A2000 Restoration / Upgrading Progress

[Huxley_D]

Hi guys!

So, since I've been pestering many of you with questions in other threads, I thought I'd take a few moments to share the progress I'm making with my Amiga 2000 restoration / upgrading project:

As some of you might recall from other threads, I picked up an A2000 on eBay a week or two ago.  The item description was very basic, so I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into with this system.  However, when I picked up, took 'er home and looked over the A2000, I found:

*The A2000 was sitting comfortably in its original shipping box
*It had a REV 6.2 motherboard with KickStart 2.0
*It had a Commodore 2MB RAM board, along with 1MB on the motherboard itself
*A GVP SCSI board with a ~50MB SCSI drive loaded with OS 3.1

After going on a bit of an online shopping spree, plus spending some time repurposing stuff from my vintage Macintosh collection, I've now added:

*KickStart 3.1 ROM
*A second Commodore 2MB RAM board, for a total of 5 megs of RAM (2x2MB cards + 1MB motherboard RAM) - this was a working pull from an otherwise gutted A2000 given to me by the seller of my "main" A2000
*External LaCie 150MB SCSI drive
*Commodore 1902 monitor (certainly not ideal, as I only have greyscale composite video right now)
*GVP ROM chip version 4.15 for the SCSI board - I believe this is the final ROM available for these boards, and should make it easier to attach an external SCSI Zip drive, once I install the new ROM
*Button-cell battery kit to replace the prone-to-catastrophic-failure stock motherboard battery - I'm going to need some idiot-proof instructions and a lot of courage before I install this!

From here, my three main additions will be:

*A CPU upgrade.  The 68000 is a lovely chip, but I really want to see what this box can do with an '030 or '040.  I've done similar upgrades on my vintage Macs over the years, and the results can be stunning!  I'm currently bidding on a CPU upgrade board on eBay, (hopefully not bidding against anyone here!), so if my luck (and funding) holds out, I'll have an '040 in this box before long
*Either a better Commodore monitor (1080, 1084, etc.) or a FlickerFixer / VGA card.  I've got a decent stack of Amiga games (hooray for "Rise of the Dragon!"), but with crummy greyscale I'm certainly not getting the full Amiga experience
*A working CD-ROM drive.  I've got tons of internal and external SCSI drives around, so now it's just a matter of picking one and somehow getting the proper drivers in the Amiga

I've spent several hours trying to get my Amiga talking to my MacBook Pro (running the Windows 7 RC via Boot Camp) using a serial-to-USB adapter, but my jerry-rigged crossover cable is not working very well.  I've got the USB-to-serial adapter running into a 9-pin to 25-pin adapter, connected to a 25-pin null modem cable, connected to a gender-changer, plugged into the Amiga.  Needless to say, this is overly-complex.  I've already ordered a more sensible crossover cable from monoprice.com, so things should go better once that arrives.  I have managed to install the Aexplorer program to the Amiga, but nothing beyond that.

Well, that about covers it for now.  Thanks to everyone here for the endless help and support!

Huxley

[Tumbleweed]

"Either a better Commodore monitor (1080, 1084, etc.) or a FlickerFixer / VGA card. I've got a decent stack of Amiga games"

I've got a Microway FlickerFixer (NTSC version) that I could be persuaded to part with. I got it for my A2000 and it works fine. PM me if you're interested.

[Huxley_D]

The march of progress continues!  I stopped by a local cable specialty store today and grabbed a serial crossover cable (and retired the rube-goldberg style setup I'd created), and now my Mac (running Windows 7 in VMWare Fusion) is happily sending files from Aminet to the A2000 via AExplorer!  Using this setup, I was able to successfully transfer the AmiCDFS drivers, and what do you know - I've got a working external SCSI CD-ROM drive!  It's even able to read burned CD's from my Mac, which is quite a bit faster than the painfully slow serial transfers.

Speaking of serial transfers, I've also installed 8n1.device, which seems to have sped up my serial transfers a bit (at least it's not stalling out at any speed above 9600!), but for now the CD option seems to be the best.

Speaking of CD's, I've got a question:  is there any way to mount my CD drive internally with my GVP SCSI board?  The GVP board has a 50 meg drive installed on it, and is also talking to an external LaCie hard drive.  Can these GVP boards somehow connect to three SCSI devices (one external, two internal), or should I be looking for another SCSI controller?

Thanks guys!

Huxley

[T3000]

I've got a question:  is there any way to mount my CD drive internally with my GVP SCSI board?  The GVP board has a 50 meg drive installed on it, and is also talking to an external LaCie hard drive.  Can these GVP boards somehow connect to three SCSI devices (one external, two internal), or should I be looking for another SCSI controller?

Up to seven scsi devices off the controller. So a 50pin internal unit will work fine. Might as well get a CD burner while your at it.

[Tumbleweed]

You can fit the CD-Rom in the 5 1/4 bay below the two floppies and hook it up to the intrnal scsi card. You may need a longer SCSI cable but it should work ok. I think you can have upto six scsi devices. Also you need to be carefull about termination.

[Huxley_D]

You can fit the CD-Rom in the 5 1/4 bay below the two floppies and hook it up to the intrnal scsi card. You may need a longer SCSI cable but it should work ok. I think you can have upto six scsi devices. Also you need to be carefull about termination.

Well, you were correct, sir!  I've just finished cracking open the A2000, upgraded the ROM chip on my GVP A4000 HC+8 to version 4.15, and while I had 'er open, I went ahead and installed an internal SCSI CD drive.  It took some digging, but I scrounged up a longer internal SCSI cable (it's actually *really* long, with way more connectors than I need, but it'll do for now!), and the Amiga fired right up with the internal HDD, (now) internal CD, and external LaCie HDD.  So far I haven't had any termination issues, and everything is working smoothly.

Progress!

Huxley

PS  I'll attach a pic of my current setup.

[T3000]

longer internal SCSI cable (it's actually *really* long, with way more connectors than I need, but it'll do for now!), and the Amiga fired right up with the internal HDD, (now) internal CD, and external LaCie HDD.  So far I haven't had any termination issues, and everything is working smoothly.

So far...  Try to keep that scsi cable as short as possible.

Upgrades to consider:
'040 with ram and scsi onboard.
MegaChip
PicassoII

damn tinkertoys

[Tumbleweed]

That's looking pretty neat. You've got a similar set up to me, minus an accelarator, flicker fixer and RTG card.

I've got a Picasso II in mine it works very well and they crop up on AmiBay/eBay quite often.

If you want an accelarator GVP-M have one for the A2000, you can get them new at SoftHut.com.

Weed.

[Huxley_D]

That's looking pretty neat. You've got a similar set up to me, minus an accelarator, flicker fixer and RTG card.

I've got a Picasso II in mine it works very well and they crop up on AmiBay/eBay quite often.

If you want an accelarator GVP-M have one for the A2000, you can get them new at SoftHut.com.

Weed.

That Picasso II board looks sweet!  I'll be keeping my eye out for one of those...  I'm currently bidding on an '040 upgrade on eBay, but I strongly suspect (based on an '030 I lost out on last week) that it's going to quickly get too rich for my blood (and wallet).  I'm currently in the lead, so we'll see how long I can hold on...

Huxley

[Tumbleweed]

Have a look here, Picasso-II on eBay.de:

http://cgi.ebay.de/Picasso-II-Grafikkarte-fuer-Amiga-2000-3000-4000-ZorroII_W0QQitemZ290337108302QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKlassische_Computer?hash=item439970b14e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

PS: Its not mine.