My A1200D Project

Here's an update on what i've been doing here :)

I added a +5V wire to the Subway, this has helped with randomness at boot up (its soldered to "Pin 2") : -

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I've made a little circuit that controls my top case fans. They aren't overly loud, but I thought it was unecessary for them to be running full pelt. This little board uses Pulse width modulation to keep the voltage level at 12V, but pulses slower of faster (adjustable with a pot), the effect of this is a quieter fan that moves more efficiently than simply dropping off the voltage. I made it based on this information: -

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4253267&postcount=2

Here's a pic!

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I replaced the pot with a Thermistor, and put the thermistor on the BV heatsink.

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Now the fans start up very quiet, once the BV heats up it drops the resistance on the thermistor hence the fans have quicker pulses sent to them to increase airflow. It still stays very quiet as this is the effect of PWM. The only downside of it is that when the room is very quiet you will notice a feint "ticking" noise.


I'm currently planning to make a 5V version for the BPPC fan (I've also got a less noisy replacement fan on its way).


I've added some jacks for Mic and Aux input to Delfina! :-

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Thats it for now folks! :)
 
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Great update mate (y)

Looking forward to the PSU hacking thread which by the way I posted this morning :cool:

Steve.
 
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Damn you Les. The epicness of your mods can make an old man burst into tears! (ROFL)
Thanks for sharing the pr0n that always seem to amaze me.
Sorry bro, but I'm out of badges. You got them all already!

/respect
 
HAHA! Cheers Marios mate! :) I'm walking around bent over at 90 degrees because of the weight of all those badges dangling off my chest! :LOL:

I started to look at making a custom Rom set based on your most excellent guide lastnight, its very easy to follow mate, just a little off topic kudos to you there again. I should have a custom rolled set of Roms finished up in the next few days (Family duties and work dodges to steal time on the EPROM programmer permitting).
 
Absolutely brilliant, very well done indeed! (y)

Stunning :bowdown::bowdown:

I'd be tempting to reduce the clock speed of the 060 if the only other option is to jack the A1200 up...

Make sure you post plenty of pictures of the finished Amiga with and without the cover when your have finished it:bowdown:

Well done:wooha::)
 
Cheers mate! :)

Once i'm happy with it all I will make plenty of photos, and also some long videos too :)

I've tried reducing the clock on 060 to 50MHz but it only helps reduce the heat buildup by 2 degrees or so, not worth it. I really think I have to put a fan on the 060, I have one on its way (a 5mm one with built in heatsink) but it may be a loud sucker..... I have some rubber feet ready too (only 8mm so not too bad) this combination should help. If not my next option is a slow moving but very large fan (8mm thick) that can devour the trapdoor, then i'll put some mesh over the protruding fan.

I've just tonight managed to compile my custom 3.9 Roms and they work in WinUAE, so will try burning them tomorrow at work :)

Absolutely brilliant, very well done indeed! (y)

Stunning :bowdown::bowdown:

I'd be tempting to reduce the clock speed of the 060 if the only other option is to jack the A1200 up...

Make sure you post plenty of pictures of the finished Amiga with and without the cover when your have finished it:bowdown:

Well done:wooha::)
 
Awesome work mate!
This is an "A1200 masterpiece" here!
I wish I had the guts (and knowledge) to do at least the 10% of your great work to my Miggy! :D
 
i want your address i`m posting mine to you :bowdown:

project X with playstaion pads :LOL:

do they pads vibrate :run:..... to the post office quick
 
Perfect project so cleannnn :) Ride on (y)

---------- Post added at 13:44 ---------- Previous post was at 13:40 ----------

ride on :)
 
Thanks for the comments guys :)

The PSX pads don't rumble, but are still awesome to use :)

Well, here's some more bits and bobs i've been doing...

I ROLLED MY OWN 3.9 ROMS! YES!!

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I had all sorts of issues getting it there, but with the help of Marios and buying an el-cheapo Willem programmer off fleabay, I got there! (cheers Marios mate!) I am going to experiment a little more as for some reason the SCSI.Device I put on (Cosmos beta4) sometimes doesn't see my PROGRAMS and OS 4.0 Partitions, simply showing up as Uninitialised. But for now, it boots (after I altered my startup sequence to setpatch NOROMUPDATE QUIET, and commented out Blizkick). I basically used the same modules as in Marios' fabtastic guide, but added my own regged HSMathlibs and Cosmos' SCSI.Device.


I decided to add a small discreet switch to manually override my Video Switcher: -

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This is good for when I need to install a fresh OS or do things that would otherwise not involve having the switching software load up. I can then manually switch to RTG. The positions are AGA (and Auto RTG with software) as you see the switch now, then flicked over to the left (when looking from the front of machine) it manually sets BVision.


I've now finally solved my BPPC cooling solution! :)

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A 5mm laptop fan/heatsink combo! its just resting on the naked PPC there to show how it will fit.

So how did I do this? here we go...

I drilled two holes in the side to allow a small amount of air to pass over the regulators that sit nearby.

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Here i'm making new holes and threadding them with a thread tool ready for some standoffs. I've already mounted two small nylon screws and nuts to the original mount holes. The nuts will be super glued down to the BPPC board to allow the screws to hold the whole unit onto the PPC chip.


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The standoffs go in, they need to be cut down a bit..

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Cut and filed down to be level with the nuts + 0.5mm for leeway


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I rested the heatsink onto the board with the screws and nuts in place, then carefully put super glue on the nuts, then unscrewed the screws to leave the nuts in place. I added more glue around the edge, then put a hair dryer over the glue gently, this makes it dry alot harder.


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Arctic Silver 5 added to the PPC

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Then a small 1mm thick copper plate placed over the top. this will help with dissipating the heat greatly.

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More Arctic Silver on the copper plate

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And the fan and heatsink combo put over that, then lightly screwed down with the nylon screws. I've added some small pieces of felt to avoid any vibrations on the trapdoor mesh.

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It fits great. I had to fine tune the standoffs until they held the heatsink around 0.5mm above the nuts. If you look carefully you can see a small gap between nut and heatsink. This allows for a small amount of tightening.

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I added some heat shrink to the Custom made Oscillator, just to make it look nice and its more insulated than with the scrappy tape I put on it before this


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You can see the Oscillator in place and also the fan heatsink combo.... but can you notice the side vent? yes, thats going to pour airflow over the oscillators and the 060 :)

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But I need to put heatsinks on this controller.... (I also drilled two more air holes in the heatsink)

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And these two ICs. They both originally sat under the PPC heatsink and enjoyed a dash of air from the old fan. now they get nothing and hit around 66 Deg C!


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So I used some of these copper VGA heat sinks with sticky thermal pads attached (pack of 8 off ebay):-

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There we go :) (I took off the black felt pads, they did nothing but bulge the trapdoor unecessarily)


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With the trapdoor cover on. I am happy I managed to make a solution that kept within the trapdoor. Now after 1 Hour on, The temps are, 52 Deg C on PPC (was 55), 50 Deg C on 060 (was 62) the controller hits 54 Deg C and the Regulator IC's hit 58 Deg C. Overall alot more evened out. I'm most happy that now my 060 is running MUCH cooler :) The fan is a bit quieter than the old one too so that's a bonus!

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It only JUST fits!!!! (I added some 8mm feet too, you can see one in the corner there)

So thats that :)

I did buy an mATX supply and partly perform a retrofit to my Original PSU casing given to me by Mr Fitz (cheers steve) but the thing didn't work! I'm now looking into buying a VERY GOOD psu to be sure it will work and work well. Once I have it, i'll post what I do with photos of course :)

I'm also mulling over the idea of cramming a Lyra 2 PS2 keyboard interface in the old girl, just like how Marios did on his lovely A1200D PPC, but not sure it will fit yet. Its such a good Idea I really would like to have this feature too. Its such a pain with the original keyboard hanging about when modding. Lets see what happens, maybe I can't do this.

Anyway, hope you have all enjoyed my latest madness! :D

Cheers!
 
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Damn Les! These mods are for once more... detailed and fantastic!
I really loved the work on the PPC fan.

Kickstart 3.9 really is a cherry on the top since it gives a nice boot without the reboots as well! \o/
Keep up the awesome hack my friend! Glad I helped ya out even for a bit :)

/respect
 
Thanks Marios mate :) The 3.9 ROMS are awesome, It was great seeing the old girl just boot up without me having to salute on reboot to catch my DVD drive. It also boots up alot faster generally. Not sure if thats Cosmos' awesome SCSI.device or other bits in there that refine things (maybe the HSmathlibs?) but its great. I just wish my HDD's appeared ok. I'm wondering if I reformat them the problem will go away? there is nothing much on them anyway. I'll experiment I think :)
 
Very nice & elegant solution there :)

I did it differently on mine since I opted against removing the original heatsink.
I ended up drilling holes in the trapdoor & then hot-gluing a fan on it, just below the 060.
The fan is taking out air, which goes great with the BPPC's own fan, which pushes air down.
After this, the trapdoor now only gets warm & not scorching hot like before :)

Together with the fan above the BVision, my A1200 now sounds like a big server :LOL:
Someday I might give up & move everything to a tower case, but for now I'm happy I can finally use the system!
 
Really like your PPC heatsink solution, and along with the trapdoor grill you did earlier - superb!

This has to be a textbook case for anyone modding the A1200 original case to the extreme.
 
Bloody Hell Les. - Is there no let up on your skills here?

Your pictorial display really does do your work credit & I tip my hat to you.

Just sheer and utter Brilliance at it's best. ;)

Charlie
 
@ Stevo, HAHA! :D

@Uberfreak, I was going to do something like that next if this solution hadn't worked, but with the fan the other way, and extend the mesh. This works for Steve and his PPC/060 are ultra cool. Drawing air out is a good idea too as thats the natural flow, nice to know both ways work effectively. My method isn't cooling down the PPC and 060 as much as yours and Steves I would imagine, but thats the price I pay for wanting to be an anal freak and insist on all my chit being behind my mesh :D No, I wont go beyond the mesh! I spent a long time with that mesh... so no, it says damnit! :D

@PhilipMcD, cheers mate, I hope all my mad hacks help other folks give it a crack, its really fun, and rewarding :)

@Charlie, ta fella! :) Its nice to get such praise, it spurrs me on to do more! Well, not much left now on this one, but i'm sure another project will pop up in the future, and I will document it here of course :)
 
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