Modding an old A500 - got Some issues concering Keyboard and Video-output

[Magerusz]

Hey there,

I am currenty working on a project which consists of fitting my good old amiga 500 into a table, cover the motherboard with a glass pane (to show off my good friends called Denise, Gary, Agnus and Paula), with 2 arcade controllers and a touchpad fit into the table...

While working on this i ran into two problems:
1. the video output (as i can't put some old huge monitor on top of the table, it would cover the glass window)
2. the keyboard (since it was integrated into the A500)

So...i've got a couple of questions:

About the video output:

I read some things about RGB to SCART cables and such.....what i was wondering: does it work? And if so, does it need a specific type of TV or just anything with a SCART input?

Second thing i was wondering is the quality of the video output (i seen what lousy things the RF converter does to my good ol' Sensi Soccer fella's...), so is the quality any good?

About the keyboard:
I've already figured out how to connect a regular Amiga keyboard (say A2000) to the A500, but al the keyboards that are available are goddamn huge and ugly as well....

Does any of u know a place where i can buy an Amiga keyboard that would fit my needs (as small as possible, and preferrably  black, to match the table color)...

This might be a long shot but: is it possible to connect a regular PC-keyboard to the Amiga, given the fact that those have different keys (more even ) than the Amiga ones?

Thats about all the questions i've got for now, hope any of u can help!

Wait...one more thing:
I want to connect a 2nd (ext) floppy drive to the A500, is there any software needed to get it working, or is it just plug-n-play (hate that windoze-style phrase, but what the hell, u'll know what i mean)

Thanks,
Magerusz

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Hi back   ;-)

Don't know about the keyboard, but on the external FD, yes, any external Amiga drive is plug-n-yes-it'll-work-just-fine.  I've got three externals on mine, I think that's about the limit.

On the video, how about using the composite output from the MB or getting an A520 adaptor?  I used and still use the composite output from mine (now a 1200, but the 500 what's place it took isn't too far away), running into the back of my big Sony receiver, and from there running into the composite inputs of a 1084, a 1080, and a 1702 (all old Commodore monitors, but anything with composite input would work - like your VCR).  Back in the days before adding the deinterlacer I would keep one at the foot of the bed, and the other two on the desk.  People would say "Why do you have two monitors?" and I'd reply, "Well, I have two eyes, don't I?"   :-P

Best of luck in your project,
Mike

[jeffimix]

Ok, if you like VGA monitors, you can buy a scandoubler, such as here: http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/hardware/accelerators/apollo_scandoublers.html&cart_id=17340_12008

Also, you can get keyboard and adaptors:  http://www.eyetech.co.uk/search.php?SearchStr=&SearchCat=ADTW

[Brian]

The Scart can be connected to anything "Scarty", the quality is better than of the 520 but not as good as with a regular monitor. As said already an external scandoubler might be what you need and then you should be able to connect your Amiga upp to a flatscreen monitor to save space and weight.

Amigas are as close to plug&play that you can get... apart from installing drivers the hardware will most often do all the needed confing for you. Diskdrives doesn't need drivers so you can easily just plug on an externa drive onto the A500 and instantly have 2 drives (you can go up to 3 external drives by connecting a second drive to the first externa drive like a daisy chain).

About keyboard I don't think there's a converter for PC keyboards for the A500, I might be wrong but I had a quick look around and didn't find nothing. An Amiga keyboard like the ones used in an A3-4000 is slightly slimmer than the A2000 ones (the CDTV keyboard is as the A4000 one but all black and extremly hard tyo find). If you are upp for customificasion why not try and work something out with an A600 keyboard, they are slimmer but I don't know much about them (apart drom the fact that they got a smaller green keyboard cable than the other Amigas doo).

[Magerusz]

Guys thanks for all the quick replies...

Scandoubler..never heard of such a thing, but it seems useful

[olegil]

Why not just use the original A500 keyboard with an extended cable and make a nice matching casing for it? That's what I would do in your situation. Or embed it in the table somehow. Much nicer with original keyboard, imho.

I've discovered that the cable can't be very long (I bought a new A1200 motherboard because my keyboards stopped working with the old one, now it turns out my keyboard cable was 20-30cm too long, so I might start building my own fancy case :-)

Picture frame A1200, wall mounted, is my idea. Using the new motherboard, and putting the old one back in the E/Box tower  :-)

[Magerusz]

Thought about using the old A500 keyboard i have...

One option was to paint the old one black...which creates a problem: the labels on the keys should be visible....

On the other hand, maybe i can mod the old keyboard if i can buy black keys somethere....does anyone know if there is a place where one can buy a set of separate keyboard keys.... :S

[Doobrey]

This might be a long shot but: is it possible to connect a regular PC-keyboard to the Amiga, given the fact that those have different keys (more even ) than the Amiga ones?

Have a look on Aminet for the Multimedia keyboard adapter ( I think its called MMKeyboard.lha in hard/hack)
 I built one a couple of years ago, AFAIK it has connection diagrams for all Amigas.
 All you have to do then is find a nice small keyboard to match !

[kgrach]

I got PC keyboard Adapters for every type of classic Amiga.
$39.00 Dollars US.

Mouse and Keyboard Adapters supplied with a Logitech Duo $149.00 Black Wireless Multimedia keyboard and wireless Optical Mouse.
 NO SOFTWARE needed for keyboard and standard mouse operation.
fourth mouse button and scroll wheel need software installed if you want to use them.
Mouse adapter has built in Mouse/Joystick switcher. Push button on mouse to turn off Joystick and push fire on Joystick to turn off Mouse.

You can email me for info.