Amiga 1200+ Black Box Edition

[Crom00]

Started to restore an Amiga 1200 system with parts off of Ebay and local scores.

Spoke to Lierbag who actually VJ's with his amiga against Mac laptop touting VJ's and out classes them using a NTSC DCTV, 030 with gobs of ram and fast SCSI Hard drive.

Check out his youtube vids...

Well you can imagine the instance anyone sees "AMIGA" and that beige wedge shaped box, the competition will make sure to point out the use of outdated machines.

Lierbag pointed out that if it's black and you hide the Amiga name well no one bothers you.

So I'm going to use just commodore branding since it has more "Retro street cred".

Here is the logo for the case badge...



So far I've painted the keyboard keys using krylon matte, going to make it black and sliver with the following:

Internal Mini-itx power supply
External 3.5 Ide port
Scart to component using adapter off of ebay
NeoBitz Svideo if possibe
IDE FIX
A4000 HD floppy drive on right side
slim Laptop CD-rom
IDE CF hard drive using 5 gig microdrive

any ideas & sugestions?

[Crom00]

I sourced a 5gb microdrive for $10

also the neobitz rgb to component board had issues with the Amiga 1200 didn't it?

Did a keyboard layout using the same font. Will use waterslide clear decal paper. I will paint the keys sliver where the letters show through. The decals will have printed black, the clear portion will contain the keyboard letter and will display the silver underneath.

Bad job explaining it but the pictures will tell the story.

Also thinking of using bondo to fill in the Amiga recessed logo on the A1200 case. Kind of horrible to do that but trying to see how far I can take it using just paint.

Leaving the Amiga name detracts...It actually screams "hey, don't hire me, I'm a nut using a 16 year old computer and I may just screw up your show..."

But I dunno, just a cool project to work on whenever the girlfriend ain't around.

[Crom00]

Is there a diagram of how to make this YC connection?
What parts are required?

This will probably be my last Amiga so as many bells and whistles I can throw in the better...

Here is the current keyboard styling

[Crom00]

leirbag28 wrote:
@Crom00

Wow, that is an amazing logo, I really like it. Looks amazingly professional
 

Thanks the whole point is to make it look as pro as possible, yet retain the wedge case and original keyboard. Clean logos and fancy names with WORKSTATION thrown in will confuse most in a club setting.

Hell maybe I should just put an EDIROL logo on there, funny...they use BE OS for their editing appliance...

[Crom00]

There are more mistakes. Can you spot them?

[Crom00]

That YC board is too much of a hassle for me, if there is something I could purchase ready made that I clip or solder onto well documented specific points on the motherboard, well that would work for me.

I'm looking into CF card and camera memory as hard drive.

Has anyone had expereince with this device:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Boot-from-your-CF-MMC-MS-and-SD-memory-card-as-IDE-HD_W0QQitemZ180238816624QQihZ008QQcategoryZ168QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


Also do the DUAL slot CF card adapters work?

[Crom00]

Had a chance to work on this some more. Sourced a funky ass keyboard off of EBAY.... Ugghhh...witness the horror of a God forsaken keyboard... See the gritty, realistic color in the resoulution only a digital camera and the internets could provide...







Crap... what a mess. What really freaks me out more than the dirt are those freaky red hairs... ugghh... Time to fire up the dishwasher. If I had the disposable money, I'd buy the keyboard tooling off of Amiga Inc or whoever, just to spare Amiga fans the horrors of keyboards like this..

Looks like a prop out of the movie SEVEN. If the serial killer used an A1200 to pen his manifesto, surely it would have looke like the quality keyboard I scored on Ebay...


Some shots after the Dishwasher...





Some before and afters. Then after several coasts of Krylon Matte black paint. There are "smoother" paints out there. But the Krylon is strong and will give it a slight texture the emualtes the grooming done to keyboard and computer case tooling. A texture is selected out of a texture book and burned into the steel mold during tooling.
Otherwise every case would have that smooth plastic toy look.

Due to the tampo printing or silkscreening of the keys there is a reaction when you paint a keyboard. So I used modelers putty to fill in micro cracks, not a bid deal. The end result so far...



Going to do the decal application then seal it with dull cote, then cover it with clear coat satin to protect it all.

[Crom00]

A1200 wedge case is on it's way from the UK. Have some cans of vynil automotive paint. This stuff is killer. Works great. I've been priming stuff for years but this is perfect for painting ABS injection modeled yellowed cases...

Probably the best paint in terms of coverage is the stuf used in Chinese factories. Probably due to the high lead content... :crazy:

[Crom00]

Had a chance to work on this. car paint plastic dye is the best, looks like factory injection color.

[Crom00]

Been working on the insides too. Indivision, 030 50 mhz installed with 128 megs. All of this funded from selling other Amiga bits collecting dust.

Anyone have a link for IDE CF adapters /Card combos that play well with the A1200? Have a transencd 4 gig card and cheap ebay cf adapter that are riddled with disk errors on my A1200's.

[Crom00]

Lining up all those stickers exactly where they look right and then trying to make the sticker/label edges disappear so it looks good, like they aren't sticker/labels at all is going to be the hardest job of the whole project maybe.  

Actually it's pretty easy. If you've ever done styrene Monogram or revell model kits the key is to dull coat the decal as the edges and surface of the decal blends in with the surface qualities of the matte paint. This also protects it all. THEN you hit the keys with satin or gloss.



UPDATE:

Here are some shots. Will hit the keys with matte cell paint to blend the edges. Opted for the Chickenhead logo command or Amiga keys...

[Crom00]

In retrospect I just found these, maybe a better choice.... LIERBAG! stop using those korean language stickers! If they had white UV glow stickers I'd use them. The problem with those is that they will totally look like stickers when you're done.


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3986395&CatId=533