My 500+ Project

[som99]

Some great fun read here, progressing quite nice, ill keep reading
Waiting for you to get your Pico-psu and see some more pics

Great work and effort tho, keep it up!

[djos]

Thanks Som

[som99]

Thanks Som

You made a decent deal on the Pico-PSU and AC/DC adapter also
Where I live I can order these two equivalent 150W PSU's w AC/DC adapter for 74 resp 80€
http://mini-itx.se/images/picoPsu150-XT-Kit-2.JPG
http://mini-itx.se/images/64-1.jpg

[djos]

Yeah it took a fair bit of searching to get a decent price and I even scored free shipping in the process!

[djos]

Just for kicks my Miggy went large tonight, 50" large to be precise!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-04%2020.24.38.jpg

And without a scaler or flicker fixer too, turns out my Pioneer 50MXE20 professional plasma monitor supports 15khz via vga-RGB input.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-04%2020.25.45.jpg

:cool:

[djos]

I made myself a Null Modem cable today and got Amiga Explorer working (very handy tool) and for lol's I benchmarked my Miggy (it's faster than an A600 and slightly faster than an A2000):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-06%2018.31.33.jpg

and I've started playing one of my all time favorite games, Space Quest II:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-06%2019.26.18.jpg

(I'm much further along now - been playing for about an hour)

Oh and my Amiga Power Cable arrived today so just need the power supply components and some IDE connectors to show up and I'll be able to complete my DVD/CF-IDE/PSU Combo Drive.

[djos]

Epic score for me on Wednesday, I thought that back in '96 when I sold my original a500, I'd sold all my software with it ...... Well Apparently not, I just found an entire box of Miggy disks hiding in the Garage with my old IBM boxes of 3.5" disks!!!

Im absolutely amazed, somehow these disks have followed me from Adelaide in '97 to Sydney, back to Adelaide in 2000, then to Melbourne in Mid 2000, and then back to Adelaide in 2007!!! That's almost 5,000kms of travelling over 15 years and have lived in 11 houses!!!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-08%2016.06.25.jpg

Today was a good day too, I got some new cutting discs for my Dremel and did some more work on my DVD/CF-IDE/PSU Combo project. Also helping things along was the recent arrival of my Miggy power Cable.

First thing I did was dremel a hole into the bottom of the case so I can pull the IDE cable through (de-burred it etc so it wont cut the IDE cable):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-10%2015.19.21.jpg

and from the inside:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-10%2015.18.56.jpg

I also modded the section under the old power socket so the Miggy Power cord can be installed under it - Im actually recycling the Power socket and have removed all 3 pins. My intention is to drill a hole in the center of the socket and mount the 12v Power connector inside it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-10%2016.00.10.jpg

and here's pretty much what it will look like when finished - the only thing missing externally is the 12v socket inside the old mains power socket:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-10%2016.18.40.jpg

So all I need now is the power Brick and pico PSU to arrive and im almost done.

[Azryl]

Awesome work! Nice use of the dremel too. Will be a very unique A500 setup when complete.

Az

[djos]

Awesome work! Nice use of the dremel too. Will be a very unique A500 setup when complete.

Az

Cheers, I like unique.

[djos]

My pico PSU arrived the other day:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-13%2007.58.03.jpg

and last night I finally got a chance to do most of the wiring work (hadnt finished the heat-shrinking in this shot):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-13%2020.15.14.jpg

Amusingly I broke the ciggy lighter I usually use for heat shrinking (and burnt my thumb in the process - doh!) - this forced me to improvise so I tried the wife's hair dryer (not hot enuf to be useful). Then I realised my wife's GHD hair straightener might work - sure enuf it works brilliantly and quickly so i'll be using that to cure heat-shrink in future! (wife was pretty shocked when I told her as the GHD is about $300AUD - I had to show her that it didnt actually melt the HS and do any damage to the GHD.) :biglaugh:

I also decided to recycle the old removable power board tray and glued some thin wood risers in-place and the PSU board will be hot glued on top of these (when my glue gun arrives).

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-13%2014.25.02.jpg

and here is the pico PSU power socket mounted inside the old mains socket (I shortened the cable for this too as it's very stiff wire and took up extra room that I didn't want to waste):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71121999/Amiga/2012-08-13%2009.51.49.jpg

I've also decided to change tactics with the connectivity to the External DVD/CF-IDE Drive - I realised the PATA cable isnt going to give me the freedom I want to move the a500 keyboard about on the desk when im using (as I like to do).

So to solve this problem I've found a solution that involves using IDE to SATA/eSATA adaptors so stay tuned for more info (ordered all the parts I need & cost less than $20AUD ) - I really hope my solution works (it's driverless so it should). :idea:

[som99]

Reading about your journey made me decide to start working on my poor A1200
Now I can't wait for Amigakit and Vesalia to ship my goodies!

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

[djos]

Cool, feel free to post a link to your project so we dont miss it.


PS, Im currently drooling over the Zeus68k, I so want one when they are released (hope they are affordable!).  http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65047

[som99]

Cool, feel free to post a link to your project so we dont miss it.


PS, Im currently drooling over the Zeus68k, I so want one when they are released (hope they are affordable!).  http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65047

I will post it when all thing arrive
The Zeus is really nice but im waiting for the ACA-500, IDE with autoboot, 14MHz 020, and 2MB fast mem, BUT the best part is that you can use an aca-1220 with it = extra 128MB fastmem on the A500, that's just crazy!
I would put WHDLoad games in a ramdrive and just enjoy those games that are on tons of floppies like Monkey Island 2 on the A500

[djos]

Yeah I've seen the ACA-500 and it's possibilities but I think it would be over $200AUD when combined with an ACA-1220 and im not sure I can justify the cost all in one go.

If the ACA-500 came with 8mb fast ram I'd be happy buying one and an ACA-1220 later on, but it comes with only 2mb which is lame imo.

Btw, everything i've read indicates the the ACA-500 comes with a plain-jane 68k, not an 020 or even and 010.

[Hattig]

There's always the Zeus68k option, which should give a 50MHz 68000 and 8MB fast ram.

[djos]

There's always the Zeus68k option, which should give a 50MHz 68000 and 8MB fast ram.

You mean the one I mentioned here:

PS, Im currently drooling over the Zeus68k, I so want one when they are released (hope they are affordable!).  http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65047