Planning to make my custom case.

[superfrog76]

I gave a try to the floppy...usign the dremel I cut a slit, and then tried to make it pretty, with a round drop shape....the results are quite horrible LOL

Will try with the filer and see if I can make it prettier...it is hard to use the cut tool on the dremel!

I've done McGuyver work on the floppy; screwing one hole and making a handmade metal L plate, to hold the other side; I dare anyone to do worst than what I did Will post some pictures later. Anyway now it is secured on the case, even better than on the original Amiga

One thing is for sure: this case will never be converted back again after all the cuts and damages that I've done to it

Regarding the HDMI card, I went again McGuyver and made my own support: top of a CD jewel case as base, got a PCI bracket out of a network card (4 bucks), and cut it to let the connectors to be reachable. Then I screwed on top of it the HDMI card, securing it with one screw and some elastic bands....just looking at it gives a new meaning to the word "ugly", but works

Last thing left now is to put the mobo back in, and fix it permanently in the case, cut a side hole for the PCMCIA card slot; fix the power switch to the case (probably will put it on one of the cover plates that I made at this point, or I could just make another hole on the case....WTH ) and the power connector, to power the PicoPSU.

I hope it will turn on

[superfrog76]

Finally I fixed the floppy today; not it is nice and snuggle inside the case.

The metal is pretty soft; tried to use a filer to smooth the opening but the whole thing would warp; I just gave up the idea to smooth it, nobody will touch the inside so it is good as is, and in the front you will not see anything, since the front plate covers it.

Tomorrow I will put the motherboard back in, and fix the wood base to the bottom of the case (need long nuts and bolts; the ones that I have are not long enough); then it is just a matter of finishing the front plate (found a nice tutorial about case mods, that uses fiberglass epoxy...few coats of that, sand it down and paint and the panel will look pretty much as original.

[superfrog76]

You will want to make sure at a minimum that you get rid of any loose edges and shavings. Very dangerous to your electronics if they end up on the motherboard.

A hand grinder will do the job.

Oh, I didn't consider that....thanks for pointing it out!

The cut is irregular but so far I don't see dangling metal pieces; but I will use the grinder on it to clean the cut; as you suggested.....altho the metal is really flimsy; it was warping just with me using the filer; so I hope it won't get damaged with the grinder and the vibration coming from it (I may try the dremel attachment for grinding metal, at low speed should serve its purpose).

[superfrog76]

Today I was able to fix the motherboard to the case; used a piece of wood, and made some cuts to let the air go around the mobo, especially under the accelerator card chip and ram.

I've also finished the power cable; I need to put the power switch on the back plate. I made a mistake ordering the serial flat extension cables...they came on full PCI plate, while the case uses the smaller version, so I am forced to remove the connectors and make holes on the case PCI brackets, to add the mouse and joystick ports.

Also I need to stretch a bit the Lyra connector, since it is a bit short; that plate is also full size, so I will have to remove the connector from that plate too...meh.
I seriously shed tears for not having a 3d printer...would make nice back plates, I think that my hand cut plates will not look that great

Maybe by tomorrow I can put in also the CD and cable up everything.

I've also attached a photo of the front panel after being cut and sanded with grit sand paper....the cut for the floppy, as you can see, looks horrible; so if you have any idea for that, I am all ears Once that will look decent, I will paint it white again. I realized that was pretty dumb to paint it before making all the mods...but it is my first time so I am learning making mistakes.

[superfrog76]

Is there no interfaces that allow use of Amiga 500 keyboards? Re-using the original Amiga 1200 keyboard was really what I meant not a PS/2 or DIN converter to use PC keyboards. I am thinking of towering up my super expanded A600 and using it as a graphics workstation with Dpaint 3 and some Blitz/Amos coding but the keyboard is not convenient and I have a spare A500 keyboard

I would never tower or re-house any of my machines if I had to have Mac or Windows keys on them. I'd rather use an Atari keyboard lol

Not really possible to use the original keyboard; unless you build also a case for the keyboard I've seen people doing the soldering on the connector, and basically do the same on the motherboard; and then they made custom connectors to connect the 2, but it is too much of a hassle honestly, and it involves heavy mod of the mobo.

You can buy an Amigaone keyboard, if you love so much the Amiga keys; with a Lyra adapter you can use one.

[superfrog76]

You are getting along nice, I look forward to see more how it goes!

Thanks Som! I have very little time available so the thing is taking more time than expected....plus there is more cutting to do than what I imagined; and the fact that plates and everything else has to be made by me, because there is nobody that makes them (unless you buy big quantities), is taking most of my time

BTW, any suggestion for the front plate? I am scratching my head but can't find a nice solution, other than buying an A2000/3000/4000 floppy, and replace the 1200 drive, so I can just cut a square and use the drive front plate (painting it of course)

[superfrog76]

Nice suggestion PantherHZ!

I may use some thicker plastic maybe, so I can in fact replicate the Amiga 1000 case style (altho I lack the mold injection machine that they had, and the skills to work on plastic with just a dremel LOL); or I can just settle for a more mellow style, like the one from the mac classic (with the button thou; it seems the easiest of all the floppy styles.

In the worst case I will just grab a front plate from any pc floppy, and stick it on the amiga floppy and use that...can't go wrong with it after all

Did you ever work with resin and fiberglass? Found an interesting site where they mod cases, and there was a video with a guy adding a turbine fan in front of this pc case....he used basically fiberglass compound to mold the round edge, and after sanding it down and painting, it looks hot! BTW I would never put a turbine on my case LOL, but the idea of using that to modify a case, stroke me as pure genius.

I shall keep this easy thou...it is my first case mod so no reason to mess up trying too many things... Now that I am building experience, I can always buy another case

Hopefully by this weekend I shall be done...3 holes left to make; then it is just a matter of fixing the front plate and paint it and I should be able to finally turn it on

[superfrog76]

you'll need to modify pc floppy front plate as the button is different from A1200.

btw, I like "Cooler Master Cavalier 4",  dunno if A1200 would fit it though.

GAH!, I tought that was enough to remove the button on the amiga drive and attach the pc floppy plate to make it work...why it doesn't surprise me that I need to sweat on it to make it work ?

Well, as far as it goes with cases; I think that the one that I've got is almost perfect; has enough space for everything (the only pain is the floppy, and the fact that I went for a build that would include everything inside the case; otherwise it would be easier I guess ). I like my cool master

[superfrog76]

I hope the button modify goes easy for you Never attempted myself so can't input there.

Tho I got a spare Commodore PC case I am not using, this one:


After reading your posts I want to put an Amiga inside it and print a new sticker on the front, same as is but saying the Amiga model and a extra D in the end instad (example Commodore Amiga 1200D).

But I got one huge problem, the Commodore PC-20 III case is small so the only Amiga that fits are the A600 and putting a A600 inside there seems pointless since it has to few expansions to really benefit from a desktop case :/

Heh, I hear you...the call of modding just happens without any warning signal

I would not modify a 600; there is not really any point in it, unless you want to make a portable version

[superfrog76]

If you have the money, I'd toss out the floppy drive and invest in one of these instead.

http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=42

Heh; so far I have spent 150 USD for this mod; between case, components; material, adapters and such...would cost me less to get a 4000 if I have to spend also money for the item that you posted 99 euro is about 140 USD, without even considering shipping!

Plus you need to play with the buttons and read on a tiny LCD screen...if you have 2000 disks basically you can just cut your wrists and wait for a slow death I wish there was a better system; altho I use the floppy so rarely that it won't really bother me.

[superfrog76]

Understandable, money is hard to come by these days. I don't own one of these devices my self, at least not yet, but I want one because like money, floppy disks are becoming rarer, and they will not last forever, so a solution like this will help everyone in the long run me thinks. As for the menu system, I don't find it that annoying with the similar devices I own for my Atari 8-bit computers. Mind you, disk switching is done on the monitor through the Atari, but I'm sure looking at an LCD can't be any worse than using a calculator, though I think the cheaper offerings (without the screen) can be driven via the Amiga too.

 Anyhow, I just thought you might find it handy. I am loving this thread of yours though, one of the more interesting threads in a while.

Your logic is perfect; and I thank you again for the suggestion. Sadly, nowadays money are an issue...wife and kids has their needs, and I can't just indulge on my hobbies as much as I would like

I just wish that they would make something that has a better interface; the advantage of having a SD card with all the disks and load them like that; is worth every single penny (until someone find a way to make a clone of daemontools for the amiga, that mount virtual ADF ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_EnyJzykUY

Indeed floppy are rare, but if you keep them in the right way; they last quite a while...I still have ancient tape from the C64 age, minidisks from the Sinclair QL and some big paper floppy from an old Acorn I think..it is a big box from the 70s, forgot the name Probably the floppy drive will fail before the disk

Glad that you are enjoying the thread; it took me quite a lot of courage to start this...I never did anything like that before

[superfrog76]

Weekly update:

Got very little time to work on the case; but I've completed the overall layout.

Was about to put everything away, and close the case, to give a test run, and realized that the picopsu that I have, is not working as expected.
Opened a different thread, hoping that someone can explain what is wrong

Basically the pico power the amiga, and the hdmi converter; it turns on, but the video is not stable....stays on for 2 seconds; then goes off, then back on. I thought that it was my monitor, but is not.
Then I thought that it was the hdmi adapter; or the scart cable...but is not.

Plugged my 300W PSU, powering with the same cable that I use with the picopsu, and everything works fine; the video stays up. Put back the picopsu; and the video start to complain again....demons !

In the meantime that I fix that issue; I went ahead and made a bigger cut in the front bezel, to fix the floppy problem. Got a teac floppy, which has only the DSO-DS1 jumper, and tried it but it won't recognize that there is a disk; it power up, spin a bit and that's all. I thought that I could just make a cross cable to make it work, but the model that I have seems to be some sort of unknown to the majority...there is no trace of that specific model mod, so I am left trying solutions at random (seems that every drive works with different mods; altho all of them seems to be aimed at having the drive to read the disk, from what I understand).
Worst case: I keep the internal drive and just use some resin and fiberglass to cover the mess that I did, and find a way to make a simple opening for the disk drive. It won't affect the usability of the computer; and I can remove the front plate without problems, so for now it is not bothering me too much

The extension for the joy port works fine; same for the ps2 keyboard adapter; altho the cable is too short, so I am forced to basically use double tape to fix the connector board on the amiga board, and make an extra hole on the back plate. Strange enough; I've unplugged the mouse port and add the extension on it (they joy extension is basically a 9 pin male/female on flat, the mouse extension has a 9 pin din connector on a PCI plate, while on the other side has a board connector), but the mouse port won't work...it works only with the original cable attached; so I will probably buy another flat cable with the 2 9 pin din and move on.

Attached photos to show the picopsu, and 2 views of the fully assembled case. The only thing missing now is the holes in the back plates that I made, and then I need to figure out if I want to cut more on the front plate, to add the original 3 led indicators, or if I want to use the case led (not that hard; the original LCD share the ground pin, so it is easy to fix with a simple jumper).

Also the case has a power switch; which I may use...it is not one of these on-off switch, so I am not sure if it will work fine with the picopsu or not.

hope to find soon a solution to the picopsu; so I can close this baby and finally be done with it

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[superfrog76]

So, I decided to finish what I can, and prepare everything for the last phase.

-Got the rear plate, with power switch, power connector and mouse plug
-attached the front plate LED instead of the original ones; altho I don't have a led for the floppy...I guess I can live without it


I was finally able to get the picoPSU to work for a bit, just to take pictures Anyway I think that I am just dealing with a broken PSU, since another user, which uses it, has a 80W version and he does not have these issues. Ordered a different one from a different store (authorized seller), and let's see what happens.

Last thing left:

-rear plate for the keyboard connector
-finish the front plate (floppy)
-final coat of paint and decals

If nothing goes wrong; I will be able to complete the Mark 1 of the Amiga 1250  by thanksgiving

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[superfrog76]

Getting close to the end..... found a floppy almost new, thanks to a guy that just trashed away an old amiga 2000; the motherboard was rusted and the case was all cracked, but the floppy was still alive, so I grabbed it for free

Gotta fit it in, and then I need to mold a bit the front plate, so I can finally paint it.

The rear plates are done and secured to the case, made a cable for the joystick and an opening for the keyboard cable, so that is done.

The last thing was to figure out what is wrong with the video: I still have no clue after buying a new picoPSU, a new 12V regulated brick and a different adaptor....the composite signal is just fine, but the one on the RGB port continue to go on and off.

I have seen threads around talking about issues with their tv, when using the rgb to scart cable, so I thought that it may be the cable, but there is no way to prove it, since it works fine with the big ATX psu.

Connected all the 5V together, still see the issue; altho it seems that the problem is less frequent when the amiga is running for some time; which raise some interesting questions about the stability of the motherboard itself (maybe some capacitors are leaking on the RGB port? I am no HW engineer so I have no idea if that's the issue).

Anyway, ordered the indivision; and let's see if that will fix the issue....removing the scart cable and the adapter is the quickest way probably, to get rid of the problem.

If I get the same behavior with the indivision too, will probably just give up and get a regular tower...so in the worst case I just wasted 60 bucks for the case that now can simply be trashed

BTW would the indivision fit, since I already have the Lyra adapter on top of the board?


More pictures to come, of the final product

[superfrog76]

So, today I gave the case the last touch.

It doesn't look yet complete, since I have ordered some body filler to fix the front bezel, so until I fix the front bezel, I can't paint it. Altho the rest is done.

I will finish the back plate when I have time, so it may look more professional and less crappy I am in contact with a person that knows a guy that does brackets and back plate work...if he is able to make few brackets and back plates for me, with his 3d printer; it will be awesome.

I've done another coat of paint on the top of the case, printed on Papilio paper (the one used for decal, by many pro) the Amiga boing ball. and put it on the case.
To protect it I've added a coat of acrylic transparent paint (the one used to preserve painting), but it gave me a bad result: the vinyl that I printed became cracked, after applying the vinyl spray...not sure why this happened; if anyone has info about why this happened I would gladly hear how to avoid it I will eventually print another boing ball and remove this one, for now it is good as is

When I printed and placed the vinyl decal on the case, it was just fine; this happened after that I gave 2 coat of acrylic protective paint,and left it outside to dry all night.I suspect that the variation in temperature was the cause of the mess.

One journey is over, but the next is about to start: improving the case!

Thanks for your suggestions and for following me in this crazy adventure of my first case modding of my entire life

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