Obsolete technology?

[AmigaBruno]

I'm trying once more to get into electronics, meaning building as well as repairing things. During my research I've been surprised by the kind of components and projects that are available, although they seem to be obsolete technology, far older than classic Amigas. These projects include a crystal radio set and a Pong game console. Apart from these, people are able to get hold of components to make Sinclair Spectrum clones. These clones use compatible components, but now there's also an FPGA Spectrum clone. I know that various computers used graphics chips that had the same resolution (256x192?) as the Sinclair Spectrum.

Bearing all of this in mind, I can't understand the problems people are having getting hold of or making projects which are compatible with classic Amigas. I've now more or less given up on trying to get a hard drive which would fit my Amiga A500 Plus. It seems that not even Iomega Zip drives are compatible without a special interface. Surely, with enough electronics knowledge it should be possible to build a new Amiga hard drive controller and interface, as well as monitors which are compatible with classic Amigas without using a scandoubler or flicker fixer. Please will someone tell me what problems there would be doing either or these things?

BTW, later today I'll be going to an event where they do repairs, so I hope I'll find out some of this information there, but it won't be about the classic Amiga.

[AmigaBruno]

Thanks for this information!

Sinclair Spectrum clones have been produced by various people over the years, a lot of them in the USSR before it was abolished, and since then in Russia, as well as other countries in what was called eastern Europe. They made them because they couldn't afford the real thing.

Here's the Pong console project I talked about http://www.mallinson-electrical.com/shop/build-your-own-retro-classic-pong-tv-video-game-project-kit-velleman-mk121-pal.html . How advanced is that technology?

I managed to get one device out of three I took along to the repairs event brought back to life, although it's not working 100% yet. It was an ebook reader, where the charger turned out to be faulty. A old iPod couldn't be diagnosed, but there were some suggestions about getting a Creative Zen Vision: M player going again. Amazingly enough, there was even an Amiga enthusiast there who owns 3 Amiga A1200s and has offered to make a deal to sell me one at a price more reasonable than recent prices on eBay. He also told me that an Amiga SCSI controller would have to include some software or firmware.

[AmigaBruno]

I had a hard drive + 4MB ram expansion on my A500 in the 1989-1991 timeframe.  They were produced by multiple manufacturers and many thousands were sold.  Why didn't u buy one?

I'm not talking about whatever hardware I may or may not have had years ago, I'm talking about the situation NOW!

At this moment, there seems to be hardly any chance of getting a compatible hard drive for my Amiga A500 Plus, so I want to find an alternative. It seems the most likely alternative is an Iomega Zip drive, but I think it needs to be a certain type and that I need to get or make an adapter to get it to work. Can anyone tell me more about this?

[AmigaBruno]

If you get a SCSI controller for your A500 then you can connect any SCSI 1 drive.  There is no reason to limit yourself to a ZIP drive.  The ZIP drives are not nearly as reliable as regular Quantum SCSI hard drives.

I have seen websites that sell old used SCSI drives for reasonable prices.

The only real trouble is waiting around for someone to sell your their old used SCSI controller.  I could sell you mine for cheap but it got stolen.  GRRRRRR!  A beautiful 4MB RAM + SCSI + Hard drive for Amiga 500 stolen by unappreciative thieves!  And they stole the A500 with 1MB chipram too! :evil:

If you just can't wait then you can buy an Amiga 3000 for a reasonable price.  They turn up for sale all the time.  They are just like an A500 except they have a much faster CPU and they have a free built-in superfast super high quality SCSI hard drive controller and they have a free built-in flickerfixer for connecting to cheap PC monitors and you can still connect it to your regular Amiga monitor at the same time.  And it has a detached keyboard.  And it has an FPU.  And it has expansion slots.  And it has a 135W powersupply.   And they have sockets right on the motherboard for 16MB fastram + 2MB chipram. :knuddel:

So if you really want an upgraded Amiga 500 all you have to do is buy an Amiga 3000.  Tada! :banana:

I'm afraid one problem of mine is not having all that much money. This has prevented me from buying any of the SCSI controllers I've seen recently. I've also been outbid on various Amiga A1200 computers, so I couldn't afford an Amiga A3000. The A500 Plus and the A1200 are fairly different from each other. I've got the A500 Plus already, but I know things would be much more convenient using it if I had some kind of mass storage device connected to it. I've more or less given up trying to buy an A1200 now, but I may buy all the components from a certain eBay shop and assemble an A1200 using them. This has the advantages that I wouldn't have to buy all the parts at once and I'd learn something about the A1200 by assembling one.

[AmigaBruno]

In the event that you are dead set on expanding your A500 then you should keep an eye on this project:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65047

Its an A500 IDE + other goodies expansion device that they are trying to make sometime.  Maybe it will get produced 6 months from now.  Maybe 2 years.  Maybe never.  You never can tell with these things.  But if they do get it into production then it seems like it is custom made just for you :knuddel:

Unfortunately, this device isn't available yet and may never appear. This means I can't buy one. I don't plan that far ahead, either. Yesterday I bought an external floppy drive from eBay. My plan now is to make sure which versions of the Iomega Zip drive are compatible with the Amiga A500 Plus, as well as what kind of interface I need to make it work, then get a suitable Iomega Zip drive instead of having to use floppies the whole time.

[AmigaBruno]

I guess that is the one...

Or maybe this one:
http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13

I am a little unclear on the whole thing.  I guess I need to really hardcore study them.  I am thinking of buying a couple "just because its a kewl idea".

It would be an easier sell if they supported .hdf files or some kind of unlimited size floppy files.

You can format a RAD: disk with giant number of tracks.

There is no reason why a virtual floppy could not have 100,000 tracks = over 1GB.  AmigaOS 3.0+ (or was it 2.04+?) allows formatting floppies with FFS so you could get good speed and use the hxc as a hard drive!  Much more useful!

If it supported .hdf files then you could format a .hdf file with PFS3 and really zooom!

I already knew about that device. Unfortunately it has to be fitted internally and it replaces the internal floppy drive. I don't think I could fit this device. I wish it plugged into the external floppy port. This device connects directly via a Shugart interface, making it compatible with various computers, but also making it too difficult for me to install!

[AmigaBruno]

How is the shugart interface problematic for you?

I thought I'd already explained. I know how to plug in an external floppy drive, but I don't know how to fit this device internally. Here's a blog entry about how to do it

http://www.amigalog.com/installing-the-hxc-floppy-emulator/

I don't feel that I could do that or should have to.

I've actually got one of these floppy emulator devices for the Atari 8 bit computer range, which just plugs in externally. The Atari 8 bit is the big or little brother of the Amiga, because Jay Miner worked on both of them and various concepts are similar. The plug is a special Atari SIO plug. If I could buy or make an adapter for the Amiga parallel or serial ports, then I may be able to use the same device with the Amiga, but with a different SD card.

[AmigaBruno]

Oh well, never mind. I've bought an electronic projects starter kit from eBay, including a breadboard. This means I'll start to build circuits within seconds, then in the near future I can probably build a SCSI connector out of one or two breadboards, then download a ROM file for the controller and burn it onto an EPROM and that will be all I need to do to connect a SCSI hard drive!