Hey guys. I recently acquired one of the ReactiveMicro TWGS cards, clocked at 16MHz. It's pretty darn sweet.
However, there is a problem in the ribbon cable that goes between the card and the CPU socket. Intermittent connection. It works if I bend the ribbon cable a certain way, but it's not reliable.
Anyway, the manual says to put the card in slot 3, and indeed that's the only place it will fit with the stock CPU cable. However, the fan on the card gets in the way of slot 4, which is where I need to keep my Phasor. It's a ROM3 box, so I can disable the built-in mouse card in slot 4, since I don't use it in IIe mode, but can still have a working mouse in GS/OS (unlike with the ROM1 boxen).
So I'm kinda thinking maybe I can make a little bit longer cable for the CPU socket, and put the card in slot 2 instead, leaving the built in serial card in slot 2 enabled, and thus free slot 4 back up for the Phasor. Do any of you know if this will work, or does the TWGS *have* to be in slot 3 for some reason?
Thanks!
I'm puzzled but why not asking the folks from ReactiveMicro... I do believe that they know it much better then anyone else !?
Another type of option for your Phasor situation is to use a slot expansion cable, if it won't cause any timing issues.
Other than that, yes, you can install the TWGS in another slot. I don't know if the 16MHz version will create any issues if you do that, but ReActive make and sell longer cables as an option. The extra cm shouldn't matter, though. It isn't quite the same as running it outside the machine. ;)
Lee, so you somehow got one of reactive Micros NEW production Transwarp GS's? I am still thinking about sending my original TWGS in so they can do a retrofit job and upgrade the crytals and cache for the 16mhz operation, but the $200+ cost has been prohibitive. I was lucky enough to get this in a complete GS system with evertyhing included. I saw the card was in so I paid the price (Which was higher than I would normally go) just because the cost of the complete system and TWGS card combined was cheaper than the eBay selling cost for the card!
Just due to the amount of work involved, and the retrofitted parts, his US$200 price is extremely fair. I spent at least half of that on the parts alone to repair mine and bring it up to 10MHz.
Even with the new GALs and the cache card, it wasn't too stable at 12Mhz (or above). I honestly do not need it to be faster. The most CPU intensive thing that I do is compiling, and GS/OS 6.0.4 is snappy and happy with 10MHz and 4.25MB of RAM.
I'll note that when I had it configured at 14Mhz, although unstable, it was absurdly fast. When I migrate from the ZIP drive to the ReActive drive, I expect that it will be faster still, although that will for the most part be during boot.
Nonono, it's one of the older v1.1 boards.
I did get it working in slot 2, although I'm going to have to make a new cable for it I think. Interestingly, it won't work in slot 3 without crashing almost immediately, unless I futz around with the ribbon cable and hold it just so. I think there's a marginal conductor in the ribbon cable that only makes connection when hard crease in the cable is unfolded (as it is with the card in slot 2), but I am going to replace my slot 3 edge connector here in a bit just to be sure. I already reflowed all the solder joints on it (and the CPU socket) but that didn't change anything. I'm kinda dubious as to it being the connector though, as I had my VidHD in slot 3 before this and never had any trouble with it. It is looser than any of the other slots in any of the other II boards I have, though, although I can't see any problems with the contacts inside.
Anyway, yeah, it's a beautiful card and I think it's gonna be great once I get the peculiarities ironed out. I'd sent a message to Henry too, but he seems like a pretty busy guy and missed that question, so I figured I'd ask here. I'm sure he's about tired of me bugging him, lol.