring Drives...

        A:=MD0:0
        B:=MD1:0

        3753 Disk Buffer Bytes Free

CP/M-80 v2.2, 54.0K TPA

B>dir A:
NO FILE
B>XM R A:RCZ80DBG.COM

XMODEM v12.5 - 07/13/86
RomWBW, 30-May-2020 [WBW], HBIOS FastPath on COM0

Receiving: A0:RCZ80DBG.COM
248k available for uploads
File open - ready to receive
To cancel: Ctrl-X, pause, Ctrl-X
K
Thanks for the upload

B>dir A:
A: RCZ80DBG COM

B>stat A:RCZ80DBG.COM

 Recs  Bytes  Ext Acc
  291    38k    2 R/W A:RCZ80DBG.COM
Bytes Remaining On A: 210k

B>A:
A>RCZ80DBG
(hangs here with no further output)

Eventually I hit the reset switch on the backplane and went back into CP/M, and it hung at the CBIOS banner for about a minute before continuing. I'm guessing it was again trying to enumerate IDE drives and eventually timed out on that and proceeded with just the RAM & ROM drives.

The RCZ80DBG.COM was still resident on the A: RAM disk so I tried running it again for good measure, but got the same result -- immediate hang. I'm not sure how to go about troubleshooting this file to determine what's causing the hang/crash. I did try powering down completely in order to clear RAM and re-uploading the file a couple times just to make sure there wasn't some unreported transfer error, but I got the same behavior with each attempt. Happy to try out any suggestions and really appreciate the assistance!

On the hardware side I'm going to (in the next day or two) start continuity testing the CF card pins with the multimeter and track what beeps through to where and see if I can match those up to what the schematic says. My initial quick probes found that several CF pins were beeping through to the PCB header pins, but some weren't and some only did a short beep and would stop (capacitor?). Anyway, it'll be a process and I'll need to take notes :-)

Thanks!

-Steve

[Wayne Warthen]

Hi Steve,

It looks like you did the upload correctly.  Yes, the file size change has to do with CP/M block sizes and is normal.

I tested the file on my system and it worked fine.  I have no idea why it would not work for you.  Very sorry, not sure what to do about that and I don't really have any time today.  If you are still having problems tomorrow, I will try to figure out what went wrong with the file.

Hopefully, you can find something on the hardware side.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Steve Gibson]

Wayne, not to worry. I greatly appreciate your efforts to assist! I’ll keep poking around and focus more on the hardware and see where that leads.

Thanks!

-Steve

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[Steve Gibson]

SUCCESS!

I checked continuity of each CF pin to where it should end up, and found that CF pin 20 (A0) wasn't beeping through to pin 16 on the header.  So I carefully applied the iron to that contact point to reflow the solder and voila!

RomWBW HBIOS v3.2.0, 2023-03-18

RCBus [RCZ80_std] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS

SIO0: IO=0x80 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
DSRTC: MODE=STD IO=0xC0 NOT PRESENT
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=256KB
FD: MODE=RCWDC IO=0x50 NOT PRESENT
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC

IDE0: 8-BIT LBA BLOCKS=0x0001EA00 SIZE=61MB

IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT

Unit        Device      Type              Capacity/Mode
----------  ----------  ----------------  --------------------
Char 0      SIO0:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Char 1      SIO1:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Disk 0      MD0:        RAM Disk          256KB,LBA
Disk 1      MD1:        ROM Disk          384KB,LBA

Disk 2      IDE0:       CompactFlash      61MB,LBA

Disk 3      IDE1:       Hard Disk         --


RCBus [RCZ80_std] Boot Loader

Boot [H=Help]:

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and hand-holding!

-Steve

[Wayne Warthen]

Well done.

[Lionel Peterson]

Awesome! Glad the fix was so straight-forward!

Ken

On Jul 18, 2023, at 16:48, Steve Gibson <st...@stevegibson.com> wrote:

SUCCESS!

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[Spencer Owen]

Hi Steve,

That is both excellent news, and troubling news.

I'm glad that you found the issue and it was a simple fix to get you up and running.

But I'm sorry that you needed to do the fix.  As I mentioned, these are tested before they go out, so it *should* have just worked. I suspect that maybe the leg was physically touching the pad when tested, but it was a dry joint that moved slightly in shipping. These dye-sub boards are much harder to attach the socket than regular blue boards as I'm limited by the amount of heat I can apply from underneath the board and how long I can keep the hot air on it without the dye evaporating away.

Now this is working, the rest of the boards should be easy sailing!

Cheers

Spencer

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[Steve Gibson]

No worries, Spencer!

Given the unique nature of that PCB it's completely understandable. And the kit was beautifully packaged with obvious care and consideration taken. But, of course, shipping anything overseas, passing through so many hands, there's bound to be an occasional rough handling, drop, etc.

Honestly, I was pleased to find the CF slot pre-soldered onto the board in the first place as I've never done any surface mountings of that size and that many pins. Additionally, it was a good learning experience for me to go through the process and try to make sense of the schematic compared to the physical hardware.

This has been great fun so far and I really appreciate the amazing kit you've created. Thanks for all the support!

Cheers,

-Steve