500+ questions

[runequester]

A few questions about the 500+ if any of you happen to own one:
(Would rather talk to people who actually have, or had, one, than info from wiki that may be fact or fabrication)
 
 
Did it have any hard drive interface like the 600?
 
How much chip ram did it come with?
 
Trapdoor expansion slot available and for what?
 
Did it have the side expansion slot like the 500, and if so, was it compatible with the 500 expansions?
 
 
Any other peculiarities compared to the 500 (other than kickstart and ECS) ?
 
Cheers!

[MozzerFan]

A few questions about the 500+ if any of you happen to own one:
(Would rather talk to people who actually have, or had, one, than info from wiki that may be fact or fabrication)
 
 
Did it have any hard drive interface like the 600?!

No

How much chip ram did it come with?!

1MB
 

Trapdoor expansion slot available and for what?!

Yes. It's for expanding the chipram to max 2 MB.
 

Did it have the side expansion slot like the 500, and if so, was it compatible with the 500 expansions?!

Yes
 
 

Any other peculiarities compared to the 500 (other than kickstart and ECS) ?

It has a super-denise and a 2MB agnus.

[MozzerFan]

Almost forgot: It also has an RTC. And a barrel-type battery that can leak.

[ognix]

A few questions about the 500+ if any of you happen to own one:
(Would rather talk to people who actually have, or had, one, than info from wiki that may be fact or fabrication)

I have two (actually one working).  

Did it have any hard drive interface like the 600?

No.

How much chip ram did it come with?

1MB Chip RAM.

Trapdoor expansion slot available and for what?

Yes, trapdoor available for RAM expansions only.
As for the A500 is used for Chip RAM expansion (since you have ECS chipset with Agnus 8375 you can have up to 2MB Chip RAM).
Seems you can use RAM expansions for A500 as well, but I'm not sure (in this case you'll get eg. 1,5MB Chip RAM).

Did it have the side expansion slot like the 500, and if so, was it compatible with the 500 expansions?

Exactly the same.

Any other peculiarities compared to the 500 (other than kickstart and ECS) ?

No... a small tag top of LEDs saying "Amiga 500 plus".  

You're welcome!
BY!

[ognix]

Yeeeesss.. the infamous RTC real time clock (causes many damages to boards if the battery leaks)!
Sorry and thanks to MozzerFan!

[runequester]

Clock battery.... killing amigas almost as fast as Commodore since 1987

[dougal]

A500                   A500Plus
                 -----                  ---------
RAM           512K Chipram       1MB Chipram
Kickstart     Kickstart 1.2/1.3   Kickstart 2.04
Clock          No RTC battery    Battery backed RTC
Chipset       OCS                   ECS

I have 3 A500Plus's and you really really have to watch out for the RTC battery. This is no joke. It killed one of my machines and almost killed another two.

[hardlink]

Hey Rune, that's only 5 questions, not over five hundred questions. ta-dump.

Everything said so far has been accurate, but there is one thing that has not been mentioned, probably because most replies come from Europe. The A500+ was never sold in North America, so it is a PAL machine with a 220V/50Hz power supply. I have one that was brought in from the UK, so it has the lb. on the keyboard, and I use it with a GVP A530 sidecar accelerator and a 1084S monitor. I happened to have NA power supplies for both the GVP and the A500, so no problem there, and I never tried to use a (NTSC) TV as a monitor.

[A1260]

500+ questions.... thats alot of questions LOL!

[psxphill]

I happened to have NA power supplies for both the GVP and the A500, so no problem there, and I never tried to use a (NTSC) TV as a monitor.

I didn't know that. I can only imagine they weren't selling many A500's in America at the time. Rumour has it that the A500+ was released early because there was a shortage of A500's. Supposedly the only A500's available were on a ship, they had A500+'s sitting in a warehouse so they put them on a plane and of course they arrived first.
 
The agnus in the a500+ is jumpered between PAL/NTSC (either 5v/gnd, can't remember which is which). So it's not hard to convert them. You'll also have to use an NTSC modulator to output composite/RF for a TV (for some reason you don't get RGB inputs in your TV's ).
 
The only other difference is the keyboard, which you can steal from an A500.
 
That should be all you need to get an NTSC A500+. Quite why you'd want one is another matter

[Ral-Clan]

Hey Rune, that's only 5 questions, not over five hundred questions. ta-dump.

Everything said so far has been accurate, but there is one thing that has not been mentioned, probably because most replies come from Europe. The A500+ was never sold in North America, so it is a PAL machine with a 220V/50Hz power supply.

Is this true?  I live in Canada and I seem to remember one of my friends had an A500+ (and he certainly hadn't travelled to Europe to get one).

[tone007]

There was at least one company in NY selling A500+ motherboards as upgrades to A500 users, my first Amiga was an upgraded A500.

[Lockon_15]

Hey Rune, that's only 5 questions, not over five hundred questions. ta-dump.

Everything said so far has been accurate, but there is one thing that has not been mentioned, probably because most replies come from Europe. The A500+ was never sold in North America, so it is a PAL machine with a 220V/50Hz power supply. I have one that was brought in from the UK, so it has the lb. on the keyboard, and I use it with a GVP A530 sidecar accelerator and a 1084S monitor. I happened to have NA power supplies for both the GVP and the A500, so no problem there, and I never tried to use a (NTSC) TV as a monitor.

I'm not sure this is valid for A500+.

There are at least 2 separate Fatter/Super-Agnus chips which support PAL or NTSC at boot time. Those chips are supported by adequate clock oscillators. Considering those 2 facts one could easily conclude those are hardwired options not prone for a easy change.

True, but not ultimately necessary. Since A500+ is ECS machine, that means video modes are software controllable, you can switch modes after boot time or even directly at early boot menu.

Regarding PSU, it doesn't matter much for NTSC; A500 will accept any switched or non-switched AC-to-DC PSU as long it provides +5VDC, +12VDC, -12VDC, irrespective if input voltage is 230 or 110V.

[Gazbonk]

There are hard drive options for the A500 & + look on Amiga Hardware,
I have one of these for my A500 & its internal - I presume it will work in the A500+
 http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/adide

or choose from the following devices looking for A500
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/scsi
your best bet may be;

01 Commodore A590 because you get a external hard drive, power supply and most of them come with 2 meg memory.
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/a590

02 GVP Impact 500 - there are four versions for the A500
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/impact500mk2

Most of these products can be obtained from Ebay or an Amigan, just be careful when purchasing and ask if its operational & working (first one I bought was knackered & it was cheap).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commodore-Amiga-500-A590-HD-near-mint-condition-/220729016659?pt=Klassische_Computer&hash=item3364798153

Things will come to those that wait