Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!jmelv
From: jmelv@madnix.UUCP (John Melvin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: More A500 woes.
Summary: clocks, line noise, and garbage cans - answers
Message-ID: <970@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 22 Nov 89 03:51:30 GMT
References: <2833@d75.UUCP>
Distribution: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech
Organization: MADNIX, operated by: ARP Software  Madison WI
Lines: 45

In article <2833@d75.UUCP>, robin@sabre.uucp (Robin D. Wilson/1000000) writes:
> 
[stuff deleted]
> 
> My Clock seems to be REAL slow.  I lost 2 minutes in 12 hours just last night.
> BUT,... when I reboot, the clock gets reset by the battery backed clock in the
> A501 expansion and starts to deteriorate from the correct time again.  How 
> can I get a correctly synced system clock?

	There isn't a lot you can do about this onw except to occassionally do a
	"setclock opt load" if leaving the A500 on a long time.  It is a software
	only (interrupt based) method used to keep track of time that isn't good
	in the long stretch.  The A2000 is a little nicer because there is a 
	jumper which lets you pick if you want the clock to run in software mode
	or, the much better solution, base time off the power line (60 cycles a
	second is awfully useful in this case -- plus the power company has to
	keep it pretty close to this value by fixing it up (more or fewer cycles)
	to get the average correct.  If you really want to go crazy, and have the
	A501 ram expansion, you can unsolder the metal shield and get access to
	the trimmer (resistor or capacitor -- I'm not sure).  A friend of mine
	did this as well as drilling a hole in the shield for easier access in the
	future.  Only bad part is, the hole faces the inside of the A500 when the
	A501 is reinstalled :-(.  You will only want to make _small_ adjustments
	or you might *really* mess up the timekeeping.

> Also, several weeks ago I asked about a problem I am having with my serial 
> port.  When dialed into a remote system, I seem to get spurious characters
> in a more than acceptable amount.  (The characters are always a slanted
> equal sign [which is the same as the checkerboard pattern character in the 
> TOPAZ font] followed by an open curly brace.)  I get these characters when just
> sitting there, or while typing, and they are only visible on the amiga side of
> the connection (ie. they are not being echoed to or from the remote system).

	This sounds like a simple case of line noise, occurring between the host
	machine and your A500 on the incoming side.  Be happy, it's even more of
	a pain when the junk gets transmitted to the mainframe/BBS and makes it
	do strange things (e.g. log you out :-( ).
> 
> How can I get the trachcan to show up directly on the workbench screen at 
> startup?  (ie. I don't want to have to open the workbench disk, and then 
> move the trashcan to the corner.  I want it to show up just like a disk icon.
> 
	I'm afraid this probably can't be done (at least for now).  The garbage
	can is, after all, just a subdirectory on a disk, not a device of any kind.
	However, I can't say I'm 100% sure that you're SOL.