My A500+ Project

[alexh]

It is dirt cheap to upgrade HD8+ to 8Meg if you wanted to. They use regular 30-pin SIMMS. It will happily take 1*8Meg or 2*4Meg.

Be warned the HD8+ (ROM?) is particularly picky about what accelerators it will work with.

If you find your HD8+ a little slow, and if you can find one, a Guru ROM for your HD8+ is worth getting.

Here is a link to the self-power mod mentioned above:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/a500hd.html

If you are worried about power you can use an ACard 7720U SCSI->IDE adapter (~£15) to use IDE drives and an IDE->CF (~£3) to use silent, low power, compact flash.

And of course the best purchase now you have a hard drive is WHDload

[alexh]

sim085 wrote:
I bought the ROM 3.1 (amigakit) and Workbench 3.1 (eBay). With the GVP HD8+ hard drive (with 4Mb fast ram) and the extra 1Mb slow ram I should be able to achieve my above goal right?; that is to browse the internet from my A500+.

Not graphically. How are you going to connect your Amiga to the internet? SLIP/PPP connection to the PC? An analog modem?

sim085 wrote:
If yes then would my A500+ be under so much stress (without the accelerator card) that it could burn?

Absolutely, make sure you've got a fire extinguisher. Or perhaps some liquid nitrogen! ;-)

sim085 wrote:
Also I do intend to even try to install Workbench 3.9 on my A500+. However for that I would need to definitely buy a good accelerator card a CD drive and the actual workbench on CD. However I still have the same worry - could my A500+ get burn with all that stress processing?  

I would say no, but it depends on the accelerator. Some 040's are known to run rediculously hot.

You do not need to have a CD-Drive to install OS3.9! Take your hard drive out, put it in the PC install using WinUAE.

sim085 wrote:
Regarding Fast RAM; how much Fast RAM is enough?

For 99.99% of everything Amiga, 32Mbytes will be fine. You could probably get away with 8Mbytes but if your accelerator can take more you'd be mad not to max it out.

32Mbytes is the maximum for most A500 accelerators.

[alexh]

sim085 wrote:
You are joking or?  :-?

Of course

[alexh]

darksun9210 wrote:
yup. the 68000, being a 16bit chip has a maximum of 16Mb of address space.

[Snip]

the [accelerator] memory is outside of the 16Mb upper limit for 16bit range.

This is me just being pedantic but the 68000 has a 24-bit address bus and that is why it can access 16Mbytes. The 16-bit refers to the external data bus.

2^24 = 16M bytes
2^16 = 64K bytes

[alexh]

Without AGA or a graphics card you wont get the most out of OS3.9.

Economically you would be much better off trading in your A500+ for an A1200 rather than upgrading your A500+ beyond a hard drive. It has AGA, 020, RAM & accelerators are relatively cheap.

You'll not get change out of €500 for a Viper 530.

[alexh]

Using Google I have Discovered

Viper 530/40mhz IDE         $179
Viper 530/50mhz IDE/SCSI II $239

Those prices are 1998. Compensating for inflation in April 2008 they would have been:

Viper 530/40mhz IDE         $240.29 = €161.32
Viper 530/50mhz IDE/SCSI II $320.84 = €215.40

But of course those prices were when it was on sale. It's is now more sought after. Antique if you like

[alexh]

I used an A500+ with GVP HD8+ with two PSU's connected to two different sockets for years!

I would randomly switch off them in different order. I never had any problem, never had data corruption.

[alexh]

sim085 wrote:
Was just wondering .. is there maybe a wireless adapter for the A500+ rather than connecting the Amiga with PC with a cable?

Nothing which is Amiga native (without a CPU accelerator) but you could get a Bluetooth Serial Dongle.

But using a wired/wireless serial connection to your Amiga will be very slow. You'd be better off fitting a SCSI->IDE->CF adapter inside your HD8+ and cutting a hole in the side so you can remove the CF card for transfer to PC card reader. It would be very easy.

You would need:
An ACard AEC-7720U ($20)
A IDE to CF adapter
A CF card
A dremel or something to cut the slot in the side of the case.
A hot glue gun (or some good super glue) to glue the CF card in place!

The speed will be 10x or more that of a serial link!

P.S. I cannot believe some of the crap advice people are giving you!

[alexh]

sim085 wrote:
With a CF card I think I could build the environment I want using an Emulator on the PC and then try it out on the A500+ right?

Sure.

sim085 wrote:
I have a non-working hard drive maybe I can try this on that hard drive

If you have the aforementioned parts. (See above)

sim085 wrote:
I would still need to connect my A500+ to the PC in some way or another in order to be able to browse the internet.

You are not going to browse the internet on an A500+ You should get that out of you mind now. Even after you bought all the best equipment at a ridiculous price it will just about work but it will still be CRAP!

sim085 wrote:
I prefer a wireless alternative but seems impossible to get without an accelerator card so I guess I'll wait until I get one.

You will not be able to browse the web without an accelerator card anyhow. And with only 32 colour ECS it will look terrible.

It will be very expensive to get a native wireless ethernet for Amiga A500+. (You've have to buy a USB etc. and it may not be compatible with your accelerator) You should consider getting rid of the A500+ and buying an A1200. The accelerator will be cheaper, you have 256 colour AGA (web still looks terrible) and you can get a cheap PCMCIA wireless ethernet card!

If you really want wireless and you really want A500+ your only real choice is a Bluetooth serial dongle. It will work with all Amiga's (even A500) just like a modem.

[alexh]

sim085 wrote:
I know I am pushing my luck now, but rather then a CF card could I put a USB Pendrive?

It is vaguely possible with an accelerator. You would need to buy a Subway USB card ($130) and an A500 Clock port interface ($43). However it is almost certainly NOT physically compatible with most A500 accelerators.

I.E. USB is not recommended!

sim085 wrote:
If I understand correctly I need the ACard AEC-7720U to connect with my current SCSI interface (the one whit which the previous hard disk was connected). Then I need the IDE to CF adapter connected to the ACard AEC-7720U which will be used to connect the CF card.

Correct. Sounds like a faf but it will work fine.

sim085 wrote:
couldn't I buy a SCSI to USB adapter and USB pen drive?

I am not familiar with that technology. I am not sure it exists. Give me a link.

sim085 wrote:
I found this but I do not think it does the job
http://www.amazon.com/Adaptec-1856600-USBxchange-Kit/dp/B000067OHN

That is USB->SCSI and you would need SCSI->USB.

[alexh]

I do not recommend it. The more adapters you introduce and the more unusual they are the more chance you have of incompatibility.

GVP->ACard7720U->IDE->CF is confirmed as working.

Use a CF card and get a cheap PCMCIA->CF adapter (which you'll also be able to use with Amiga 600/1200) or a USB card reader.

If you MUST use an SD card, why not get an IDE->SD adapter, but do your homework. Find one known to work with ACard adapter! (The one I link here may or may not work with Acard!)

[alexh]

pyrre wrote:
Yes. it should work fine with a SCSI-ide adapter.

Not guaranteed. All adapters are not automatically compatible. In a thread last week it was discovered that THIS IDE->SD adapter is not compatible with the Buddha Phoenix edition!!

Do your homework. Make sure it is compatible with the ACard AEC-7720U first. (Or at those prices just risk it?)

[alexh]

sim085 wrote:
I am soon going crazy! :crazy: :-) How can I make sure it is compatible unless I buy all the staff and actually test it!?

Eh? You GOOGLE and check out the Amiga forums. You wont be the first. I think you'll be surprised how many Amigans have gone before you. A few searches of EAB and A.ORG and you've usually got your answer. Or you email ACard directly with the brand & model numbers of the adapters.

But if you already have an SD card and you do not have a CF card, at those prices then perhaps you just go for it ;-)

But prepared to go the CF route if it doesn't work.

[alexh]

You have a Narrow SCSI (IDC 50 pin) hard drive.

The other two are :

(Fast/Ultra) Wide SCSI (SCA 68-pin)
(Ultra2/U160/U320/U640) Wide SCSI (SCA-2 80-pin)

[alexh]

As I said, your hard drive will be narrow SCSI (IDC50). Almost all Amiga SCSI drives ARE narrow SCSI (IDC50).



AFAIK the only Amiga SCSI with a different connector is the Cyberstorm MKIII/PPC which has an Ultra Wide SCSI (SCA 68-pin)