Custom A500 Project

Howdy All,

Got Saturday all to myself so making use of the free time to dabble with some Amiga stuff

I have some spare bits from a recent project and picked up a Kipper 4mb Ram/IDE card which I will use with the spare parts.

I'm not 100% decided on the project direction yet, one idea floating around is putting the A500 Motherboard in a picture frame with LED strips and working via Wireless Keyboard/Mouse (how cool would that be?)

Here's what I have, I think I must need a chip for the Keyboard adapter (need to read up as it didn't come with any paperwork)



Off to solder the cable now and test out the Ram Board, got a 4gb CF burning right now...

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So hopefully I got this right, going by the second image, my connector is the other way round on the IDE board I have so it twists back, thus reversing the cables.





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Hmm Not too keen on this soldering of the riser socket but I need to use it...



All fitted, let's hope I don't start a fire...



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Well so after all that, doesn't boot. Black screen only. Green LED comes on with a CF inserterd, red & green LED's with no CF, no LED activity although I'm not sure if they do flash for activity, need to read up on the Kipper Board more.

Board boots to KS screen without the Kipper adapter so I'm sure the Mobo is good. My guess is the riser adapter, the soldering does look shoddy.

Too hot in here to reflow that today...



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So I had a go at reflowing the joins, I don't know if it will work, waiting for it to dry off, hopefully that's better... I only have a basic soldering Iron and limited skill set lol

Before above ^^^

After:

have some relocators if Yours doesn't work

Still no luck and the A500 does not boot with a CPU directly on the Riser adapter so I'm pretty sure that's the issue, I'll hang out a wanted thread for a new one



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DjCook said:

have some relocators if Yours doesn't work

Click to expand...

Yeah as above that diffidently seems to be the issue, there's some damage underside where it's been removed with a tool so maybe that's the issue. All you need to be is patient when you remove these but some people are brutes I guess lol.

hey, dude, You have placed Your relocator wrong way around!!

DjCook said:

hey, dude, You have placed Your relocator wrong way around!!

Click to expand...

Really? I thought it was to remove it away from the Keyboard?

And there is a Capacitor in the way?

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It definitely doesn't fit the other way due to the capacitor so I guess I need one of the angle adapters?

If you're using a wireless keyboard then surely you don't need the relocater at all? Just plug the kipper board directly into the mobo?

scrappysphinx said:

If you're using a wireless keyboard then surely you don't need the relocater at all? Just plug the kipper board directly into the mobo?

Click to expand...

It's not possible to plug directly, I can make it with a couple of socket strips but that's a good idea! I'll grab some from eBay

DJCook does seem to be correct in that the adapter should be the other way round too though from a Google image search I found. See the notch on the mask matches the both on the socket. Can you bend the capacitor out of the way?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

No mate, there's no way it would bend enough.



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Could grab a couple of these?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IC-Socket-64-Pin-0-9-Through-Hole-HU311/292531258340?hash=item441c38c3e4%3Ag%3A58kAAOSwcSJa2gB-&_sacat=0&_nkw=64pin+socket&_from=R40&rt=nc

You've got a soldering iron, remove the cap, lay it flat and solder it back. Use some short cables if you need to although I reckon the leads should be long enough to reach the via's and get a connection bud

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Or as you say use some sockets to raise the kipper board and plug it in directly

scrappysphinx said:

You've got a soldering iron, remove the cap, lay it flat and solder it back. Use some short cables if you need to although I reckon the leads should be long enough to reach the via's and get a connection bud

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Or as you say use some sockets to raise the kipper board and plug it in directly

Click to expand...

I'm too scared in case I wreck it LOL

just bend this cap down, or swap it out to new one, if it has too short legs - that's the deal

Twisting adapter around doesn't work cause there are two VCC pins and also 2x Ground pins ot the 68k socket,
these are connected, so twisting relocator around causes short on addressline - this can NOT work

I think if I can desolder the negative side the leg is long enough to put the cap to its side, the positive leg has been snipped flush to the board.

I'm not good at removing solder lol but it should move when I heat it up...

fitzsteve said:

I'm too scared in case I wreck it LOL

Click to expand...

oh, come on! it's just a cap, not an AGNUS IC!

DjCook said:

fitzsteve said:

I'm too scared in case I wreck it LOL

Click to expand...

oh, come on! it's just a cap, not an AGNUS IC!

Click to expand...

I only have a cheap soldering iron and no desoldering tools, plus I'm very novice!

It does not seem to get hot enough to melt the old solder, I added plenty of flux and some new solder to help flow but I can only get it to move a little.

Maybe it's enough, I've cleaned the area with IPA and waiting for it to dry off now.

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So I made it bend down



But I'm still not getting it to boot with the IDE/Ram board, black screen only. Tried swapping CPU to the spare as well, no good.

I hope I didn't break it. There was no burning.

is this CPU good? Does Amiga starts without relocator?

PS
Seems to me it is A1k relocator, it should work on A500, but You'll be unable to mount keyboard and close case properly...

DjCook said:

is this CPU good? Does Amiga starts without relocator?

PS
Seems to me it is A1k relocator, it should work on A500, but You'll be unable to mount keyboard and close case properly...

Click to expand...

Yes CPU is good, you see the purple on the TV? It's the Kickstart screen

Need diagROM to go further.
Will be able to see if it boots, check ram etc...

DjCook said:

Need diagROM to go further.
Will be able to see if it boots, check ram etc...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info

Great project Steve. Hope you get something good at the end of it! Love the idea of having the motherboard in a frame! Would be cool even if for display only and not in use.

I have myself been looking for a display case which I can wall mount and place two halfs of a Commodore 64. By that I mean have the bottom half with the motherboard showing above the top half with the keyboard showing... Funnily enough Michael Tomczyk appears to own the very thing I mean but with a VIC-20, as he has it positioned near him in most of the programmes he talks in... as in this image :



Anyone know what type of cabinet/frame that would be ? I guess it would need to be a good 70mm deep to fit those in.

Regards