Setting up My Onyx2

[Irinikus]

I'm currently on vacation in Cape Town (Home) and thus, for the first time in three years, have the opportunity to properly set my Onyx2 up.

I'm going to be installing a bigger drive, thus requiring a complete IRIX reinstall, and possibly adding some extra RAM. I also intend installing most of the software that I have on my Tezro onto this machine.

So allot of work lays ahead over the next few days!

I'm happy to report that the Onyx2 and O2 fired up perfectly first time!

I do however have a casualty! My PC!!! The 1100W PSU has failed! (This is my first ever PSU failure!!!, and it will be an expensive problem to solve, especially for an obsolete PC!!!)

So I've just packed the PC up for now!

I'll post the progress I make with the Onyx2 over the next few days!

DAMN IT RUNS HOT!!!!!! (It really is a space heater, and it's summer over here!!!)

 

[Irinikus]

The IRIX install has begun!!!

 

[Jacques]

The guys at Eskom probably smile very broadly every time you turn that beast on!

Looking good!

 

[Irinikus]

I seem to have hit a snag with my Onyx2.

The graphics wouldn't come up, so I used my 486 to go in via serial, and this is what I found:

The EEPROM for the graphics pipe is faulty!!!!
Is there any way to try and fix this problem, by re-flashing the KONA EEPROM?

 

[Irinikus]

It seems like I have a bit of a problem, as I can't re-flash the EEPROM!!!

 

[Irinikus]

I've just pulled the GE16/4 module and I think I've found the EEPROM chip:

Here's its description:

Maybe I can replace it???

They are available on eBay:

I just need to verify that this is indeed the EEPROM chip on the GE16/4???

 

[Irinikus]

Can someone maybe send me a copy of the “tport.bin” file found in the following directory “/use/gfx/ucode/KONA/“ Preferably from IRIX 6.5.22, but from any version newer than 6.5.30.

As at this point, I have no way of telling if it’s not an issue with the file found in 6.5.30, which I currently have installed!

The machine was working perfectly! I’d just installed the Onyx Demos, which I had got up and running, shut the machine and went out with a friend. When I rebooted the machine I got no graphics!

 

[Elf]

Sorry to hear about the trouble; if you want to pursue reprogramming it I am sure you will end up picking up a programming tool with one of the TSOP adapters. It might be interesting, once you remove the old one from the board, to put it in the adapter and try to read it back, seeing how it compares with the file? It seems there are some errors reading it of course, but if anything is salvageable it might be good to know how it lines up with the contents of the file, if it is verbatim, if it strips off a header, etc.

 

[Irinikus]

I've managed to source a replacement chip locally for $6.46!

It will be a good educational exercise to try to have this thing fixed, as ultimately we'll all have to carry out this type of maintenance on our machines more and more, to keep them going into the future!

 

[Irinikus]

I was moving along reasonably with my IRIX setup, when the KONA EEPROM failed without warning.

I was hoping to release quite a few videos to demonstrate this machines performance while I was down here. This will unfortunately not be possible this time!

I have made contact with 3ddoc and will be purchasing a new GE16/4 from him on the 17th of this month. It will unfortunately only arrive on my end at the end of the month, and I will unfortunately have left Cape Town by then!

I will still purchase some replacement EEPROM chips, as I have no idea as to why mine failed (or the conditions which lead to its failure), and @Jan-Jaap has also had the EEPROM in his IR system fail in a similar way. So this is not an isolated incident!!!

So this saga will continue when I'm next down here!

 

[Irinikus]

Looking at the EEPROM chip on the GE16, the 25TC on the chip denotes a 250ns response time.

I've come across these with a 200ns response time.

Is this a make or break feature?

 

[Elf]

A faster response time will generally be fine, you just would not want one with a slower response time

 

[Irinikus]

A faster response time will generally be fine, you just would not want one with a slower response time

Cool! Thanks!

Now it comes to the question as to which chip actually serves as the EEPROM on one of these little monsters?

Is it this little EEPROM chip:

Or this one:

 

[Elf]

My guess would be the parallel flash chip rather than the append-only 1-wire device, as the 16k 1-wire device seems too small for the usage and after a few firmware updates wouldn't be too useful anymore

 

[Irinikus]

Thanks!

The member on IRIX Network who brought this into question cleared it up:

>> # /usr/gfx/KONA/bin/ireeprom -i
>> ==== Pipe 0 ====
>> Manufacturer code: 0x1f
>> Device code: 0xc4

according to datasheet, that's an AT29LV040

So I stand corrected and the Atmel is the chip you are looking for.

 

[Irinikus]

My replacement GE16-4 arrived today, but it will be a while until I'll be able to test it in the machine! (Hopefully it solves the little problem I'm having!)

 

[Jan]

Hi,

normally when in doubt about what chip it is, just look at the size of the data file to be written. In this case it’s either 16 kB or 512 kB.
That should give a clear answer.

 

[Irinikus]

This morning I finally got around to fitting the new GE16-4 and my IR4 system is now back up and running!!!!

 

[ghost180sx]

Right on! Keenly interested, as I have an Onyx2 sitting behind me I have yet to fire up. It looks like it has been in storage for years.

Are you still going to attempt repairing the GE16-4 with the bad flash chip? It seems like anybody local skilled in SMT soldering should be able to do that fairly easily. Then, you should be able to program it using the built in command line flasher in IRIX, right?

 

[Irinikus]

I'm slowly installing software onto the machine and getting it setup in a way that I like. (It really helps having all of the software packages to be installed located on the secondary disk)

I won't be repairing the broken GE16-4, as it's going to be framed as part of a complete IR3 board set!