Amiga Retro Brisbane

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: moiecoute on January 04, 2021, 06:37:56 pm

Title: Newbies with an Amiga 4000
Post by: moiecoute on January 04, 2021, 06:37:56 pm
Hi,

Thanks for letting me join the forum.

I got my hands on an A4000/040. Not sure if it is working or not. I'm hoping someone from the Sydney Users Group will help to have a quick look and determine that.

I'm new to Amiga and had a couple of hardware questions. I don't have a keyboard nor a monitor. Is someone able to help me with hooking up the Amiga to a modern monitor and as to whether there is an adapter for using a modern keyboard?

.... will be watching a couple of Workbench tutorials this coming weekend to learn about the OS.

Thanks again

Title: Re: Newbies with an Amiga 4000
Post by: intangybles on January 05, 2021, 10:33:14 am
Wow... A4000.. thats a great find!

Firstly... Welcome!

We have a couple of NSW members I will see if Admin can drop them a line! Have a quick search of the forum,  seem to remember a mention of someone repairing Amiga's in NSW.

I would suggest a couple of pics on the PCB condition etc, history you know of etc, recapped? may help tease out some responses!

Again, welcome!
Title: Re: Newbies with an Amiga 4000
Post by: quantum8 on January 05, 2021, 10:53:06 am
The first thing I'd be checking is if the battery has been removed!

If it hasn't then snip it off as soon as you can. Those things leak even more than the capacitors do!

Speaking of the capacitors, it is definitely a must to replace all of the electrolytics on both the motherboard and the CPU card. They cause a Lot of havoc with these machines!

As for the keyboard, yes you can find ps2 to amiga adapters on ebay, lyra is one of them.

For getting a display from the machine you have a few options. The cheapest would be to build a gbs8200 + gbs control (or get one premade from http://microbeetechnology.com.au/) with an amiga rgb cable.
A decent option is also an ossc with Amiga rgb scart cable. Both of these upscalers can be used on other retro computers and consoles so they're good options.

If you want to go all out, get a zz9000. It will give your workbench modern 1080p screen modes through hdmi, and has pass through for all other screen modes, as well as usb, Ethernet and up to 256meg ram.

Welcome to the rabbit hole!!
Title: Re: Newbies with an Amiga 4000
Post by: Heywood on January 05, 2021, 06:13:58 pm
Welcome moiecoute - did you come from r/amiga?

Amiga 2000/3000/4000 and CD32 keyboards use the same pinout - the 4000 and CD32 have the smaller PS/2 connector as opposed to the AT DIN style connector but the pins are the same and you should be able to use a "PC" AT to PS/2 converter (around 5 bucks on ebay) if you get a chance to pick up a real Amiga keyboard, however they are not cheap these days, so an adapter for PS/2 keyboard as mentioned by intangybles is probably a low cost approach.

I think Amiga collecting and restoration is a bit like people that like to restore classic cars - parts are hard to find and are not cheap and to be honest newer things are probably better all round but there is a certain "something" to these beasts.
Title: Re: Newbies with an Amiga 4000
Post by: moiecoute on January 06, 2021, 04:13:00 pm
Yes Heywood to your Reddit question :)

Thank you everyone on this thread for welcoming me and helping me. I have been doing a lot of reading and watching a number of videos but something like the model numbers for the display, keyboards and capacitors is exactly what I needed.
Title: Re: Newbies with an Amiga 4000
Post by: Amigaman on January 11, 2021, 12:25:15 pm
Hi moiecoute,

Welcome to the Amiga owner's club. I'm fairly certain that you've made contact with me via SAUG, but just in case you're another person, we can help you locally in Sydney through the Sydney Amiga User Group (SAUG). We meet every month, except for January (holiday season).