Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tikal!amc!eric
From: eric@amc.UUCP (Eric McRae)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Review of A-1000  to Zorro-II bus expansion box
Keywords: A-1000, Bus Expansion, Expansion Technologies, Tool Box
Message-ID: <845@amc.UUCP>
Date: 8 Mar 89 19:38:48 GMT
Reply-To: eric@amc.UUCP (Eric McRae)
Organization: Applied Microsystems Corp., Redmond, WA.
Lines: 105

This is a review of a A-1000 to A-2000 bus expansion box.  It allows
you to run A-2000 cards on your A-1000.  I got mine last night.  Here's
the report.  This is a new product.  They started shipping last week.

Product:
Expansion Technologies "Tool Box", Model 2120, SN 5058, Cost $222
Gives you 2 Zorro-2 slots and a 3 amp power supply in an enclosure
that plugs directly into the side of your A-1000.

Packaging:
The chassis is about 7"w x 7"h x 14"l.  When connected to Amy, it
extends back beyond Amy about 5".  That was a little disappointment to
me because my desk is not very wide.  The box contains a lot of
airspace.  I suspect they plan to use it for PC (yuck) cards or
something because it's 3 - 4 inches longer than it needs to be.

The chassis is constructed from inexpensive sheet metal.  The color
matches Amy nicely.  The cover is attached with 4 small screws &
washers.  People will come to hate these small screws if they go into
this box more than a few times.  There is no power switch on the unit
but it is fused and has a front power indicator.  In a pinch, you can
use the fuse as a switch (Don't tell Mom!).  The Bus pass-through
connector is exposed on the side of the box.  A cover should have been
provided for it since anything metallic falling into it could short poor
Amy out.

Electronics:
The unit consists of a A-1000 bus to A-2000 motherboard and a power
supply.  The motherboard layout seems reasonable except that the A-1000
bus connector is hand soldered.  They may have had to do that to keep
the out-going edge connector at the same height as the one in Amy.  The
A-1000 bus is not buffered.  There is one 74F08 (I think it was an
'08).

There are power supply isolation diodes and jumpers on this motherboard
to allow for reasonable power supply configurations.  The 3-Amp linear
power supply really only supplies 5V@2A and 12V@1A.

Documentation:
Not real great.  Stapled paper.  The motherboard diagram did not match
my unit.  The description of jumper settings was a little ambiguous.
There were several instances of poor wording.

Installation:
Simple.  You remove the cover, install your card(s), and pop the unit
onto Amy's bus connector.

My experience:
I have an A-1000 with a 1 Meg Insider RAM, Kwickstart, & 256K std. Amiga
exp. Ram.  In the "Tool Box", I was adding a Microbotics 8-Up with 2
Meg of SIMMS.  I plugged everything together and powered it all up and
was greeted with a funky flash of Amy's power light and an occasional
flash of the screen (no colors).

After checking connections and jumpers, I figured I might have the
std. A-1000 PAL problem.  I took Amy apart and put good grounds in
the appropriate places.  This time, I left the covers off everything
and had my scope handy when I powered the unit up.  It still didn't
boot so I started probing around.  Noise and signals were respectable
everywhere until I checked power on the 8-Up card in the expansion box.

Holy Sh*t!  6.2 volts!  I dived for the power strip and killed
everything.  I Disconnected the "tool box" and removed the 8-Up card.
Then I powered up the box and rechecked the power levels.  Sure
enough, +5 was at 6.2V, and +12 was at about 4.4V.  Then I noticed that
the power supply had 2 trimmers that were both cranked to the stops.

I was really P*ssed.  I figured I'd blown up my 8-Up and 2 Meg of
SIMMS with it.  I adjusted the (unlabeled) trimmers and easily brought
the supplies to the proper levels.

After reconnecting everything, I powered it all up and Zowie, it
booted (Thank you Microbotics for a sturdy 8-Up).  Subsequent RAM
tests showed everything happy.  It's now all buttoned up and I've got
3.75Meg (total) to play with.

As an aside, I had a hell of a time getting VD0: working again.  I had
no problems before but after changing only HighCyl = 255 in
the mountlist, I would lose VD0: on reboot.  It turned out that I
needed to do the FastMemFirst before I mounted VD0:.  I can only
imagine why it worked before (Highcyl = 109).

Which leads me to this question:  Can anyone tell me how to get a
1.3 Kickstart PROM for my Kwickstart board?  I don't think it's the
standard 1.3 ROM.  Any comments?  (I'd like to run RAD: instead of
VD0:)

Summary:
The unit shows low quality assembly work inside (solder splashes and
poor workmanship).  It obviously was not tested before it was shipped.
Now that it's running, my only complaint is it's size.  It will
probably be a good product once the production quality comes
up.  You won't be able to put together an expansion chassis of your
own for less (if you value your time).

If you get one, check the power level before you do anything else.

Disclaimer:
I have no interests in either of the companies mentioned in this
article other than I own some of their products.

Eric McRae	 	Applied Microsystems Corporation
USENET:	..amc!eric	Audio:	(206) 882-2000
USNAIL:	PO Box 97002 Redmond, WA 98073-9702
MISSILES: 122 8 27 W / 47 39 14 N