Wanted : Iyonix Working or Non-Working

Hi

Does anybody have an Iyonix for sale? I’ve been wanting to play about with one for a while so happy with a working or non-working/temperamental machine.

Thanks

I have a non-working one, which you could have for carriage. I might be able to find a disc as well. See webmaster for contact details.

We (R-Comp Interactive) have all of Castle’s old Iyonix spares/warranty stock. That roughly translates into several machines in various states of functionality. My prices on these are pretty reasonable depending on what is wanted. With older machines, I tend to value them more in terms of how they compare a modern lineup rather than “antique value” which sees things go for silly money on ebay. My wife would probably be glad to see things go!

;) Sad that it’s not a RISC OS Developments ownership thing, then all that stuff could have gone on eBay to support RISC OS development. :)

If it’s not selling, then why not put it on eBay. ;) If you hold onto it long enough, Christie’s is your next stop.

Thanks Andrew – I’m going to see how I get on with the machine Martin has very kindly offered for the cost of carriage first. If you have a price list for your Iyonix bits that would be great as I’m sure I’ll end up needing something.

I’m sure I’ll end up needing something.

A replacement motherboard probably!

Andrew – if you have all the spares, I don’t suppose there’s the tools and software to flash a them bare-metal, among them?

Does Andrew R know what he would be looking for?

He’s probably got a whole lot of boxes looking at him :-)

How was development done on the Iyonix – surprised it didn’t have PS2 connectors – perhaps they weren’t brought out on production boards.

Was there a way of tapping the video without a card plugged in?

I have one sitting here. Last time I tried, it wouldn’t boot. Initially it had two video cards, so the rom needs them present. One stopped working, but once I’d swapped the working one into the primary slot, it worked. So the problem might be a second video card failure, or a failed disc, or …

If it’s useful for spares I could pass it on – it’s a Panther case. I will need to remove the disc first though as there’s information on there that needs to be wiped.

I have one sitting here. Last time I tried, it wouldn’t boot. Initially it had two video cards, so the rom needs them present.

If my memory is working, the Iyonix had two possible video card manufacturers and the ROM does a detection of the specific card at the HW boot.

Hmm – human memory can be quite tricky :-(

Didn’t Jon say that when the ROM was flashed – graphics card used info was included?

If a graphic card doesn’t work – will the machine still boot?

Ie being able use remote working.

Does Andrew R know what he would be looking for?

John Balance is the only person that knows anything about it as far as I know. My guess is a JTAG+two cables, a parallel cable, some PC software and some code to run in the JTAG environment that writes to the flash.

Didn’t Jon say that when the ROM was flashed

Yes, the ROM is modified at the time it’s flashed…someone apparently thought that was a good idea, instead of detecting the GPU during POST.

Is John B still around – perhaps he’s doing gardening now :-)

Does Jeff/(anyone else) know anything about JTAG usage?

Any Hardware design persons around that could advise?

Could the ROM code for the Iyonix be made small enough to be uncompressed – presumedly some of the space in the ROM must be boot code – to uncompress the RO ROM and throw the code over to RAM and then start it.

Alan what’s the best way to contact you?

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I have one sitting here. Last time I tried, it wouldn’t boot. Initially it had two video cards, so the rom needs them present. One stopped working, but once I’d swapped the working one into the primary slot, it worked. So the problem might be a second video card failure, or a failed disc, or …

If it’s useful for spares I could pass it on – it’s a Panther case. I will need to remove the disc first though as there’s information on there that needs to be wiped.

Alan what’s the best way to contact you?

now deleted after successfully used.

@Jon

How much info can you gain from Iyonix POST.

Beeps/floppy disk light flashing?