Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Nagging hardware related question? Post here!
User avatar
ppe
Trump Card
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:48 am
Location: Espoo, Finland

Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by ppe »

Hi,

years ago I bought a SuperHermes from Ebay and promptly forgot about it. Today I tested it in the black box and it does not work. With Minerva, I see the logo but nothing else. I have checked for broken/bent pins but don't see any. The caps on the board look ok on visual inspection.

Can't find a schematic for the board, only a chip layout diagram. I have an oscilloscope / logic analyzer available.

Would greatly appreciate any hints or tips on what to check / where to start looking?

Cheers,
Petri


Derek_Stewart
Font of All Knowledge
Posts: 3928
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:40 am
Location: Sunny Runcorn, Cheshire, UK

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by Derek_Stewart »

The circuit diagram for Superhermes was included in the User Manual, some scans of the manual exclude the circuit diagram.

Look on Dilwyn's site or this link to the Superhermes manual:
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/shmanual.zip

The circuit diagram is in the manual: "sh print manual.pdf"


Regards,

Derek
User avatar
ppe
Trump Card
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:48 am
Location: Espoo, Finland

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by ppe »

Thank you Derek, I don't know why I didn't realize the print and non-print version have different contents! Feeling very stupid at the moment!

You wouldn't happen to have any "usual suspects" candidates to inspect?

Cheers,
Petri


User avatar
Pr0f
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:54 am

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by Pr0f »

It doesn't announce itself with any ROM banner - so you won't see it like you do other add in cards.

Also - if the keyboard driver isn't loaded at startup, you probably won't see any action pressing keyboard keys - so you may have to hunt around looking for a boot disk or similar to get you started. Once you are into the machine you can load the extensions and print the ipcver$ - which will tell you if it's alive or not.


User avatar
ppe
Trump Card
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:48 am
Location: Espoo, Finland

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by ppe »

Pr0f wrote:It doesn't announce itself with any ROM banner - so you won't see it like you do other add in cards.
Problem is, I only see Minerva logo, not the "Press F1/F2", etc. messages. And with regular ROM I just see an empty screen. My hypothesis is that initialization hangs because communication with 8049 (SuperHermes) fails.


User avatar
Pr0f
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:54 am

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by Pr0f »

do you have a standard ipc or hermes just to confirm the issue is not elsewhere?


User avatar
Dave
SandySuperQDave
Posts: 2765
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 6:52 am
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by Dave »

I had a SuperHermes fail the same way. In the end I determined the 8049 had lost part of its programming over time. It couldn't start up properly, so the boot sequence couldn't finish.


User avatar
tofro
Font of All Knowledge
Posts: 2685
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2011 10:53 pm
Location: SW Germany

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by tofro »

Dave wrote:I had a SuperHermes fail the same way. In the end I determined the 8049 had lost part of its programming over time. It couldn't start up properly, so the boot sequence couldn't finish.
Interesting. There's no 8049 in a SuperHermes ;)


ʎɐqǝ ɯoɹɟ ǝq oʇ ƃuᴉoƃ ʇou sᴉ pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʇxǝu ʎɯ 'ɹɐǝp ɥO
User avatar
Dave
SandySuperQDave
Posts: 2765
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 6:52 am
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by Dave »

I'll pull it out of the drawer tomorrow and identify the part that does the job of the 8049. That part. It was programmable, and lost its program.


User avatar
ppe
Trump Card
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:48 am
Location: Espoo, Finland

Re: Dead SuperHermes - any hints/tips for investigation?

Post by ppe »

Pr0f wrote:do you have a standard ipc or hermes just to confirm the issue is not elsewhere?
Yeah, QL works fine with the standard IPC


Post Reply