CD32 Laptop

[ACE]

I've recently obtained an old PC laptop.  It works and the screen is good enough, (the K/B is doggy and so is the PS:2 port) so I was thinking of ripping apart its M/B and putting a CD32 in it's place.  OK might or might not work but still would be cool if it did.

Just a few questions? Has anyone tried this before?
Anyone know the dimensions of a CD32 M/B with an SX-Pro Expansion?
Can you run 3.9 on it or do you need to upgrade the ROM?
Will it still boot properly if I take out the inbuilt CD drive and add the laptops to a IDE channel?
How power hungrey is a CD32 with SX-Pro Expansion?(Will I ever get it to run off Batteries?)

and Prob loads I forgot too.

So is there anyone who knows or can point me towards a good website?

[elendil]

I cannot help you much, but os3.9 requires 3.1 roms (40.xx afaik) to install (and run, I suppose).

Sincerely,

-Kenneth Straarup.

[hnl_dk]

Then it is good that the CD32 has Kickstart 3.1 ;-)
http://amiga.emugaming.com/cd32tech.html

[Matt_H]

There's a great site with loads of CD32 technical information. Of course, I can't remember the name or the address. I think it's been mentioned in the news here on Amiga.org once or twice.

As I recall, you can swap in an IDE cd drive on the SX-32, but you lose cd.device and autobooting of CD32 software. You can get around that with some other utilities though. CDBoot, for example. You'll need a CDFS, etc.

3.9 should run on a CD32, though I've had trouble getting it to work. Make sure you have enough fast RAM.

As for power, I was able to run a CD32, SX-1, floppy, mouse and joystick,  and VideoCD cartridge on the standard Commodore supply. It was extremely crash prone and barely worked at all, but it did for a time. I'm using a bigfoot 200W now. I don't know how much power laptop batteries provide, but if they can run P4s, I'm sure you'll be fine... provided you can get it hooked up to begin with.

[vortexau]

The CMOS Chip standard used by Amigas has heftier power requirements than the average PC Laptop!

Consider,
 a long extention cord.
 a Battery Belt as used by Video Camera Operators in the field.
 or a Pedal Generator.

[Floid]

Oy.

Laptop LCDs, and 'bare' LCDs in general, don't speak 'analog' signals.

What they actually speak is a tossup, depending how much intelligence is on the interface boards on the back of your panel, and what sort of 'intelligence' it is.  At best, you can hook them to something like a DigitalView controller (made of nearly pure Unobtainium),  one of EarthLCD's somewhat expensive and outmoded PCI interfaces*, or a single-board  computer (or laptop mainboard) with the proper interface built-on or snapped-on.

Not undoable, but why not try a VNC server with a client on a Zaurus or NEC MobilePro?  Bury the CD32 in your car, and carry your 802.11 cloud with you. :-D

Cost would be equal or less, likely.

*Okay, maybe their NTSC interface would be doable, if money is no object, the specific panel is supported, and you can fit it in the chassis of the laptop.

[Ilwrath]

Yep.... The LCD Panel will be far and away your most difficult of problems.  From my understanding of it, many different laptops have different standards on their LCD panels, and none of them are exactly compatible, or easy to support from a standard video signal.  I've looked for a solution to put a 800x600 LCD panel from a laptop into a VGA-style analog signal, and I haven't had any luck finding anything even close to what I need pre-fabricated, and even less luck finding any information on the Toshiba panel I have.  :-(

Does anyone know how exactly the PAWS laptop case A1200 worked?  Did they basically have an analog-enabled LCD display that they built the case around, or did they custom make an interface?

[Stedy]

Let's see,

I towered a CD32/SX32 once, had a few technical issues.

CD32 motherboard dimensions, approximately 285 x 150 mm by 20 mm high.

SX32 pro, 140 x 180 mm by 65 mm high at back panel. PCB + HDD, 30 mm.

My CD32/SX32 runs WB 3.5 fine, do not have WB 3.9 so can not try that.

It should wok with an IDE CD-ROM, you will need an IDE buffer though as the SX32 IDE port is not buffered properly.

My SX32 Pro, 030/50 MHz + FPU + HDD uses 2.19 Amperes @ 5V and 0.077Amperes @ 12V. Probably a bit too much for a battery.

The trickiest thing will be interfacing to an LCD display, as mentioned previously.

Oh the great website with CD32 tech into is:

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/CD32/CD32_intro.html


See ya!

[Tesral]

Ilwrath wrote:

Does anyone know how exactly the PAWS laptop case A1200 worked?  Did they basically have an analog-enabled LCD display that they built the case around, or did they custom make an interface?

Poorly.  The one PAWS system I did see never did work right and the PAWS guys worked on it all day.  $2500 US case, and you had to supply the A1200.

Nice idea, lousy execution.

If one is looking for an Amiga laptop, a decent used system and UAE for Linux might be the best bet.

[Ilwrath]

Poorly. The one PAWS system I did see never did work right and the PAWS guys worked on it all day. $2500 US case, and you had to supply the A1200.

Hah!  Yeah, I remember that.  (We were at the same demo at MAE - I'm Tom from the old DCG.)

Their external scan-doubler didn't work much better (shorted out an A1200, I think!).  Not one of their better showings.  The PAWS trackballs were cool, though.  I still have mine stored away, somewhere.  

If one is looking for an Amiga laptop, a decent used system and UAE for Linux might be the best bet.

Yep.  Very true.  But what we're looking for is a use for an old LCD display.  I have no idea how to build any type of interface for it, though.  ;-)

[Matt_H]

Stedy wrote:
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/CD32/CD32_intro.html

That's the one I was thinking of earlier. Great site!

@ Ilwrath
The A600 Suzanne project used a monochrome LCD. I don't recall who created it, but he would be a good person to find information from for an interface.

[downix]

What CMOS chips?  The Amiga's original chipset was done in NMOS, not
CMOS.  The new Lisa chip for AGA was CMOS, as was Akiko found in the
CD-32, but the rest were still NMOS.

What does this mean?

NMOS consumes more power than CMOS or PMOS processes.

I looked into the same thing a while ago.  The CD32 with expansion is slightly bigger (higher) than ideal for a laptop.  Keyboard and mouse are not a problem.  The REAL problem is the LCD screen.  As other posts have mentioned, it's almost impossible to connect - unless you have a LOT of electronic resources and knowledge.

Having said that, it may be possible to hook it up to a very low res LCD screen, but you'd probably be limited to monochrome or 16 colours...  (Check out Slashdot for a couple of articles on DIY LCD screens!)

After having looked into all the CD32 details, I decided that the best way to go was with UAE.  It works fine on my laptop!  And it's probably faster than the CD32 could ever hope to be (except for bootup...)

[hnl_dk]

the SX32 Pro has got an 15pin VGA Monitor Port!

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/sx32pro.html

[Dr_Righteous]

I've been looking into the possibility of using the AverLogic AL250/AL251 in an external scandoubler... Perhaps this would help solve the LCD panel issue... Since Amigas do have both Digital and Analog RGB output.