AVGCART

[Mclaneinc]

Welcome to the forum, you will find the AVG a really great cart and with the cable from Mr Robot the cart becomes even more useful. At the moment the cart is doing stuff people thought not possible or incredibly hard, the SIO side means proper reliable loading of various formats just as you would do from Tape or Disk, now with ATX support and HSIO (OS rom allowing). tmp is working really hard and its paying off.

 

Good luck with Carina BBS and have a look at Fujinet as well...The old Atari is a lot more modern now

[Atari_bbs_fan]

I appreciate the welcome and yes, I checked out some of the videos on Fujinet as well.  I suppose it might be able to allow the 130xe to connect to remote TELNET BBSes but I got the impression it was more like a over-the-internet  car/xex/atr/cas loader.  I'll research that more once I learn all I can when/if using the AVG card.

[R.Cade]

OK, I did something stupid. I got an SIO add-on cable, but did not read closely how to connect it. 

 

It fits, so I connected it to the JTAG port. Plugged that into the SIO port, then powered up the Atari. It didn't boot.

 

I removed the cable, and now the Atari boots, but the AVGCART now appears to be lifeless. The Atari doesn't see that it's installed.

 

Can it be reflashed from the Atari? Through that JTAG port? Or... did I just fry it?  Nothing appears burned or smells burned.

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by R.Cade

[_The Doctor__]

Pull your SD card and see if there is any life.

You only chance is the debricker or jtag progammer... if that fails you toasted something... I suspect toast as voltage may have been at play.

 

[R.Cade]

19 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Pull your SD card and see if there is any life.

You only chance is the debricker or jtag progammer... if that fails you toasted something... I suspect toast as voltage may have been at play.

 

SD card or no SD card doesn't matter. It acts like there is no cart in the slot.

 

I actually have an Xilinx programmer box, but I would need instructions on making an adapter cable and the programming files.

 

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by R.Cade

[tmp]

1 hour ago, R.Cade said:

OK, I did something stupid. I got an SIO add-on cable, but did not read closely how to connect it. 

 

It fits, so I connected it to the JTAG port. Plugged that into the SIO port, then powered up the Atari. It didn't boot.

 

I removed the cable, and now the Atari boots, but the AVGCART now appears to be lifeless. The Atari doesn't see that it's installed.

 

Can it be reflashed from the Atari? Through that JTAG port? Or... did I just fry it?  Nothing appears burned or smells burned.

 

unfortunately my guess is that it's dead (it shorted 3.3v rail (which shouldn't be a problem) and put 5V on jtag pins (which could be a problem))

if you have a DMM, measure resistances on that jtag connector (on the solder side (top side with AVGCART label), black probe on the rightmost pin (ground) and measure against the remaining 5 pins), i can compare it with a healthy one (it's non-conclusive but there's not much that can be done remotely at this point)

 

i'd be very surprised if reflashing would help since flash is a separate chip

[Mr Robot]

On 4/26/2020 at 8:01 AM, tmp said:

 

6 pin jst connectors, 1.25mm pitch (ebay/aliexpress are full of them, including some crimped cables although majority of them is quite short), the one on pcb is 90deg

 

molex picoblade should work too

 

red pcb is the one from the video, black pcb has connector flipped to the other side so pcb fits into unmodified shell, green pcbs have the connector flush with the edge so no need for a flip

 

white and red are connected together

 

if you decide to mod the shell, expect pain and tears, those polish shells are pure crap, they warp once you screw them together so nothing lines up with anything anymore, you have been warned

I guess now is a good time to resurface this comment so it isn't lost back on page 32

[R.Cade]

21 hours ago, tmp said:

unfortunately my guess is that it's dead (it shorted 3.3v rail (which shouldn't be a problem) and put 5V on jtag pins (which could be a problem))

if you have a DMM, measure resistances on that jtag connector (on the solder side (top side with AVGCART label), black probe on the rightmost pin (ground) and measure against the remaining 5 pins), i can compare it with a healthy one (it's non-conclusive but there's not much that can be done remotely at this point)

 

i'd be very surprised if reflashing would help since flash is a separate chip

I don't show any resistance on any of the lines except between 1 and 6, which is about 1.93k ohms. I also checked that there is 3.3v on those lines when the Atari is powered on.

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by R.Cade

[_The Doctor__]

with no power...

from ground to each pin you had how much resistance?

from the 3.3 rail to each pin you had how much resistance?

from 5 v rail you had how much resistance to each pin

with power on

how much voltage do you see on each pin... using ground for you negative dmm lead

 

still think you have toast...

[R.Cade]

19 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

with no power...

from ground to each pin you had how much resistance?

from the 3.3 rail to each pin you had how much resistance?

from 5 v rail you had how much resistance to each pin

with power on

how much voltage do you see on each pin... using ground for you negative dmm lead

 

still think you have toast...

There is no measurable resistance from either the leftmost or rightmost to any other pin except each other, which is 1.92k.

 

All of the lines have 3.3v once it's powered on (respective to the rightmost pin, GND).

 

Sorry I missed part of your question. Where should I measure from the 5v rail?

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by R.Cade

[_The Doctor__]

You've already given the answer, all pins are high... that sounds like it's done. @tmp, do you agree?

Edited July 2, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[R.Cade]

1 hour ago, _The Doctor__ said:

You've already given the answer, all pins are high... that sounds like it's done. @tmp, do you agree?

Thanks very much to tmp's eagle eye! He spotted in the pictures that I must have knocked a diode off the board. By a huge stroke of luck I found it inside the Atari and reattached it, and the AVGCart lives again.  When I was testing it outside the cart shell, I was holding open the flaps on the XL, but at some point I must have let it scrape against the board a little and knocked it off. Even more luck that it didn't pull up the trace or anything.

 

Now I just need to source the correct socket for the SIO plug...

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by R.Cade

[_The Doctor__]

@tmp@R.Cade

Shouldn't have been possible to do so, but as luck would have it, it looks like that diode is from power in...  that may have saved the AVG carts life!

super happy accident that saved a mistake from becoming disaster!

it might have heated up and melted it's own solder then fell off?

so the problem was power,  I was heading towards that in my line of questions... too bad I cut bait a split second too soon. shame on me as you posted the pictures at the same time I posted , I never saw the photos!

 

still that diode couldn't have been soldered properly, the trace wasn't pulled and the diode came off?  it would be asking for flaky behavior sooner than later.... unless it got hot enough to de-solder itself... or blew off... if you found it intact, I'd test it!

 

more concerning is the crack on the component slightly above and to the right of the regulator transistors and above the two diode next to those two regulators ... is appears to have a crack in it's lower left area and a divot like it was impacted or blew out...

 

I don't like it.

Edited July 2, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[Mr Robot]

There was a connector in the bag with the cable. Pushed into a bit of conductive foam

[_The Doctor__]

6 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

There was a connector in the bag with the cable. Pushed into a bit of conductive foam

can't wait for my Robot cables to arrive!

I'll be sure to locate the connectors immediately as this is one heck of a pay attention to everything or this can happen to you example.

[R.Cade]

11 hours ago, Mr Robot said:

There was a connector in the bag with the cable. Pushed into a bit of conductive foam

I grabbed the bag and looked again and I must have misplaced it. I'll be happy to pay you for another one+postage if you have one. Otherwise I'll have to wait a couple months for the slow boat.

 

[R.Cade]

11 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

@tmp@R.Cade

 

 

more concerning is the crack on the component slightly above and to the right of the regulator transistors and above the two diode next to those two regulators ... is appears to have a crack in it's lower left area and a divot like it was impacted or blew out...

 

I don't like it.

I noticed the white spot on that chip and thought the same thing at first, that it overheated and blew it. That still could have happened, but it is perfectly smooth (not a missing chunk) and seems to just be a white spot. It could still be heat damage. I didn't even notice the crack until you mentioned it and I zoomed in. I'll check that to see if it's real and not a photo anomaly.

 

Everything seems to be working with the cart, though. What does that chip do?

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by R.Cade

[Mr Robot]

14 minutes ago, R.Cade said:

I'll be happy to pay you for another one+postage if you have one.

This was all just the spares I had from the parts I ordered, I have none left now, sorry. Look around, it has to be there somewhere!

Otherwise @AtariGeezer may have some spares which could save you the long wait.

[marauder666]

1 hour ago, R.Cade said:

I noticed the white spot on that chip and thought the same thing at first, that it overheated and blew it. That still could have happened, but it is perfectly smooth (not a missing chunk) and seems to just be a white spot. It could still be heat damage. I didn't even notice the crack until you mentioned it and I zoomed in. I'll check that to see if it's real and not a photo anomaly.

 

Everything seems to be working with the cart, though. What does that chip do?

 

 

Does look like a crack going towards pin 1.

I think that chip is the flash which holds the FPGA code.

[Mclaneinc]

1 hour ago, R.Cade said:

I grabbed the bag and looked again and I must have misplaced it. I'll be happy to pay you for another one+postage if you have one. Otherwise I'll have to wait a couple months for the slow boat.

 

Missed part of the conversion, is it the connector on the AVG pcb you are missing?

 

I've got two left left, if you want one I'll be happy to post one over from the UK..Not as fast in internal USA but better than Aliexpress..

 

Paul.

[mimo]

55 minutes ago, Mclaneinc said:

Missed part of the conversion, is it the connector on the AVG pcb you are missing?

 

I've got two left left, if you want one I'll be happy to post one over from the UK..Not as fast in internal USA but better than Aliexpress..

 

Paul.

I ordered some longer cables last week and they arrived in 6 days from AliExpress

[Mclaneinc]

22 minutes ago, mimo said:

I ordered some longer cables last week and they arrived in 6 days from AliExpress

I have two things coming from them, already feels like an eternity, one apparently is on the plane, the other sunbathing at the airport....Soaking up all that Coronavirus...

[Mr Robot]

Last 9 cables went out in the mail today, I taped the conductive foam with connector on it to a card this time, they are small and I don't want them to get lost.

 

Just @Philsan's cable to go and I'm done.

 

[R.Cade]

2 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Missed part of the conversion, is it the connector on the AVG pcb you are missing?

 

I've got two left left, if you want one I'll be happy to post one over from the UK..Not as fast in internal USA but better than Aliexpress..

 

Paul.

That would be great- PM me and let me know what I owe you.

 

Also, I checked and there is no crack in that chip. It just looks like a white paint spot really. Here is a better photo.

 

[Mr Robot]

The last of my cables (and a modded cart) are now winging their way to Switzerland and I have no spares left. That makes another 17 people with cables.