Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    A few comments:
    
    Are you sure about VGA?  
    
    One of the recent mags said they had not yet heard of an ATonce 
    working succesfully with a rev. 5 motherboard.
    
    I have dealt with Safe Harbor for software and highly recommend
    them for that.  I don't know if that translates to hardware 
    purchases. During the brief period when I tried to keep up
    with usenet, Safe Harbor was getting good reviews there.
    
    Dave        
    
    

    Re .0:
    
>   I am looking for some info on the ATonce board.
>   
>   At $279 from Safe Harbor, it sounds like a great deal for an 8 MHz AT
>   compatible emulator with VGA. Another $95 puts it into a 2000.
    
    I have the ATonce board installed in my A500.  Since it runs off the
    Amiga's 7MHz clock, that's the speed.  It supports (up to 16 color)
    CGA, Hercules, and a Toshiba video mode.  It does NOT support VGA.
    
>   Questions:
>   
>   1.  Does it support comms through the serial port?
    
    Yes.  In configuring ATonce, you can activate the Amiga's serial port
    as either COM1 or COM2.  When activated, ATonce will NOT share the port
    with AmigaDOS.  The Amiga mouse can also emulate a MicroSoft mouse on
    the other COM port.
    
>   2.  When they say the 2000 adapter board fits into the 86-pin
>       processor slot, are they referring to the same slot that I have my
>       A2620 accelerator card in?
    
    Probably.  The A500 version replaces the 68000 chip with a small board
    that contains a low-power M68000 plus an 80286 and PLA to control it.
    I believe A2000 owners would be happier with the AT BridgeBoard.  The
    ATonce is a useful addition to the A500, though.
    
>   3.  Has anyone done business with Safe Harbor?
    
    Not I.  ATonce is imported from Germany by a company in Brookline, MA.
                                                    

     Does anyone have an ATonce installed along with other internal options
    and the original A500 power supply. I was wondering how much the
    original supply can handle before problems arise.
    
    Dave
    

    Re .3:
    
>   Does anyone have an ATonce installed along with other internal options
>   and the original A500 power supply. I was wondering how much the
>   original supply can handle before problems arise.
    
    I have the original A500 brick (power supply), an A501 clock/memory
    expansion (actually a clone thereof) and the ATonce installed.  Keep in
    mind that installing the ATonce precludes a number of other expansion
    options, most notably ANY form of CPU accelerator.  As I remember the
    documentation, ATonce should work properly with larger memory expansion
    boards in the A500's belly slot.

    RE: .1
    
    Yes on the VGA. As described by Safe Harbor's Dale, it is not color
    VGA. Must be 32-level grey scale as on many of the VGA laptops.
    
    They asked a number of questions about my configuration - probably to
    ensure that my config would support the board. My 6.2 apparently does.
    There is a hardware mod that must be made to rev 4.x motherboards.

    RE: .2
    
    Bill, you need to get the latest software, which you apparently don't
    have. The software upgrades are free, and I believe Safe Harbor's BBS
    provides it. The latest Rev *DOES* have VGA support in interlace mode.
    
    Apparently it can co-exist with the A2620 board. It uses one of the
    standard Amiga slots.

    
    The July 91 Amiga World pg. 81 is selling the ATonce for $239 from
    MONTGOMERY GRANT. I don't know anything about this mail order house
    but it might be worth looking into to save $40
    
    	The number they give is 1-800-759-6565. In case you don't have
    access ti the magazine.
    
    	I'm not sure what additional software you need to use it. I would
    shop around for it though.
    
    					Dave
    

    There have been numerous reports, here and on Usenet, from unhappy
    MONTGOMERY GRANT customers.  Many of the items they sell come from
    liquidations, etc. and may include out-of-rev and/or used equipment.

    I.d forget MG if I were you. You could save $40.00,and spend $200.00
    dollars in aggravation. I know that when they installed the ATonce in
    the 500 at system eyes Amax II quit working. Then when They added
    memory The ATonce gave problems. It works well but it needs some tender
    loving care,and a base of support.(read you can workaround most
    problems but it takes some experiance). 
    							bill

    Apparently MG is not an Authorized Commodere Dealer.

    If you buy an Amiga from such a place as MG you do not qualify for
    thr Gold card service , or any warrenty for that matter.
    							bill

    I am interested in getting one of these ATonce boards, but have heard
    they don't run on the 2000.  Has anyone in this file got them to run
    on a 2000?  Is it worth the money?   Would I better off buying a
    bridge-board instead ?

    Bob
    

	The last issue of Amazing Computing has a review of the AT-Once
	installed in a A2000.

	I think the original design was for a A500 so you must buy an
	adaptor board to plug it in a Zorro slot.

	If you cannot get the magazine send me mail.

 Hubert.

    I put an ATonce in my 2000 this weekend. Then I took it out because I
    was having problems. I liked the look of it sitting in the 2000
    expansion slot, and really wanted to get it working. However I think
    the problem was my CMI 14mhz, and I felt it was better to keep the CMI
    than to run Messydos. I would get ATonce to boot but then it would hang
    somewhere along the line.(somewhere because it is always a different
    place). I truely feel it would have run if I removed the CMI, but at
    that point I did not bother. I opted to add another 2 meg of memory,and
    pick up Professional Textures instead. If I wasen't playing with
    Imagine I may have opted for the ATonce( still plan to try again
    someday). I actually don't have a use for it, I just thought it would
    be a nice thing to try. 
    								bill 

    I too added a ATOnce to my 2000, and like Bill, wanted it to work.
    Unfortunately, the instructions did not come with any incense or
    religious chants to make it work properly. The rumor is that the
    adapter board was designed for a German Amiga. It simply wouldn't work
    on my system.
    

Try this:

Achtung! Gehen Sie als IBM!

Please believe that I am not rejoicing in someone else's misery.  I thought
seriously about getting the ATonce, but opted for the 2286 because my dealer
had lowered the prices considerably.  I had a 2088, expansion memory to bring
it up to 640K, and a Miniscribe 40Mb ST506 drive in a 2000 which was stolen
when my house was burglarized.  The cost to replace the above ended up being
close to the 2286, and since the insurance company was springing for it, what
the hell, right?  I have been very happy with the 2286, although I doubt if
I would have gotten it under any circumstances other than the ones described
above.

As a cheap alternative for people who need I*M compatibility, I suspect that
many Commodore dealers have refurbished 2088 boards.  My dealer had a number
of 2088 owners upgrade to 2286 bridgeboards when the price came down.  Speaking
from experience, though, the 2088 IS compatible, but it is truly a pig.

    Re <last few>:
    
    Perhaps the ATonce's A2000 adaptor is ahead of its time.  Then again, I
    had enough nit-picky troubles installing ATonce on my A500 that I would
    believe it's mostly a matter of configuration.
    
    .16 complained that the ATonce boots but later "hangs".  I encountered
    that problem on a couple of occasions, though not recently.  Check the
    amount of CHIP RAM remaining in whatever video mode you're trying to
    use.  My A500 has the 512KB Fat Agnus, which limits me to 4-color CGA
    for reliable operation and leaves me only 43KB free once both AmigaDOS
    and ATonce are in operation.
    
    I don't regret buying ATonce.  I've upgraded to MS-DOS V5.0 (which is
    ALMOST acceptable, though I've been completely UNIMPRESSED by its task
    switching) and now I can run the MS-DOS version of QWIKNET Professional
    (project management software) to complement the VMS version I use on my
    VAXstation.  I've also upgraded Turbo Pascal from an ancient CP/M
    version (that I used on my C=128) to Version 6 for the benefit of my
    older son, who took AP Computer Science last year.

    I upgraded to AmigaDOS 2.04 last night, knowing that there was a good
    chance that ATonce wouldn't be happy with the KS 2.04 ROM.  It wasn't.
    
    I like V2.04 a LOT, but I'll have to drop back to V1.3 until either
    ATonce comes up with an update that works with the new ROM or I get a
    ROM switch (obviously NOT the one that overlaps the M68000 8^) so I can
    go back an forth as necessary.
    
    For the curious, here's the symptom.  Under AmigaDOS 1.3, the procedure
    to start ATonce is to execute SYS:AT-Emulator/ATonce.  This program
    sets the cold-capture and warm-capture vectors (and other stuff, no
    doubt) and reboots the system.
    
    ATonce creates a new screen in front of the one in which AmigaDOS'
    startup-sequence is running.  In the ATonce screen, one sees the AT
    configuration and MS-DOS boot.
    
    With the 2.04 ROM, SYS:AT-Emulator/ATonce gets as far as causing the
    system to reboot.  Unfortunately, it must also mung vectors that the
    new ROM needs, because initialization never gets far enough to read
    either DF0: or the hard drive.  Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga has no effect; one
    must power the system off to reboot it.

If you want a Multikick board that does not overlap the CPU use the one I 
posted.  You have to build it your self and can make it not overlap or overlap
as your heart desires.

Just Shorten it for only two ROM sockets, to make it even smaller.



 

    I saw a add in one of the amiga mags the other day for AT-once Plus.
    Is this the same AT-once board as before and has anyone got it to
    work with 2.04 ?  The list price for this board is around $450.00 .
    
    Thanks Bob
    

    Re .21:                                          
    
>   I saw a add in one of the amiga mags the other day for AT-once Plus.
>   Is this the same AT-once board as before and has anyone got it to
>   work with 2.04 ?  The list price for this board is around $450.00 .
    
    This is NOT the same board.  The orignal ATonce had an 80286 that runs
    at the Amiga's 7MHz clock rate; this has a 12MHz 80386SX and a socket
    for a math coprocessor.
    
    I haven't heard a peep from the ATonce folks since they sent me an
    upgrade diskette 6 months ago.  The original ATonce (at whatever
    revision level I'm running) will NOT run with the 2.04 ROM installed. 
    I had to put back the KS1.3 ROM this weekend in order to get some work
    done.  I'd considered building a multi-kick board, but the ATonce board
    overlaps the ROM socket and there's simply not enough room to put
    another daughter board into that part of my A500.