Manual for CMD RAMlink?

[RobertB]

1)  Has anyone used an "after market" lead-acid type battery supplying 6 V at 6.5 amps?  i.e., not a CMD original.  Any ideas?

Yes, I have replaced the original batteries on both my RL's with aftermarket ones.  Just make sure you get ones with the correct voltage and the same/greater amperage.  I paid about $15 for each aftermarket battery (found at a local battery distributor).

Are there any other utilities/useful pieces of software that you guys use?

I use FCopy, FCopy+, or WCopy for my RL needs.  And WCopy speeds up file-copying on JiffyDOSsed machines.

3)  anyone seen a copy of ckit 94 floating around out there?  I read in an old commodore world mag that it is used for backing up CMD style drives.  Any good backup utilities out there?

Hmm, I may have ckit 94 in the mountain of disks I have.  However, perhaps ACUG's Dave "LordRonin" Mohr is better organized than I and can more easily dig it out.

                  Back from the AmiWest Show,
                  Robert Bernardo
                  Fresno Commodore User Group
                  http://videocam.net.au/fcug
                  The Other Group of Amigoids
                  http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
                  Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
                  http://www.sccaners.org

[dr.v]

Robert - your expertise and experience is very much appreciated.  Thank you.  I have a couple more questions.

1) I am currently using a v1 RL and I'm using a 1581 PSU.  I know you mentioned due to the current differences (I believe 800 mA vs. 1A) these PSU's aresn't necessarily reliable - but I have several "brand new" (unused) 1581 PSU's and this puts them to good use.  What power supply are you using (if you are using a v1 RL) that matches the 1581/1541 II style pin-out?

sidenote: Been running the 1581 PSU on my RL continuously for several months.  I haven't had any reliability issues yet.  Fingers crossed.

2) I am looking at picking up an additional RL for my 2nd system.  But the RL I am looking at is a v2 RL (it has the other power connector).  Can I pick up any power supply (at my local electronics store) matching the necesary power spec's and use it?

3) The RL utilities I got a hold of are the "stock" RL utils (contains FCOPY, MCOPY, etc.).  What software "bundle" contains FCOPY+, BCOPY, WCOPY, etc.  i.e., is there a name of the disk that cmd produced that contains these "upgraded" utils?  Did they come with the HD util disks?

Thanks, again.

Tom


update: I found the other cmd utils.

[RobertB]

What power supply are you using (if you are using a v1 RL) that matches the 1581/1541 II style pin-out?

I use the power supply that originally came with the RL v1.    By the way, if your 1581/1541-II p.s. puts out 5 volts @ 1 amp, that would be good enough for the RL v1.  Some 1581/1541-II p.s.'s (the smaller ones) only put out 5 volts @ 800 mA.

But the RL I am looking at is a v2 RL (it has the other power connector).  Can I pick up any power supply (at my local electronics store) matching the necesary power spec's and use it?

Yes, with the RL v2 (which takes a coaxial plug), I have successfully used p.s.'s from Radio Shack (expensive!) that provide at least 5 volts @ 1 amp.  The one good thing about Radio Shack p.s.'s is that they run cooler than the stock RL p.s..

                Back from the TOGA meeting,
                Robert Bernardo
                Fresno Commodore User Group
                http://videocam.net.au/fcug
                The Other Group of Amigoids
                http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
                Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
                http://www.sccaners.org

[dr.v]

Has anyone experienced the RamLink being "finicky" about it's SIMMS?  Here is why I ask:

I purchased 4 (brand new, recently manufactured) 80 ns 30 pin 4x8 SIMMS.  Two work perfectly (totaling 32000+ blocks), two only show as something like 3776 blocks (<1 meg).  The two that work are cosmetically different from the two that don't.  (This probably means nothing but the SIMMS that work have the 8 chips "left justified" on the SIMM.  The two that don't work correctly have the chips "center justified" on the SIMM.)  Any ideas?  I would like to pick up two more that work.  Can anyone direct me to a SIMM that is known to function properly with ramlink?

Robert - thanks for pointing out that the "larger" 1581 PSU's supply 5V at 1A.  I immediately got a couple of the appropraite PSU's after your post.

[RobertB]

Has anyone experienced the RamLink being "finicky" about it's SIMMS?

I have never had tha problem.

I purchased 4 (brand new, recently manufactured) 80 ns 30 pin 4x8 SIMMS.  Two work perfectly (totaling 32000+ blocks), two only show as something like 3776 blocks (<1 meg).  The two that work are cosmetically different from the two that don't.  (This probably means nothing but the SIMMS that work have the 8 chips "left justified" on the SIMM.  The two that don't work correctly have the chips "center justified" on the SIMM.)  Any ideas?  I would like to pick up two more that work.  Can anyone direct me to a SIMM that is known to function properly with ramlink?

Hmm, interesting.  Could it be that the SIMMs are too fast?  IIRC, the SIMMs I have in my RLs are slow (120 ns, I think), and the RL might not accept that speed (at least not when 4 of them are together).  I'm only theorizing this, because last year, technician Ray Carlsen was dealing with replacement EPROMs for PLAs and found that too fast of a chip was incompatible with the C64/SX-64.

Robert - thanks for pointing out that the "larger" 1581 PSU's supply 5V at 1A.  I immediately got a couple of the appropraite PSU's after your post.

               Truly,
               Robert Bernardo
               Fresno Commodore User Group
               http://videocam.net.au/fcug
               The Other Group of Amigoids
               http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
               Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
               http://www.sccaners.org

[hoss48458]

seems i remember that the simm`s have to be a type called "fast page" and that the type "edo" wasnt really compatible for memory, seems i remember reading this somewhere.