Hey there, first post, long time lurker here. I recently bought on eBay, a daystar p33 universal 33mhz model accellerator card, and the Stratos Twinspark adapter from artmix.com. I am having an issue where the machine locks up solid if I try to run powercental 2.2 or power demo from system 7.1 and 7.5.5 (the 2 I've tried). With, and without my Asante MaCon pds ethernet card installed. I have mode 32, but I only have 8 megs a ram which shouldn't matter. I have tried another version and get the same thing. I have soldered in the jumper wire between the 2 pins on the back of the TS adapter to enable it and no dice. Really stumped, and I just got this and don't know much about these yet. It does tho, run perfect if I don't have the programs installed in the control panel folder. I have run benchmarks which show its at least doing something, and overall the system is faster, and my download speeds are also faster. Machine is totally recapped.
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SE/30 daystar p33 TS issues.
- Thread starter bcschmidt
- Start date
Bolle
Well-known member
Check your 5V power rail. For the SRAM to correctly work you want it to be close to 5V (or at best just the 5V it’s supposed to be)
If possible check voltage directly at one of the caps on the P33 in case there’s any significant drop through the adapter.
Got any other machine to test the P33 in? IIci would be best. The Twinspark really isn’t made to work with the PowerCache (or even the Turbo040)
It’s a clone of the DiiMO SE/30 adapter and really only works 100% with that. Everything else can work but doesn’t have to under certain conditions.
Just as you already noticed a few signals are not connected/wired differently so in stock form the Twinspark prevents the cache from working at all hence the need for cenable needing a jumper to ground.
The P31 which does work just fine in the SE/30 with a Daystar adapter doesn’t work in the Twinspark either (only with further modifications done to the Twinspark)
At that point I’d recommend against getting a TS at all if you’re not going to use it with anything but the IIci DiiMO Cache.
If possible check voltage directly at one of the caps on the P33 in case there’s any significant drop through the adapter.
Got any other machine to test the P33 in? IIci would be best. The Twinspark really isn’t made to work with the PowerCache (or even the Turbo040)
It’s a clone of the DiiMO SE/30 adapter and really only works 100% with that. Everything else can work but doesn’t have to under certain conditions.
Just as you already noticed a few signals are not connected/wired differently so in stock form the Twinspark prevents the cache from working at all hence the need for cenable needing a jumper to ground.
The P31 which does work just fine in the SE/30 with a Daystar adapter doesn’t work in the Twinspark either (only with further modifications done to the Twinspark)
At that point I’d recommend against getting a TS at all if you’re not going to use it with anything but the IIci DiiMO Cache.
Thanks I will check the 5v when I get back to work and grab my meter, I've been sick all week so I couldn't go get it. Odd that daystar fast cache 2.2 won't freeze and it does actually make a difference on weather it's installed or not. Being the wrong control panel and all, it has to be doing something as my machine bench teats with higher scores in speedometer for math. Cpu speed stays the same at 7.1 . Goes down to 4 with the card removed. I'm wondering if since the fast cache cards don't have a cpu, its ignoring that part of my card. Any idea where I can find the Power Cache control panel? And not power central? I also do not have a 68882 installed in my p33.
Attachments
Adjusted to 5v at the rear floppy connector and getting 5v at the p33. I pulled the cards out, installed power central 2.2 and turned the cache off.. now I can boot up, and I can open power central, as long as I keep the cache switch off. The second I enable it, the machine locks up solid. My math score went up to 12.4 in speedometer having power central instead of fast cache.
jeremywork
Well-known member
I noticed in the picture you posted of the PowerCache control panel, it reads a 64k cache. The PowerCache software will detect 32, 64, and 128k caches properly on my IIci. The 50MHz DiimoCache is (I believe) the only accelerator which has 64k of onboard cache; the Daystar PowerCache only has 32k. To @Bolle’s point about the TwinSpark being a clone of Diimo’s adapter, perhaps the adapter is misidentifying the cache size and causing the incompatibility. All speculation.
Yes that was the fast cache control panel that I tried. Here's power central open. The TS adapter has a row of 3 jumpers, top one being open. And his manual doesn't say what they do, just says they belong where they are sort of thing. I tested with and without the jumper soldered to the back of the ts adapter. Made no speed difference in speedometer, but I did get a random bus error when I walked away for a few min so I just soldered it back
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jeremywork
Well-known member
Ah, okay. Not congruent with that theory.
Bolle
Well-known member
Got another machine to test the PowerCache on its own? Preferably a IIci. Might help to verify the accelerator itself is good before bringing the Twinspark into play as well.
Can you find out if the pins C7, C17, C20 and B23 on the accelerator slot of the TS are connected to ground or left floating? Those are unused on the official Apple pinout but Daystar used them on the P31, P33 and P34 to identify different adapters and adjust the 16M/CPU clock signal distribution and delay on the accelerator to play together with different machines.
On another note I came across two P33/P34s now that had issues with non-working cache and I could never work out what was wrong with them. Replaced every single chip on them and that didn’t cut it either, so it must have been a problem with the PCB itself.
Didn’t go on with troubleshooting after that and put them onto the wall as display pieces.
Can you find out if the pins C7, C17, C20 and B23 on the accelerator slot of the TS are connected to ground or left floating? Those are unused on the official Apple pinout but Daystar used them on the P31, P33 and P34 to identify different adapters and adjust the 16M/CPU clock signal distribution and delay on the accelerator to play together with different machines.
On another note I came across two P33/P34s now that had issues with non-working cache and I could never work out what was wrong with them. Replaced every single chip on them and that didn’t cut it either, so it must have been a problem with the PCB itself.
Didn’t go on with troubleshooting after that and put them onto the wall as display pieces.
Under 7.1.1, I had tried power central version 1.3 and 2.0 for the heck of it, installed each version without the cards Installed. Flicked the switch for cache off, shut down and installed. Those 2 versions won't even open with the cache turned off, power central 2.2 will open, but lock up when i switch the cache on. Power demo also locks up, except version 4.2 I believe, the one included with fast cache. Interestingly benching it with the card out, but leaving power math on.. every score except the cpu stays the same with no card. I'll get 7.21 with the p33 Iinstalled, and 4.2 without. But all the other scores remain high.
Just wanted to throw out there that I as well have this exact same issue, I gave up not happy. Looking through 68kmla now I see this has been a complaint going back to before I bought it. I have the bolle 030/50 daystare clone and his twinspark + Network riser. I have dried multiple SE/30s and the problem follows the TS riser.
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