Building a functional Amiga from just the motherboard. good or bad idea?

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FaSMaN

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Hi every one, so for the past few years I've really wanted to get a Amiga for myself, either a A500 or a A1200,just for period gaming so I am not really interested in all the mods or expansions for it just jet.

My biggest snag that's prevented me from getting one is the very high shipping costs to get a complete system to South Africa, coupled with the fact that these Systems just dont ever come up for sale here.

Recently I've been thinking, if I only import a Amiga 1200 motherboard to South Africa, it will costs a fraction of the price, I dont mind sacrificing console originality and aesthetics looks, for functionality and price,but its going to be a very tight budget,but dont want to overly mod the motherboard incase later on I import a original case for it.

I am very good with electronics and soldering and work at a company that does console repairs, so surely it cant be that hard.

This will Require:


  • Building a case (Wood,metal, perspex or acrylic still not sure)
  • Modding a ATX power supply for power
  • IDE 2.5" to CF adapter + CF Card (can get it with free shipping from china)
  • Some Form of a Keyboard to Ps2 adapter or USB adapter
  • Modding a PC floppy drive to Amiga or building/buying a adapter
Optional:

  • RGB To VGA maybe using a Gonbes GBS-8220?
  • An expansion Card with a faster cpu but I fear that all of those are too expensive :(
So this brings me to the part where I need some Amiga Experts helps:

On the power side of things, I presume you cant get the power connectors, so I will probably have to sacrifice the power plug?

I can find two IBM-PC-PS2 to Amiga Keyboard adapters online, but these are pretty expensive, are there any cheaper solutions I can maybe build myself?

On the FDD side, I noticed a lot of PC drives can be modded to work on the Amiga, is there any negative aspects of modding one myself compatibility wise? Failing finding a convertible drive is there a adapter I can build myself?

Whats your thoughts on RGB to VGA adapters, do they work well,baring in mind I will use a CRT screen, and tvs here don't support scart?

If I do get the system working and later want to upgrade it, what addon cards should I look at that's wont break the bank, and will they improve the gaming side?

Anything els I am probably overlooking, or missing?


TL : DR Skip to here:


Your thoughts on a conversion, is it a good idea?

Can it be done, and is it in your opinion a good idea, or should I save up and pay 3x the actual price of the amiga on shipping?

Is there any open-source, solution for a keybaord convertor, or a FDD convertor? As In a solution that has the diagram+hex available to the public?
 
There is lots of free hacks in Aminet, just search for the ones you think are suitable.
 
It's all achievable, but I'm not convinced it'll be cheaper in the long run. Personally, I'd be trying to obtain a complete A1200 unit. But certainly, what you've said is achievable.

Good luck, whichever way you go. And don't forget to show us some pics if you do an awesome case mod job!

:thumbsup:
 
I had a look and it seems that if I get a broken motherboard thats repairable I can probably build one for the budget Ive got.

So will keep a eye out on the classifieds section for any :)

PS any other advice, I see that very little amiga expansions and mods are open source for others to build there own?
 
For the keyboard, probably no amiga key's

http://mysite.verizon.net/jartz/amiga/kbd_conn.html

---------- Post added at 22:50 ---------- Previous post was at 22:46 ----------

But there are mods for a reset as well.

For the psu there are various good resources, but for a lot of psu's you need to add some form of load, especially when not using a turbo card or very modern psu designed for 3.3. mileage various at various...

:roll:

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/Amiga_Power_supplies/body_amiga_power_supplies.html

---------- Post added at 22:54 ---------- Previous post was at 22:50 ----------

For the floppy, I had some good luck with various old stock ps floppy, but out of 10 I dropped one solder bolb, and was not able to remove it from the chip, you need to be very carefull to do the job.

I had my info from this thread, and looked up local sales


http://eab.abime.net/hardware-pics/43265-sony-920-mpf-z-121-fix-amiga.html

---------- Post added at 22:57 ---------- Previous post was at 22:54 ----------

About the last question, anything missing.

Well the first question as sales you need to ask to a customor what he wants to do with the product.

If you like to relive old games from the A500 age you don't need to buy an expensive A1200.

However an A1200 with whdload (paid) might do the job.
Or you might need to obtain a floppy degrader.

So you might need to look at what you wan't and decide to buy from there.
 
Wow jvdbossc ,thats all the information I needed, your the man!!!

Well I am getting it for HDload and the possibility to do CD32 games later on aswell hence why I wanted to go for a A1200.

Now its just up to me to wait for a good one.

, thank you again for all the information :)
 
Absolutely no reason why this would be a bad idea, unless you wanted an original setup of course! :lol:


Would be nice if you could make us a little gallery of the setup once completed. Were all hardware pron addicts here! :thumbsup:
 
I`m inclined to agree with AndyLandy

but I also appreciate the build it yourself approch

for me its about the keyboard adapter as apposed to getting an a1200 with a working keyboard. It all depends if u want a desktop machine or a tower

I`m not 100% certain about this but I think you could get an old A500 keyboard which you could then solder up something that will connect it to the keyboard controller chip on the a1200. I`ve done this with a2000 keyboards but havent got round to converting an A500 keyboard yet so that it works, you would of course have to get some kind of case to put the keyboard in but like i say it depends if u want a desk top or a tower. Keyboard Adapters while relativity expensive will allow you to use cheap pc keyboards and if I was going to put an a1200 in a tower its a must have item

jvdbossc first link is great but rember it for an amiga keyboard and not a pc1 thats the mod I have just been talking about
 
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