My 500+ Project

[djos]

I now have my a1200 up and running with the 1081s and one of my two 4.3amp heavy duty PSU's - interestingly it seems much more stable now so i will have to play with turning maprom on again.



btw, I think i've gotten used to a fishbowl crt again and games and demos look really good, WB is still flickery and High-res laced is just a disaster but for my main uses im a happy chappy.

[djos]

Geez, been a long time between updates! I had a run of sh!tty luck, got retrenched from HP in July last year and found that the Adelaide Job market had tanked, largely IMO due to a certain very dishonest Polly running around crying debt and deficit and budget emergency for 3 years.

Anyway after being out of work for 7 months and getting only 2 interviews I gave up on Adelaide and moved my little family to Melbourne where I found a job in 5 weeks - just in time too as we'd pretty much run out of money and credit!

Anyway we are all settled now and finding our feet! I even have a dedicated desk for my Commodore gear now!



My little girl loves DP IV AGA on my a1200:



My latest project involves 10x 512kb EEPROM's that managed to get hold of ... Stay tuned!



PS, Im also planning on making a chip-ram config switch for my HxC equipped a500 so I can switch from stock 512kb slow/512kb chip + 4mb fast to 1mb Chip + 4mb Fast ... just for fun. :-)

[Epsilon_]

Hi djos,

I understand the IT situation well in Adelaide - it is really terrible. I was unemployed in 2012 for 8 months and found the same thing you did - I am sure it hasn't got any better since I was lucky enough through contacts to find another senior IT role job here.

I completely understand why you moved to Melbourne - if I lose my job here I may have to consider the same thing. I was in Melbourne with my wife over Easter and it just feels so much better there than last time I was there 10 years ago - vibrant and a city going places, without all the negativity everyone here (especially pollys and media) in Adelaide seems intent on pushing out to everyone everyday...quite gloomy.

I have lived here 20 years and never seen the job market for IT workers in Adelaide as bad as it is right now.

Best of luck in Melbourne, and glad your Amigas are back up and running again. I am toying with the idea of installing my hxc in the Amiga 600 but have no idea where and how to dremel cleanly, and having one case means one shot. You can follow my Amiga 600 project on http://classicamiga.blogspot.com.au if you are interested!

I finally picked up a CDTV to play with too! I found a CDTV scsi card for it, and thinking about putting in a hard disk to it to run my original A2000 hard disk wb1.3 :-)

I was going to ask you to help me with the hxc install actually since I knew you were in Adelaide, but I guess that is no longer an option!

Catcha,
Epsilon

[djos]

Hi Epsilon, it's pretty dire and really doesnt help when HP fire close to 200 staff!!!

I just couldnt fathom how someone with my experience couldnt find a job even doing sh!tty desktop support for half my normal wage! And yet in Melbourne I got a contract for $600 a day doing simple Incident Management!

I actually really enjoy living here in Melbourne too, so much on and so many more opportunities, Adelaide is pretty dead by comparison. The worst part for us is having to sell our brilliant Adelaide home knowing full well that we wont be able to afford anything like it anytime soon here.

Re your a600, you should be able to install the LCD in line with the cooling slots prolly to the left of the FDD. I promised I'd build a set of HxC extension cables for another Adelaide Amigan but im really not sure how i'll find the time atm, having a 3 year old and 1 year old doesnt leave us with much time to ourselves.

[guest7146]

Nice projects! We are surely due an update?! What were you up to with the EPROMs?

Regarding the case-mounted HxC, I think I would have considered mounting the LCD and buttons in their own case, which could be kept on top of the A500, and then running the loom inside the case either through the redundant floppy port or perhaps through the case vents if I could find a thin enough flat cable.  One of those plastic style flat cables which plug into SMT mounted connectors would definitely fit through there, but there would be a small complication with interfacing to it.  You can get adapter boards which break them out...

I suppose it depends if you give two hoots about drilling and cutting your case or not.  I tend to lean towards preferring not to.

Cheers!

[djos]

Howdy, yeah it has been a while been updates, on the eprom front I've been able to make pretty much any eprom I want including a1200 and a500 Rom's. I've also made dual a500 Rom's with 27c800 eprom's.

[gertsy]

Wow, Never consciously noticed you moved djos.  Welcome to Melbourne!
You forgot to mention you can get a good coffee here too.  Though SA has much, much better wine. IMO.  But you can buy that in plenty here.

[djos]

Wow, Never consciously noticed you moved djos.  Welcome to Melbourne!
You forgot to mention you can get a good coffee here too.  Though SA has much, much better wine. IMO.  But you can buy that in plenty here.

Adelaide coffee is decent too but cheers for the welcome.

Do you attend the Commodore and Amiga group here in the eastern suburbs? (It's pretty good)

[gertsy]

Adelaide coffee is decent too but cheers for the welcome.

Do you attend the Commodore and Amiga group here in the eastern suburbs? (It's pretty good)

Yeah that's what I mean't "too" as in "as well".  But wine is a different thing.

Re the A500+; You sometimes have to stop and think; This is a 24 year old computer. Decked out with lots'o new stuff but essentially that.  Can you imagine a device of today being used in 25 years?  The double sided tape would all dry out and they'd just fall apart. Not to mention the batteries.

My A2000 is in storage now but my A4000, A1200 and A500 just continue to fire up and work.  Amazing.