[comp.sys.amiga.tech] LUCAS woes

dirks@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (William R.Dirks) (10/26/89)

I am having some difficulty getting my LUCAS project to work.  When I
power up or reset the power light flashes five times, then I get a 
dark grey screen.  And that's it.  No boot song, Kickstart hand, etc.
Everything I can find in the docs about a board that gets part way
through boot-up says try different logic families for U9, and/or 
different clock speeds.  I have tried the following parts for U9 at 
both 16 and 20 MHz:
	  7474
	'ALS74  (TI)
	 'AS74  (National)
	  'F74  (Fairchild)
	  'F74  (Motorola)
	 'LS74  (Signetics)
	  'S74  (TI)
In every case exactly the same thing happens, which leads me to believe
it's something else.  I have examined the board very closely for 
soldering mistakes and other defects many times.  I found nothing
suspicious.  The board mates with the motherboard socket firmly and 
comfortably.  Amy works perfectly with her 68000 reinstalled.  When
I tested the LUCAS board I had all peripherals disconnected except
for monitor, mouse and keyboard.  I have grounded the PALs on the
Kickstart daughterboard.  I have pins 1 of J1 and J2 connected together.
I have not performed any other hacks on LUCAS.  

I am hoping someone out there has some knowledge of similar problems
with LUCAS, or with what is happening at that phase of boot-up which
would help me track down this problem.  The only debugging tools I 
have are a multimeter and a BSEE degree.  

Any help/insight is greatly appreciated.

-=-
Bill Dirks

dirks@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu

douglee@becker.UUCP (Doug Lee) (11/02/89)

In article <3326@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> dirks@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (William R.Dirks) writes:
>I am having some difficulty getting my LUCAS project to work.  When I
>I have tried the following parts for U9 at 
>both 16 and 20 MHz:

stuff deleted to keep rn happy

>	 'LS74  (Signetics)

Try using National 74LS74's. Also try as many brands of LS parts as you 
can find. Check the tolerances of R1 and R8 as they are critical. The brand
of clock generator is also relevant. I find that KDS brand works better than
Fox brand. There is also the possibility of a bad CPU. Someone brought me a
board to debug which actually ran CPU cycles when viewed on a scope, but 
wouldn't boot due to a dead 68020.


-- 
Doug Lee
douglee@becker
416-461-5357

hamilton@intersil.uucp (Fred Hamilton) (11/03/89)

In article <3326@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> dirks@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (William R.Dirks) writes:
>I am having some difficulty getting my LUCAS project to work.  When I
>I have tried the following parts for U9 at 
>both 16 and 20 MHz:
> 
< rest deleted >                         

Just to make things more complicated, I have found that experimenting with
U8 (if I remember the number correctly, it's definitely the one in the lower
left corner) made mine (and a friend's) work MUCH more reliably.  I think
I ended up with an LS and he used an ALS.

-- 
Fred Hamilton                  Any views, comments, or ideas expressed here
Harris Semiconductor           are entirely my own.  Even good ones.
Santa Clara, CA