My A500 "project" pics, details, build log?

[AmmoJammo]

So what's going on in this thread then?

1989 is going on...

[AmmoJammo]

probably some time after I've put the motherboard in... :p

[AmmoJammo]

It's not a TX3, the Ford TX3s only have 3 doors, and the KE model have the four round headlights.



What's this XR4 Escort you speak of?

[AmmoJammo]

It seems the floppy drive in my "spare" Amiga 500 was actually knackered...

The guy I bought it from said thats what was wrong with it, but powering up the motherboard gave nothing anyway!

soo! I might try fit a PC drive into the case

[AmmoJammo]

Nah the original motherboard doesn't work.

The guy I got it from said it was just the floppy drive, but the few times I tried powering it up, all I got was a black screen, and a flashing caps lock light from memory.

I even swapped all the chips, found it had a dead CIA chip, but even putting a good one in, it still didn't work.

[AmmoJammo]

I bought another A500 power supply, paid $15 and got a Commodore 64 joystick, and PS2 steering wheel as well :p

but now I'm confused, I'd always assumed this information to be correct:

http://www.hardwarebook.info/Amiga_500/600/1200_Power_Supply

however, how heavy is the "heavy" power supply meant to be? I'd always assumed mine was a heavy, low powered version...

But now that I have two power supplies, I started comparing...
both weigh about the same, but both are 5volt @ 4.3amps, 12volt @ 1amp.
BUT! one is made in Singapore, the other in China?

I'll pull one apart to confirm that its not switchmode... but can anyone shed some light on this?

I have a feeling the PSU I've just bought has NEVER been used! no discoloration whatsoever.

[AmmoJammo]

Apparently the Commodore 128 use the same connector as the Amiga 500 power supply, so I thought it might be a C128 PSU, but the voltages match the A500?

[AmmoJammo]

I've come to the realisation that hardware book is just wrong...

[AmmoJammo]

These are heavy, like 2kg heavy, but they're the only PSUs I've ever seen for the A500s, although I've only ever seen three :p

I'm curious about the heavy, lowered powered versions? and why these are heavy, but the same power as the switchmode versions..

[AmmoJammo]

[AmmoJammo]

I may have ended up with this collection...

four C64s, all with powersupplies.
two floppy drives, two tape drives.
an A500 with 512k trapdoor, but the warranty seal is unbroken! :p,rf modulator and external floppy drive, but no powersupply?
four joysticks, all of which are well and truly abused
as well as various cables, a few bits of genuine software as well as copied stuff, plus a "Music Maker" and "Fast Load" cartridge

[AmmoJammo]

Gumtree

both C64 floppy drives work, as to both tape drives.

However, one C64 appears to function perfectly, another has a bad SID chip, another comes up with a memory error, and the final one is dead!

[AmmoJammo]

I didn't know the issues when I bought it?

I was going to swap out the bad SID chip for the one from the machine with the bad memory, but the known bad SID is the ONLY one out of the four that isn't socketed... :/

The machine with the memory error appears to have some weird white residue on the ceramic capacitors near the memory chips?

[AmmoJammo]

Its only on those capacitors though, so Im not sure. Error says "?OUT OF MEMORY ERROR IN 0"

[AmmoJammo]

Apparently the memory is more likely to fail if the electrolytic capacitors have dried out, and there's more ripple on the 5volt rail..

so, before I do anything, I'm going to replace the electrolytic caps in the three "good" C64's and powersupplies

[AmmoJammo]

I plugged in the "new" A500...

kickstart 1.2! and it seems a dud floppy drive...
I suppose I'll have to pop its cherry... :p