Just got my first Amiga! A few questions...

[curtis]

So just get the battery out with pliers? I don't want to have to deal with soldering on it until I have to, but that battery has to come out soon, hopefully it hasn't done much damage.

Go down to the nearest Radio Shaft (er, Shack) and get a pair of nippy cutters, aka flush cutters.  They'll become your best friend if you do any soldering/circuit board work.

I picked up 4 pair last time just to make sure I could always find a pair when I need them!

[Tupin]

Just checked it, it's not that bad. A little leakage on the side of the battery and a small amount on the board. I'll snip it out later today and clean it with some vinegar.

Meanwhile, I'll order some parts of to create a VGA cable and get one of those boxes later this week, so it will have time to dry. Unless I can hack a female DB25 into fitting somehow...

[Tupin]

Got the battery out and cleaned the area with vinegar. Cleaned it right up. Hopefully it's okay now.

[Tupin]

Would this wiring of a DB23 to VGA adapter be correct? I understand that it would have to go through a VGA box, but this is just to get it to VGA:

AMIGA----------------VGA
Pin 3 (AR)-----------                                                              Pin 1 (R)                                  
Pin 4 (AG)-----------                                                             Pin 2 (G)
Pin 5 (AB)------------Pin 3 (B)    
Pin 16 (GND)---------Pin 6 (RGND)
Pin 17 (GND)---------Pin 7 (GGND)
Pin 18 (GND)---------Pin 8 (BGND)
Pin 11 (HSYNC)-------Pin 13 (HSYNC)
Pin 12 (VSYNC)-------                                              Pin 14 (VSYNC)

[SamuraiCrow]

IIRC, you have to buffer 2 of the sync lines with a double inversion on a hex-inverter or some other TTL chip.  The sync lines can be inputs or outputs on the AGA chipset.  And if the AGA chipset thinks they are used as inputs, it will go into a genlock video mode that assumes another video source is being fed into it.

[Tupin]

How would one do that? Maybe I'll just get Amigamaniac's TV adapter...

[Tupin]

Update. I ordered Amigamaniac's adapter, but he's been delayed a bit. I'm guessing Amiga Forever is the best option for transferring floppies? It keeps giving me an error...

Oh, this machine has two hard drives in it, by the way. One is connected to the DOS card, one to the Amiga board. Could I use one of these for either a third drive or a replacement?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/40pin-IDE-CF-Compact-Flash-Bracket-Amiga-4000-Mac-PC-/270789144748?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3f0c4a70ac

[dangermouse]

Best option for transferring files is buy an Amiga ethernet adapter (or a Deneb / PCI ethernet) and use AmigaExplorer to transfer nice and quick all with a drag and drop interface in Windows Explorer

Failing that you can use Amiga Explorer with a null modem cable for the same effect...albeit a lot slower.

Hard drive is a hard drive. If I'm reading your question correctly then yes you can have 2 hard drives in your Amiga (with a suitable cable of course). Format the DOS one with an Amiga FS and away you go (that's assuming you meant that you want to use the DOS drive as an Amiga drive now not DOS).

And yes that CF adapter you've linked will do the job if you want to use a CF card as a HDD. Personally I do the same in my 4000 but don't have an additional hard drive in there..just the CF card. If I want to back things up I use Amiga Explorer and copy the files to my Windows file server for backup.

[AmigaPixel]

Nice Score! I'll be looking at craigs list more often.

[Tupin]

I want to use the DOS card as a DOS card, so I guess I will have three hard drives once I install the CF card.

[Tupin]

Does anyone know where amigamaniac is? I haven't gotten my adapter that I ordered at the beginning of the month...

[tone007]

Australia, could take a bit.

[DonutKing]

Yeah when I order stuff from USA or Europe, its not uncommon for it to take up to 6-7 weeks to arrive here in Australia. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Tripitaka]

Yeah when I order stuff from USA or Europe, its not uncommon for it to take up to 6-7 weeks to arrive here in Australia. I wouldn't worry about it.

That's the post man getting confused by everything being upside down. :p

But seriously, that's an awesome buy Tupin, I would go and get an A4000 keyboard for it without a doubt. You got the system so cheap, go treat yourself to the real thing.

[Tupin]

Oh, I got a keyboard. The guy who sold me the Amiga accidentally gave me a 1000 keyboard instead, so we exchanged and I got the 4000 keyboard.

Everything is ready, I'm just waiting on the adapter. Hopefully it will ship out soon.

[Amiga_Nut]

Don't know what I'm going to do about a display, just found out this monitor has a problem with the power button where it turns off, and it also has horizontal lines.

Transformer is tripping I reckon, that's what TVs that switch themselves off and kick out a physical on/off switch.

Get it looked at by an electrician, you can't be that unbelievably lucky all the time I guess