UPDATE to the build:
With the A1200, if the keyboard is bad or membrane is causing issues and your A1200 board will not post when you turn it on (i.e. show the kickstart screen), pull out the keyboard even if it does not look bad. As I explained above this one had been cat pee destroyed apparently and only the smell was the clue. Once I pulled the keyboard, I was able to get it to post to kickstart finally.
For those that want to try to add some of the same hardware or upgrade their systems to some of the stuff I did, feel free to ask and I can help you through how I got things setup, the parts I used and software used to do so. I spent days trying every combination of things you can imagine. While some worked, they did not work at a level of stability that I personally am willing to accept. I am one of those that wants it to be rock solid to the point when I hit that power switch, I don't want to sit there wondering if this time it will boot or blow up. So a lot of time was spent getting this system to that point.
Some may wonder why I did not install a gotek drive. In a sense I have, but I chose to use a portable external version instead of internal. I wanted a stock Amiga floppy drive because sometimes it is just nice to put in a floppy disk and let is grind away as it loads some old game or program.
One last point. I also ran into another issue that many others have talked about. And I still do not understand the cause. CF cards and the PCMCIA slot. I bought 6 cards of one kind/brand. I bought 6 cards of a completely different kind/brand. Both sets are the same size cards. When I first started, I was not sure what I need or what would work. The thing is, for both sets, some of the card work and some of them don't. It makes absolutely no sense at all that I can plug in 3 cards from the first brand and they work fine but the other three from that same exact brand, will not function at all in any manner on the A1200 PCMCIA slot. They DO work fine as an IDE drive but not in the PCMCIA slot. And the same goes for the other brand set. out of that one I got 2 that work, and 4 that won't.
If anyone has any idea on why this might be, I am all ears because I know of no reason this should be the case. It makes absolutely no sense at all unless tolerances are that strict that they have to be absolutely right on the money for whatever they need to function.
If I think of anything else, I will post here and update.