Amiga Retro Brisbane

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: kritikal on October 24, 2019, 11:31:59 am

Title: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: kritikal on October 24, 2019, 11:31:59 am
A Forum starter to get discussion growing...

What are you currently spending time on?

Personally I am going down the path of Replacing CD32 SMD electrolytic capacitor's, at an early stage so far.

Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: ARB Forum Admin on October 24, 2019, 12:00:35 pm
Great start Thank you!

My current project is this Forum!  ;)

Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on October 24, 2019, 08:29:43 pm
I'm updating my 3000 to 3.1.4.1 on my scsi2sd. Just put a new battery holder in.

Next up I need to find some GALs to replace the PALs...it's rather toasty there at the moment. Not good in this Brisbane heat!
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: intangybles on October 25, 2019, 04:11:57 pm
Currently no specific projects on the go (outside of the forum).

But I did recently post the following to FB group, thought I would publish it here!

https://www.amigaretro.com/index.php/topic,22.0.html (https://www.amigaretro.com/index.php/topic,22.0.html)
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: matt020 on October 25, 2019, 11:06:51 pm
I have a spare A2000 motherboard that has corroded pins on pretty much every socket, so I am slowly removing each socket.
It's painful.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: intangybles on October 26, 2019, 05:10:03 pm
I don't envy you! I am ever pleased my A2000 was stored well all those years ago! It's not that I mind the restoration work it just finding the time that's hard!
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: dextereous on October 28, 2019, 10:25:18 pm
Lots of projects on the go, but most I'm just waiting for bits and pieces to arrive. I do finish things, eventually. i swear! :P

A500-8MB-FastRAM and A500-14MHz-Accelerator projects by this guy - https://github.com/kr239/. I'm hoping they'll work in the a2000, but if not, they'll go in my a500s.

ReAmiga 1200. Have all connectors and major ICs, so just need to order passives. I'll kick that one off in around a fortnight (I have the BoM ready to order from Mouser - just need to wrap the bills up first.

A500PlusPlus board ordered. Have some old A500 boards and a few spares laying around, so will mostly just have to order passives for this one. I have a black a500 case ordered in the indigogo campaign, so think it will look spectacular with the purple board.

A2000 6.x replica board by Paul Rezendes ordered. Longer term project that I expect to do early in the new year.

And depending on whether FPGA counts as Amiga (it seems Vampire certainly does!), I've almost completed my MiSTer build. Just waiting for some resistor arrays to arrive from RS components (expected Wednesday) and I can finish the I/O board. I've built 5 of the mini SDRAM boards (all tested stable at 130MHz), an RTC board and a USB hub board. This is an exciting project. I've been testing Minimig on a TC64v2 and it's flawless.

I'll post up pics as I complete them.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on October 29, 2019, 09:12:32 am
ReAmiga 1200. Have all connectors and major ICs, so just need to order passives. I'll kick that one off in around a fortnight (I have the BoM ready to order from Mouser - just need to wrap the bills up first.


Now that's something I'd like to do one day.

Where did you source the major ICs from?
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: intangybles on October 29, 2019, 01:43:23 pm

And depending on whether FPGA counts as Amiga (it seems Vampire certainly does!), I've almost completed my MiSTer build. Just waiting for some resistor arrays to arrive from RS components (expected Wednesday) and I can finish the I/O board. I've built 5 of the mini SDRAM boards (all tested stable at 130MHz), an RTC board and a USB hub board. This is an exciting project. I've been testing Minimig on a TC64v2 and it's flawless.


Super interesting in this one too! I thought the "MiSTer / Minimig" was dead?

 8)
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: dextereous on October 29, 2019, 11:40:25 pm
ReAmiga 1200. Have all connectors and major ICs, so just need to order passives. I'll kick that one off in around a fortnight (I have the BoM ready to order from Mouser - just need to wrap the bills up first.


Now that's something I'd like to do one day.

Where did you source the major ICs from?

I picked up a spare board some time ago. Managed to repair it so know everything is working, but acquired it solely for the reamiga project so that's where it's gonna end up!
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: dextereous on October 29, 2019, 11:49:54 pm

And depending on whether FPGA counts as Amiga (it seems Vampire certainly does!), I've almost completed my MiSTer build. Just waiting for some resistor arrays to arrive from RS components (expected Wednesday) and I can finish the I/O board. I've built 5 of the mini SDRAM boards (all tested stable at 130MHz), an RTC board and a USB hub board. This is an exciting project. I've been testing Minimig on a TC64v2 and it's flawless.


Super interesting in this one too! I thought the "MiSTer / Minimig" was dead?

 8)

Not at all. I don't think the MiST hardware gets much love these days, but the MiSTer is still under very active development, as is Minimig. There seems to be new cores coming to both projects regularly.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: intangybles on October 31, 2019, 01:59:46 pm

And depending on whether FPGA counts as Amiga (it seems Vampire certainly does!), I've almost completed my MiSTer build. Just waiting for some resistor arrays to arrive from RS components (expected Wednesday) and I can finish the I/O board. I've built 5 of the mini SDRAM boards (all tested stable at 130MHz), an RTC board and a USB hub board. This is an exciting project. I've been testing Minimig on a TC64v2 and it's flawless.


Super interesting in this one too! I thought the "MiSTer / Minimig" was dead?

 8)

Not at all. I don't think the MiST hardware gets much love these days, but the MiSTer is still under very active development, as is Minimig. There seems to be new cores coming to both projects regularly.

You wouldn't be able to post a couple of links perhaps? I got totally lost when I had a search!

Thank you!

P.S. perhaps you could post that in the projects section?
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: steve on November 01, 2019, 08:21:21 am
Fixing up and fixed an A2000 Motherboard...I was getting fuzzy screen then found a hairline crack close to the 23 pin video out...now time to test all my Zorro cards ...mainly ram/HDD add-ons :) So hopefully today....will have a real Amiga day :) ps: will skip the GYM :) sweet lazy life (sll)
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Gazzmaniac on November 01, 2019, 05:57:12 pm
Nice work on the 2000 Steve, glad it wasn't too difficult in the end!
As I said the other night, the hardest thing to do is find the motivation to pull the board out and bring it to the soldering bench

BTW my current project is getting the SMD500 running
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: dextereous on November 01, 2019, 09:20:25 pm
Not at all. I don't think the MiST hardware gets much love these days, but the MiSTer is still under very active development, as is Minimig. There seems to be new cores coming to both projects regularly.

You wouldn't be able to post a couple of links perhaps? I got totally lost when I had a search!

Thank you!

P.S. perhaps you could post that in the projects section?

For sure. I'll coble something together over the weekend. Bit of a showcase with relevant links and tips perhaps.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: intangybles on November 21, 2019, 09:56:06 am
Not at all. I don't think the MiST hardware gets much love these days, but the MiSTer is still under very active development, as is Minimig. There seems to be new cores coming to both projects regularly.

You wouldn't be able to post a couple of links perhaps? I got totally lost when I had a search!

Thank you!

P.S. perhaps you could post that in the projects section?

For sure. I'll coble something together over the weekend. Bit of a showcase with relevant links and tips perhaps.

Was looking at the Facebook posts! Look WOW!

If I can sell my C64 that may well be where the money goes! ;-)
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: epsilon on December 02, 2019, 11:03:31 am
Hi All,

I recently completed my latest Amiga project - moving my Amiga 500 system into the new Checkmate A1500 Plus case.

This included installing the Vampire 500 later as well. I covered both parts in my blog here with loads of photos and descriptions of the work done:

http://amigax1000.blogspot.com/2019/10/checkmate-a1500-plus-with-amiga-500.html

http://amigax1000.blogspot.com/2019/11/checkmate-a1500-plus-with-vampire-500v2.html

Next project I am looking at is rehousing my Amiga 1200 into one of those new Amiga 1200 re-make cases. Waiting to receive my case - ordered locally from Retrokit during the black friday sale. :-)


Catcha,
Epsilon
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: power on February 18, 2020, 06:03:30 pm
I recently acquired my first Amiga 1200, the IDE port was a bit butchered so i've sent it away to be replaced and while it's there recapped.

Next thing to do will be to decide amongst the myriad of accelerators and IDE options what is the best to go with.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Jono75 on February 25, 2020, 01:37:06 pm
I am selling my CDTV to fund the purchase of an A1200 along with upgrading my 500

looking at purchasing with Gotek with OLED Mod and Rotary encoder with DF0/DF1 selector for the 500
long with a USB mouse adaptor so I can use a modern mouse
along with a solution for using a LCD screen so a few things on the go...

Any recommendations on who to buy through?

Recently sold a C64 to help fund this work but still have my mini and Pi if I want a c64 game....   
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: power on February 26, 2020, 11:52:34 am
I bought a DF0/DF1 switcher from sordan.ie and a full gotek (with the screen and dial and stuff) from amigastore.eu, very happy with both. I put the gotek in an external FDD and it worked perfectly.

shame you are selling the CDTV, the gotek works perfectly on that too also the CDTV is a little more capable and being that you have the keyboard yeah, it is in all honestly probably a better machine to have than a 500.

i also went ball mouse, i have black and also a white modern Amiga mouse. The CDTV accepts them with a cable you can buy from eBay. I just love the CDTV keyboard, it is so nice to use.


https://sordan.ie/product/530/boot-selector-df0df1-df1df0-signal-sel0-from-sel1-amiga-500/

https://amigastore.eu/en/245-original-amiga-mouse.html

https://amigastore.eu/en/323-usb-floppy-emulator-gotek.html
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on February 26, 2020, 02:01:56 pm
I finally got my 4000 up and running on 3.5 with a 16gb card!

Just have to do some repairs on the memory sockets so it can detect the full amount as currently it only reads anything higher than 4mb sporadically due to the broken clips.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: ARB Forum Admin on February 26, 2020, 02:05:06 pm
Sale post has been moved to the ARBTrade area.

I am selling my CDTV to fund the purchase of an A1200 along with upgrading my 500

looking at purchasing with Gotek with OLED Mod and Rotary encoder with DF0/DF1 selector for the 500
long with a USB mouse adaptor so I can use a modern mouse
along with a solution for using a LCD screen so a few things on the go...

Any recommendations on who to buy through?

Recently sold a C64 to help fund this work but still have my mini and Pi if I want a c64 game....
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Amigaman on March 08, 2020, 10:55:53 am
I recently acquired my first Amiga 1200, the IDE port was a bit butchered so i've sent it away to be replaced and while it's there recapped.

Next thing to do will be to decide amongst the myriad of accelerators and IDE options what is the best to go with.

Out of interest, did you send your machine overseas?
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Exfso on March 08, 2020, 04:25:42 pm
I am new to this forum, looks to be very nice.  Currently having  my 4000 re-capped in an attempt to get it up and running.  Had it since new and had been sitting in shed for last 28 years in its original packaging. Obviously the battery had leaked as well.  Also have a 2000 that I have also had since new, likewise been in shed all packed away nicely, so that will require refurbishing as well.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Exfso on March 08, 2020, 04:34:20 pm
I should have added that Amigaman here is doing the re-capping, he has been excellent to communicate with, definitely very helpful.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: power on March 17, 2020, 11:36:16 am
I recently acquired my first Amiga 1200, the IDE port was a bit butchered so i've sent it away to be replaced and while it's there recapped.

Next thing to do will be to decide amongst the myriad of accelerators and IDE options what is the best to go with.

Out of interest, did you send your machine overseas?

just noticed this question, no i sent it to a guy in NSW. He's a recommended installer of DCHDMI and WiiDual on the retrorgb website - does great work and is quick and well priced!
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on March 24, 2020, 09:44:48 pm
Have to repair my 4000's mouse & joystick now. Buttons work but no movement. Hopefully it's just a chip replacement and not some damaged traces.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Amigaman on March 27, 2020, 02:07:05 pm
Have to repair my 4000's mouse & joystick now. Buttons work but no movement. Hopefully it's just a chip replacement and not some damaged traces.

Do you mean that you need to repair the mouse/joystick ports? Some critical traces and parts for the RTC and both the joystick ports are located fairly close to the RTC Battery.

If the battery has previously leaked severely, then these parts and the traces underneath and around the area can be damaged. This will kill the movement in your joystick ports (fire button/right button should still work) and it can also prevent the RTC from working.

I just repaired a non-working RTC in Exsfo's A4000 which was due to this (damaged IC, and a broken trace). Fortunately the parts/traces for the joystick ports were OK.

It seems to be a common issue if the battery has leaked.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: birdhandler on April 01, 2020, 03:08:34 pm
Now that we're on lockdown, I've stopped the retro spending  :( ...but like all good hoarders...I mean 'collectors' I've managed to stockpile some items  ;) So, there's lot's of recap work to do including my CD32, 1200 and the AV Module and the board itself on the 4000T. I recapped the Disk Module and the 3640 a few months ago which went well with no lifted traces, fingers crossed the rest go the same way!

I also bought a new 2000 board from Paul Rezendes (Acill) and the set of passives & logic chips from Mouser, so there's plenty of work in that...estimated 20 hours of soldering. I'll try and save as much components as possible from the old 2000, but not looking forward to removing the Zorro 2 slots!

The CD1200[nest] project is on hold/the go slow for the time being. There's considerable cash investments i'll need to make to progress to the next stage and there's still a few critical items left unsolved being the CD eject/change mechanism, the hinge which is currently pretty flimsy and the interface board with audio mixer circuitry. Injection moulding even to test is expensive.

Working from home, I'm going to take advantage and do some retro-briting Amiga and other computers and consoles! The QLD sun still shines  8)
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Amigaman on April 15, 2020, 10:24:22 am
The CD1200[nest] project is on hold/the go slow for the time being. There's considerable cash investments i'll need to make to progress to the next stage and there's still a few critical items left unsolved being the CD eject/change mechanism, the hinge which is currently pretty flimsy and the interface board with audio mixer circuitry. Injection moulding even to test is expensive.

What's that project??
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on April 16, 2020, 10:23:37 pm
I've finally got my 4000 up and running now that I've replaced some ICs near the RTC area that died.

Now I'm in the process of extracting the files from the pimiga project to see if I can get it running on the 4000 with my zz9000...not sure how much work that will be upgrading that install from 3.1 to 3.1.4 though!

What's that project??

It's this one here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmigaCDnestProject.CD1200/
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: Heywood on April 19, 2020, 01:37:46 pm
Injection moulding even to test is expensive.

Obviously it costs money if you don't have one already but 3d printing might be okay for some level of prototyping - if you don't have a 3d printer perhaps there are some maker spaces in your area might be able to help out.

When I've been interested in something better than what I can do at home, I've engaged 3rd parties to print stuff (https://zelta3d-au.com/materials/) with reasonable results, that particular mob I linked to is out of country so may take time to get something in your hands with the whole Zombie apocalypse going on at the moment, so you may need to weigh up cost vs turn around time.  These days there are good materials that can be sanded/painted and have reasonable strength and thermal properties which help before you go down the path of injection moulding.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: intangybles on August 24, 2020, 03:53:44 pm
Just another question / thought to throw in the ring!

While I would dearly love to get one of the new ZX Spectrum Nexts, and speaking as someone very short on time (and frankly - not the inclination these days to build my own! - How do these pre-built MISTer's stand up for value - it would come in under the cost of the ZXNext!

https://ultimatemister.com/product/ultimate-mister-digital-edition/ (https://ultimatemister.com/product/ultimate-mister-digital-edition/)

Amiga store even have the MIST available again!

https://amigastore.eu/en/358-mist-midi-fpga-computer-with-midi-add-on.html (https://amigastore.eu/en/358-mist-midi-fpga-computer-with-midi-add-on.html)
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: power on August 26, 2020, 10:04:49 am
I've been slowly bringing an A1200 I bought up to speed, it had a mangled IDE port, needed a recap and just recently i found the keyboard controller is misaligned so i'm probably going to get that done soon.

Already have 3.1.4 ROMS and WB installed with a large CF card and an ACA1233n 55MHz - it is pretty quick too which is nice, more responsive in disk activity over my TF330 powered CD32, not sure if that's the IDE speeder doing it's thing or just a better CF I really should bench both CF's to see i think it might be the write speed causing it.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on August 26, 2020, 12:50:42 pm
I've been doing a couple things lately; applied the fix on my zz9000 and tested with 1.7 firmware to ensure it's complete. Had to revert back to 1.6 shortly after due to all the corrupted display bugs I encountered.

Have to resurrect the cd32 as it refuses to get past a grey screen. Once that's done I'm hoping to install the wifi module on there and get that working.

Nearly completed my a3000 build.....just waiting on a SCSI card as the onboard one doesn't like having an accelerator present.
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: MadMungo on October 01, 2020, 04:42:37 am
Hello all,

New member here. I have used Amigas since 1987, started with an A500 purchased layby from David Jones when I was 17, then bought multiple 2000's, an A4000, an A3000, A4000T, 2 A1200s & a CD32.

Still have every machine except a couple of the A2000s got battery corrosion bad and have been used to fix a couple of friends 2000s.

Recently finished building a RE-Amiga 1200 v1.5 into an A1200.Net Black Case. Am waiting on a 1200 remake keyboard and parts to build it.

Currently am building an AA3000+ morherboard, an A4000TX motherboard with Pheonix PCI Daughter Board and an A4000cr motherboard to replace another heavily battery damaged board.

I get most of my chipset parts from Icomp.de or Ebay or the Amiga.org forums.

Currently need a Super Dmac-02 for the AA3000+ build as I do not want to use the one from my running A3000 Desktop.

Phillip, MadMungo
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on October 01, 2020, 08:35:26 am
^ welcome!

Still waiting on the SCSI board for my 3000, shipping in the US is slow, let alone arrive here  :-[

My a3660 and daughterboard PCBs have arrived at least!
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: MadMungo on March 08, 2021, 08:16:18 pm
Well I have almost completed my A4000+ motherboard, just waiting on some oscillators then time to fire it up and test.

Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: quantum8 on March 10, 2021, 09:07:33 am
Very nice!
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: kritikal on April 14, 2021, 04:08:04 pm
Well I have almost completed my A4000+ motherboard, just waiting on some oscillators then time to fire it up and test.

Very polished replacement board there, top marks  8)
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: richardhagen on May 21, 2021, 10:18:55 pm
A Forum starter to get discussion growing...

What are you currently spending time on?

Personally I am going down the path of Replacing CD32 SMD electrolytic capacitor's, at an early stage so far.

Hi,

I'm currently working on lashing an A1200 into a MIDI music setup. The hardest part is configuring a patch board to route audio FX signals in a semi-modular way. I use Bars&Pipes to run the MIDI end. B&P runs rock solid on a stock A500.

I have a (mumble mumble) accelerator card. The accelerator is there for when I want to compile code. It's got 64MB of RAM (-0.5MB for copying system stuff) which is overkill in any man's language.

I get freaked out about digging around the insides of electronics so I don't have any anecdotes about that.

I hope you're all doing well!
Title: Re: What Amiga based Project(s) are you currently working on?
Post by: intangybles on October 23, 2021, 10:27:10 pm
Hope you got your midi sorted out!

A Forum starter to get discussion growing...

What are you currently spending time on?

Personally I am going down the path of Replacing CD32 SMD electrolytic capacitor's, at an early stage so far.

Hi,

I'm currently working on lashing an A1200 into a MIDI music setup. The hardest part is configuring a patch board to route audio FX signals in a semi-modular way. I use Bars&Pipes to run the MIDI end. B&P runs rock solid on a stock A500.

I have a (mumble mumble) accelerator card. The accelerator is there for when I want to compile code. It's got 64MB of RAM (-0.5MB for copying system stuff) which is overkill in any man's language.

I get freaked out about digging around the insides of electronics so I don't have any anecdotes about that.

I hope you're all doing well!

Just starting my new adventure with the Checkmate A1500 Mini, similar to yourself I find myself too time poor for all the hardware upkeep, hence the new machine. hoping now to find the time to get configured "Just the way I like it!"

 :)