amiga 500 zorro adapter board

Hello, I am new to this forum. I recently got back into the Amiga
computer. I own a 500,1000,2000. I wanted to hook a hard drive to
the 500, so I built the Zorro adapter board (On copper) I hooked
a Buddha controller to it and does work. It should work with
other boards as well. I included a connector for an external power
supply. Is anyone interested in this project as I can supply the boards
and connectors along with the 74ls86 chip as a kit. The cost will be
about $20.00-25.00 (US) depending on the number of people interested.
I am also working on a 2meg fast ram board that piggy backs on the
68000. All the parts are thru hole so only basic soldering skills are
required.
I can post pics of the board if anyone is interested.

Tom

nice stuff you have going. Have no interest in a zorro bus for amiga 500 since I have if I would need it an A2000, and could buy other's to rather cheap.

Well about the fast ram, I would be interested in that! Soldering is not a problem, if the project has a clear picture, I'll manage.

I have an A500 and I would be interested in both! :thumbsup:

PICS! :D

Yes, interested. More info.. Need input!! :-)

desiv

I would certianly be interested in a couple of Zorro boards =D

Count me in as interested. :)

Heather

Her are some pics. I Made it so the board stands up, but it could be
changed so the board can be laid on its side (or both)

Tom

http://i48.tinypic.com/20uwryc.jpg

---------- Post added at 12:07 ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 ----------

http://i50.tinypic.com/153w581.jpg

I want one of the Zorro Boards, nice work :thumbsup:! Could you say something about the shipping costs to Germany?

I'm for sure interested in the piggyback 2 meg for the 68k (a500) :D
It would be superb if you could post some pics while you're designing it, can't wait to see! :bowdown:

Any chance of adding a passthrough connector to the adapter?

I'm definitely interested!

Wow, this is nice :)
Any chance that the piggybag board can have a socket for a 000/010 and clock?

As soon as my wife (ex) movces out, I should have room for the setup..

I don't know much about most of the cards available, but I would think (always dangerous when I try to do that) that it would be more compatible if it were flat, not L shaped.

I would imagine some cards might make contact with the side of the case or just go up too high/unstable with the L-design, although it would be best for short cards like the one you showed in the pic.

I would think tho, that for a general run, a more compatible flat card might be best.

However I'm not that familiar with the Zorro II cards that might work, so that's a SWAG.

desiv

What! Hardware pr0n, and nobody told me.....???!!!???

:drool:

As far as I know, all cards that don't do DMA will work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rkauer

As far as I know, all cards that don't do DMA will work.

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As someone who doesn't know (Not that I have to say that, you are aware of my posts. :^), is this because of the nature of the adapter?
Wikipedia says:

Quote:

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Zorro II is the name of the general purpose expansion bus used by the Amiga 2000 computer. The bus is mainly a buffered extension of the Motorola 68000 bus, with support for bus mastering DMA.

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So it looks like the Zorro II specs support DMA in some way???

Just interested...

desiv

The A500 adaptor is a simple hack, the A500 lacks the Buster chip (bus buffer & controller).

@rkauer
You got me into it by mentioning DMA. Hmm, if there's a passthrough maybe GVP A530 could co-exist with i.e. X-Surf NIC adapter ? That piece is using pooled I/O, right ?

Hello All, I redesigned the board so you can put the 100 pin connector
on the side or stand it up. I aded jumpers to disconnect the +5 and +12
power from the amiga to the adapter board . A connector was added to use an external supply. I promised to send a few boards out to the
subscribers of this forum (no charge) to be evaluated. I bought a 2091 controller board and I will be testing it.
The 2091 has 2meg ram and a SCSI controller. I am going to use
a SCSI to IDE TO CF Adapter. I haven't received the piggy back ram board
or the new zorro board from express pcb yet. Let me know if I missed anything. I will post pics. To keep the cost low I will need to order at least 30 units. The kit (board, connectors, chip) will coast $20.00 plus
shipping. Shipping should be chaep. (first class mail , 6oz thick envelope.)

Tom

---------- Post added at 16:22 ---------- Previous post was at 15:46 ----------

Hello All, Thanks for all the interest in this project!!!!
I believe there are alot of Amiga 500 users, but not enough
hardware goodies, or the 500 hardware... hard drives, memory, etc...
are just too expensive!!!! This is why I wanted to resurrect this great
little piece of hardware. Now some of you have hinted at maybe adding
more slots. It can be done as there were companies that did make zorro
backplanes for the A500. Autoconfig hardware (a couple of ic's) and
the connectors are all that are required (I think) I probably could
make a two slot backplane without having to add buffers, etc..... You
will definately need an external power supply. What do you guys think?

Tom

Tom, I've got one of the rex datentechnik boards with 2 slots on. In short, all you need to do is feed config_out from one board into the config in of the next IIRC... There might be a little more to it than that, but not much :D

If you manage to add a Super Buster 9 or 11 socket to the expansion, then it will an über-freaking wanted add-on.

But for a humble A500 a pair of Zorro slots and a list who what work and what not will suffice, believe me.:)

I know that a Piccolo SD64 won't work, even jumpered to Z2 mode, unfortunately. That was my Big Plan for the 1000 scuppered! :D

tumthol, great work there and welcome!

You'll find this is a crowd that appreciates doing stuff for the A500, and I'm one of the biggest A500 fans around :)

I'm thinking seriously about buying one of each and upgrade an A500... I'll have to think some more cos I just bought a laptop so I need to sell everything I don't need instead :Doh:

Hello, here is the fast ram board. |It works, BUT, I screwed up
on the placement of parts. The keyboard hits it!!! I will need
to do some rework to make it fit right!!!! The blank board will cost
around $20.00 in small qtys. The memory chips are 512k x 8 bit
static ram. I am still reworking the zorro adapter!!!!!

Tom

http://i45.tinypic.com/2uoqddy.jpg

Some great work Tom!

I just LOVE this stuff...

they should make this a book.... if so it would probably on the topshelf of most news-agents..... along with the rest of the pr0n!

Tom, that's superb! Can you share the design, as this would work for the 1000, CDTV, you name it...

Hello, I will post a schematic (I need to draw one up!!) The design
is 'real old school', but, since it is all thru-hole, anyone with basic
soldering skills can build it!!! (no surface mount parts) The ram chips
are not too expensive, about $4.00-ea. The rest of the parts will
cost about $5.00. It could be built for under $50.00.

Tom

I'm interested in a Zorro board too with shipping to the Uk. :)

@Tom


Loving that board design my friend, Well designed for anyone to build without specialist tools or programming FPGA's

I tip my hat to you & would love a Blank PCB

Regards
TC :bowdown:

@Tom: excellent stuff!:thumbsup:

As a matter of advice on designing CPU plug-in add-ons: drop the sockets over the board and then the keyboard will not hit it.

Is it possible to piggyback two cpu socket based expansions?
For example, an IDE expansion (like AdIDE) and this memory expansion.

I assume not, but would be nice if it is!

@Uberfreak: not in the desktop case.

Towerising the A500 will free the required space. Remember the A500 mobo is shorter than the A1200 one, so any regular AT-ATX tower will suffice. :)

Hello, I finished reworking the ram board. I came across a
this website http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ that shows
a simple interface for a hard drive...... and..... I got to thinking....
It would probably work with a cf adapter. Now, has anyone built or
used this interface? I could add it to the RAM board. What do you
guys think??? ALso, I want to say thanks for all the good comments and
suggestions. I am still drawing up the circuit and I will post it soon.
Tom

Hello, I finished reworking ram board. Is anyone familiar with
the ide interface that was designed by Tampere University
in Finland? It probably would work with a CF adapter. I could
work it into the ram board. Any thoughts?????

Tom

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rkauer

@Uberfreak: not in the desktop case.

Towerising the A500 will free the required space. Remember the A500 mobo is shorter than the A1200 one, so any regular AT-ATX tower will suffice. :)

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I was thinking about doing that in my A2000 actually :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomthul

Hello, I finished reworking ram board. Is anyone familiar with
the ide interface that was designed by Tampere University
in Finland? It probably would work with a CF adapter. I could
work it into the ram board. Any thoughts?????

Tom

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Sounds like a golden combination:thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomthul

I came across a this website [cut] that shows
a simple interface for a hard drive...... and..... I got to thinking....
It would probably work with a cf adapter. Now, has anyone built or
used this interface? I could add it to the RAM board.

---

I have one of Mika's CFIDECPs. I didn't built it but bought it fully assembled from him. You should check the ide68k page from his site (sorry, seems that I can't post links yet). There are pictures and/or schematics of the boards he has designed having interfaces for ide, cf, clockport and ram.

@Antti: welcome to Amibay.

Of course, you cannot post links or images in your first post in this board. But I can. ;)

http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ide68k.html

BTW: I think the postage cost was pretty cheap for you.

Being able to create your own hardware at a whim seems to be an incredible advantage.. WOW.. Wish I could make any hardware I wanted to in a few hours..

Awesome Work Tom.... :thumbsup:

Hello All, I finished the layout for the 2meg/ide board. I will post
a schematic as soon as I finish it. I am going to get 2 sample boards.
I will post pics of the completed board. The zorro adapter is almost
finished. I will post pics of that too!!!! Does anyone know if the
small ide interface (IDE68K) is available for purchase? Thanks for
all the good comments and suggestions. Is anyone familiar with the
IDE software? I will need alot of help!!!!!! I also promised to send
zorro adapters to a few of you to test (free). I did not forget.


Tom

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tomthul

Hello, I finished reworking ram board. Is anyone familiar with
the ide interface that was designed by Tampere University
in Finland? It probably would work with a CF adapter. I could
work it into the ram board. Any thoughts?????

---

The worst thing that can happen is both devices refusing to work together.

A perfect solution is merging both devices in same board. :)

OK, I know the board will become expensive...:(

[EDIT] Count me in for beta-testing the Zorro adapter!

For your information, the IDE68k mimics the Gayle chip on A600/1200 (only the IDE part of it), and so any kickstart above 37.300 (first 2.05 ROM) will turn on IDE controller, with the exact same limitations and behaviour of original A600 one.

Remember the "Gayle" thing will add itself to the autoconfig list.

@tomthul
So what about adding the passthrough connector to the Zorro adapter?

I would like to purchase a zorror adapter board assembled for my a500 if you get them for sale please let me know.
I would also be very interested in a combo ram/ide controller board assembled if you plan to make and sell those, looks like an awesome way to upgrade your old 500 with good ram and a hard drive. I'm drolling here :)
Steven

Hello, here is the new ram board with ide. I have not
tested it yet!!!!

http://i46.tinypic.com/2vadxti.jpg

I'm in love.... 8-)

Tom ......
Beyond Awesome.. !! Now the BIG Question.....
How in the world do we get one !!??? Seeing pictures is like seeing candy through a glass case... seeing it but not being able to get your hands on it.. !! :(

We NEED !!!

Please give us the Goods my Friend...

We Need !! We Need !!!

Me too!:drool::drool::drool::drool::drool:

One sexy piece of hardware!

Im hoping to build one myself soon but with some SMD chips just for fun! :thumbsup: Using the 8meg/ide instructions as seen on aminet.

Any issues with using LS chips? I've seen the 8meg/ide interface specify ALS, but that may only be for larger fast ram capacities.

haha with the previous post I smell a production run in the future. :lol:

If no ALS TTL available, then it's time to start searching for TTL-F series. Hint!