Bid and get a 64K RamPack ...

[Yves]

Got from Pierre on eBay a 64K RamPack and I could not resist
It comes with a battery with a replaceable battery. This rare version was manufactured by MSE! Just waiting for it...

Any news about RamPacks projects here?

[Martin]

PS.. Bonjour Yves.. is that one of Andrews - with the replaceable battery?

(...)

Hi Martin,

Yes it is ... as shown on the picture. I'm still waiting it from mail...

Yves

[amenjet]

is that one of Andrews - with the replaceable battery?

Yes, it is one of the ones I converted.

Andrew

[amenjet]

Any news about RamPacks projects here?

Some news, yes. I have a 256K RAM pack design that has been refined quite a bit and is on V3.0. I've been testing it on my day-to-day Organiser to see how reliable it is. For the first few weeks it had a low rate of 'resizing' events, something around one every month or six weeks. I have done dangerous things like pulling it out and plugging it in when the organiser is on, most of the time it is fine with that. I have found that if the Organiser supply to the pack is noisy then that can provoke a 'resizing' event. After a few months of testing I suddenly saw an increase in the number of 'resizing' events which wasn't good news. I wasn't happy with this new rate and started to look for any modifications I could make to counter the problem. It was odd that the rate had increased. i was then modifying some packs (including the one in the photo above) and didn't have my test organiser to hand so I used my day-to-day one. I pulled my 256K pack out and found the problem that had caused the increase in 'resizing' events: it was an original Psion 32K RAM pack. I'd replaced my 256K pak with the original 32K pack so I could compare 'resizing' event frequencies, new pack to old pack, and forgotten I'd done it.
So, i think the 256K pack design is at least as good as the original 32K pack. I'm also quite surprised at the frequency of 'resizing' events that I see on the original 32K pack. maybe I have a capacitor problem that causes more noise on the supply in the organiser? I think most unmodified organisers have that problem by now.

I have sent Peter a sample 256K pack and will make some more once I have some idea of how many to make.

They also use the removable battery holder PCB. There's no room on the PCB for the battery holder but I can just fit it on as I do with the modified packs.

Andrew

[Daren]

Interesting theory re the noise on the supply, presumably only a factor when using external power? Or is there other system derived noise which happens under battery power too? I believe I changed all the caps in one of my LZ64s but can’t remember which one, but I think eventually I will get around to doing them all as the caps are at least 33 years old now, so a bit overdue for replacement

[amenjet]

I think inserting and removing hardware in the top slot causes the same problem. Beeping in a game also caused it, so quite a few things.It seems to affect the original RAM packs too, though.

Andrew

[Yves]

Just got it today. Works perfectly!

[amenjet]

I'd be interested to know if you get any 'Resizing' events while using it.
Andrew

[Yves]

I'd be interested to know if you get any 'Resizing' events while using it.
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

What do you mean by "Resizing" ?

[amenjet]

If a RAM pack is not formatted correctly, either because it is new, or has lost its contents for some reason the organiser formats it. While it is doing this it puts up a message that says 'Resizing'. That will wipe any data that was on the pack as it would have been corrupted any way. RAM packs are particularly susceptible to this, it seems. I think it's fair to say that if you have a RAM pack then you will be seeing the 'Resizing' message.
The 256K packs are, I think, less susceptible than the original Psion packs, this is because I added circuitry to try to 'lock' the RAM chip when the Psion powers it down. The original Psion RAM packs don't have this circuitry. I'd like more information about them, though. I have (well I will have when I build some, I actually only have a prototype 256K pack at the moment) a lot more of my 256K packs than original packs so getting information isn't easy.

Andrew