i-Cubed EtherLAN 500 network card

This is the EtherLAN 500 network card that I have fitted to my Acorn A5000. The card was also sold by Acorn directly and was badged as the AEH75.

Annoyingly, although this card has a flashable ROM that carries all the drivers and software required to run (DCI2), I could not flash this card without a username and password combination from the manufacturer which had been lost to the mists of time. A couple of years later, I was able to flash this card using a new set of flash routines from ROOL that ignored any security settings allowing my to install the latest DCI4 modules directly onto the card. Unfortunately, the images on the ROM now support a later version of RISC OS so , in order to use !Internet with this card on RISC OS 3.1x, the DCI4 version of the EtherH16 module has to be soft-loaded into RAM.

The EtherLan 500 must be manually configured using a jumper on the circuit board to choose between the 10-base-2 and 10-base-T network connections. Most modern wired Ethernet networks use 10-base-T and the jumper JP2 is pictured below showing that configuration.

Installing EtherH16

To install the DCI4 compliant version of EtherH16 is straightforward enough when using a Uniboot style !Boot folder.

Using !SparkFS, extract EtherH16 from the downloadable zip file and place it in !Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk where it will be automatically soft-loaded as part of the boot sequence.

Repair/Change History

In early August 2012, the card developed a fault and several tracks overheated burning off the protective PCB lacquer in places as can be seen in the photo below.

After checking all the passive components, several integrated circuits were placed on order from Quarndon to effect a repair. When the integrated circuits arrived I took the opportunity to add in turned pin sockets for those IC's to make future replacements easier. I replaced the 74HC273N, two 74F373N's and the 74F74N logic chips which restored the card to full functionality.