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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: blanghorst on February 24, 2012, 12:02:08 AM
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So, after all these years, I'm finally the owner of an Amiga 3000 that I bought from someone on Amibay! It should be here in the next few days. I'm pretty pumped -- I was a college kid when the 3000 was released and couldn't afford one, so I had to make due with my Amiga 2000 (which you guys helped me refurb and upgrade last year).
It already has 3.1 ROMs, 18 MB of RAM, and a 500 MB SCSI hard drive. Any hints/tips/recommendations on what to look for when I receive it? I'd like to put a 68040 or above accelerator in it at some point, but I've read some confusing things about which chip revisions to look for, which revisions of accelerators to look for (esp. with the A3640), and stuff like that. Any tips you guys can give me will be appreciated.
Oh, and I have an old Scanjet 5P that I plan to hook to it. I assume Aminet would have drivers?
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#1. Remove the battery.
#2. Remove the battery.
#3. Remove the battery.
#4. Add a Deneb (or Subway via a IDE adapter with a clockport) for USB and DVD ROM. Plus a Zorro graphics card.
;)
Depending on how many floppy drives you have fitted, Mechy sells a nice SCSI multi-card reader that you could install (with a bit of front case cutting) to mach transferring files between your PC/MAC and the Amiga easy via SD/CF Card.
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Yeah, forgot to say -- the battery has been removed as well.
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#4. Add a Deneb (or Subway via a IDE adapter with a clockport) for USB, RTG and DVD ROM.
there is a RTG driver for USB? You mean video? I want to try it...
Also, subway is pretty slow for RTG. Is it faster when connected to a clockport adapter vs a real A1200 clockport?
thanks
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Right now, I have a SCSI Zip drive on my A2000 and a USB one on my PC to transfer files. Unfortunately I haven't spent much time on my A2000 and there are definitely a few things I need to do, such as work on my startup configuration (not quite working the way it was intended) and copying the drive to a Zip disk. I just don't remember all the nuances of AmigaDOS so I probably should do a refresher since I've been in the PC world almost exclusively since 1994.
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Nuance tip #1: *.* == #? in AmigaDOS
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Nuance tip #1: *.* == #? in AmigaDOS
i keep thinking i'm in unix and type "ls"
http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/ls-4.7LJR
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I should probably post my A2000's startup sequence in another thread and see why it isn't working as it should. I've got both 1.3 and 2.04 ROMs installed and the startup sequence is supposed to detect which ROM is active and then boot into the proper OS, but it doesn't seem to work.
Fortunately, I won't have that issue with this 3000 because I think it is just running 3.1. Speaking of which, does anyone have suggestions on where to buy 3.1 source disks?
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I should probably post my A2000's startup sequence in another thread and see why it isn't working as it should. I've got both 1.3 and 2.04 ROMs installed and the startup sequence is supposed to detect which ROM is active and then boot into the proper OS, but it doesn't seem to work.
Fortunately, I won't have that issue with this 3000 because I think it is just running 3.1. Speaking of which, does anyone have suggestions on where to buy 3.1 source disks?
If you want physical disks I'd try amigakit although i don't see them listed you might want to ask...
If you just want a legit license then AmigaForever is your best bet. It comes with ADFs.
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there is a RTG driver for USB? You mean video? I want to try it...
Also, subway is pretty slow for RTG. Is it faster when connected to a clockport adapter vs a real A1200 clockport?
thanks
Sorry, the RTG was supposed to be seperate from the USB (something like a Cybervision64). As far as I'm aware there is no USB RTG solution in the works. Chris Hodge actually looked at drivers for a PC USB-Graphics card dongle in a thread on this board, but it wasn't doable (can't recall if it was a lack of documentation or a hardware issue).
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Also, subway is pretty slow for RTG. Is it faster when connected to a clockport adapter vs a real A1200 clockport?
I remember doing RTG over a serial null modem cable with my A3000 and my A1200 via Siamese, sending my output to an old Packard Bell 120MHz Pentium. I got a nice 16bit 1024x768 display for Workbench. I never got the ethernet connection working (didn't have a network card in my miggies back then). I keep meaning to try it with the Minimig. Image the Minimig v1.1 using a i7 PC as a graphics card. :)
Somehow I doubt Siamese will work on Windows7, but it might work on a virtual XP machine running on Windows 7.
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... Mechy sells a nice SCSI multi-card reader that you could install (with a bit of front case cutting) to mach transferring files between your PC/MAC and the Amiga easy via SD/CF Card.
Nooooooooooooooh! Don't do a "front case cutting" job! Keep the nice A3000 intact!
It's better to use a Buddha-Flash IDE controller or Tandem + Rear Mount CF-IDE adapter like this:
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Nooooooooooooooh! Don't do a "front case cutting" job! Keep the nice A3000 intact!
It's better to use a Buddha-Flash IDE controller or Tandem + Rear Mount CF-IDE adapter like this:
I agree, don't cut your case! You can mount the SCSI card reader internally in the HD spot, although you wont be able to install a floppy drive in the location just forward of the HD mount.
I have been working on my A3K, although this is not its permanent spot, you can see the SCSI card reader in this photo. They work very well and it is very fast on a stock 3000.
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I agree, don't cut your case! You can mount the SCSI card reader internally in the HD spot, although you wont be able to install a floppy drive in the location just forward of the HD mount.
I have been working on my A3K, although this is not its permanent spot, you can see the SCSI card reader in this photo. They work very well and it is very fast on a stock 3000.
That's the way I'd mount it, but my A3000 has a molded front that only has a space for the floppy to go through a slot and into the bare drive(s) behind. It doesn't have pop-out plates like the A2000 and A4000 so to access all of the card slots you would need to cut a window in the plastic.
I hate the A3000 case with a passion. Badly thought out for future expansion, it should never have left the drawing board.
If a certain company who shall remain nameless really wanted to make "Amiga" cases then they should produce a replacement A3000 desktop case with a bit more space and some extra drive bays. If you could it a Mediator A3000D into it then all the better.
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Don't worry guys, I have no intention of cutting the front of the case. I love the A3000's look and don't plan on doing anything to deface it. :D
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I agree, don't cut your case! You can mount the SCSI card reader internally in the HD spot, although you wont be able to install a floppy drive in the location just forward of the HD mount.
I have been working on my A3K, although this is not its permanent spot, you can see the SCSI card reader in this photo. They work very well and it is very fast on a stock 3000.
Where is a good source for the card reader?
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http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_79&products_id=180
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http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_79&products_id=180
Thanks!
So, if I bought one of these and decided to mount it internally with a CF card, would the Amiga treat it like a hard drive or would I need to do a bunch of extra configuration to get it working as such? Also, I can research this, but maybe you guys know -- what is the max hard drive size that the A3000's SCSI controller supports?
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Thanks!
So, if I bought one of these and decided to mount it internally with a CF card, would the Amiga treat it like a hard drive or would I need to do a bunch of extra configuration to get it working as such? Also, I can research this, but maybe you guys know -- what is the max hard drive size that the A3000's SCSI controller supports?
You just plug it in and go. You can set up the computer to used each one of those slots as LUNs. It's a great piece of hardware!!
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You just plug it in and go. You can set up the computer to used each one of those slots as LUNs. It's a great piece of hardware!!
That sounds like it might be a good option. I believe I have a spare 1 GB CF card in one of my camera cases and maybe I should consider copying the hard drive contents over to it and making that the new "hard drive." I'm just a little weary of using nearly 20 year-old hard drives on a regular basis. My A2000 has a 52 MB Quantum from 1992 that still works like a charm, but I'm a little nervous and need to invest the time to see what it would take to copy it over to a bootable ZIP disk or something like that.
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Nooooooooooooooh! Don't do a "front case cutting" job! Keep the nice A3000 intact!
It's better to use a Buddha-Flash IDE controller or Tandem + Rear Mount CF-IDE adapter like this:
A agree don't chop it up! just use a external scsi case with it, the 3000 has a db25 on the back for external scsi devs.
mech
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If the God Lord didn't mean us to butcher computer cases then he wouldn't have invented the Dremel. :p
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If the God Lord didn't mean us to butcher computer cases then he wouldn't have invested the Dremel. :p
Well if it makes you feel better, someone did take a dremel to the top slot in the back of the chassis on the A3000 I bought.
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So, after all these years, I'm finally the owner of an Amiga 3000 that I bought from someone on Amibay!
Congratulations on your A3000 purchase. I have had one for a long time now and can make a few comments....
Mine is 16mhz version of the 68030. And has the upside down kickstart mounting. It has been upgraded with A3640 V3.1 (manufactured by post Commodore company; Amiga Technologies. So this is 68040 25mhz w/ integral FPU. Card runs perfectly and a great performance added for reasonable price. The only real complaint I have for it is its physical mounting. As in it being just underneath the drive tray. I have a custom heat sink w/ fan to keep things cool. My machine still only 2mb chip / 16mb motherboard fast. Wish I had more. ZoRAM 128MB or 256MB are available. I do not have this though. As I understand it, speed will be limited due to Zorro Bus and not fast like what some accelerators have. I updated the main chipset to latest revision chips. It was a matter of principal I guess. I am not Amiga savy enough to explain any benefits to doing this. I run a GVP Spectrum 24/28 video card. RTG video makes a great experience in my opinion. I also have an XSurf network card. But have yet to hook it up to internet. So for now I just use it for its clockport; Subway USB. USB on an Amiga is awesome. Works like a charm for thumb drives. So for me it is my primary tool for transferring files from the outside world into this Amiga. The best USB solution is the Deneb card though, much faster. I upgraded to a 1.76MB floppy drive as a matter of principal. I hate floppies and only used for software install of my various hardware upgrades. I did run an Elbox FastATA IDE controller for a while. It ran with no issues. I have an external drive box that houses a cd/rw drive. Lately I have just been running a hard drive only from original SCSI, which works just fine of course. For the OS, I use a nearly stock 3.9, I have been meaning to get in there and massively update/patch it but have not had the time.
The 3000 is a great machine in my opinion. Sure it is not AGA but for my own uses, RTG gets me by just fine. As far as I know, the Indivision ECS could be added to this machine. I guess video upgrades are a matter of individual choice. I keep this thing running but do admit to exploring other Amiga alternatives. I think if I ever bought another real Amiga (probably will never do) it might be an A1200 which has AGA and very good upgrade hardware support.
Enjoy your 3000!
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Congratulations on your A3000 purchase. I have had one for a long time now and can make a few comments....
Mine is 16mhz version of the 68030. And has the upside down kickstart mounting. It has been upgraded with A3640 V3.1 (manufactured by post Commodore company; Amiga Technologies. So this is 68040 25mhz w/ integral FPU. Card runs perfectly and a great performance added for reasonable price. The only real complaint I have for it is its physical mounting. As in it being just underneath the drive tray. I have a custom heat sink w/ fan to keep things cool. My machine still only 2mb chip / 16mb motherboard fast. Wish I had more. ZoRAM 128MB or 256MB are available. I do not have this though. As I understand it, speed will be limited due to Zorro Bus and not fast like what some accelerators have. I updated the main chipset to latest revision chips. It was a matter of principal I guess. I am not Amiga savy enough to explain any benefits to doing this. I run a GVP Spectrum 24/28 video card. RTG video makes a great experience in my opinion. I also have an XSurf network card. But have yet to hook it up to internet. So for now I just use it for its clockport; Subway USB. USB on an Amiga is awesome. Works like a charm for thumb drives. So for me it is my primary tool for transferring files from the outside world into this Amiga. The best USB solution is the Deneb card though, much faster. I upgraded to a 1.76MB floppy drive as a matter of principal. I hate floppies and only used for software install of my various hardware upgrades. I did run an Elbox FastATA IDE controller for a while. It ran with no issues. I have an external drive box that houses a cd/rw drive. Lately I have just been running a hard drive only from original SCSI, which works just fine of course. For the OS, I use a nearly stock 3.9, I have been meaning to get in there and massively update/patch it but have not had the time.
The 3000 is a great machine in my opinion. Sure it is not AGA but for my own uses, RTG gets me by just fine. As far as I know, the Indivision ECS could be added to this machine. I guess video upgrades are a matter of individual choice. I keep this thing running but do admit to exploring other Amiga alternatives. I think if I ever bought another real Amiga (probably will never do) it might be an A1200 which has AGA and very good upgrade hardware support.
Enjoy your 3000!
Hey, thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it.
I just love the old hardware. As I keep telling people on other forums I post on, computers from the 80s just had personality that the machines today don't seem to possess. I've loved the A3000 ever since it was released in 1990 but I was in college then and couldn't afford one, so I'd go to the local Amiga store and play with it as much as I could.
Which brings me to a funny story. I'd often go to this store and play on the A3000. One time, I went in and something was wrong with it (don't recall what it was now). At any rate, the guy at the store couldn't fix it so I looked at it and fixed it (I was much more Amiga savy back then). He actually said to me "You know, I should charge you for coming in here and playing with the Amiga 3000 so much." I looked at him and said "Yeah, and I should charge you for the tech support I just provided." He never said another word. :laughing:
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If you plan to use your scsi with several devices get a 00-08 wd scsi chip look at the following thread:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57738
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I have my CF card reader mounted in the right-hand floppy bay. I used Velcro to mount it to the plate which mounts to the case. Fits great, and no modifications to the case.
I can keep the plastic drive bay cover in place if I plug the CF card direct into the card reader. If you want to use the PCMCIA converter you can actually remove the platic cover and use it through the floppy disk drive opening!
Definitely get it from Mechy in the link posted above. He's the man!
He also sells the updated SCSI chip.
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So, after all these years, I'm finally the owner of an Amiga 3000 that I bought from someone on Amibay! It should be here in the next few days. I'm pretty pumped -- I was a college kid when the 3000 was released and couldn't afford one, so I had to make due with my Amiga 2000 (which you guys helped me refurb and upgrade last year).
It already has 3.1 ROMs, 18 MB of RAM, and a 500 MB SCSI hard drive. Any hints/tips/recommendations on what to look for when I receive it? I'd like to put a 68040 or above accelerator in it at some point, but I've read some confusing things about which chip revisions to look for, which revisions of accelerators to look for (esp. with the A3640), and stuff like that. Any tips you guys can give me will be appreciated.
Oh, and I have an old Scanjet 5P that I plan to hook to it. I assume Aminet would have drivers?
Congrats!!! This is by far my favorite Amiga and I know you will have lots of fun with it.
I would only purchase either a Warp Engine 3040 or a Cyberstorm MKIII. Do it right or don't do it at all, this will take more time and cost more money but, you will get the absolute best usability, and overall best performance. Having the Ram, SCSI, and processor one the same bus really makes a huge difference. Unless your ray tracing or need very heavy math, the 68040 (at 40MHz) is perfect and you won't notice much of a difference between an 060. The 3640 is cheap, but in the end if you really want to spend lots of time and enjoy the 3k, I would go with my recommendations.
Same for the video, the 3 I would only choose: Picasso IV, Retina BLT Z3, or a Cybervision 64. The other ones either have driver issues, too little of memory, or just plain slow.
If you can find a Buster 11, would put one in. They are easier to come by that the ramsey/dmac pair. With the cards I recommended, I don't remember any issues with older chips and accelerators.
I still use my 3000 with my Warp Engine and Retina Z3, and for most everything it is perfectly usable and still very fast.
Enjoy!!!
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Congrats! My A3000/16 purchase was also my favorite and like you I couldn't afford one when they were released, but spent lots of time dreaming of one and visiting my local Amiga dealer.
Recently acquired one and installed Mechy's SCSI reader, WD SCSI chip update and 16MB of FAST ZIP, ALL worked amazingly well!
Also found a affordable A3640 V3.2 that worked without incident in A3000 as well, but would prefer to complete the upgrade with a Cyberstorm MKIII anything.
I also hunted for the Ariadne I or II network card and transfer files from my Mac desktop easily and/or download on the Amiga directly.
Enjoy! I am now fully restoring an A2000 and on the prowl for a Tekmagic/GVP 68060 for the A2000.. Giggidy.
-Allen
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So guys, this WD SCSI chip update -- which version should I be looking for and what issues does it fix? For all I know, this box might have the updated chip, so I'll need to know what version to look for when I open it up.
Also, same question applies to the Buster 11 -- what does it fix and what is the version I should be looking for on the chip to tell if I already have it or not?
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Enjoy! I am now fully restoring an A2000 and on the prowl for a Tekmagic/GVP 68060 for the A2000.. Giggidy.
-Allen
I pulled my A2000 out of the garage last year and powered it up for the first time in probably 10 years and only the second time or so in the last 17 years. Unfortunately, it did not work due to battery corrosion.
Since it was a revision 4.x board, I decided to buy a revision 6.2 off of eBay and I also bought a 68030 accelerator and Microway flickerfixer while I was at it. Those were two other things I always wanted and couldn't afford as a college kid. :) It was lots of fun and I removed the battery and wired a new battery pack that is located on the front of the chassis and behind the faceplate to avoid this issue happening again. I had a lot of fun doing this refurb and once I got everything built, everyhing powered right up and the only issue I had was with my Kickstart ROM and the 68030 accelerator, which I resolved by buying another ROM.
I've still got some work to do on it, and at some point, I'll post another thread here for some suggestions. I'm really rusty on AmigaDOS and need some help troubleshooting my startup-sequence file. I added a SCSI ZIP drive since that was the cheapest way for me to easily transfer files between the Amiga and my PC (I had an old USB Zip 250 in my closet that I got for free).
I still have the revision 4.1 board and bought a new CPU socket for it, so as I get time, I may try to refurb the board and if successful, I might try building another A2000 piece-by-piece.
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Congrats!!! This is by far my favorite Amiga and I know you will have lots of fun with it.
I would only purchase either a Warp Engine 3040 or a Cyberstorm MKIII. Do it right or don't do it at all, this will take more time and cost more money but, you will get the absolute best usability, and overall best performance. Having the Ram, SCSI, and processor one the same bus really makes a huge difference. Unless your ray tracing or need very heavy math, the 68040 (at 40MHz) is perfect and you won't notice much of a difference between an 060. The 3640 is cheap, but in the end if you really want to spend lots of time and enjoy the 3k, I would go with my recommendations.
Same for the video, the 3 I would only choose: Picasso IV, Retina BLT Z3, or a Cybervision 64. The other ones either have driver issues, too little of memory, or just plain slow.
If you can find a Buster 11, would put one in. They are easier to come by that the ramsey/dmac pair. With the cards I recommended, I don't remember any issues with older chips and accelerators.
I still use my 3000 with my Warp Engine and Retina Z3, and for most everything it is perfectly usable and still very fast.
Enjoy!!!
Thanks for the accelerator recommendations. I'm in this for the long haul I think, so I can take some time and wait for the right one to come along. That, and my wife won't be happy if a bunch of Amiga stuff starts showing up suddenly! :roflmao: When I told her about the A3000, her eyes almost rolled out of their sockets.
I'm a little torn on upgrading the video to be honest. I'm mainly a classic Amiga follower (I have little or no interest in anything post-Commodore) and prefer to stick with the regular chipsets whenever possible.
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Thanks for the accelerator recommendations. I'm in this for the long haul I think, so I can take some time and wait for the right one to come along. That, and my wife won't be happy if a bunch of Amiga stuff starts showing up suddenly! :roflmao: When I told her about the A3000, her eyes almost rolled out of their sockets.
I'm a little torn on upgrading the video to be honest. I'm mainly a classic Amiga follower (I have little or no interest in anything post-Commodore) and prefer to stick with the regular chipsets whenever possible.
Wouldn't worry about the wife, buy her flowers, take her to dinner, and spend some nice time with her (which is all fun anyways) and your hobby becomes less of an issue. Let's face it the Amiga is a great clean hobby, one of which I don't have much time for sadly. But I enjoy my kids and family more, doesn't help I work much more now also (economy in the US still down, so have to work smarter/harder/longer).
Lastly, you may want to add a video card, since the 3 I mentioned make a tremendous difference in speed (I love ECS, but a video card is way faster) and on how pretty you can make the screen. The biggest bonus is you can use modern paint functions and have a reasonable browsing experience etc. on your amiga. The drivers are the biggest benefit, since chip ram is not an issue and you don't have to worry about what your running. I'm almost a true purist most of the time, and my kids 3k doesn't have a video card and it is fun to use ECS. My kids don't surf the web on it or view pictures, so it is just fine...
A few final recommendations, if you want MP3 playback go with a delfina plus or the delfina just lower. These cards relieve the processor for playback and make multitasking real smooth. Perform the 50MHz mod to your 68882. Track down a 3 1/2 floppy disk cleaner, 3000 floppy drives are more temperamental that the other amiga drives.
My personal favorite NIC cards the Ariadne (not the Ariadne II) and the X-surf. I know many prefer going the USB route for 100 MB, but honestly 10mb is plenty for me since I'm moving smaller files only and it is nice to fill up the zorro slots.
Have fun
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The USB route brings up an interesting possibility. Does anyone know if there are compatible wireless N USB adapters for the Amigas?
Also, do you guys think it is worth hooking up a Scanjet 5p? To give some background, this Scanjet was my main scanner until I upgraded my second PC last year and the SCSI card I have has no Vista or above drivers, so I can't use it. It was cheaper buying a new USB scanner for the PC than buying a compatible SCSI card, so that's what I did but I still have this Scanjet just sitting here.
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So what about the Indivision ECS, I am thinking of getting that for my a3k. Since I am along the same lines as you Blanghorst. I like the classic ecs chip set and graphic card i don't think would get much use.
lost
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So what does the Indivision ECS buy us over the onboard (Amber?) flickerfixer besides double monitor support?
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For me I had some battery damage on the mobo and now and then i get screen jitters, so i am thinking that is the solution for me, but it adds more screen modes and yes double monitor support which i think is nice. 1024 x 768 would make a nice workbench I think.
lost
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The USB route brings up an interesting possibility. Does anyone know if there are compatible wireless N USB adapters for the Amigas?
Also, do you guys think it is worth hooking up a Scanjet 5p? To give some background, this Scanjet was my main scanner until I upgraded my second PC last year and the SCSI card I have has no Vista or above drivers, so I can't use it. It was cheaper buying a new USB scanner for the PC than buying a compatible SCSI card, so that's what I did but I still have this Scanjet just sitting here.
No wireless N adapters. but you could use a wireless bridge.
As for scsi scanners, check out Betascan on aminet and there are a set of HP drivers to go with it, should work fine.
mech
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No wireless N adapters. but you could use a wireless bridge.
mech
I got one of these from Walmart earlier this month:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Universal-Wi-Fi-Internet-Adapter/14550215
I bought it for my Blu-Ray player and it works perfectly and it should work on my Amiga too.
If you have encrypted your wireless network then you do need to attach it to a PC first to access the built-in menu, enter the passcode, check it connects and then you can simply attach it to any other wired device. You can either power it with the supplied DC adapter or it also comes with a cable to draw power from any handy USB socket.
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It has arrived! I am shocked by how tiny it is.
The machine is in excellent condition and boots up very quickly. I think the first order of business will be putting a battery on board. I think I'm going to try to do it without removing the board from the case, because I'm pretty lazy. :D
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I also like the classic Amiga 3000 look with the floppy in the middle (left) bay, so I'll need to move mine.
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Are there any utilities I can run which would show me the revisions of various chips, or do I need to open it up and remove the drive tray and read the print on the various chips?
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Are there any utilities I can run which would show me the revisions of various chips, or do I need to open it up and remove the drive tray and read the print on the various chips?
Open it up to see the revisions of the chips. You have to install a new battery anyway...
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Open it up to see the revisions of the chips. You have to install a new battery anyway...
Do you think it is possible to install a new battery just by soldering to the top of the board? I am not sure I want to disassemble the whole thing. Now that I think about it, I think I just soldered the battery on the top of my A2000 board when I repaired it.
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Disassembling the board isn't as bad as you think. It's pretty straight forward. I think doing it the way you describe isn't the proper way to desolder the battery. The solder is resting on the pad on the underside of the motherboard.
My soldering skills suck since I haven't soldered in so long. I had someone else who had more experience doing that replace the battery on mine. If you have the skills and feel comfortable doing it that way, go for it. What's the worst thing that could happen?
I just don't think I would do it that way.
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Disassembling the board isn't as bad as you think. It's pretty straight forward. I think doing it the way you describe isn't the proper way to desolder the battery. The solder is resting on the pad on the underside of the motherboard.
My soldering skills suck since I haven't soldered in so long. I had someone else who had more experience doing that replace the battery on mine. If you have the skills and feel comfortable doing it that way, go for it. What's the worst thing that could happen?
I just don't think I would do it that way.
Yeah, maybe I'll take a look this weekend. I just hate having to disassemble the whole thing, but now that I think about it, I may have done that with my Amiga 2000. I actually just soldered wires with a connector to the motherboard so that when I need to change the battery out in the future, I won't have to do any more soldering.
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First, congratulations to your purchase! The A3000 will bring you many hours of fun hacking. It is truly a great system!
I recently did a battery change as described earlier; soldering on the underside of the mobo. Works great. Only thing I had to do was to solder extra wire on the battery holder to allow it to reach up from the underside. The battery and holder is resting above Paula.
As for the ECS Indivision, I have one in my system. It gives a slightly better image than Amber, so if youre picky about rock steady image, certainly recommended.
Though I would probably go for the WD chip update first, especially if you are planning on using the onboard SCSI. Rev 4 is notorious for giving strange lockups for no apparent reason.
Would also strongly recommend a Buster upgrade. If you only have rev 7, Deneb USB wont work. You need at least rev 9 or 11. Vesalia have them from time to time:
http://www.vesalia.de/e_buster11.htm
Can also recommend a PLCC Extraction tool for Buster swap:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=417
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First, congratulations to your purchase! The A3000 will bring you many hours of fun hacking. It is truly a great system!
Thanks! It is a real beauty. I hadn't seen one in person in over 20 years and I think it is even more awesome than I remember.
I recently did a battery change as described earlier; soldering on the underside of the mobo. Works great. Only thing I had to do was to solder extra wire on the battery holder to allow it to reach up from the underside. The battery and holder is resting above Paula.
What I'll probably do is solder a connector on the board so I can just connect and disconnect standard battery packs. That's what I did for my A2000 and it worked out pretty well.
If I get energetic this weekend, I might just break the system down and do that. I've got a SCSI card reader on the way from Mechy and at some point, I think I'll use that and a CF card to replace the hard drive.
Speaking of the hard drive, I did have a pleasant surprise. The seller told me it came with a 500 MB SCSI drive, but in fact, it is a 3.2 GB SCSI drive.
As for the ECS Indivision, I have one in my system. It gives a slightly better image than Amber, so if youre picky about rock steady image, certainly recommended.
I'm pretty happy with the Amber's quality on my LCD. I have a Microway flickerfixer in my A2000 and the Microway card looks bad compared to the Amber.
Though I would probably go for the WD chip update first, especially if you are planning on using the onboard SCSI. Rev 4 is notorious for giving strange lockups for no apparent reason.
Would also strongly recommend a Buster upgrade. If you only have rev 7, Deneb USB wont work. You need at least rev 9 or 11. Vesalia have them from time to time:
http://www.vesalia.de/e_buster11.htm
Can also recommend a PLCC Extraction tool for Buster swap:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=417
Yeah, when I break it down, I'll take notes on all the chip versions so I'll know which ones I should replace. I have no idea at this stage which versions of each of the chips I have but I suspect some might be newer since it is running 3.1 and I thought that required some more recent revisions of some of the chips.
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I bought the SCM PCD-50B SCSI Card Reader a while back, I did some attempt to connect it to the internal SCSI on the A3000, but no cards would ever show up. Never put any further effort in tracking down problem then. Would be interesting to see how easy it plugs into your system. Keep posting!
I would prefer to have the reader in an external SCSI box, ultimately in an A3070.
I also tried to connect the reader to the CyberstormPPC card, but with no luck. Bare in mind CSPPC have UW SCSI3, it *should* work...
Works brilliant with the internal SCSI on A4000T and Trifecta SCSI for A500.
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For Mech's card reader you need to enable LUNs on the 3000 or use a PCMCIA adapter for the CF card.
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For Mech's card reader you need to enable LUNs on the 3000 or use a PCMCIA adapter for the CF card.
I didn't enable LUNs on mine when I first got it, but I could only use the PCMCIA card slot with a CF adapter.
After I got the battery repaired, LUNs were enable and it's works great. I am able to use all the slots.
If you want to run Shapeshifter or Fusion, you can put an SD card in the SD Card slot and use it as the MacHD.
Here is a shot of what she looks like right now. I am trying to figure out a place to put the card reader. I may have to come up with some stand offs or something.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/SteveV22FE/Commodore%20Amiga/IMG_0196.jpg)
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If you want access from the outside I would go with an external enclosure. If you don't want access I would just mount it in the hard disk bay. I had mine in the 2nd floppy bay using Velcro without the PCMCIA adapter.
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At the risk of sounding ignorant, how does one enable LUNs on the 3000? I just bought the reader and I don't have a PCMCIA to CF card. Is this done in HDToolbox or elsewhere?
EDIT: Ah, looks like I have to have a working battery and use something like SCSIprefs from Aminet, right?
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will any 3.6v rechargeable battery work? Or something like this ?
[ATTACH]2010[/ATTACH]
easy enough to put on the motherboard and in a safer place!
lost
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I bought this kind of battery replacement:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/COIN-LITHIUM-BATTERY-BACKUP-for-AMIGA-4000-3000-2000-/220956987868?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33721011dc
Might consider to attach longer wires to the legs and do the solder on the underside of the motherboard. Wont fit under Indivision ECS.
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EDIT: Ah, looks like I have to have a working battery and use something like SCSIprefs from Aminet, right?
Yes, that's correct. I purchased one of those coin cell replacements off of eBay, like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/COIN-LITHIUM-BATTERY-BACKUP-for-AMIGA-4000-3000-2000-/220956987868?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33721011dc
Don't be afraid to take the 3000 apart (just be careful!).
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I typically use standard 3.6 V cordless phone battery packs and then solder long wires with a connector on the end so I can easily swap the pack and also place it away from the board. I did go ahead and order the coin battery and holder off eBay as it apparently has the diode to prevent charging.
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So, I finally disassembled the A3000, removed the motherboard, and soldered on the coin battery holder. It was a major pain to disassemble the thing:
1. Everything was going pretty well into I got to the two screws on the motherboard (the hexagonal standoffs came off without a hitch). I couldn't get them out and they were badly stripped. I took my Dremel and cut flathead notches into the screws and was then able to remove them.
2. Cleaning the solder holes turned out to be harder than I thought. The two holes on the + side cleaned easily, but the ground hole was pretty damaged and while I could clean it from the bottom, couldn't make much headway on the top. So I took a wire nail, put it into the bottom hole, and gently hammered it into it until it poked through the top of the board. I then cleaned the rest from there.
3. My hand slipped a few times and went across a few traces but fortunately, no shorts and the solder mask was pretty much still intact.
4. The moment of truth came and I powered it on and -- nothing. The power LED flashed rapidly and I thought I saw a yellow screen briefly. I thought I was screwed but then I realized I forgot to put the expansion riser card in. Once I did that and connected the hard drive (another thing I forgot to do), everything was fine.
Those guys saying that the A3000 is a pain to work on are 100% correct. Very cramped and uncomfortable, especially the short SCSI ribbon cable.
While I had her open, I did take notes on the various chip revisions I have. Here they are:
Buster: 07
Gary: 02
DMAC: 02
Ramsey: 04
Which ones should I replace? I know there is a version 11 of the Buster, but if I find that, will I have to replace some of these other chips for everything to work OK?
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blanghorst
congrats on your new amiga 3k! Welcome back to the club.
I love these guys recommending you impossible to find hw. (Like a Deneb - they dont make them anymore and are near impossible to come by. Same with the Dmac and Ramsey chips. Not only this if you do find these items you will pay $$ dearly) You really dont need to update the buster if you arent doing a lot of zorro expansion.
As a side note, some LCD monitors work very well with the built in Flicker Fixer (best feature of a3k)
and YES the A3000 is THE WORST hands down Amiga to work on. (as you can see)
Oh and ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING: DONT PULL THE A3k battery without replacing it immediately IIRC the A3000 NVRAM is stored in battery memory and this controls the scsi..
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blanghorst
congrats on your new amiga 3k! Welcome back to the club.
I love these guys recommending you impossible to find hw. (Like a Deneb - they dont make them anymore and are near impossible to come by. Same with the Dmac and Ramsey chips. Not only this if you do find these items you will pay $$ dearly) You really dont need to update the buster if you arent doing a lot of zorro expansion.
Yeah, I noticed that too. I can't justify paying $100/$200+ for a USB card, ethernet card, or an IDE controller for either of my machines. I did have a chance to get a Buddha a few months ago for $75 and I am still kicking myself over that. I refurbed my A2000 because I wanted a project and thought it would be fun to get back into the Amiga. I bought the A3000 because I always wanted one when I was a college kid but couldn't afford one. It is probably my favorite Amiga model even though it is a pain to work on.
As a side note, some LCD monitors work very well with the built in Flicker Fixer (best feature of a3k)
Looks wonderful on a cheap Acer 19" widescreen LCD that I also have attached to my secondary gaming PC. Much better than the Microway flickerfixer in my A2000. I probably just need to adjust the Microway with the little screw.
and YES the A3000 is THE WORST hands down Amiga to work on. (as you can see)
Oh and ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING: DONT PULL THE A3k battery without replacing it immediately IIRC the A3000 NVRAM is stored in battery memory and this controls the scsi..
Yeah, it came without a battery but it booted fine. Now that I've got my new battery installed and working, I need to connect the card reader I bought from Mechy, enable LUNs, and see if I can get all that working.
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Yeah, I noticed that too. I can't justify paying $100/$200+ for a USB card, ethernet card, or an IDE controller for either of my machines. I did have a chance to get a Buddha a few months ago for $75 and I am still kicking myself over that. I refurbed my A2000 because I wanted a project and thought it would be fun to get back into the Amiga. I bought the A3000 because I always wanted one when I was a college kid but couldn't afford one. It is probably my favorite Amiga model even though it is a pain to work on.
Take it slow, sounds like you are in the same position I am in. I've spent more money than I probably should have, but then again I've been tempted but have refrained from spending much more. By taking it slow I've gotten my stuff inexpensively and have no real worries - if I decide to bail out of this hobby, I can definitely get all my money back.
Like you it seems, what's driving me is the challenge of getting these things up and running and the nostalgic appeal. Who knows how long your interest will last, so don't go overboard. I'd never pay the prices some of these products are demanding - just not worth it for me!
Unfortunately I now have more "toys" than I have time to play with. Amiga 4000T, 3000, C128D, C128, C64C and soon an Atari 800.... ugh... it's an addiction! :)
Yeah, it came without a battery but it booted fine. Now that I've got my new battery installed and working, I need to connect the card reader I bought from Mechy, enable LUNs, and see if I can get all that working.
Just remember if your battery dies it will no longer boot to the CF card slot until you boot to floppy and re-enable LUNs. You can, however, boot to the CF card in a PCMCIA adapter (if you have one) if the battery dies.
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Take it slow, sounds like you are in the same position I am in. I've spent more money than I probably should have, but then again I've been tempted but have refrained from spending much more. By taking it slow I've gotten my stuff inexpensively and have no real worries - if I decide to bail out of this hobby, I can definitely get all my money back.
That's my thought as well. I haven't done much with my Amiga 2000 since I restored it, so I don't want to spend tremendous amounts of money in case I never really get back into the hobby. Still, I've had a good time so far.
Like you it seems, what's driving me is the challenge of getting these things up and running and the nostalgic appeal. Who knows how long your interest will last, so don't go overboard. I'd never pay the prices some of these products are demanding - just not worth it for me!
Yeah, the prices for USB and ethernet are just insane. I understand that it is a very small market and the companies making them have to make money off of them, but the prices are still too high IMO.
For my part, I focus on classic Amiga stuff anyway. I have no interest in running 4.0 or above. If it can't run on a classic machine, it isn't something I care about. USB or ethernet would be nice to have just to aid in transferring files, but I can get SCSI ZIP drives cheaper and I have an old USB ZIP drive attached to my PC so transferring files is easy.
Unfortunately I now have more "toys" than I have time to play with. Amiga 4000T, 3000, C128D, C128, C64C and soon an Atari 800.... ugh... it's an addiction! :)
If I keep up this hobby, I think an A1000 and A4000 will eventually find their way into my home. I'll be redoing my mancave in the next year or so and when I do, I may make it more like Blake Patterson's "Byte Cellar" and I'll have more room for my machines. My wife will just roll her eyes but she'll get over it. :D
I've also got another project I'm considering, and it will be a long and hard project to complete. Basically, I'd be building another A2000 from the ground up. I'd be buying individual components and building it completely from scratch. The reason I say it would be challenging is because I do have another A2000 motherboard that has some significant battery damage. It is repairable, but I'd need to remove some sockets (like the 68000 socket) and solder on replacements. I have to decide if I really want to do this or not, as there is a complete A2000 case up on eBay right now.
Just remember if your battery dies it will no longer boot to the CF card slot until you boot to floppy and re-enable LUNs. You can, however, boot to the CF card in a PCMCIA adapter (if you have one) if the battery dies.
Good point. I should probably use a CF with an adapter as my primary boot drive anyway. Right now I've got a vanilla install of 3.1 on a 3.2 GB SCSI drive and I'm not sure how long that drive will last. I'll probably have to do the same thing to my A2000 as well, as I'm not sure my 20+ year-old 52 MB Quantum drive will last much longer.
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I agree, don't cut your case! You can mount the SCSI card reader internally in the HD spot, although you wont be able to install a floppy drive in the location just forward of the HD mount.
I have been working on my A3K, although this is not its permanent spot, you can see the SCSI card reader in this photo. They work very well and it is very fast on a stock 3000.
What brand and model is your SCSI card reader. I need to get me one of them.
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They SCSI card readers are PCD-50b. Go to a4000t.com.
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I'm hoping to get my SCSI cable today or tomorrow so I can install the SCSI card reader.
Question for everyone -- has anyone found an external case which works well with the card reader? Right now, I'll have to place it internally but it would be nice to use it externally.
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Is there a smaller scsi reader you could mount inside a 3k?
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Is there a smaller scsi reader you could mount inside a 3k?
Mechy's reader should fit inside the A3000. I was just exploring the possibility of making it external in order to have easier access to it.
External SCSI, 1 bay SCSI cases are getting hard to find. I'd like an external CD-ROM, but the external SCSI CD-ROMs on eBay are expensive and I can't seem to find a good case so I could buy an internal SCSI drive and mount it myself.
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Yes, it fits fine in the rear hard disk bay. If you use the PCMCIA adapter it will interfere with the floppy bay in front of it.
You can also install it in the front right floppy bay, but the screw holes will not line up - I used velcro. You can actually use the front bezel floppy slot to insert/remove the PCMCIA adapter with the CF card inserted if you want.