RamFAST rev B v3.00h ROM and SCSI CD-ROM/Floptical
sporadic
that Santa brought me :)
quick updates:
1. the TWgs is not stable @ 12 MHz (and yes, I ultimately cut the TC4/
TC5 bow ties to rule it out). It would hang within 10 minutes while
running Modulae, also it'd crash while sitting idle at the Finder
desktop. Running the continuous self test will eventually log a
Language Card error. Tried it on two different ROM 1s (one with a GS
RAM Plus 6MB and another with GS Juice+ 4MB).
2. it is very stable @ 7 MHz (the original 28 MHz crystal) and also @
10 MHz. I'm happy with 10 MHz/32K so I'm leaving well enough alone.
3. Replaced the fan in the System Saver GS so it doesn't sound like a
dust buster anymore, and it moves crazy amount of air now!
Back to the RamFAST question: I have an old school rev B RamFAST with
v3.00h ROM (serial #0083). There are two stickers on the card, U15
V3.00 and U16 V2.01. I have an old Plextor UltraPlex 40max CD-ROM
(PX-40TSi) and also picked up a floptical driver off eBay, per Pitz's
suggestion. I'm booting off a MicroDrive in Slot 7, and the RF is in
Slot 1.
The Finder doesn't show either drives (I have media in both), and the
HS.FST is installed. RamFAST works with a SCSI HD and it can detect
the HD in the ROM utility. But the ROM utility can't detect either
device, it reports:
The following condition(s) and/or change(s) have been detected:
Incompatible configuration data.
Does anyone know if Rev B will accept the v3.01F ROM? ReactiveMicro
indicates it's for Rev D. Does anyone know if v3.00h ROM works with
SCSI CD-ROM/Floptical drives?
Thanks!
Jimmy
Bill Garber
"sporadic" <sporad...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:75899671-323e-4c9a...@b36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Check your Drive ID settings. Each drive must have a different ID,
and be a different ID than the controller, as well.
Also, proper termination at the start and end of the SCSI chain
is mandatory.
Bill Garber
sporadic
> "sporadic" <sporadica...@gmail.com> wrote in message
Hi Bill,
Yup, SCSI ID and termination all accounted for. I've also tried the
CD-ROM and floptical drives by itself to no avail. The identical
setup (other than the device) works with a Maxtor SCSI HD so I'm
looking at RamFAST as the culprit.
Jimmy
wyeo
> 1. the TWgs is not stable @ 12 MHz (and yes, I ultimately cut the TC4/
> TC5 bow ties to rule it out). It would hang within 10 minutes while
> running Modulae, also it'd crash while sitting idle at the Finder
> desktop.
I am just wondering, are you running on the original power supply and
do you have other cards in your system ?
Previously, when I owned a TWGS, I can only have 3 (TWGS is one of
them) cards before the system will start misbehaving, solely because
the power supply is not able to handle the amount of load. When I
obtained a Pegasus internal power-supply with harddisk, the output of
the power supply is able to provide more and it doesn't heat up as
quick, and I can put a full load of cards.
Regards.
brad
"I am just wondering, are you running on the original power supply and
do you have other cards in your system ?
ditto to the above...i also had to run a more heavy duty power supply i used
and a.e. heavy duty power supply back in the day and had the ramfast card
(for the bbs), 4meg ram card, 5.25 floppy card for the old style floppy
drives with black front and a 3.5 a.e disk drive
i think that was it ...mine is in the //gs upgrade kit however with an
system saver fan and the lid off most times
also if i remember certain of the DIP' able chips in the twgs had to be of a
certain type ..the onboard ram and other such onboard ram? or whatever they
recommended those chips in additon worked the best not sure of the revisions
anymore
those chips whatever the versions were replacement along with the power
supply upgrade ....lessen the heat problems maybe with lid off and also is i
think what helped bump me to a stable 13.75mhz....but if you can get a
standard 24/7 at 12mhz that works too
but ask around for the verisons of the other chips on the card they recomend
(assuming i'm remembering this right)
brad
former sysop lost-gonzo.com
brad
twgs upgrade question also on this thread
but power supply upgrades if lots of cards is valid i guess and i think the
most current upgrade rom for the ramfast was 3.01h if i remember right
but of course by the prev post you can see i'm losing it
brad
former sysop lost-gonzo.com
sporadic
I am running the stock GS power supply, and the instability @ 12 MHz
was with just the TWgs and the RAM card (tried the GS RAM Plus and GS
Juice+). I'm now running with 4 cards @ 10 MHz (RamFAST, SuperSonic,
TWgs and 6MB GS RAM Plus) and it's been stable. Maybe I'll upgrade
the PSU once LittlePower becomes available again, ReactiveMicro only
list the LittlePower II right now.
Jimmy
Drew
> I am running the stock GS power supply, and the instability @ 12 MHz
> was with just the TWgs and the RAM card (tried the GS RAM Plus and GS
> Juice+). I'm now running with 4 cards @ 10 MHz (RamFAST, SuperSonic,
> TWgs and 6MB GS RAM Plus) and it's been stable. Maybe I'll upgrade
> the PSU once LittlePower becomes available again, ReactiveMicro only
> list the LittlePower II right now.
>
> Jimmy
I have a TWGS that won't go beyond 10Mhz without it being unstable. It
was unstable at 12Mhz regardless of psu (inc littlePower GS), lid off
etc and even a fan blowing on it. I think certain TWGS cards just
won't go past a certain speed. I had replaced the CPU, Logic chips,
CPU cable and also a new 32k cache card. The only thing left was to
replace the capacitors, but as the card ran fine at 10mhz I was happy
with that.
Drew
sporadic
Thanks Drew! Sounds like our cards are twins :) Yeah, at this point,
I'm not going to spend more on the TWgs, I'm happy with 10 MHz, heck,
that's still faster than my old ZipGSX 8/64 that I had nearly 20 years
ago! There are still enough new peripherals that I don't have yet so
I'd much rather spend money on that (like a certain new sound card :).
Jimmy
Drew
Lol I have 15 PCBs turning up this week, so hopefully in January
(waiting for back plates to be made) you will have one:)
Drew
brad
"> Drew Lol I have 15 PCBs turning up this week, so hopefully in January
> (waiting for back plates to be made) you will have one:)
backplates? what for the apple //gs upgrade type of backplates to clone mod
a //e (i wish)
brad
former sysop lost-gonzo.com
amart...@gmail.com
the little power will be available soon, and available through
ultimateapple2, reactive, as well as 8bitsystems. stay tuned...
Drew
No these are backplates for a gs stereo cars so the stereo jack can be
screwed to back of the gs
sporadic
wrote:
Awesome! Now that I have a few GSes to play with, I'm thinking about
doing a case conversion, putting the GS, 5.25 and 3.5 drives, and
Ambery box inside a mini-ATX chassis, and having the LittlePower would
solve the PSU issue neatly. If I ever solved the RamFAST CD-ROM/
Floptical issue, they would also fit nicely inside the mini-ATX
chassis. I still have old school rainbow Apple logo stickers I can
slap on the case. Yeah, no where near as cool as the GS laptop
project, but still, having a self-contain GS box would be neat.
Jimmy
Drew
> Awesome! Now that I have a few GSes to play with, I'm thinking about
> doing a case conversion, putting the GS, 5.25 and 3.5 drives, and
> Ambery box inside a mini-ATX chassis, and having the LittlePower would
> solve the PSU issue neatly. If I ever solved the RamFAST CD-ROM/
> Floptical issue, they would also fit nicely inside the mini-ATX
> chassis. I still have old school rainbow Apple logo stickers I can
> slap on the case. Yeah, no where near as cool as the GS laptop
> project, but still, having a self-contain GS box would be neat.
>
> Jimmy
Always been tempted to do that...but I like the overall look of the GS
IMO :)
Drew
BTW with the LittlePower cards its worth looking at the Pico MiniATX
Power supplies. You have a small PSU that plugs onto the card and then
a laptop type supply that connects to the small PSU. Keeps some heat
outside of the machine.
sporadic
While I wasn't able to get the RamRAST to recognize the CD-ROM, I'm
happy to report I picked up a HS SCSI from Gust and now I can use the
old Plextor SCSI CD with the GS! Still can't get the floptical to show
up so I'm suspecting I have a bad drive. I hope the eBay seller can
find a replacement drive or give me a refund.
Jimmy
Bill Garber
"sporadic" <sporad...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:87f9f160-8f77-43c5...@j19g2000yqk.googlegroups.com...
I am sorry to hear that, because, I also bought one of those flopticals.
Bill Garber
sporadic
> "sporadic" <sporadica...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:87f9f160-8f77-43c5...@j19g2000yqk.googlegroups.com...
Well, I'm sure they work, because pitz got one to work on his setup.
I'm hoping a replacement would work.
Jimmy
brad
flopical (optical) drive
i have it around here someplace may only work with a specific ROM ver of the
ramfast thou
brad
former sysop lost gonzo bbs
sorta off topic but i have a link if people are interested to take a usb
card and get it to boot dos 6.22 to whatever xp or higher ...i need to get
the old bbs up and find my files and set it up perm on a usb card..maybe
that is something that could be setup with the archives like asmiov..just a
note to those like me who ran an internet bbs (worldgroup) with apple //
bbs's telnetable might be an easy way to backup and restore it all for quick
access...i need quick access all the apple ii stuff was in my file dirs from
bbs days sigh....fyi
brad
former sysop lost-gonzo.com
here is the link in case people need it as in my use from back in the day
with telnet and there apple iis via pc bbs pkgs
http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm
kinda cool to boot and run this stuff from a usb stick main thing is if
have to go thru 400 disks and such to put the dos wg 1.01 backup with that
tpro 4.2f rpg bbs on and apple gs telnetable and the fv/metal 4.0xev bbs
back up thru the dialout door and serial connections...i only want to do
that again 1x ...put it on the usb and viola ...should be safer then losing
my 1 backup tape from the 20 tapes on the old apple //e 20sc tape backup
scsi back in the day...and then the whole works is lost (too much to do)
brad
former sysop lost-gonzo.com
"sporadic" <sporad...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:87f9f160-8f77-43c5...@j19g2000yqk.googlegroups.com...
sporadic
I finally got the floptical drive to work! As it turns out, RamFast
doesn't need a driver (assuming you have 3.00L or newer ROM, which I
don't), but the Apple HS SCSI needs a driver. I found the driver
here:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/gs/hardware/Floptical.Drvr.1.0.1.shk
I was able to get a DOS floppy to show up on the GS desktop, read only
though, since the MSDOS.FST is r/o. But hey, between the CD-ROM,
Floptical, ADTPro/serial, TeraTerm/ProTerm 3.1, I can now pretty much
transfer anything I can think of between the Mac/PC <-> GS. And
that's not counting just pulling the MicroDrive out of the GS and plug
it into a PC/Mac and use CiderPress!
So all is well, I'm pretty jazzed at the setup I managed to put
together!
Jimmy