Obsolete technology?

[Ral-Clan]

The crystal radio you mentioned above is an analogue electronic project.

Digital projects can be more difficult to do.

If the PONG project IS a digital one, instead of analogue, then it requires one of those AY Pong on a chip IC's which really make it a lot easier for you to do the project - as essentially all the work has been done by the IC manufacturer.  Try and make a pong console only using individual transistors, etc. from scratch and see how easy that is.

I'm not sure about the Sinclair project, obviously it's digital but I haven't seen the descriptions - if it's simply a "kit" you order and assemble, then a lot of the hard work might already have been done (i.e. EPROM programming).

Usually these kind of home brew kits deal with technology that is several decades old --- it takes a while for the home hobby scene to catch up with technology.  I.e. we are only now able to do 1980s / 90s computers in FPGA several decades later.  There's nothing wrong with that but that's what it takes for the knowledge and equipment to trickle down to the home level.

Besides, have you looked in Aminet's "hacks" sections?  I think I remember seeing do - it - yourself hard-drive controller instructions there.

But I think you overestimate how easy these projects are (i.e. they are harder than you think unless you have training and experience).

I don't know why you are having such trouble getting a hard drive for you Amiga 500+, try searching eBay or Amibay for "amiga sidecar" or "a500 hard drive" or go on amikit or vesalia.  There are solutions.

http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/
http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=37843

[Ral-Clan]

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?

That pong kit is more of an assembly project rather than an electronics project that would teach you anything about electronics or require you to figure out what components you need.

Hard to tell how "advanced" it is.  Again - it looks like all the central logic is on that IC.  Essentially a pong computer on a chip.  Not really homebrew or anything.  Fun though, if you like to learn how to solder components on a board.

I'm just guessing, but it's probably 1970s era technology in terms of how "advanced" it is.

[Ral-Clan]

How is the shugart interface problematic for you?

[Ral-Clan]

Oh, I see.  I thought you were saying that the Shugart interface wasn't compatible with the Amiga or something.

Internal installation looks rather simple, in my opinion.  Rig up a few simple to make power and drive cables and install.

But I guess if you don't like tinkering with wires, etc, even with basic stuff like this, it could be a turn-off.

I'm sure that the drive could be made to work externally.  The external disk drive port on the Amiga is probably some simple variation of the Shugart interface over DB25, plus some extra lines for power....and maybe a simple circuit to identify the drive as DF1:

If you could figure that out you could probably make a cable that would allow this device to work externally.