spatuluk
Member
Hi all!
I thought I'd create a thread about my newly acquired A600. Why? Coz I'm a noob, and I thought I'd give a noob-eye view of trying to modernize an Amiga after having forgotten almost everything about Amigas, and not being very aware of new developments or techniques.
So, chances of this ending in disaster are quite high! :roll:
First off, here is the A600 that is involved:
In daylight, it doesn't look too yellowed! It powers up, and I get the Kickstart 2.05 insert disk animation, but I can't tell if the keyboard works because...
...there's no floppy drive!
I knew there was no floppy drive when I bought it, altho I kind've hoped there'd be case clips and motherboard screws. hmph!
So, onto the plan:
It's a fairly simple plan, really!
The screws were easy to find, and the A604N, 3.1 ROM, and CF-IDE adaptor are all in the mail. I need to find time to get to a branch of Sallys to get some peroxide for the retr0bright. I live near one, but their opening hours are the same as my working hours.
The Gotek floppy emulator
The Gotek was the first decision I made, so I ordered it ages ago, along with a cable for flashing the Cortex firmware. The author reckoned it was a simple process to flash the Cortex firmware! He was wrong.
The main mistake I made was choosing a PL2303HX cable. It was the type recommended, but for some reason it seems like the recommended cable is the worst cable, due to some really bad drivers. It may also be a build quality issue, but when the comments are full of 'keep trying and it might work eventually' advice, then something isn't right, and it makes it really hard to tell if the cable is at fault, or just working as badly as it normally does. Why do people put up with this crud, in this day and age?
My cable connected once in over a hundred tries. Just long enough to wipe the existing firmware before the software crashed. I've spent hours trying to get the bloomin thing to connect. Hours that I'll never get back.
For reference, I tried flashing it using Windows 7 on an AMD C-50, Windows 7 on an Intel i5, Windows XP on an Intel Atom, Windows XP mode on an AMD C-50, and Windows XP mode on an Intel i5. The one time it connected was using Windows 7 on the AMD with a really low baud rate.
I've now ordered a different cable; a CP2102. Some people had problems with that, but nowhere near as many problems as the PL2303HX. I hope it works!
If it does work, I'm fitting the Gotek without it's casing. I intend to have the LEDs, buttons, and USB port extended so that they're outside the computer, attached to a gutted transparent floppy disk (one of the red Amiga Format ones). The buttons and USB port can hide on the underside of the floppy, the red and green LEDs can light up the floppy from the inside, and the digits will be either inside or poking out of the floppy. It depends how readable they are through the plastic.
It should be quite cool if it works, so it probably won't work. :roll:
I'll add more photos later. They might even be stable!
I thought I'd create a thread about my newly acquired A600. Why? Coz I'm a noob, and I thought I'd give a noob-eye view of trying to modernize an Amiga after having forgotten almost everything about Amigas, and not being very aware of new developments or techniques.
So, chances of this ending in disaster are quite high! :roll:
First off, here is the A600 that is involved:
In daylight, it doesn't look too yellowed! It powers up, and I get the Kickstart 2.05 insert disk animation, but I can't tell if the keyboard works because...
...there's no floppy drive!
I knew there was no floppy drive when I bought it, altho I kind've hoped there'd be case clips and motherboard screws. hmph!So, onto the plan:
- Find some screws for the motherboard
- Fit a Gotek floppy emulator
- Fit an A604N chip memory expansion
- Upgrade the Kickstart ROM to 3.1 (it's currently a 37.300)
- Fit a CF - IDE hard drive thingy
- Apply some retr0bright to the case and keys, followed by armorall
- Replace the case clips with something. Velcro? Hinges?
- Buy either fast memory, a Vampire, a Furia, or an Indivision.
It's a fairly simple plan, really!
The screws were easy to find, and the A604N, 3.1 ROM, and CF-IDE adaptor are all in the mail. I need to find time to get to a branch of Sallys to get some peroxide for the retr0bright. I live near one, but their opening hours are the same as my working hours.
The Gotek floppy emulator
The Gotek was the first decision I made, so I ordered it ages ago, along with a cable for flashing the Cortex firmware. The author reckoned it was a simple process to flash the Cortex firmware! He was wrong.
The main mistake I made was choosing a PL2303HX cable. It was the type recommended, but for some reason it seems like the recommended cable is the worst cable, due to some really bad drivers. It may also be a build quality issue, but when the comments are full of 'keep trying and it might work eventually' advice, then something isn't right, and it makes it really hard to tell if the cable is at fault, or just working as badly as it normally does. Why do people put up with this crud, in this day and age?
My cable connected once in over a hundred tries. Just long enough to wipe the existing firmware before the software crashed. I've spent hours trying to get the bloomin thing to connect. Hours that I'll never get back.
For reference, I tried flashing it using Windows 7 on an AMD C-50, Windows 7 on an Intel i5, Windows XP on an Intel Atom, Windows XP mode on an AMD C-50, and Windows XP mode on an Intel i5. The one time it connected was using Windows 7 on the AMD with a really low baud rate.
I've now ordered a different cable; a CP2102. Some people had problems with that, but nowhere near as many problems as the PL2303HX. I hope it works!
If it does work, I'm fitting the Gotek without it's casing. I intend to have the LEDs, buttons, and USB port extended so that they're outside the computer, attached to a gutted transparent floppy disk (one of the red Amiga Format ones). The buttons and USB port can hide on the underside of the floppy, the red and green LEDs can light up the floppy from the inside, and the digits will be either inside or poking out of the floppy. It depends how readable they are through the plastic.
It should be quite cool if it works, so it probably won't work. :roll:
I'll add more photos later. They might even be stable!
Last edited:
