• Board Installation
  • Installation Directly on the A1200 Motherboard
  • Installation Using a Cable
     
• Add-on Installation
  • Installation of LED Strips
  • Installation of Temperature Sensors
  • Installation of Fans
  • Connection of Audio Feed
     
• Software
  • SolasControl
  • SolasTemps
  • SolasEnviro
  • SolasStyle
     
• Additional Hardware
  • Clockport Devices
  • I²C Devices
     
• Updating Solas Firmware
   
• Technical Details
   

The board fits directly onto the clockport header on the motherboard. Great care must be taken to ensure that the connector is correctly aligned, as misaligning the connector can damage your Amiga and your Solas board!

The board should be fitted as shown below - when correctly installed it will be so close to the ROM chips that it could not be fitted and further towards the left or front.

Correct Solas Alignment

Check carefully from both the front and the left side to ensure that the connector is aligned properly underneath.

Correct Solas Alignment viewed from the front

The A14/A15 ROM adaptor fits under either of the ROM chips, and is only needed to activate the clock port splitter functionality. The Solas itself will function fine without it, but the additional clockports will be inactive. To fit this adaptor, remove one of the ROM chips, fit the socket of the adaptor in the ROM socket, and fit the ROM back into the adaptor socket. Note the orientation of the socket, and also note that there are typically two empty pins at the leftmost end. The short cable of the adaptor connects to the Solas as shown below. Note that some additional hardware (e.g. Gayle adaptors) can also offer the A14/A15 connections needed - these can be used instead, avoiding the need for the ROM adaptor.

Address Line Adaptor Fitted

The Solas board requires an additional power connection from the floppy power connector. Use the provided floppy power cable to connect the Solas to the motherboard as shown.

Floppy Power Connection

To provide Solas with the drive activity signals, use the provided 5-pin cable to connect the board to the keyboard LED header on the motherboard. Note: Cable orientation is very important! Pin 1 must be connected to pin 1. Pin 1 is located at the left of the motherboard connector, and closest to the floppy power connector on the Solas. For ease of identification, the provided cable has one red wire to indicate pin 1.

This cable is not required if you do not wish to have Solas respond to drive activity with different LED patterns.

Keyboard LED Connection

A passthrough connector is provided to allow connection of the original floppy drive power cable without a Y-splitter. Note that both power connectors have the same function so the cable order doesn't matter.

Floppy Power Passthrough

As with the floppy power, a passthrough is provided to allow the connection of the keyboard LEDs without a splitter cable. Note however, that the original LED connector has one pin blocked. This pin was intended for a PCMCIA activity LED that was never implemented, but it's common to modify the A1200 to provide this signal, for example the Bifrost optionally supports this option. If your connector has a blanked pin, a small pin can be used to carefully remove the plug and allow it to be used. Again, pin 1 is located nearest the floppy power connectors.

Keyboard LED Passthrough

To allow connection to other clockports (e.g. clockports on Zorro cards, accelerators or clockport splitters), or installation on an A1200 setup where mounting directly on the motherboard isn't an option (e.g. towers with Mediator busboards), Solas boards can be fitted with a pin header instead of a socket. A standard 22-pin clockport cable can then be used to connect the Solas "Host" connector to the clockport header. If connected directly to the A1200 motherboard, the clockport splitter function will still be available once the A14/A15 connection is still made (possibly by extension using 0.1" jumper cables). Connecting to any other clockport however, including Zorro clockports and other clockport splitters, will disable the clockport splitter function, so the A14/A15 connection isn't required and Solas will be found at the address determined by the clockport it's connected to.
 

Two LED strip connections are located at the top right of the Solas board. Connect LED strips as desired here, noting that one pin will be blocked on the connector so have a look at the connector to determine the correct orientation.

LED Strip connection

Compatible LED strips are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and how and where they're fitted are entirely up to the user. A basic, self-adhesive LED strip may have been provided with your Solas - this is intended for use on the underside of the A1200 top cover, on an edge just to the front of the vents as shown below.

LED Strip fitting example

These LEDs point down, providing a more diffused glow effect from the reflection of the internals, as direct light from this type of LED is quite intense. Diffused strips are available, as well as other items like fans, heatsinks with compatible LEDs integrated.

The 3-pin temperature sensor connectors are located at the top of the Solas board. Pin 1 is at the end of the connectors closest to the logo, and is marked on the connector by a small embossed triangle. These sensors are optional, but connect as shown if desired.

Temperature Sensor Connection

Two fan connectors are provided at the top of the board - the uppermost is for a 5V fan, the lower connector is for a 12V fan. Standard 2-, 3-, or 4-pin fans can be used, but bear in mind that Solas only controls using a variable voltage, so the additional PWM and tacho functions of 3- and 4-pin fans aren't supported.

Fan connection

For audio response, Solas can sample a mono audio signal from the Amiga. This signal can be connected to the SIG pin of the Audio header as shown.

Audio Feed Solas Connection

On the A1200 (and A600), the mono audio feed can be obtained from the leftmost pin of the RF modulator. Use the provided clip to attach to the pin as shown. If the modulator has been removed, soldering a pin to the leftmost pad will give you access to the same signal. Consult the A1200 schematics for details (or get someone else to if you're not the soldering type).

Audio Signal From Modulator

Solas provides an additional three buffered clockports for connecting other clockport peripherals. (It's actually a 4-way splitter, but Solas itself takes up port number 3.) In addition to the non-clock peripherals, support is provided for standard real-time clock modules. Only one may be connected at any time, but Port 2 is positioned to accommodate the commonly available miniature RTC modules that normally fit beside the ROM chips. These can be fitted as shown.

RTC Module Fitment

Other clockport devices can be connected as if connecting to the motherboard. Some devices only work on Port 0 (which is the same address as the motherboard port), but most will work on any port. Cable orientation is very important! This is complicated by the fact that the standard clockport pins don't start at 1 - they're numbered instead from 19 to 40. Further complicating this is that different manufacturers use different conventions for marking orientation - some (e.g. Individual Computers) treat pin 40 as pin 1, others (e.g. E3B) treat pin 19 as pin 1. Solas labels the pins with the same numbers as they are on the motherboard, where pin 40 is closest to the trapdoor expansion connector, and pin 19 is closest to the PCMCIA connector. Always follow the peripheral manufacturer's instructions regarding orientation. If in doubt, pins 19 and 39 are both ground and at opposite ends of the same row, so a multimeter can usually be used to determine the correct alignment. Incorrect connection of clockport peripherals can damage your add-ons, your Solas and your Amiga!

Solas provides basic I²C host functionality. A 4-pin header towards the top of the board provides the I²C bus connection - it is a 3.3V bus and runs at 100kHz. Pin functions are labelled on the board - be warned that there is no fixed pin arrangement, so pay attention to the pinout of the device you're connecting and arrange the cable as required.

Current I²C support is limited - software is only provided to support commonly found Bosch environmental sensors of the BMP280/BME280 type. Support for further devices may be added in the future, along with an i2c.library device driver to allow existing I²C software to be used with devices attached to Solas.
 

For any Solas software to be able to find the Solas board, it needs to know its address. Currently, SolasControl will search the standard A1200 clockport addresses ($D80001, $D84001, $D88001 & $D8C001), as well as the /NET_CS address sometimes used by A600 and accelerator clockports ($D90001). If the Solas is connected at another address, for example on a Zorro card clockport, the address must be set manually. using the ADDRESS tooltype in the program's icon. (In the future, it may also support automatic detection of Zorro clockports.) Once SolasControl has connected successfully, it will set an environmental variable called "Solas" that contains the address. This is used by the other support programs to easily find the Solas board address.

This is the main software for controlling most of the features on Solas. It's used for configuring the LED patterns and behaviour, for importing and exporting patterns, for configuring things like temperature sensor calibration, audio sensitivity and fan response curves, as well as updating the Solas firmware. When launched, the main window will open and the program will try to connect to the Solas board.

A status bar at the bottom shows the current status - if the Solas board can't be found, it will say "Not Connected", otherwise it will show the address of the Solas board found. The Live Preview checkbox enables live preview mode, where the current pattern settings are displayed and updated immediately on the LED strip, overriding any other effects in place. Disabling this will return the LED strips to their previous activity. The Apply Current Settings button sends all current settings (all LED, fan and temperature sensor settings) to the Solas board where they will take effect immediately. The Save to Flash button will save the currently active settings on the Solas board to the on-board flash, meaning they will be active from the next reset / power up without having to use SolasControl to set them. Note that Save to Flash will save the current settings on Solas, which might not necessarily match the settings in SolasControl unless they have been applied first.

SolasControl LED Controls Tab

The LED Controls Tab allows you to customise the behaviour of the attached LED strips. At the top of the tab, three cycle gadgets choose the overall context of the other controls:

• LED Strip selects which LED strip is being customised by the rest of the controls
• Event chooses which event the current pattern is applied to:
  • Idle: Pattern will be active whenever no other events are active
  • Floppy Access: Pattern will be active whenever the Amiga accesses the internal floppy drive
  • HDD Access: Pattern will be active whenever the Amiga accesses the internal hard drive (this effect will be triggered for approximately 1 second before returning to the previous event to avoid rapid flickering between patterns)
  • PCMCIA Access: Pattern will be active whenever the PCMCIA port is accessed. Note that the A1200 requires a modification to the motherboard to enable this feature. As with the HDD activity event, this event will also remain triggered for 1 second before returning to the previous event.
• Style selects the pattern that will be applied to the selected LED strip during the selected event. A number of preprogrammed patterns are available:
  • None does not apply any effect to the LEDs - if a pattern was already displayed it will remain untouched
  • Kitt Scrolls a block of colour left and right at the selected speed. Size sets the number of LEDs used, the foreground colour will be faded to the background colour along the size chosen.
  • Star Trek Viewer Like Kitt but starts at the centre and scrolls left and right in symmetry.
  • Breathing Fades the whole strip between the foreground and background colours at the speed set. Size and direction settings have no effect.
  • Solid Sets the whole strip to the foreground colour. No other options have any effect.
  • Static Pattern Sets the colour pattern sent from SolasControl on the LEDs and leaves them in that pattern. None of the options have an effect.
  • Scrolling Pattern As for Static pattern, but the pattern scrolls in a loop. Direction selects the direction of the scroll.
  • Rainbow Cycle Fades the whole strip between red, green and blue at the speed specified. The foreground colour sets the maximum level of each of the three colours, and the background colour sets the minimum. Size and direction settings have no effect.
  • Rainbow Scroll Sets a rainbow pattern on the LEDs and scrolls it at the speed and in the direction specified. The max and min colour levels are set as with Rainbow Cycle. The size setting specifies the distance between the main colour peaks, e.g. a size of 5 means red will fade to green across 5 LEDs.
  • Waves Similar to Rainbow Scroll, except the pattern only fades between the foreground and background colours set.
  • Chase A glow of the primary colour scrolls across, followed by a glow of the secondary colour, each leaving a trail of colour behind. Speed sets the scroll speed, size sets the length of the glow effect.
  • Lightsaber Fills the strip with the primary colour at the speed specified, then remains full. Sparkles of the secondary colour are provided, and Size sets the strength of the flicker effect.
  • Level Meter Reacts to audio. The LED strip is filled from one side with the foreground colour based on the sampled audio level. The background colour fills the rest of the LED strip. Speed controls the sample rate, so higher means faster response (normally maximum is best). Size controls the decay rate, with 10 being the fastest decay after a peak. Direction selects from which side the strip fills.
  • Level Pulses Reacts to audio. The strip is filled with the background colour, and fades towards the foreground colour based on the sampled audio level. Speed and Size controls are similar to Level Meter. Direction has no effect.
  • Level Cycle Reacts to audio. Similar to Level Pulses, but each time the audio threshold setting is exceeded, the colour is cycled one step through a rainbow cycle. Speed sets the sample speed, size sets the distance between the colour peaks, so a higher size means a larger colour change each step. Direction has no effect.
  • Level Spread Reacts to audio. Similar to Level Meter, but the fill starts at the centre of the strip and fills towards both ends.

Full 24-bit RGB colour sliders are provided for adjusting the main foreground colour of the pattern and the secondary background colour. Small preview areas are provided to give a rough idea of the colour that's set, but bear in mind that the colour produced by RGB LEDs will often differ significantly to a colour shown on a display. See the descriptions of the individual styles for a description of the effects of the colour, speed and Size sliders and the direction cycle gadget.

An estimate of the peak current required from the 5V rail of the power supply to display the chosen pattern is displayed at the right of the tab. This can be used to give a rough idea of how much of a load the LEDs will put on the Amiga's PSU. Please note that this is not a real-time measurement of the actual LED strip. This is just a prediction based on measurements taken of a couple of LED strips, extrapolated to take the selected settings into account. The actual current required will vary depending on the exact LED strip used.

Send Pattern allows you to send an IFF palette file to Solas, which will then store the pattern of colours for use in the static and scrolling pattern styles. This file can be created in a paint program, or palette editor such as PaletteEd. Any number of colours can be used - if the LED strip has more LEDs than colours in the palette, the extra LEDs will be left blank. Colours beyond the number of LEDs in the strip will not be displayed.

SolasControl Fan Controls Tab

The Fan Controls tab displays the readings from the three temperature sensors, and allows control of the fan speed. All temperatures are in degrees C. The options on this tab allow detailed control over the fan behaviour.

• Fan Control selects how the fan speed is controlled:
  • Manual The fan speed is set by the Fan Speed slider
  • Sensor 1/2/3 The fan speed is controlled automatically to keep the selected sensor reading at or below the temperature on the Setpoint slider
  • Highest The fan speed is controlled automatically, based on whichever sensor is reading the highest temperature
• Fan Speed Sets the speed for the fan when in manual mode
• Minimum Fan Speed Sets the minimum speed at which the fan should be run. Different fans will have different minimum speeds, and some might vibrate or make noise below a certain speed so this can be set to ensure the fan is kept out of this speed region. A setting around 25-40 is probably suitable for many fans. Note that 5V fans will typically have a higher minimum speed than 12V fans.
• Keep Fan On Chooses whether to keep the fan on or not when the speed is below the selected minimum speed. If this is enabled, the fan will stay running at the set minimum speed, even when a lower speed is chosen (either automatically or manually). If this option is disabled, the fan will be turned off completely when the chosen speed is lower than the minimum.
• Setpoint Sets the temperature used as a target for automatic fan control.

SolasControl Config Tab

The Config tab allows adjusting the setup of the board. Typically these settings wouldn't be used much; once they're adjusted as required, they can be saved to the flash of the Solas and left alone.

LED Strip 1 & LED Strip 2 configuration options tell Solas which LED strips are connected and how long they are. Up to 100 LEDs are supported per strip, though response times and speed of effects may be effected when using very long strips. No harm will be caused by setting them incorrectly, but it's recommended to leave strips disabled if they're not connected so speeds aren't affected. If the LED Count is set higher than the actual length of the strip, the effects will simply disappear off the end of the strip.

Temperature Sensor Configuration allows the calibration of each of the three sensor inputs. Sensor inputs 1 and 2 are intended for LM3x type sensors, which have a nice linear response. LM35 sensors use an offset value of 0, LM36 use an offset of 78. Both types use a multiplier of 0.94. Sensor 3 is intended for a thermistor, and an offset of 0 with a multiplier of 3.5 is approximately correct for the internal thermistor of a Rev. 4 060 CPU. However, other thermistors (including different revision 060 CPUs) will have significantly different responses; some experimentation will be required to find suitable values.

Fan Controller Tuning allows advanced control of how the fan speed controller reacts to temperatures in automatic modes. The P, I and D values are used to fine-tune the calculations used to determine the fan speed with the aim of minimising annoying fan noise, changes of speed and switching to and from full speed. Since every system and every fan is different, the provided values of 1.5, 1 and 2 are a good starting point, but the ideal values for your system may require some experimentation.
PID control is a classic system of control used in all aspects of engineering for generations. The full details of the system can be read about in many places so won't be covered here, but the basics are this: P is for Proportional, and represents how much the fan's response is governed directly by the temperature, i.e. the higher above the setpoint, the faster the fan. Increasing this value will increase the fan speed and response speed, but will also increase "hunting" and overshooting. I is for Integral, and represents how much of the fan's response is based on its previous effectiveness, i.e., the longer the temperature is above the setpoint and the further above it has been, the faster the fan. Increasing this value also increases the response speed and helps to get to the setpoint, but can also introduce hunting. D is for Derivative, and represents how well the system is reacting to the current situation over time, i.e. the error rate. Increasing this value will dampen any oscillations from the P and I functions, but will slow the response somewhat.

Audio Level Settings allow fine-tuning of the audio response. Offset sets the baseline level of the audio, so if you have a response from the Level Meter pattern when no audio is playing, increase this value. Range is the scale of the response, or how much of the audio response is represented by the full strip, so if you have a response that is too small, decrease this value. If even a low sound maxes out the LED response, increase this value. Threshold is the value within the Range that the level must exceed to count as a "beat" and cycle the colour in the Level Cycle LED pattern.

SolasTemps is a small commodity that reads the temperature sensors attached to Solas, as well as allowing control of the fan speed. As a commodity, it follows the standard commodity conventions, allowing it to be hidden and disabled or enabled by Exchange, start hidden and popping up with a hotkey or by running it twice. In addition, it offers alarm limits, and will warn you whenever any of the temperature sensors reach a configurable limit.

SolasTemps Main Window

SolasTemps is configured using its icon tooltypes. These can be modified using the standard Workbench Icon Information function. Supported tooltypes are:

• DONOTWAIT This tells Workbench not to wait for SolasTemps to finish when it's started from WBStartup. If you don't have this tooltype, starting SolasTemps from WBStartup will give you a warning.
• CX_POPUP This tells SolasTemps whether to open its window when it starts. If set to NO, it will run in the background and remain hidden until called with Exchange, its hotkey or by running it again. Defaults to YES.
• CX_POPKEY This tells Workbench to assign the specified hotkey for opening the SolasTemps window. Defaults to Ctrl+Alt+T.
• ADDRESS This tells SolasTemps the address of the Solas board, since it won't search for itself. Typically, the address will be set by SolasControl and saved as an env variable, but this tooltype can be used to override that setting.
• SENSOR1NAME / SENSOR2NAME / SENSOR3NAME These tell SolasTemps the name to use for displaying the temperature of sensors 1, 2 and 3. Defaults to "Temp 1", "Temp 2" and "Temp 3".
• HIDET1 / HIDET2 / HIDET3 These tell SolasTemps to ignore sensor 1, 2 or 3 and hide the display of the sensor's temperature. Defaults to disabled (i.e., show the reading).

SolasTemps allows the user to select from the various fan control modes by selecting the relevant entry from the program's menus. Manual mode allows the fan's speed to be directly controlled using the slider in the SolasTemps main window. A sensor can be selected, in which case the fan's speed will be adjusted to try and maintain the temperature setpoint chosen. The "Highest" mode is similar to the sensor modes but bases the fan speed on whichever temperature reading is the highest.

SolasEnviro is another commodity that works in a similar way to SolasTemps. However, SolasEnviro reads a BMP/BME280 module that's attached to Solas via the I²C bus. It can read and display the environmental temperature, pressure and humidity as supported by the attached module.

Like SolasTemps, SolasEnviro can be configured using its icon tooltypes. The currently supported tooltypes are DONOTWAIT, CX_POPUP, CX_POPKEY and ADDRESS. See SolasTemps above for details on the function of these tooltypes.

SolasStyle is a Shell command that applies a previously-saved LED style file to a specified event on the Solas board. This can be used to apply different presets to the LEDs in a script, for example. Suitable style files can be saved by the SolasControl software, and contain details of the pattern type, colours, speed, size and direction.

The firmware can be downloaded on the Downloads page. Normally you'll only need the latest version, but older versions may be used for testing purposes or if there are issues with the latest version. The file is provided in an archive and needs to be unpacked before it can be used - the firmware updater uses files in Intel .hex format. Select the required .hex file after clicking the "Update Solas Firmware..." button. A warning will be given to not interrupt the firmware update process. It's a good idea to not run any other software that might interfere or cause a crash while the update is going on - if the firmware update is interrupted, the board will need to be reflashed with a cable.

The .hex file will be processed and the actual flashing process can then begin. The .hex file may contain the main firmware, the flash loader firmware, or both. Some version information will be shown, and you will be given the option of updating either or both of the firmwares if more than one is present. To save time, it's probably best to only update the one that needs to be updated.

Firmware Update Options

The firmware flashing process will take a few minutes; the current progress will be shown in the status bar at the bottom of the window. When the process is complete, the board will reset. It's a good idea at that point to quit SolasControl and restart it to reconnect to the board. Once SolasControl is restarted, it will show the new firmware versions.

Firmware Update in Progress