Hello Psion Organizer II Community

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mb1986
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2024 8:26 pm
Location: Poland

Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by mb1986 »

Hello fellow Psion Organizer II Users!

My ownership of one of those weird machines started out of the blue.
I saw it on an action and I bought it.
It looked so different that I had to have one.
Fun fact, I am dated the same year as them :)

Currently I have two LZ64 models with the latest firmware (4.6).
Another one, XP version, is somewhere in the shipping.
Additionally, I've got a couple of datapa(c)ks included: 128k flash, 32k eprom and 32k ramp(c)ak (br2032 battery is obviously dead).

After reading documentation (thanks Jaap) and watching YouTube (thanks Andrew) I started playing with MRAM Datapa(c)k idea and schematic.
I hope I will be able to share with you something (hopefully) interesting (hopefully) soon.

Kind regards,
Michał

PS I misspelled my username - it should be `mb1986` and not `mb1968`, doh :shock:
amenjet
Posts: 301
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2023 7:54 pm

Re: Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by amenjet »

Hello,

I'm very interested if you manage to get the MRam ICs working. Which device(s) are you looking at? They do appear to be a very nice storage solution for datapacks, if a bit heavy on power. The ones I tried were also very expensive at about £40 per IC, but that was during the chip problems a while back.

If the battery in your 32K RAM pack is dead then I'd chop it out, I've seen a few that have been damaged by leakage and then adding a battery holder doesn't work too well.

Andrew
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mb1986
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Location: Poland

Re: Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by mb1986 »

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your reply!

I've chosen MR0A08B from Everspin (128K x 8 MRAM), datasheet attached.
It draws 70mA max in write mode and 30mA max in read mode, hopefully it will be not to much.
The cost of one of those MRAM ICs is about £14 (in DigiKey).

Please find my current WIP schematic attached :)

Regarding the battery in my RamPack, yes, you are right I am chopping it out right away, thanks!

Have a great day,
Michał
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amenjet
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Re: Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by amenjet »

I had a go with a slightly different device and a slightly different circuit, my circuit attached, be warned, it doesn't appear to work...
I also tried the FRAM devices, that didn't work either.
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mb1986
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2024 8:26 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by mb1986 »

Cool, thanks for sharing your circuit!
It is always easier having another design to compare things, even if it does not work ;)
I will try to give mine a go, I have to buy ICs, design the PCB, order it... it all takes time unfortunately.

One thing I see at the first glance is that your MRAM chip (the biggest in the family?) takes as twice as much power in comparison to the smaller one which I plan to use (128k x 8).

We'll see, I'll share results when tested.
(I think some kind of a logic analyzer would be useful for debugging.)
- Michał
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Zenerdiode
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Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2023 12:45 am
Location: Newcastle, England

Re: Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by Zenerdiode »

Warm welcome!
mb1968 wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2024 6:48 pm PS I misspelled my username - it should be `mb1986` and not `mb1968`, doh :shock:
@Martin are you able to change that for Michał?
Christopher. - Check out my TRAP message, it’s not difficult to decode and is sometimes uttered under the breath when said message appears… :|
amenjet
Posts: 301
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2023 7:54 pm

Re: Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by amenjet »

mb1986 wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:45 pm Cool, thanks for sharing your circuit!
It is always easier having another design to compare things, even if it does not work ;)
I will try to give mine a go, I have to buy ICs, design the PCB, order it... it all takes time unfortunately.

One thing I see at the first glance is that your MRAM chip (the biggest in the family?) takes as twice as much power in comparison to the smaller one which I plan to use (128k x 8).

We'll see, I'll share results when tested.
(I think some kind of a logic analyzer would be useful for debugging.)
That's interesting about the smaller ICs. I couldn't buy them during the chip problems...
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mb1986
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Location: Poland

Re: Hello Psion Organizer II Community

Post by mb1986 »

Zenerdiode wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:38 pm Warm welcome!
mb1968 wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2024 6:48 pm PS I misspelled my username - it should be `mb1986` and not `mb1968`, doh :shock:
@Martin are you able to change that for Michał?
Hello and thank you so much, now I feel being myself again :D
- Michał
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