congratz scuzz! love it when you get that "oh f*&^% me" moment after spending hours hacking away only to find the miggy isn't 'alive' just right BUT finally she springs back !..pain and joy & joy & pain ..ah the memoires of Amiga hardrware upgrading/ hacking/ repairing/ messing:hammer:
Its all I do. I spend each day keeping the plates on top of the sticks. I never like to see a plate fall from the stick. Every so often you find an unbroken plate and can get it spinning again.
This isn't about making computers run with modern equivalents. It is about trying to keep the kit working for as long as I can in my lifetime. There really is no way I am going to get another wafer thin drive like the one on the Viper. The whole card is a thing of beauty. I thought it was lost but it is alive and very much kicking. There is nothing on the drive but the operating system. This is a humble Amiga 500 running a 3.0 Rom and a card of this magnitude.
I'll tell you something funny shall I. I found out about this 500 cus there were some on a forum that were making fun of an Amiga 500 boxed on Ebay that proclaimed to be a 1200. I have always seen A500s as one of those eggs you crack open and find hidden treasures. So I put in a nominal bid, I dunno £25 and won it. I then drove all the way to Windsor and picked up the computer. The guy who owned it had died and his friend was selling. He just read what was scribbled on the box, he had no idea what was inside. He also gave me other kit and computers that were in the garage.
When I got home I opened the A500 and inside was the Viper with 3.0Rom and hard drive. I have loads of disks with the machine plus the documentation for the card. It was a real find. Sadly the hard drive wasn't working so I placed the computer in store. I have not tried that computer properly for probably nine years and today I had a go. Hence the joy.
I have set up a special place for the computer and will run the machine every day now till she finally gives up. I will not tax the computer too much but will learn as much as I can about the card and enjoy seeing the computer working. I have numerous machines that get switched on every day or so to check that they are working. I have had enough scares from impending doom , but trust me when I say, I get all the kit working, and it continues to work. I recently replaced all the disk drive belts in all my 3" ( that's three inch, not 3.5") drive machines. 9512, DD1, 6128 +3 etc. I have brought so many machines back to life. And I make sure they keep working. The trick is simply to use them, and make sure you don't go hacking them about with new alternatives. I use only the original kit. My monitors are originals and my hard drives are as intended, hard.
Just this morning I discovered one of my A500Plus machine still with the seals intact. My heart skipped a beat at the horror of a battery that I had overlooked. Also there were two keys missing off the keyboard. Anyway I opened the computer up and fortunately the very dark blue barrel had only just started to leak. I removed the battery, cleaned up with vinegar and neutralised the area and dried. I then replaced the keyboard and gave the machine a thorough clean . I then added a WTS Electronics Ltd Pro-Ram A501 512K board , strapped on a 590 and set up on a monitor. Great fun. And another machine revived.
You are right, there really isn't anything like the feeling of getting the old steam train back on the tracks. It really wouldn't be a steam train with a diesel engine, would it.
By the way I have three 500s with XT 590 drives that make enough noise to wake the dead. Kinda like music to my ears in truth. If the drives die there is no real way to replace them. But what would a 590 be without that hd brick inside.... certainly not a 590 anymore. I have all my OSs and drives copied to ZIP so I have the software protected. Just wish I could go back in time and get some old stock. Ar hum. Happy days.
