Cool link! I knew that genetics was one of the big fields of study for fruitflies, but I had not know this. Excellent.

As for the PayPal, you are correct. I have plenty here...

RAS1 is pin 123 of the StrongArm, not 18.

-ml

Ok, so I should add "connect pin 14 on the memory chip with pin 123 of the StrongArm" to the write-up.
The problem then is, how do I count the number of pins on the StrongArm? The pin numbering seems clear from the memory datasheet, but it's not that clear from the datasheet for the StrongArm. Or is there a datasheet where I can see which pin is pin #123?
Like this one? But here RAS1 is pin 133? And it doesn't show which pin is the number 133 pin either.

Manual and pinout (page 14-1) are available for the SA-1100 CPU at this location.

-ml

Fantastic! Thanks!

Do you think there would be any added concerns with handling the player?

Just to revisit this topic... I did some calculations;

The smallest in-tolerance pin size is 0.3mm wide by 0,13mm thick. Assuming that only the end of the pin is in contact with the pin below, that gives a contact surface area of 0.039mm^2.
One square inch is 25.4^2 mm^2 or 645.16mm^2. That means we have a contact area of 0.039/645.14 = 6.045x10^-5 square inches per pin. 49 pins are connected, so that gives a total surface area of 0.00296 square inches.

The tensile strength of 63/37 solder is given as 7500 psi. That means that the force required to break the joints is 7500x0.00296 = 22.2lbs, or near exactly 100N.

ie, if you attached a mass to the top chip and turned your empeg upside down then the smallest mass needed to pull the chip off would be 10Kg.

Repeating the calculations for tip only contact with the maximum in-tolerance pin size gives an answer of 46lbs or 210N (21Kg mass).

I don't think we need to worry.

Hi folks,

I'm trying to upgrade my player to 32MB, but now I get this at boot-time:

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux.....(data abort vector)


So I tried to re-install the V2.00 kernel, but when the Upgrade Process starts, I get:
Error "Hardware revision check failed" occurred during stage 0x04.

Any ideas ?

Check for solder bridges between your pins. You may have a few lines tied together, and it is causing the original memory chips to fail.

That happened a few times when my players were being done. Scared the sh*t out of me. However, no harm done. Do as Paul said and check for bridges. Its funny, 1 of my players went from this error to 32mb in 30secs :-)

Pay particular attention to the address lines. A bridge is preventing the flash from being read.

Thanks guys, good to know there's still hope !
But dammit...I really think I need to get some more light here !

use an ESD-safe temperature-controlled soldering iron

What temperature do I need to set the iron to?

Try 450F and see how you get on. Whatever you do, don't go above 550F.

I've recently re-upgraded my empeg to 64MB to see whether it was feasible to do on Paul's players. I've decided that it's just too risky, but here are some photos of the upgrade. Note that I raised the drivetray to get more clearance.

Yup, those photos are proof I'd rather stick with 32MB.

Yup, those photos are proof I'd rather stick with 32MB

What? Too many RAS wires for your liking?

What? Too many RAS wires for your liking?

Those bloody RAS wires, I just can't get the buggers to solder together. I just don't seem to be able to tin the pins and then heat the wire and pin together properly.

Worked first try! 32MB available:

Quote:
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: passed.
c1100000: passed.
c1200000: passed.
c1300000: passed.
c1400000: passed.
c1500000: passed.
c1600000: passed.
c1700000: passed.
c1800000: passed.
c1900000: passed.
c1a00000: passed.
c1b00000: passed.
c1c00000: passed.
c1d00000: passed.
c1e00000: passed.
c1f00000: passed.
c2000000: wrote ffffffff, read 00000000
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10101626) 32MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 31240k/32M available (980k code, 20k reserved, 524k data, 4k init)

But now I get weird stuff after it detects my harddrive. My primary harddrive died, so there's only my secondary in there now (without jumper = master). It started the player just fine before the RAM upgrade...
Will that go away once I add the new primary drive?

Quote:
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IC25N080ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
hda: IC25N080ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
hda: IC25N080ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
hda: IC25N080ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
hda: IC25N080ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
hda: IC25N080ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IC25N080ATMR04-0, 76319MB w/7884kB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:22:06:5a
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Timezone: /usr/share/zoneinfo
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 0000df20
memmap = C0004000, pgd = c0004000
*pgd = c012f801, *pmd = c012f801, *pte = 00000000, *ppte = 00000000
Internal error: Oops: 0
CPU: 0
pc : [<c00330e0>] lr : [<c0033a34>]
sp : c01f7f84 ip : c01f7f94 fp : c01f7f90
r10: c0103fc8 r9 : c0108704 r8 : 00000002
r7 : 00000004 r6 : 00000001 r5 : 00000000 r4 : c1f79aa0
r3 : 00000004 r2 : 00000000 r1 : 0000df20 r0 : c1f79aa0
Flags: nZCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment kernel
Control: C000517D Table: C000517D DAC: 0000001D
Process kupdate (pid: 3, stackpage=c01f7000)
Stack:
c01f7f60: c0033a34 c00330e0 60000013
c01f7f80: ffffffff c01f7fb0 c01f7f94 c0033a34 c003300c 00009a20 0000004e 00000001
c01f7fa0: 00000004 c01f7fe0 c01f7fb4 c003512c c00339cc c1f79aa0 00000001 c01f6000
c01f7fc0: c0104024 c0108794 c0100988 4401a11b c0008580 c01f7ffc c01f7fe4 c0035790
c01f7fe0: c00350a0 c0035720 c012b84c c0100760 c0003fb4 c01f8000 c000b6ec c003572c
Backtrace:
Function entered at [<c0033000>] from [<c0033a34>]
Function entered at [<c00339c0>] from [<c003512c>]
r7 = 00000004 r6 = 00000001 r5 = 0000004E r4 = 00009A20
Function entered at [<c0035094>] from [<c0035790>]
r10 = C0008580 r9 = 4401A11B r8 = C0100988 r7 = C0108794
r6 = C0104024 r5 = C01F6000 r4 = 00000001
Function entered at [<c0035720>] from [<c000b6ec>]
r6 = C0100760 r5 = C012B84C r4 = C0035720
Function entered at [<c001d36c>] from [<c0009b40>]
r10 = C0008580 r9 = 4401A11B r8 = C0122580 r7 = C0108794
r6 = C01218CC r5 = C0100768 r4 = 00000008
Function entered at [<c00099b4>] from [<c0009ba4>]
r8 = C0100988 r7 = C0100764 r6 = C0100760 r5 = C012B84C
r4 = C0009B94
Function entered at [<c0009b94>] from [<c000b6ec>]
r7 = C0100764 r6 = C0100760 r5 = C012B84C r4 = C0009B94
Function entered at [<c00096c4>] from [<c00098b0>]
Function entered at [<c00096dc>] from [<c0008080>]
r7 = C0121DA0 r6 = C0121CF4 r5 = C012C280 r4 = C012C280
Code: e5821034 e5803000 (e5812000) e59f10a8 e3a02000

I just found out that this just happens with hijack (394 and 395), not with the standard kernel. It happens with any of my disks in it, I just installed the new primary one.

Double-check the address lines.

Thanks! Even though all my pins measured between 0.3 and 0.5 Ohms, I just retouched every single pin (just for the Halibut). Now everything works perfectly! Thanks so much for you patience with me!

Whew, spent almost whole day on memory upgrade - now with 64MB RAM.
The chip stacking and soldering part was easy. The fourth level was soldered in about 40 min. I believe the trick is to use the smallest diameter solder wire or not use the solder at all if lower levels contain enough of it to be able to "paint" the upper joint. Even RAS pins were not that bad. For those pins I broke off the lower half of the pin and bent the pin half way up before bending the rest of the pins.
The worst part were the wires. I've got those teflon insulation ones which is a pain to strip. The hardest part with the wires was to solder three 30GA wires to RAS1,2,3 pins on the CPU.

Thanks to Paul for making the memory chips available.
Now I can do native compilation on the unit

The obligatory photo is included.

ooh, a heat sink!

Probably the nicest looking one I've seen yet.

Very neat. One thing though - the corner of your heatsink is likely to eat your IDE cable.

<Homer voice>

Mmmm... ribbon wire...

</Homer voice>

Thanks!
About IDE cables - I actually couldn't even install the hard drive cradle on the top of the heat sink with existing ribbons. So, here's what I did... (see the attached picture)

No ribbon cable troubles any longer. Besides, I separated the ribbon part that goes to the empeg connector. I used to have problems of bad IDE connection and received a lot of IDE errors upon boot. After I separated the wires and put some dielectric grease on the header connector, all my problems went away.

On the additional note, here's what the empeg without the top cover looks like these days... (the picture is attached).
I don't have the fancy translucent buttons and front panel (yet), but I try to lobby for those on the other forums

OMG! That's sweet!

So you just put some dielectric grease on the pins of the IDE head and drives before you put the cable on? Where are you getting power for the fan and how is it mounted to the top of the drives?

Shame, what you guys are doing looks likely to be made redundant by something I've seen at Amersfoort, I won't say anymore but suffice it say I'm glad I didn't modify the spare!