Ultimate A500+ Project

Good info thanks again, I've already got both rom's so I'll just get a switcher board, there's a locally Aussie that make some too. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djos

Good info thanks again, I've already got both rom's so I'll just get a switcher board, there's a locally Aussie that make some too. :)

---

That from http://amigamaniac.com/ by chance? Great chap to deal with if so, he was very helpful with my last order when I needed some adapters.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjcliffe

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djos

Good info thanks again, I've already got both rom's so I'll just get a switcher board, there's a locally Aussie that make some too. :)

---

That from http://amigamaniac.com/ by chance? Great chap to deal with if so, he was very helpful with my last order when I needed some adapters.

---

Yep, that's who I was referring to. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjcliffe

To be honest it's been a tad disappointing; It adds significant delay to the start-up of the HxC floppy making loading of demos and disk games take longer; it also chooses the IDE first every time so I have to jump into the early boot and choose DF0:. Another problem being that only one of the CF card brands I have (SanDisk CF) works with it, the rest refuse to show up in any disk tool (Transcend, AData and Magicstor / Segate micro drives). Finally Tom's IDE+4 can boot 1.3 and the IDE68k cannot, this means I can use only the HxC drive while the ROM is in the 1.3 switch position.

---

So I assume this delay with the HxC when using the IDE68K is only when using it with the 3.1 rom (or I guess 2.05) and not with 1.3 since the IDE68k isn't able to boot under it?


I have an A500 with an HxC that had planned to install a IDE68K along with one of Tom's 8MB fast ram boards and a 1.3/3.1 kickstart switch setup.

My Plan: Boot up in 1.3 mode and use the HxC as usual and the fastram and IDE68K drop off since the IDE68K won't work under 1.3 and the fast ram board doesn't auto config. Boot up in 3.1 and the IDE68K does its thing and boots up WorkBench with the correct commands in it so that the 8mb ram board is mapped correctly. I can then use music and productivity apps.

Is this pretty much correct?



Also, there is a thread over at EAB about adding back into a 1.3 rom the ability to boot off a HD on an A600/A1200:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=54028

Obviously you would need to burn a custom rom, but I wonder if this would then boot the IDE68k with 1.3?

The IDE68k will boot under 1.3 by just adding the lacking SCSI.device to a 1.3 ROM image and burn the resulting in an EPROM.

Not for people without a bit of knowledge. But can be done easily with the archives and an EPROM burner.

Just finished up and posted a progress video for this project.

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1349487882

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqbxO7VJdGw

And now I can check that off the list ;)

Awesome project! :thumbsup:

Love that there are people out there willing to spend a lot of money on pimping an A500+ instead of the usual A1200 :)

I especially love the way you have installed the HxC and as I'm about to do this myself, I need some of the items you use...
But I don't know the exact names of all those bits and bobs...
I've hijacked your picture (I hope that's okay) and highlighted some of the objects, can you or someone else please help me name them?

1: How did you connect these?
2: Name of that 9 hole thingy? And how is it connected (and to the push buttons?
3: Name of those 6 pins?
4: Name?
5: And name?

Thanks :)

EDIT: Almost forgot the link :)

http://s16.postimage.org/9tl7eut2p/0...d_Adapters.jpg

nice video even nicer A500+ :thumbsup:

Now that's an Amiga :thumbsup:
Love the youtube video, great music choise :thumbsup:
Great thread! :thumbsup:

Pixie

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TroelsDK

Awesome project! :thumbsup:

Love that there are people out there willing to spend a lot of money on pimping an A500+ instead of the usual A1200 :)

I especially love the way you have installed the HxC and as I'm about to do this myself, I need some of the items you use...
But I don't know the exact names of all those bits and bobs...
I've hijacked your picture (I hope that's okay) and highlighted some of the objects, can you or someone else please help me name them?

1: How did you connect these?
2: Name of that 9 hole thingy? And how is it connected (and to the push buttons?
3: Name of those 6 pins?
4: Name?
5: And name?

Thanks :)

EDIT: Almost forgot the link :)

http://s16.postimage.org/9tl7eut2p/0...d_Adapters.jpg

---

Thanks, been a long haul on this one so far -- I actually have a second A500+ already mostly built from the unused parts from this one -- will be posting more pics soon :)

To answer your questions above:

1) That's just a piece of an IDE cable cut up, 3 wires go to one side of each switch, and a fourth wire goes to ground and connects to the other side of each switch.

2) That's a 'keyed' USB connection header, it came with an old motherboard I had. I did it like that since I was going to take it apart regularly and wanted to make sure I didn't get it backwards -- to match it on the HxC I simply put two sets of pin headers with a pin missing to match the header.

To figure out the pin-out for it (only 4 of the pins are used) I simply put a continuity tester between a ground pin and tested each hole on the HxC while tapping each on-board button until I figured out which one went to which button. Then I soldered the pin headers onto the HxC and wires onto the USB header to match (#5 in the photo).

The backing board for the headers is just a piece of stripboard (common-bus veroboard) cut into appropriate sized bits so that the headers are soldered beside the wires instead of directly to (more stable)

3 & 4) This is also just some pin headers and stripboard -- it's a direct pass-thru of 12 pins to 12 pins with spacing to match the connection on the back of the LCD. The LCD usually mounts directly to the board so this just extends it to the case. #3 connects to the back of the LCD and #4 connects to the LCD pins on the HxC (half are visible to the left of the cable near the floppy connector)

5) This is a pin header soldered to the HxC to match the USB header in #2- one row has 5 and one has 4 pins to match the USB keying.

If you'd like a list of the parts I ordered from DigiKey I can probably dig that up as well. The pins are pretty simple to figure out with a continuity tester but if you're stuck let me know I can probably be more specific.

Cheers,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjcliffe

Thanks, been a long haul on this one so far -- I actually have a second A500+ already mostly built from the unused parts from this one -- will be posting more pics soon :)

To answer your questions above:

1) That's just a piece of an IDE cable cut up, 3 wires go to one side of each switch, and a fourth wire goes to ground and connects to the other side of each switch.

2) That's a 'keyed' USB connection header, it came with an old motherboard I had. I did it like that since I was going to take it apart regularly and wanted to make sure I didn't get it backwards -- to match it on the HxC I simply put two sets of pin headers with a pin missing to match the header.

To figure out the pin-out for it (only 4 of the pins are used) I simply put a continuity tester between a ground pin and tested each hole on the HxC while tapping each on-board button until I figured out which one went to which button. Then I soldered the pin headers onto the HxC and wires onto the USB header to match (#5 in the photo).

The backing board for the headers is just a piece of stripboard (common-bus veroboard) cut into appropriate sized bits so that the headers are soldered beside the wires instead of directly to (more stable)

3 & 4) This is also just some pin headers and stripboard -- it's a direct pass-thru of 12 pins to 12 pins with spacing to match the connection on the back of the LCD. The LCD usually mounts directly to the board so this just extends it to the case. #3 connects to the back of the LCD and #4 connects to the LCD pins on the HxC (half are visible to the left of the cable near the floppy connector)

5) This is a pin header soldered to the HxC to match the USB header in #2- one row has 5 and one has 4 pins to match the USB keying.

If you'd like a list of the parts I ordered from DigiKey I can probably dig that up as well. The pins are pretty simple to figure out with a continuity tester but if you're stuck let me know I can probably be more specific.

Cheers,

---

Thanks but yes I'm going to need some more specifics, I'm a total amateur :help:

1: Could you make a drawing or schematics to show the exact connections? I have a lot of IDE cable luckily :)

2: Like this?
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/3-Pcs-2x5-Dou...db!~~60_12.JPG

3: Cutting 2 x 1x6 of this?
http://ukih.merchantrunglobal.com/Im...stingID=927273

4: Like this?
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/10pcs-6-Pin-2...m(!~~60_12.JPG

5: I figure these will be okay, I can just cut it to fit?
http://ukih.merchantrunglobal.com/Im...stingID=927273


Also if you connect the new buttons, do the old ones still work?

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it :thumbsup:

---------- Post added at 19:33 ---------- Previous post was at 19:22 ----------

Does the stripboard/perfboard need to be copper plated? And what size what be enough for this project?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TroelsDK

Thanks but yes I'm going to need some more specifics, I'm a total amateur :help:

1: Could you make a drawing or schematics to sho...

---

I should have some time soon to open it up and figure out the pin-outs again; don't have the time at the moment unfortunately. I'll respond here or send you a PM with the details (and proper parts list) when I get the chance.

OK thanks! :)

Hi cjcliffe, almost got all the parts and ready to begin the project :)

Any progress on the opening-and-checking part? :roll:

For the pin block headers/etc I just used what I had lying around; if it's the right pitch then give it a go.

I had a chance to check the connections, and here's the result:

http://www.amibay.com/attachment.php...1&d=1355720843

Let me know if there's any questions :)

Thanks for that, I ordered a HxC for my 2nd a500 project last week! :)

You wouldn't have the diagram for the screen pin-outs too by any chance?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djos

You wouldn't have the diagram for the screen pin-outs too by any chance?

---

The screen pin-outs are super simple, there's just two single rows of 6 pins (labelled LCD in the diagram), they line up with the two 6 pin headers on the back of the screen so just pass them through with an extension as-is. I don't know what the pins themselves are though nor have I looked it up.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjcliffe

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djos

You wouldn't have the diagram for the screen pin-outs too by any chance?

---

The screen pin-outs are super simple, there's just two single rows of 6 pins (labelled LCD in the diagram), they line up with the two 6 pin headers on the back of the screen so just pass them through with an extension as-is. I don't know what the pins themselves are though nor have I looked it up.

---

Cheers, Thanks. :)

Nice diagram cjcliffe :)
I made a continuity test for both the switches AND the LCD display when I modded my first HxC and it was very easy to just have one header instead of 2 :)