Mounting a scandoubler inside an 1200

[Doppie1200]

Hello,

I'm about to pay for an order I placed at versalia when I suddenly realize I better ask here first.

Versalia is selling a scandoubler intended for the use inside a towerized 1200. Personally I don't like towers so I want to keep the 1200 inside it's original casing.

Is it at all possible to mount the scandoubler inside there. Relocating the harddrive and put it all back together again?

A version existed that was intended for the stock 1200. The differnce was the chip it clipped over as I recall.
I don't know if this makes it all impossible to do.

(note; I do know how to use a dremel :-D ).

Hope to hear from you soon

Regards
Erno

[blobrana]

Hum,
 if you don`t like towers then stick to an external scandoubler...
The hassle and possible unstability (yes, you can make enough room inside, and if you don`t mind the case bulging) isn`t worth the effort.

How much is the differance in price between the two?

[Doppie1200]

An external seems no longer available at vesalia. Since I'm ordering other stuff there to I thought I might aswell add the scandoubler.

Will it really buldge the case?

I though height would not be a problem since the harddrive is not sitting quite that low either.


Regards,
Erno

[Brian]

The scandoubler fits very well inside the standard A1200, however you can NOT use the original HD cradle with it. I, as you, wanted this in a standard A1200 (for my mod project) so I simply cut and bendt a metall plate to fit and it worked well for me... thought I do have a sligty slimmer drive than that of the stock A1200. I didn't have a dremmel at the time so I simply put the drive in an antistatic bag and taped it to my custom cradle. :hammer:

[blobrana]

Hum,
 The anti static bag is a novel approach...And there is no heat build up?
And i suppose that there is no need for any mount at all if you just tape it...






[so is there a world shortage of externals?]

[Doppie1200]

Sounds like a solid approach.

This is what came to mind.

I move the harddisk to the far left and rotate it 90 degree. The cable facing to the front of the machine.
I can make a metal plate mounted to the plastic on three corners to the housing of the machine and one corner, the lower right, rest on the tinware.

This way the harddrive sits directly above the power circuitry. I will need a longer cable fot the harddrive to achieve this.

What do you think?

[fragment]

Here is how I did it.. the HD cradle looks very professional at the moment  :-D

VGA out and audio out connectors from Delfina are located in the far right of the case like this.

[adolescent]

I bent up the RF shield inside a bit to clear the scan doubler, and then mounted the harddrive to the shield with double sided tape (not very strong stuff, made for carpet).  Everything is very secure.  The drive now sits circuit board up, but that's no problem.  And, since I left the RF shielding the FCC won't come knocking on my door.  ;-)

Mounting the VGA connector was a little more complicated in my case.  I had previously used the expansion port next to the joystick ports, but I wanted to use my Blizzard SCSI at the same time.  So, I desoldered the RF modulator from the motherboard, carved the hole open a bit more to fit the connector, and hot glued the VGA connector circuit board to the motherboard where the RF modulator was.  The result looks very good, and I no longer have wires hanging out of my machine.

[Brian]

About the taped and antistaticbag thing... yes it's not pro in any way or form but as I said I didn't have a dremmel at the time and it is actuallt quite firmly secure and work like a sharm so haven't bothered to change it yet. It's a 2Gb IBM drive and they are known to run very hot but it haven't given me any trouble so far. When I do more extensive work with the computer next time I will probably fix that aswell.

I was thinking of desolder the audio plugs and put the VGA connector there... then move audio, aswell as changing it to a standard stereoconnector (found on todays computer speakers), and mount that a bit to the side above the RFmod pointing down so to not render any port unusable.

[adolescent]

@Brian

The area where the audio plugs are doesn't have enough depth to mount the VGA connector.  There are circuits there and of course the keyboard connector.  The RF area is perfect fit, and is easy to remove without risk of damaging any other components (there's nothing near it really, just the power supply).  

I actually was scolded for "defacing a classic Amiga" on another forum when I brought up the idea.  Funny thing is, I would never use the RF modulator since the A1200 has color composite.  I am even thinking of adding an S-Video plug somewhere also.  But, I'll have to wait until I get a subway and see where there is room left.

[EnyGmaTiK]

Can u guys post some pics of your miggy's?

I'm interested in adding a Scandoubler to my A1200, and i want to keep the original case.
But i too don't want it to melt  :-D

[jeffimix]

Just for the record, if you don't care about the crappier video quality of the composite output (IE video games junky) you can use a 'console to VGA' external box, those are relatively cheap. However they are lower quality, and at higher resolutions it's probably noticeable.

[adolescent]

@Jeffmix

I wouldn't recommend this.  The quality of the Amiga composite is severely lacking.  I have a fairly good upscan converter (Viewsonic N5) and it's basicly unusable at anything above high-res / non laced.  Plus, a good upscan box will set you back just as much as a SD/FF.  

[EnyGmaTiK]

I read somewhere that an external SD/FF produces inferior results than an internal one. It's this true?

[StevenJGore]

An external SD/FF is analogue, which modifies the signal that comes out the back of an Amiga.

An internal SD/FF is digital, in that it clips directly onto the graphics chips. It produces it's own VGA output signal down it's own cable and connector, completely bypassing that on the back of an Amiga.

So yes, an external SD/FF produces inferior results. I've even heard of external SD/FF's having to 'warm up' before they produce a picture! They are also plagued with overheating problems and 'rolling' pictures.

Everyone should get an internal SD/FF if you can!

Steve.