Planning to make my custom case.

[PanterHZ]

- The floppy ended up being on top of the raiser used to hook up the 2.5'' drives on the case; I've tried my best to place the floppy at the bottom, or under the CD drive, but there was no space whatsoever to do anything, so I ended up placing it on the raiser. Now I need to cut a hole trough the case and the front plate...if anyone has suggestions about how to do a clean job, I am all ears. I have a dremel and the cuts that I make are anything but straight; plus it makes the edge very irregular and I have no clue how to smooth it out.

I assume you are using the standard A1200 floppy drive. But I think it would be really easier to use a modified PC drive instead. like the ones Amigakit sells: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=106  This because it might be easier to make the hole.

Anyway, you need to find out exactly where to make the holes, and here you might have to be a bit experimental, but it doesn't matter if it don't look so good on the case since any mistakes you make will be covered by the front plate.
I would suggest that you do the rough cutting with your dremel, and then use a small flat file to even out the edges. Finish off by using a piece of fine sandpaper to smooth out the edges. It may involve a bit of work to get a good result, but focus mostly on the front plate.

Nice paint job btw

[superfrog76]

Hey PantherHZ Thanks!

Yup, using the standard one; I don't even know how to mod a regular floppy, so I tried to just use what I have already available. I live in USA, so I can't order from the stores online because they are all located in UK or Germany, which means that it cost me an arm and a leg to order I usually make one single big order with all that I need, to minimize the costs, and sadly I've already ordered recently....so gotta use the amiga floppy.

So I can use a filer? I am just concerned to warp the aluminum, but who cares...as you said it goes under the front plate, so no biggie.

I was dreaming of making the face plate like the one in the Amiga 3000, 1000 or even the mac classic, but I realize that they are injected mold, not made by hand, so probably I would just make a mess doing it by hand I would like a nice solution for the drive, and would like to avoid to show the standard floppy front pane, which looks so "pc style"

Now the problem is to figure out a way to make it stable; tried to adapt HDD brackets but the screws are in different places, so gotta find a way to lock securely the floppy...I will not use it too often, since the majority of the time I will use the internal drive, but I don't want to push the button and send the drive flying into the case

BTW, is there any solution for the expansion card slot? I would like to have something like a flat ribbon cable, so I can put the accelerator card in a different position from the mother board. So far I've found nothing, except the expansion card that let you use PCI on the amiga, but I simply want an extension of the expansion connector, nothing fancy

Thanks!

[Iggy]

You will be able to fit the A1200 motherboard and extras inside the "SilverStone Milo ML03B" and fit extras without problems Case dimensions:
440x340x105 mm (W/D/H)


That case is quite cheep also if I would do a A1200 desktop case ill use something like that

Cutout a new back for I/O's, new mounting holes and the motherboard is set, if you want a CD/DVD-drive it has a spot for it, you have to mod to get a internal floppy but not to much work, I would probably put the floppy in the 3,5" HDD cage under the 5,25" facing left or make a cut out in the right part of the front for a floppy.

I quite like that.
Thanks, I was looking for something to mount a small custom board into.

Anyone else got any suggestions?
The board I'm considering could probably be scaled back to micro-itx or up to MATX.

[superfrog76]

Iggy, that's the case that I have painted and modded to fit my Miggy

What kind of board you want to put in? All the Amiga boards are more or less bigger than any miniATX, unless you are talking of Amigaone boards

[superfrog76]

Another update:

Got my cables, so now I am adding the 9 pin connectors to the back plates; the Lyra has it's own plate so I am done with the connectors.

Next now is to fix the floppy and cut the holes for it! Sadly the caddy that came with the case does not have the holes in the right position, so I guess that either I drill the caddy, or I must find a different approach.

I've also found that the metal brushed front plate was glued, so I was able to remove it. I will sand again and paint the front plate, after making the cut for the floppy.

I am still looking for a way to fix the HDMI board on the back plate....I had no luck finding anyone doing anything similar, so I am kinda stuck with that Any help would be really appreciated

Pictures coming soon

[PanterHZ]

Using a file on the floppy drive hole should work fine as long as you  don't use too much force, try to hold it in a sort of horizontal angle  in order to file over a wider area. But before you start making the  holes, you should probably find a way to mount the floppy drive properly  first.

Regarding the expansion card slot, I don't think you will  find any adapters for your needs, so you probably will have to make  your own. But if you do this, it might be an idea to try making it as  short as possible.

I don't know what your HDMI board looks like, but an idea could be to buy a short HDMI extension cable which have screws included on the connector, there simply must be something like this to be found on ebay.

[superfrog76]

I gave a try to the floppy...usign the dremel I cut a slit, and then tried to make it pretty, with a round drop shape....the results are quite horrible LOL

Will try with the filer and see if I can make it prettier...it is hard to use the cut tool on the dremel!

I've done McGuyver work on the floppy; screwing one hole and making a handmade metal L plate, to hold the other side; I dare anyone to do worst than what I did Will post some pictures later. Anyway now it is secured on the case, even better than on the original Amiga

One thing is for sure: this case will never be converted back again after all the cuts and damages that I've done to it

Regarding the HDMI card, I went again McGuyver and made my own support: top of a CD jewel case as base, got a PCI bracket out of a network card (4 bucks), and cut it to let the connectors to be reachable. Then I screwed on top of it the HDMI card, securing it with one screw and some elastic bands....just looking at it gives a new meaning to the word "ugly", but works

Last thing left now is to put the mobo back in, and fix it permanently in the case, cut a side hole for the PCMCIA card slot; fix the power switch to the case (probably will put it on one of the cover plates that I made at this point, or I could just make another hole on the case....WTH ) and the power connector, to power the PicoPSU.

I hope it will turn on

[superfrog76]

Finally I fixed the floppy today; not it is nice and snuggle inside the case.

The metal is pretty soft; tried to use a filer to smooth the opening but the whole thing would warp; I just gave up the idea to smooth it, nobody will touch the inside so it is good as is, and in the front you will not see anything, since the front plate covers it.

Tomorrow I will put the motherboard back in, and fix the wood base to the bottom of the case (need long nuts and bolts; the ones that I have are not long enough); then it is just a matter of finishing the front plate (found a nice tutorial about case mods, that uses fiberglass epoxy...few coats of that, sand it down and paint and the panel will look pretty much as original.

[gertsy]

Finally I fixed the floppy today; not it is nice and snuggle inside the case.

The metal is pretty soft; tried to use a filer to smooth the opening but the whole thing would warp; I just gave up the idea to smooth it, nobody will touch the inside so it is good as is, and in the front you will not see anything, since the front plate covers it.

Tomorrow I will put the motherboard back in, and fix the wood base to the bottom of the case (need long nuts and bolts; the ones that I have are not long enough); then it is just a matter of finishing the front plate (found a nice tutorial about case mods, that uses fiberglass epoxy...few coats of that, sand it down and paint and the panel will look pretty much as original.

You will want to make sure at a minimum that you get rid of any loose edges and shavings. Very dangerous to your electronics if they end up on the motherboard.

A hand grinder will do the job.

[superfrog76]

You will want to make sure at a minimum that you get rid of any loose edges and shavings. Very dangerous to your electronics if they end up on the motherboard.

A hand grinder will do the job.

Oh, I didn't consider that....thanks for pointing it out!

The cut is irregular but so far I don't see dangling metal pieces; but I will use the grinder on it to clean the cut; as you suggested.....altho the metal is really flimsy; it was warping just with me using the filer; so I hope it won't get damaged with the grinder and the vibration coming from it (I may try the dremel attachment for grinding metal, at low speed should serve its purpose).

[gertsy]

A magnet wrapped in cling wrap will pick up those metal filings cleanly.

[superfrog76]

Today I was able to fix the motherboard to the case; used a piece of wood, and made some cuts to let the air go around the mobo, especially under the accelerator card chip and ram.

I've also finished the power cable; I need to put the power switch on the back plate. I made a mistake ordering the serial flat extension cables...they came on full PCI plate, while the case uses the smaller version, so I am forced to remove the connectors and make holes on the case PCI brackets, to add the mouse and joystick ports.

Also I need to stretch a bit the Lyra connector, since it is a bit short; that plate is also full size, so I will have to remove the connector from that plate too...meh.
I seriously shed tears for not having a 3d printer...would make nice back plates, I think that my hand cut plates will not look that great

Maybe by tomorrow I can put in also the CD and cable up everything.

I've also attached a photo of the front panel after being cut and sanded with grit sand paper....the cut for the floppy, as you can see, looks horrible; so if you have any idea for that, I am all ears Once that will look decent, I will paint it white again. I realized that was pretty dumb to paint it before making all the mods...but it is my first time so I am learning making mistakes.

[Amiga_Nut]

That's not a problem; there are several keyboard interfaces for the A1200. The real problem is that you're going to end up with a keyboard that has Windows keys. On the other hand, it's a good opportunity to get a nice mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches to replace those crappy A1200 keyboards.

Is there no interfaces that allow use of Amiga 500 keyboards? Re-using the original Amiga 1200 keyboard was really what I meant not a PS/2 or DIN converter to use PC keyboards. I am thinking of towering up my super expanded A600 and using it as a graphics workstation with Dpaint 3 and some Blitz/Amos coding but the keyboard is not convenient and I have a spare A500 keyboard

I would never tower or re-house any of my machines if I had to have Mac or Windows keys on them. I'd rather use an Atari keyboard lol

[som99]

Today I was able to fix the motherboard to the case; used a piece of wood, and made some cuts to let the air go around the mobo, especially under the accelerator card chip and ram.

I've also finished the power cable; I need to put the power switch on the back plate. I made a mistake ordering the serial flat extension cables...they came on full PCI plate, while the case uses the smaller version, so I am forced to remove the connectors and make holes on the case PCI brackets, to add the mouse and joystick ports.

Also I need to stretch a bit the Lyra connector, since it is a bit short; that plate is also full size, so I will have to remove the connector from that plate too...meh.
I seriously shed tears for not having a 3d printer...would make nice back plates, I think that my hand cut plates will not look that great

Maybe by tomorrow I can put in also the CD and cable up everything.

I've also attached a photo of the front panel after being cut and sanded with grit sand paper....the cut for the floppy, as you can see, looks horrible; so if you have any idea for that, I am all ears Once that will look decent, I will paint it white again. I realized that was pretty dumb to paint it before making all the mods...but it is my first time so I am learning making mistakes.

You are getting along nice, I look forward to see more how it goes!

Is there no interfaces that allow use of Amiga 500 keyboards? Re-using the original Amiga 1200 keyboard was really what I meant not a PS/2 or DIN converter to use PC keyboards. I am thinking of towering up my super expanded A600 and using it as a graphics workstation with Dpaint 3 and some Blitz/Amos coding but the keyboard is not convenient and I have a spare A500 keyboard

I would never tower or re-house any of my machines if I had to have Mac or Windows keys on them. I'd rather use an Atari keyboard lol

You can buy custom keycaps, mostly for mechanical boards but you could always sand away the windows logo text and have it blank or put a adhesive printed A on them

[superfrog76]

Is there no interfaces that allow use of Amiga 500 keyboards? Re-using the original Amiga 1200 keyboard was really what I meant not a PS/2 or DIN converter to use PC keyboards. I am thinking of towering up my super expanded A600 and using it as a graphics workstation with Dpaint 3 and some Blitz/Amos coding but the keyboard is not convenient and I have a spare A500 keyboard

I would never tower or re-house any of my machines if I had to have Mac or Windows keys on them. I'd rather use an Atari keyboard lol

Not really possible to use the original keyboard; unless you build also a case for the keyboard I've seen people doing the soldering on the connector, and basically do the same on the motherboard; and then they made custom connectors to connect the 2, but it is too much of a hassle honestly, and it involves heavy mod of the mobo.

You can buy an Amigaone keyboard, if you love so much the Amiga keys; with a Lyra adapter you can use one.

[superfrog76]

You are getting along nice, I look forward to see more how it goes!

Thanks Som! I have very little time available so the thing is taking more time than expected....plus there is more cutting to do than what I imagined; and the fact that plates and everything else has to be made by me, because there is nobody that makes them (unless you buy big quantities), is taking most of my time

BTW, any suggestion for the front plate? I am scratching my head but can't find a nice solution, other than buying an A2000/3000/4000 floppy, and replace the 1200 drive, so I can just cut a square and use the drive front plate (painting it of course)