My A1200D Project

[Phipscube]

So i've been busy beavering away for the last 4 months gathering parts for my A1200 Desktop and now i've decided to share what i've been doing and what I plan to do in time.

To start with I wanted to try and hack a slimline slot loading DVD drive into my A1200 and mount a 2.5" HDD underneath it, Its taken a fair bit of effort to accomplish but i've finally managed, and today I was happily pushing a CD into the back of my A1200 (AGA Experience Vol 3 if you must know) and it went in and was detected fine... I ejected... it came out.. and didn't scratch! Mission accomplished!


Video of the drive in action:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LnZasweVM0







Here's my list of bits to put into my A1200D (and somehow make it all fit) with a current status:-

DVD/HDD - Installed, finished! I made a custom IDE cable by hand that curls around nicely, it also powers the DVD drive through a FDD power connector wired to the +5V and Ground wires of the 44 pin IDE cable.



Blizzard PPC - Coming soon from Stachu100, I bought one of his modded units with 060 @ 66Mhz (or 60 if the BVPPC doesn't play well) and PPC @ 330Mhz - Currently on its way, should be with me within the next week or so (Rubbing hands vigorously and cackling!) (Update - Is here and installed)



BVision PPC - I've had this a while but can't do much with it yet Not tested either so hope it works when I plug it into my BPPC!! Will eventually have output to an auto switcher. I will mount a fan to the top of the case above the BVPPC to cool it down. (Update: - its DOA so need a new one)



2 X 128MB SIMM's - For BPPC. Marked as 60ns but was told they may run ok at 50ns... lets see... (Update - They work at 66MHz!): -



Indivision AGA 1200 - Installed and working fine, will eventually have the output going to an automatic video switcher along with BVPPC (Stedy is very kindly currently designing an auto switcher for native/RTG on a request I made to him). For now the VGA connector is hanging out the rear and flopping around



IDE Fix Express - Installed, but hanging around loose inside the case. Will possibly mount this on top of the Indivision. My DVD and HDD are connected to it on Primary channel as Master and Slave. The Express adapter had been modified so that the DVD drive fit ok over the top. I moved the express jumpers underneath and removed the 10 pin header and hard soldered the ribbon cable underneath too. (Update: - Mounted working great!)



4 Way clock port expander (thanks DJBase!) - I need to get my BVision mounted first before I install this properly, but I have soldered the ROM link directly to my mainboard to avoid rising my ROM chips. (Update: - Installed, but no devices attached yet): -



Subway USB - hanging out the back at the moment, will at some point mount inside and connect to the expander.



Delfina Soundcard - Haven't got this working yet as it seems to be incomaptible with my temporary Accelerator (An M-Tec 1230/28 RTC). My machine simply doesn't boot at all when plugged in. If I take out the accelerator it boots but of course then my system fails with lack of RAM. I'm waiting for my BPPC to arrive from Stachu100 and hope it works better with that. I eventually plan to have this mounted inside under the keyboard and connected to the clock port expander. (Update: - did a quick plug in test on expander with BPPC. Machine booted, so thats good): -



USB to CF adapter - Will mount this above my PCMCIA and cut a slot, will connect to one of the subway ports.

USB to Ethernet - small cheapo Ethernet adapter that will connect to one of the subway ports - Plan to have it next to VGA port out the rear expansion port.



2 x USB ports - coming straight from the subway to the exterior of the case, possibly right hand side with hole cut (A600 Joystick port style)



2 X PSX joypad adapters - Plug into the 9 pin D at rear and allow playing with standard PSX pads, Playing Project X has hit a new level of awesome!



All this is powered by a Goliath PSU (Update: - Dumped the Goliath and corrently have a 360W adapted ATX PSU). But I do also plan at some point to hack a mATX psu into an A600 or 1200 PSU casing. I had ideas to put a Pico PSU in the Amiga, but I don't think it will fit, and possibly wont have enough juice to power all this - Hence I gave up with that idea

Lots of other little tweaks - For example, I have replaced all caps, and made a power extension from power connector to Floppy connector and floppy drive.

Software wise I have AmigaSYS4 AGA currently installed with OS3.9, but I recently bought OS 4 from Coze and plan to install that too. The first game I will run is of course Wipeout 2097, and make a video! (cheers ddni) My HDD is partitioned thus: -

900MB OS 3.9 - SFS
3.1 GB - ready for OS 4 - SFS
75GB - Programs - SFS. Plenty of space for whatever!

Anyway, enough of my babble! Here's even more photos at my Picasa web albums: -

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/106929866019169011552/A1200Bits#

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/106929866019169011552/CustomA1200DSlotLoadDVDDrive#

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/106929866019169011552/A1200Mods#


I will update as I progress

Thanks for looking!

[Kyle]

Great work!

And what a wonderful project!!

[bazzaq]

WOW.. looking very nice.

[TheoryBoy]

Thats one of the nicest optical installs I have seen on an Amiga. Well done.

[portarinos]

Easily one of the cleanest mods i've ever seen amigawise. Just one question. Which is the exact model no./info regarding the optical drive. I have a spare Apple slot load cd-rom but i can't make it work so any info on a tested to work model would be appreciated.

[mfilos]

Nice piece of work Phipscube mate! Professional cut and clever mounting
Reminds me that I need to find some time and finish mine also!

Keep up the good work!

[rkauer]

My £0.02: sack the RF modulator out and use the space to either the Indy VGA out or for the four USB sockets.

[stachu100]

Very nice work Phipscube!
Now I understand your determination to buy this Blizzard PPC.
I will watch the progress of your project.

[Phipscube]

Thanks for the kind words guys, it has taken me a long time to do this mod, in between family duties and work etc. I've never felt so satisfied to put a CD in a drive as I did yesterday heheh!

portarinos - the exact model is TEAC DV-W28SL. It is commonly found in G4 macbooks and Dell XPS. You can find lots on ebay, infact I had to buy a new one mid way through my hackery as it broke. For some reason being on holiday for 3 weeks and leaving my project alone pissed it off. When I got home eager to continue, I turned on the miggy and the DVD drive just made some go awful grinding noises. I think the problem was that the last thing I did was manually extract a CD (I was testing the manual eject hole). Suffice to say now I got the new one i'm not risking poking that hole again

mfilos - You are my inspiration! I look forward to seeing how your project progresses, you keep up your good work also!

rkauer - I originally wanted to mount the VGA port where the RF modulator is, but now I will use the space near the expansion port as I need to make a custom Video switcher. This circuit wont fit under the HDD/DVD. I have got thoughts about putting a miniature fan where the RF modulator is though as the HDD and Indi are getting quite hot. just need to work out if it will pull cold air in or suck hot air out. I think the latter as my top mount fan over the BVPPC will draw air in. I will experiment at some point and post my findings

---------- Post added at 10:26 ---------- Previous post was at 10:15 ----------

Hi Stan! you must have posted between my last one. Yeah I am quite determined (or mad?) hehe! Thanks for putting up with my many small payments over the last few months Once the BPPC arrives i'll have plenty of photos of it in my Miggy for you to look at

[Kin Hell]

Loving your slot m8.

Most impressive.

Kin